This is the second season I have a rose campion (Lychnis coronaria) on the lot. It is nestled along the left edge of the backyard bed. This plant came to us from a co-worker’s daughter’s garden early summer of last year. The plant offers a burst of five-petaled magenta flowers on silvery, felted stalks. 

My Better Half and I traveled to D.C. to attend a wedding and to visit some friends. The trip was a whole lot of fun. However, in a city oozing American History, one of my favorite stops was the United States Botanic Garden.

The gardens were absolutely beautiful, with both interior and exterior exhibits. I couldn’t take enough pictures! Here is a very brief overview of the exterior gardens. All of these guys grow in D.C.’s toasty Zone 8.

The gardeners at work outside were a welcoming and friendly group. I pestered with questions about various plants and the care of said plants. Someone in the rose garden suggested a mixture of alfalfa and epson salts to keep the roses happy. She suggested also checking out the United States Botanic Garden site for additional gardening information.

Touring

Miss A and I went on a local garden tour this past weekend. In addition to suffering extreme garden envy on several occasions, I snapped tons of photos. These are simple ideas I’d love to incorporate into our lot.

I like how this container is nested in a sea of ground cover. What a simple, fun way to add a splash of color and also create height. This seems to be ideal for annuals so the appearance of the container could be changed each season.

This statue serves as a unique container. The plants almost look like a shawl or blanket tossed over the statue’s shoulder.

My other half and I would like to add a pergola to the backyard for summertime entertaining. Instead of a wood deck or tile patio, I’d like to do something like these bricks for the floor of the pergola. Lemon thyme or some other dense, aromatic, low-growing ground cover would be fun to grow between the bricks.

This is just cool. I love the frame on this mirror. We also saw a full length, wall mirror on this tour. The mirrors seemed to do the same thing in the garden as they do in houses; they give an illusion of a larger space. Plus, I like how this mirror added interest to and broken up the wooden, privacy fence.

We added hanging baskets to our backyard this summer. I really liked how this black-eyed susan vine was used with a hanging basket. It climbed up the chains, creating a really pretty waterfall like effect.

I’ve never seen a roof to a pergola styled like this. I liked the illusion of skylights. If at all possible, I’d like to use this technique in structure we build in our backyard.

Candlelight is so pretty on the patio table in the evening. I liked how these glass, candle holders were attached to metal rods to create an elegant twist to the tiki torch concept. Metal wedges were welded onto the end so the pole would remain upright.

Yet More Sickness

There are a few plants in the garden that aren’t looking so well right now. Both are new plants to the lot. I snapped photos so I could try to do some googling of the internets and find out what could be ailing this poor guys.

This is the solomons seal in the gate bed.

Here is the columbine in the same bed.

In Bloom

Blanket Flower: tons of buds and a bit of color on a few

Hollyhocks: beautiful, deep purple blooms

Cardinal Climbers: several red blossoms and moving up the hummingbird feeder post

Foam Flower

Astilbe