15 Aug

Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day – August 2017

Posted by Nan Ondra in Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day. Tagged: , , , .

Hayefield House August 2017 [Nancy J. Ondra]

Welcome to the August edition of Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day from Hayefield. Here in southeastern PA, we have been blessed with frequent rain this summer, so the garden is particularly lush right now. It’s been a busy time, trying to keep up with the vegetable harvest and collecting lots of interesting seeds. I like to give the whole garden a week or so of concentrated attention around now too: doing a thorough weeding, tidying up the edges, and making a final edit of everything else to balance heights and colors. As soon as that’s done, I can pretty much just stand back and enjoy the show for the next several months. Continue reading

15 Jul

Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day – July 2017

Posted by Nan Ondra in Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day. Tagged: , , , .

The Side Garden July 2017 [Nancy J. Ondra/Hayefield.com]

Happy Bloom Day, all! So far, this summer has been a winner here in southeastern PA, with a nice amount of rain every few days. That means lots of mowing and weeding, of course, but no time wasted on watering, so there’s been time for some summer projects as well. More on that later; for now, let’s start with portraits of highlights from the last few weeks, beginning with some annuals.

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15 Jun

Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day – June 2017

Posted by Nan Ondra in Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day. Tagged: , , .

No excuses this month! There are plenty of blooms to show for this Bloom Day. In fact, it looks like we’re right where we should be compared to other years, even with the cool, cloudy, and rainy weather we’ve enjoyed over the last month. Just last week, we were still having nights in the low 40s and days in the 60s; a few days ago, we jumped to the 90s. That’s not so good for the gardener but very good for the garden–at least for the basil, squash, beans, cotton, and other heat-loving plants.

There’s so much good stuff going on that I limited my photo selections to just the past 2 weeks, and I left out several things I’d planned on mentioning. But there is still lots to show, so let’s get to it.

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15 May

Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day – May 2017

Posted by Nan Ondra in Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day. Tagged: , , .

The front garden in mid-May [Nancy J. Ondra/Hayefield.com]

So…Bloom Day, right? Then where are the flowers? Thanks to the relatively cool temperatures we’ve had over the last month, they’re taking their sweet time showing up. That’s not to say there aren’t any, just not many.

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15 Apr

Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day – April 2017

Posted by Nan Ondra in Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day. Tagged: , , , , , .

The aptly named spring beauty (Claytonia virginica) [Nancy J. Ondra/Hayefield.com]

The aptly named spring beauty (Claytonia virginica)

As I’ve mentioned a few (dozen) times before, Hayefield isn’t really a spring garden, so pulling together a Bloom Day post at this time of year isn’t quite as easy as at other times. I did manage to find some blooms, though, and I have some other topics to cover as well, so perhaps you will find something of interest today. Continue reading

15 Mar

Working with Variegated Plants

Posted by Nan Ondra in Better Together (Combinations), Cool Plants. Tagged: , .

'Evergold' sedge (Carex oshimensis) and variegated Solomon's seal (Polygonatum odoratum 'Variegatum') with ostrich fern (Matteuccia struthiopteris) and 'White Nancy' spotted deadnettle (Lamium maculatum) [Nancy J. Ondra/Hayefield.com]

‘Evergold’ sedge (Carex oshimensis) and variegated Solomon’s seal (Polygonatum odoratum ‘Variegatum’) with ostrich fern (Matteuccia struthiopteris) and ‘White Nancy’ spotted deadnettle (Lamium maculatum)

So much for Bloom Day here in southeastern Pennsylvania. We had flowers 2 weeks ago, even 3 weeks ago, but in the last week, May turned into January, and for the past few days, we’ve stayed below freezing and been buried in sleet and snow. In between shoveling sessions, I’ve resorted to pulling from my photo archives so I can write about another favorite subject: variegated plants. Continue reading

15 Feb

Scent-sual Delights

Posted by Nan Ondra in Cool Plants, My Favorite Things. Tagged: , , , , .

'Lady Plymouth' rose geranium (Pelargonium graveolens) with lavenders, 'Berggarten' sage (Salvia officinalis), and lavender cotton (Santolina chamaecyparissus) [Nancy J. Ondra/Hayefield.com]

‘Lady Plymouth’ rose geranium (Pelargonium graveolens) with lavenders, ‘Berggarten’ sage (Salvia officinalis), and lavender cotton (Santolina chamaecyparissus)

How is it possible that I haven’t yet written about one of my most favorite plant groups: the scented geraniums? Not the hardy geraniums (Geranium) that have aromatic foliage, such as bigroot geranium (G. macrorrhizum), or the ordinary zonal geraniums (Pelargonium x hortorum), which have funky-smelling leaves but are grown primarily for their flowers; I mean the scented Pelargonium species and hybrids grown specifically for their fragrant foliage. Continue reading

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