Monroe County Master Gardener Association

Earlier this week I went outside looking for something to bring in for a couple vases and the sedum caught my eye.

I also picked some of my Sunpatiens and dahlias. What great color! Also I had a huge surprise to find that my hibiscus was in bloom again with 8 buds, and after talking with a friend found that her plant was blooming also! Would love to hear from other gardeners of their garden surprises.

Today I’m looking out the window at the sad state of some of my beautiful annuals after two hard frosts. As soon as it warms up a bit I will be going outside to pull the last vestiges of summer. It would have been a difficult task a couple days ago when they were still in their glory, but not such a grim task today. They will contribute to my huge compost pile along with leaves, grass clippings and garden refuge. My husband is most anxious to turn this compost pile over but had to wait until this week for the over 40 volunteer butternut squash to ripen. (Later in the day this is what my compost pile looked like.)

Jennie sent in these beautiful photos with autumn colors.

Stella and I were fortunate to have a chance to visit Hidden Lake Gardens on Oct 10, when early fall colors and a sunny day made the bonsai spectacular! An added treat was seeing Jack Wikle there and having him show us a photo scrapbook of some of the specimens in their earlier lives. (Google this charming retired education director of HLG for expert articles on growing bonsai and on the conifer collection. Better yet, sign up for classes/tours he still teaches.) Hard to believe some were nearly the same size and not looking much younger in 1985! The next couple of weeks will be fantastic for an afternoon drive through the arboretum as well as seeing the bonsai collection before it is stowed away for winter. At the entrance to the conservatory we loved the parsley and coleus border as such a fine textured contrast to the huge hardy banana leaves behind them, and the jewel red tones of dangling Jap maple seeds as we approached the door.

I took some photos of the Fall color this week in Irish Hills. They are just starting to become bold. If you have some you wish to share, we can add them for a Photo Friday

 

 

 

 

 

Interesting article: The TomTato is a grafted pant growing cherry tomatoes above the soil and potatoes beneath. To read more information and photo check out this link:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/gardening/howtogrow/fruitandvegetables/10332908/TomTato-mutant-plant-that-grows-tomatoes-and-potatoes-unleashed.html

Just one more way to plant more in a small space.

Naida sent me the following information and photos:

 
We were talking about mushrooms in the September MG meeting and I came across a very informative website I’d like to share with other bloggers, http://www.mushroomexpert.com/yard.html by Michael Puo, P.H.D. Dr. Puo is an English teacher and an amateur mycologist and has written several books on mushrooms which have been published by UofM press. I was on the web looking for the name of (another) interesting mushroom that I discovered several of while watering my front, mulched planter in late August. It “looks like a carrot” (photos attached) and is very slimy which I discovered when I wiped the “odorous spore-thick brown slime” (which attracts flies and other insects) off the tip. From this website I learned it is called Mutinus elegans – or stinkhorns. This is a really great website with a lot of photos for easy identification and information – a good one to “bookmark” for future questions.

Thanks,
Naida

Our group went to the Matthael Gardens in August. Thought I would share some of my photos for those of you that did not make it there. Enjoy

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Norma Buggy sent in some photos of her hydrangea. The rain this summer has been a help with the abundance of blooms on the hydrangea this year. Norma’s Limelight hydrangea are simply loaded with beautiful clumps of florets. They are truly showstopper. The blooms are a creamy Chartreuse changing to deep pink in the fall. We’d love to see some photos again of them after changing.

Norma included a pink hydrangea as well, but is not sure of the name.

She also includes a photo of her Resurrection Lily (Lycoris squamigera) which just bloomed. August usually brings these beauties up from the ground. This plant also is referred to as the Surprise Lily, Magic Lily, and Naked Lady. It’s foliage comes up in late winter and appears like that of a daffodil, but it shows no flowers then. With the first warm days of spring the leaves disappear by late May. In August one bloom will show for every 10 leaves in the clump. Five to seven long pink trumpet lilies appear atop a long naked stem.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Written by Jennie Stanger
Photos by Sandy O’Connell & Jennie Stanger:

We had a really excellent docent at Cranbrook, with lots of interesting tidbits and background about the family, art and architechture, but she did not pretend to be a horticulturist and welcomed our comments on the plants. Among us we came up with several plant ID’s like the Bottlebrush Buckeye blooming near the entrance. There was a shady walk with excellent uncommon perennials like epimedium and Rodgersia. Another large perennial had unfamiliarly large, smooth, deeply cut leaves below some yellow coneflower-like blossoms. Actually we have it in the demo gardens but there it gets much taller and less dark green due to more sunshine. There was a Ligularia similar to ‘The Rocket’, and some lovely maple-shaped foliage with tiny buds that stumped us. In the sunken garden there was another plant that stumped everyone and a real puzzler of a woody plant the docent was hoping we could ID for her. The perennial was like a small iris in its bud and delicate cream-colored blossom but the flowers were wilted enough their shape was not clear, and the foliage was more like a spiderwort or dayflower. We thought it might be a hardy orchid like Bletilla. Later, Sandy O’Connell was able to identify both the mapley foliage and the sunken garden perennial. She and I are still working on the woody plant and seeking help from our friends in horticulture.

Attached are photos of the “orchid” that turned out to be Roscoea..a Chinese Wild Ginger, and the mystery woody plant that might be an old, old climber, or a shrub or small tree. It might be something that is not typically hardy here, because the stone wall of the sunken garden would offer great winter protection. If I had that spot I would grow a fig in it .

 

Jennie sent me this site to view. It’s a great site to share with all the Master Gardeners. Not only are there some amazing Photographs of topiary, but it’s a very interesting article. The textures of the planting materials bring each topiary to life. Enjoy…just click on the link below:

http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/artscience/2013/07/horticultural-artists-grow-fantastical-scenes-at-the-montreal-botanical-garden/