tropicanna canna

Monarch butterfly on butterfly bush (image by Denise Pierce).

There goes my daughter, Maya, helping her "papa" (grandpa) feed the birds again. It's a very important job for her when she goes over to visit – scooping the bird seed from the big plastic bins in his garage and carefully pouring it into one of the many bird feeders hanging from his front tree like so much ripe fruit.

Now 4 years old, Maya has been doing this as long as she's been able to walk. And her love of Papa's birds has only grown through the years, as we've made peanut butter-and-birdseed pinecone feeders every winter and later on in the season, watched the hummingbirds and other feathered friends visit plants like our Tropicanna cannas, Volcano phlox, Sun Parasol mandevillas and Blue Storm agapanthus.

(Back row, from left): purple-tinged, dark green-leaved plectranthus, Tropicanna Gold cannas, Tropicanna Black cannas, Sun Parasol mandevillas. (Front row, from left): ornamental peppers, thread-leaved croton, lime green heuchera.

Blue Storm agapanthus in a container on my deck

Volcano phlox (Red) near my deck 

Last year, Maya fell in love with butterflies, too, after a visit to the Dancing Wings Butterfly Garden at Rochester, NY's National Museum of Play. After that, we always noticed butterflies hovering around our Volcano phlox, black-eyed Susans, bee balm, Blue Storm agapanthus, coreopsis, stonecrop and chocolate eupatorium (Joe Pye weed).

Of course, we've never been able to get a shot of these winged friends in action – hence my borrowed pic of a butterfly (above) from one of Tesselaar's regional garden bloggers, Denise Pierce of Red Bay, Alabama. 

This year, Maya definitely wants more plants that will attract birds and butterflies in the garden, and of course I’m inclined to buy a full-grown plant from the garden center. But she seems to want to start everything from seed (sigh) –even these dying, leggy sunflowers she insisted on sowing in pots in the middle of winter, so the birds would have seeds to eat. (I told her sunflowers should be direct-sown into the ground later in the season, but she was so excited about gardening, I couldn't crush her spirits):

Leggy sunflower seeds sown indoors in pots

Now she wants to try this butterfly bush kit (lower right, $9.99 from Wegmans):

Butterfly bush garden kit for kids (Wegmans, $9.99)

I’ve never started a butterfly bush from seed, but I’m sure it’ll be interesting.

Speaking of butterflies, Maya also went bonkers over an Insect Lore Live Butterfly Garden butterfly hatching kit she saw at Lowe's ($13.95 through Amazon). I don't know about this – little kids and fragile, live creatures just don't seem to be a good mix. Plus, I found out that the kit basically just includes a netted cage and a coupon in you send in to get the live caterpillars and food. I guess that makes sense, because you can't keep caterpillars alive in a box, but still – one more step? Ugh).

Maybe when Maya's older, we'll try to grow some milkweed, since that's what the Monarch butterfly caterpillars eat (I understand the milky white sap is poisonous, so I think I'd like to wait a few years on that one).

Regardless, I've learned that gardening is a great way to keep kids active and connected to their environment, and as with everything else, there's a fine line to walk between ensuring success and fostering independence. So I've gotta roll with what my daughter likes – right now, it's birds and butterflies – and let her call some shots and pick out and sow some plants, so she sort of "owns" the experience. I've also learned to let her experiment, even if it means dead plants on the windowsill. I think I'm just not ready for dead butterflies yet!

Maya sowing her sunflower seeds for the birdies

So tell me – what are some of your favorite bird- and butterfly-friendly plants that can encourage kids to get out in the garden? Post a comment and lemme know!

Low-maintenance perennial border offering season-long interest, featuring boxwood (front) and Flower Carpet roses.

Garden beds and borders, so it seems, are very much back in vogue. But unlike the traditional English perennial beds and borders, which were labor intensive and peaked mainly in spring, today’s gardens are more likely to be filled with plants designed to perform better, require less care and offer year-long interest.

So if you're thinking of renovating that bed or border, here are 10 tips and tricks to keep in mind:

1.     Develop your point of view. “Decide where you’re going to look at the garden the most, says garden writer Doug Green in “The Easy Way to Design Perennial Gardens” on Doug Green’s Garden website. “This is the point of view. In other words, you’re looking at the front of the garden.”

2.     Spread the love. “The trick to having a garden that blooms all summer is to pick an equal amount of flowers for each of the three bloom periods,” says Green in his “How to Design a Perennial Flower Bed” article on his website. “And the second trick here is to space them equally through the garden.”

Fairy Magnolia Blush (a michelia hybrid) as a flowering hedge

3.     Create a backdrop. A tall flowering hedge at the back creates a canvas for the rest of your ‘art. Hedges can also help frame spaces or create sections in an outdoor living area. In cold climates like mine, people tend to favor tall, upright, evergreen shrubs like English boxwood, yews, arborvitae and hollies. In warmer areas, however, you can try camellias or even michelias like Fairy Magnolia Blush, with its dark-green, compact foliage and masses of heavenly scented, spring flowers. 

4.  Make it mow-friendly. Add a mowing strip for ease of maintenance around the outside of the bed or border. Straight lines or broad curves look best and are easy to keep neat. In his “Perennial Flower Garden Design” article on his website, Green suggests laying out a garden hose or two to make the curves smooth enough to mow around.

5.     Invest in edging. “The use of landscape edging, if done properly, can reduce the time and effort any gardener takes to maintain the garden,” says Green in his article “Options in Landscape Edging” on his website. Plastic landscape edging can be a real time-saver, he adds, but cheaper isn’t better. “Cheaper edging has several characteristics: the plastic is thinner - degrades in the sun faster - and it’s often not as ‘tall,’ so the amount that actually goes into the ground is shorter, allowing grass roots to go underneath the edging, or it doesn’t come with enough holding stakes and easily bends out of shape, or worse yet – pops out of the ground.”

6.     Choose a range of heights. I've learned to go tall in back, medium in the middle and low in the front. The way to get it looking like something beyond a kindergarten group picture shot, however, is to group plants in overlapping drifts.

Festival Burgundy cordyline (dark-red, strappy foliage at right)

7.     Include evergreen and long-blooming plants for year-round color and texture. Festival Burgundy cordyline, for instance, has become a favorite with its cascading mass of grass-like, bright-burgundy leaves spouting from a short central base. In his perennial gardening blog, Green also suggests these perennials that bloom all summer: corydalis lutea, coreopsis, campanula, chrysanthemum or Shasta daisy, gaillardia (blanketflower) and daylilies.

Snow Storm agapanthus (part of the Storm series of agapanthus, which also include the blue-flowered Blue Storm).

8.     Select plants with strong form and color. I've learned that one or two kinds are often enough, just so long as you repeat them throughout the border. I like to use large, colorful, broad-leaved foliage like Tropicanna cannas, banana plants and cordylines, for instance, because you don't have to use as much of them and you can see them from farther away. Other choices might include agapanthus, phormium (New Zealand flax), colocasia, croton, yucca, succulents like aloe and agave, ornamental grasses, conifers and palms.

Tropicanna cannas (tall, with colorful, broad leaves) in the garden border

9.     Add some shrubs. “I'm incorporating shrubs directly into all my borders now,” says Green. “In fact, one of my front beds is being designed and planted to be mostly shrubs and bulbs, with a few shrub roses and fall-blooming annuals for late season color.” Flower Carpet roses, for instance, can produce more than a thousand blooms per bush and bloom from May through late November.

10.  Don’t underestimate the power of white. Try combining white-variegated or white-bloomed plants with contrasting shapes, like Volcano phlox or Snow Storm agapanthus (the only agapanthus to survive the Dallas Arboretum’s heat).

These 10 steps - believe it or not - are just a start. For more great information on easy-care or low-maintenance gardening, check out these pages at the Sustainable Gardening blog, HGTV.com, and Deb's Garden blog.

How do you find a plant for those less-than hospitable places in your yard? Here are a few such spots and the perfect plants for them, according to Dave Epstein of how-to gardening video site Growing Wisdom, in his new video, “How to Find a Plant for Any Location.” Check out the rest in Dave's video, at5min.com!

Location: Driveway and/or side of road.
Solution: Next Generation Flower Carpet roses (above) continuous, season-long blooms, salt tolerance and outstanding heat and humidity resistance. “It’s a nice greeting for people as they come in from the road, and you’re taking a lot of heat off the driveway,” says Epstein.

Location: Narrow space that could use some color.

Solution: Tropicanna cannas (see Tropicanna Black cannas, above), which offer psychedelically colored foliage all season long.

Location: Low spot with heavy foot traffic

Solution: Creeping thyme (i.e. ‘Pink Chintz’ - photo above courtesy of GardeningForNature blog). “There are also varieties of thyme, like lemon thyme, that when you step on them release a wonderful scent,” says Epstein.

OK, Santa. Maybe I let the weeds go a little - no, A LOT - more than they were supposed to this year. And I still haven't gotten around to putting those Tropicanna canna rhizomes (still sitting in the basement) into peat-moss filled plastic bags for the winter. And yes, I could've - and should've - planted a lot more veggies this year.

But I've been nice, too … I shared my hostas and new plants from the Garden Writers Association symposium with budget-strapped gardening friends. I harvested all that bittersweet and grapevine for my godmother, who teaches floral design. And I spent all that time with my daughter, letting her pick out her own seeds and grow her own kids' garden this year.

So cut me a break, will ya - I could really use some of these gardening goodies under the tree!

Air plant ornament

Maybe it’s because I grew up in the 70s, but I really loved this hanging terrarium ornament featured in the November Garden Cuttings newsletter’s home-and-holiday-gift suggestions: “The Glass Globe Tillandsia Terrarium is an attractive living arrangement for a kitchen, covered porch, or anywhere there is indirect light,” it reads, adding that of course, it’s also great as an ornament on any plant-lover’s Christmas tree. Inside the glass globe are are three tillandsia plants: a red Capitata Select, a feathery green Tillandsia Ionantha and a silver-gray Harrisii. The 6-inch glass globe has a 2-inch front opening to remove the plants for watering. Just soak the easy-to-care-for plants in water once a week. Includes a monofilament cord for hanging. $39.95 from Logee’s, (888) 330-8038 or www.logees.com.

Hens & chicks growing kit

Dying to make your owned framed wall art of succulents? I know I am. Now you can grow them – and enjoy them – inside during the colder months, with this Hens & chicks growing kit from Red Envelope. This succulent, more formally known as sempervivum, comes in “understated, but slightly cheeky” white, ceramic planters. “They’re both versatile decorating elements and a perfect way to pay tribute to the family’s “Mother Hen,” reads the catalog. The “chick” size ($29.95) is 5 3/8 x 4 1/8 inches. The “hen” ($39.95) is 7 7/8 x 3 ½ inches. (877) 850-7467 or RedEnvelope.com/Catalog

Fiskars Pruning Stik

“Lightweight pruning stick for getting small branches and vines,” California garden designer and blogger recently wrote on North Coast Gardening. “I use it to prune out of control Cecile Brunner roses and at apple-pruning time.” Well, that’s just what I need for my Japanese wisteria out front (which has been trained – not very well, mind you – into a tree). Every year, my husband battles what he has now named the “Japanese Bumble Tree,” pruning off its long, new growth every week, it seems, just to have it seemingly grow back overnight. See the Fiskars Pruning Stik in action in Gen’s video review (dog included! No, no, not with the product – just for the entertainment of crazy dog people like me). $39.97 at Amazon.com.

Grow your own marinara kit

OK, so I first stopped and looked at this because I thought it said “Grow your own marijuana kit,” which I thought was definitely pushing the envelope, even for the Uncommon Goods catalog (home of the Gro-Bot and Attitude Vase.) But then I realized it was a marinara growing kit – and was still very interested! See I live and grew up in Rochester, NY, which has a huge Italian-American population. So making your own sauce out of fresh ingredients from the garden is a way of life here. And I always set out to do just this with my now-4-year-old daughter. Except in my busyness, I always forget to get the seeds for one of the key ingredients (oregano, basil and tomatoes). And of course, you can go as cheap as you want with this idea – I’m just a sucker for pretty, coordinated products, especially when I give them as gifts.  And this one, especially with its patio-perfect, kid-friendly cherry tomatoes, is just as cute as a button!  The Grow your own marinara kit is $29 through Uncommon Goods. (888) 365-0056 or www.uncommongoods.com

Norpro 1 Gallon Stainless Steel Composter

I keep saying I’m going to start composting, but you know how that goes … Plus, a lot of the composting bins I’ve seen look a lot like the big, green garbage tote I push out to the curb every Tuesday. I’d like something that I can drop table scraps into, but it looks like a piece of the décor. With its charcoal filter and super-tight lid, I also won’t have to worry about bad odors filling up my kitchen, and I won’t have to bring it into the back yard and empty it every single time I drop something in there. And sure, I’d love to get one of those super-dee-duper, commercial-grade kitchen composters I’ve seen for $350. But for now, this bin’s price of $37.59 is a lot more realistic. Find it at Amazon.com.

Winter 2011-2012 is well on its way, with areas of the Northeast already socked with snow. Whether you have snow on the ground or not, however, late fall to early winter is the time to get garden plants like these ready for the cold:

Flower Carpet^®roses

Transplanting. If you live in a warm climate (Zones 7 and higher), you can transplant your carpet roses any time (with the exception of excessively hot and dry locales, in which you shouldn’t transplant from July through September). If you live in a colder climate (Zones 6 and lower), the end of October was the latest you should have been transplanting carpet roses. Just hold off on transplanting until early next spring, when the plant’s still dormant but the soil is workable and warmer days are coming. (Doing this chore on St. Patrick’s Day is a good way of remembering when to do it in the North!)

Pruning. For those living in steadily warm, but not desert-like, areas, late fall to early winter is the ideal time for pruning That’s when flowering is at its lowest and leaves look their rattiest. Trim the plant back by at least half and as small as a basketball immediately before transplanting (pruning stimulates active growth). Water and wait about two to three weeks to feed. In colder climates, if you didn’t get to it before late October, hold off till St. Patrick’s Day (see above). 

Overwintering containers. In warm climates, you can just keep carpet roses in their pot, provided the container is at least 20 inches in diameter. Then just trim the roses back at the appropriate time (see above).

In cold climates, you can just wait for them to start going dormant (around Thanksgiving). Then, pack them closely together into a cool, dry (but not freezing) place like your garage or basement and get them up off the ground (they should be in pots at least 20 inches across and 20 inches deep and provide drainage). Some people like to cover them with hay or burlap for extra protection. Those without a garage can mound them up over the top with hay. Don’t cut back or prune them at this time.

Tropicanna^® cannas

Overwintering. In Zones 7 and higher, wait for leaves to start dying back, then cut back foliage to the soil. In Zones 3 and lower, wait until frost starts killing leaves, turning them  brown or black. Cut the stalks back to about 6 inches, then dig up the rhizomes, being careful not to injure them. Brush off loose soil and let rhizomes dry. Nestle rhizomes into closed boxes or plastic bags full of peat moss (with holes punched in them for air circulation). Store rhizomes in a cool, dry place (not freezing). Cannas grown in containers can be stored in their pots, too.

Festival™ Burgundy cordyline

Overwintering. In Zones 8b and higher, just leave Festival Burgundy cordyline in its pot or in the ground for the winter.In colder areas, it can be brought inside and overwintered as a houseplant. Put it in a window with good light (south-facing exposures are usually the best). For more on overwintering Festival Burgundy cordyline, see this video by Dave Epstein of GrowingWisdom.com.

Volcano^® phlox

Overwintering. Cut back to 4 or 5 inches and remove all dead leaves. Mulch to remove any lingering powdery mildew (Volcano phlox are mildew tolerant, which means they may get mildew, but they won’t die and it generally doesn’t affect the blooms). In areas with hard freezes, protect with mulch, pine straw or leaves to protect from ground heaves. In spring and again in summer, feed with time-release fertilizer.

I'm such a plant nerd – new plant introductions always get me so excited. And there were plenty to be found at this year's annual Garden Writers Association symposium, held in Indianapolis.

My personal favorite:

Blueberry 'Pink Champagne'. This happy accident, courtesy of the USDA, has produced a pink blueberry that's especially hardy in colder climates (Zones 4-9). That's perfect for me, since my Rochester, NY garden is Zone 6b. Available next season via Briggs Plant Propagators, this "rabbit-eye" variety with frosty-pink, edible berries takes full sun to part shade and grows 4 to 5 feet high by 5 feet wide. And in fall, it features fabulous red foliage. Design-wise, it's good in mixed borders and massed plantings, but because of blueberries' love of acidic soil, you may want to plant it with other acid-loving plants or grow it in a container with acidified soil.

And here's a list of some others I'm excited about:

Colocasia 'Bikini-tini'. One of the super-funky plants from Plants Nouveau's new Tropicools™ line of zone 6 – Zone 6! – hardy colocasias. "Anyone living in zone 6 and 7 can now reliably leave these planted in the garden each year," says Plants Nouveau. Well, I've stuck mine in the ground and we shall see … I really hope they're right!

Nandina 'Flirt'. As beautiful and breathtaking as the Southern Living Plant Collection's 'Delta Jazz' crapemyrtle was with its hot-pink blooms against burgundy leaves, it's a fraction away from being hardy in my Zone 6b garden. So my eyes quickly turned to 'Flirt' Nandina, a improvement on the Harbour Dwarf Nandina. "'Flirt' holds its red foliage through fall, winter and spring," read the literature. Wowee! And it's hardy in zones 6-10. Again, I wonder if it's a gamble to grow in Zone 6ish landscapes, since its ability to remain evergreen and hold its red color depends on how severely cold it gets. In my area, I'm close to Lake Ontario with lots of snow cover to insulate such plants, especially if I shelter them in a little microclimate of shrubs near the foundation of my house. Yes, I've been burned on this before. But I've been a long-time lover of nandina, and if I find this variety, I may 'flirt' with disaster!

Well, 2011 continues to give our regional garden bloggers more wacky weather, from record rains to drought-and-drown precipitation. Here’s more on what’s going on in their back yards:

Catie Anderson:  (Willamette Valley, OR)

Well, first a review of the soggy weather this year: In March, we set a record for latest first 60-degree day in a calendar year and a record 28 days with measureable rain. In April, we set a two-month rainfall record (for March/April) of 11.47 inches and the fewest 60-degree days or above – six (the average is 26). As of today, we’ve only had one 80-degree day. Our spring ranked second wettest on record. Impressive, but not tornadoes or floods or fires!

Since then, I've continued trialing a deer fence we made from fishing line and green garden posts. This was very effective – I actually was able to enjoy blooming tulips for the first time in that bed! I am going to use this in other areas in the future. A couple days ago, I watched a pair of does move around the outside of the fence but they avoided the fishing line – didn’t even stick their heads in. The best part is you really can’t see it. In fact, I’ve run into it several times – of course I am a klutz! I’m going to use this method around the plants I’ve put in for the Tesselaar "Great Gardens" contest.

Catie in her raised-bed veggie gardens - fenced in to protect them from browsing deer.

Last weekend, we built raised beds in our new, 8-foot-high, 30- by 40-foot, fenced-in garden and discovered we built it on top of a rock pile. Just my luck! Six hours later I had pulled 400 pounds of rocks out of a 4- by 16-foot bed. Later, I planted tomatoes, basil and carrots and it felt so good to dig in that soft soil. We had fresh basil in our salad that evening. 

Shirley Gardner:  (Boise Idaho)

June 21st – the longest day of the year and we’re just finally having some summery weather. Of course it went from the high 50s to the 90s within a couple of days – whew! The cool temps and all the rain have caused the growing season to be about a month behind here. First time I ever remember not having peonies blooming in time for the cemetery on Memorial Day. My leatherleaf viburnum sure loved the rain, however, and was quite wonderful this year. I love my Color Flash^® Lime astilbes. I planted them around the base of my bloodgood maple and they’re quite happy there. The Flower Carpet^® roses are covered with buds but haven’t started to bloom yet.

We’ve also been working on getting in the new drip lines for the vegetable garden. It’s quite a job but we’re almost done and the veggies are loving that slow, deep watering.

Becky Dziarnowski  Ignacio, CO – La Plata River Valley

The honeysuckle fragrance is heavenly, irises and daisies are in bloom and the wild lupine is ready to blossom. Hummingbirds are fiercely defending their territory with the cicada chorus in the background. The wild roses are fully open, bee balm, clematis, salvia, vinca and lavender all blossoming while the wild sweet pea and lilies are ready to burst. Summer is finally here!

 
Becky's view of the La Plata River Valley in Colorado. 

Luckily for us, no garden pests yet – only us humans fighting off the no-see-ems.
 
My Flower Carpet roses are a brilliant emerald with their first buds ready to open. Even though spring was not too pleasant this year, the vegetable garden is all in and flowers on the verge of creating their beautiful displays. Petunias were slow to start (still just 40 degrees at night), but the daytime makes up for it, hitting 95 degrees today. As soon as the temps stay above 45 at night there will be no holding anything back. Our biggest challenge here is the vast difference in temperature from morning to night. As true gardeners, we wait to discover each glorious new arrival every day. So enjoy, enjoy and if anyone wants to do a little weeding…

From Carmel Booth: (Atlanta, Georgia area)

I guess now that I have been here for 29 years I am considered a native! And we natives know they don’t call it HOTLANTA for nothing! This has been quite a spring! My zone 7ish garden has already seen torrential rains, severe thunderstorms, drought, tornados, sun and lots of hot!! With more days of 90-plus temps, this summer should be its own adventure in gardening!  My daylilies are working overtime, as well as my Flower carpet roses, echinacea, hosta and hydrangeas.

Carmel's tall, purplish-black-leaved Tropicanna cannas in a mixed container

It can be strange weather here. But more often than not, we have beautiful, clear days and it is usually pretty, although hot! The hardest part is trying to figure out if you should/could or need to water! We hadn't had any rain for more than a week so I decided to water last night. This afternoon we had severe storms! (Almost an inch of rain in about 30 minutes, then they were gone!) We also have pretty strict water laws. I try hard to let Mother Nature take care of the watering, but she either drowns us or we can't squeeze a drop out!

In my last post, I discussed the tree I had to remove that provided the shade to my hosta garden.  I have since moved 20-plus plants! Thankfully, I have some wonderful, full-sun-tolerant hosta that I think can stay, but only time will tell. Among them I have Tropicanna^® cannas and a peony. I can’t wait to see them bloom. The white hydrangea and the Flower Carpet red roses look beautiful together.

Please be kind to us this summer Mother Nature!  I really want to see my gardens grow!

Too much – and too little – rain were some of the topics our regional garden bloggers wrote about this past month. Here's the dirt on what's happening in their gardens …

Kari Gagner (far northeastern Minnesota, Zone "3.5"): Born and raised in northwestern Minnesota, Kari considers herself a novice gardener (with a hint of a black thumb) who's continually learning the tips and tricks of the trade. "It will be interesting to see how the summer plays out in regards to my gardening efforts," says Kari, whose 10-month-old son definitely keeps her on her toes. "I am, however, looking forward to having a 'helper' once he gets a little older"

Kari: Greetings from Zone 3.5! (I've coined the term "3.5," as I am in the Red River Valley, just on the edge of Zones 3 and 4, on the Minnesota/North Dakota border). We had a very snowy winter, bookended by a wet fall and an even soggier spring. This year was the third-highest flood on record for the Red River at Grand Forks. Farmers are just now able to get into the fields – which is late for this region! And of course, the weather is making any work outdoors a guessing game. In fact, we are one week away from June as I write this, and we had a frost warning last night! Because of the limited space I have available, I tend to do a lot of container gardening. This year's containers include Tropicanna^® cannas, Wave^® petunias, geraniums, Flower Carpet^® roses and a couple of "salad pots" (lettuce blends, tomatoes and peppers). I'm looking forward to summer's arrival and the warmer weather it will bring!

Pam Word  (East Texas, Zone 7b): Gardening for the last 20-plus years on 3 1/2 acres nestled deep in the Piney Woods of East Texas, Pam loves to push the limits of her zone, so she has a lot of tropicals including gingers, brugmansias, bananas and assorted vines. "I didn't expect to see many of these come back because for the first time in years, we had a week of freezing weather here in East Texas, but most, if not all, are showing their little heads."

Pam: The daffodils, tulips and other spring bulbs put on a great show this spring but are gone till next year. Now the landscape is filled with hybrid lilies and daylilies. My Flower Carpet roses put on a great show in early spring, too. My Fairy^® Magnolias, planted last summer, are leafed out and my Tropicanna cannas are just breaking ground along with my other tropicals. Temps here in East Texas have already been in the 90s and we're behind on rainfall, so this should be a very challenging summer. I look forward to sending more reports as the summer progresses.  In the meantime, happy gardening!

Tonya Cooley (Northcentral  Arkansas, Zone 6B): An avid gardener and reader of gardening magazines, Tonya remembers how her grandma, mom and aunt would always swap flower seeds, bulbs or clippings every spring and fall. "So I guess you could say I grew up with the fever," she says. "I have been gardening on my own for seven years now, using the tips and helpful hints from my mother. One day I hope to have a beautiful flower garden like hers." 

Tonya: When I purchased my home seven years ago, it contained very little of anything in a two-acre yard and it’s been a work in progress. My main concern was the large spruce tree on the northwest corner of my house. With all its shade, I decided it would be a great place for a hosta bed. As it seems with most gardening projects however, the job became more intense when I decided I wanted to add a rock patio where I could enjoy my morning coffee – hard work but worth the extra effort. On the entrance side, I added a heart-shaped arch and my husband and I were married under it – what a joy!  Since then, we’ve moved some Scarlet Next Generation Flower Carpet groundcover roses (bred for even better heat and humidity tolerance) around the arch.

This year I’m adding a water feature, where I’ll be planting some Tropicanna cannas. I am so excited to have started on it! We’ve had tons of rain this spring, but hopefully, we are done with that for a while, and I can finish it before it is too hot!  

Until next time, happy gardening!

Linn Schlinger (Central Virginia, Zone 7a): A retiree who enjoys camping and gardening, Linn lives in central Virginia, which has had its share of real weather extremes the past few years (four years of droughts and high temps, and now drowning rains). The heat, which starts very early in the spring, lasts into October – making gardening a real challenge. "We’re praying like mad for that not to be the case this year," she says, "but so far, instead we’ve been hit with torrential rains and flooding."  

Linn:  Last summer I planted Fairy Magnolias and they are doing splendid. They’ve already grown about 8 inches since I planted them and are full of new leaves. Despite the drought last year, my Flower Carpet roses have come along very well. They are loaded with tons of blooms ready to open up in three to four days. I’m very pleased with these roses compared to others. They just seem to take real well to our poor soil and either drought-or-drown climate. My purple clematis is growing by leaps and bounds! With its first blooming this spring, it had over 50 huge 8- to 9-inch-wide flowers – amazing!   

This spring, we cleared off a large part of our property to expand the lawn and gardens (see above); we planted new grass and covered it with straw. And then … we had to laugh as the heavy rains carried grass seed to anywhere but were it was SUPPOSED to go! Grass is now growing in weird parts of the property and very unusual patterns. So it is with gardening. Mother Nature tends to do things her way.

Until next time, walk in peace.

The following guest post comes from Phillip Townshend, global operations director for Tesselaar Plants, the Australian developer of the colorfully foliaged Tropicanna cannas:

Tropicanna cannas shine at Melbourne

By Phillip Townshend

Well, what can I say to fully describe another successful year at the Melbourne International Flower & Garden Show in Melbourne, Australia? Regarded as the largest and most successful horticultural show in the Southern Hemisphere, this world-renowned attraction has been going for 105 years, the last 17 of which have been at Melbourne's Royal Exhibition Building and surrounding Carlton Gardens.

The show is still ranked in the top five flower shows in the world and continues to excite, with an estimated 130,000 visitors this year from around the globe. It was especially nice to see our fabulous Tropicanna cannas resplendent in the surrounds of Carlton Gardens as part of the normal planting palette:

Tropicanna cannas continue to draw plenty of interest from gardening enthusiasts around the world, and I think we sometimes forget how versatile this plant is. It performs with low water conditions right through to boggy wetlands and can be used in mass plantings in the landscape or as a feature in containers – all with dramatic effect.

The proof is in these pics of Tropicanna taken at the show – when, by all accounts, they shouldn’t be looking their best here in the Southern Hemisphere's cool autumn weather. But as you no doubt will agree, they look quite stunning. In fact, they seem to glow like stained glass when backlit by the sun.

Tropicannas aside, the Melbourne show is something everyone should try to attend at least once in their life (include it on your Bucket List). After all, it's in Melbourne, often voted one of the most beautiful places in the world to visit. The city is also known for its great food, fashion, art and yes, tons of shopping. So please try to make it – you'll be so glad you did!

 Congratulations!

Four winners have been in announced in a Tropicanna cannas giveaway held this month as part of posts by Amy Stewart and Genevieve Schmidt of the wildly popular Garden Rant and North Coast Gardening blogs, respectively.

North Coast Gardening's Genevieve Schmidt (left) and Garden Rant's Amy Stewart (right) pretending to be Tropicanna cannas in the video accompanying their blog posts about the tropical, colorfully foliaged plant.

The winners, drawn at random, are: Michelle Derviss, Roberta Perez, Pat Leuchtman and Nicky of the 'Dirt and Martinis' blog (she didn’t want her last name listed). All these women were very excited to receive their Tropicanna canna rhizomes, and some of the ones in warmer areas have already planted them in pots.

Tropicanna Gold cannas (top) in a container with torenia 'Viva Catalina Blue' (lower left) and heuchera 'Velvet Night' (bottom right).

“I’ve created a subtropical, Balinese-inspired garden in which the Tesselaar cannas are going to be very happy,” says Michelle, a Novato, California gardener and author of the 'Garden Porn' blog. In her blog comment, Michelle even suggested a great, tropical plant combination that's perfect for container gardens or beds: Tropicanna Gold with a brilliant red foliage plant such as phormium or red banana. “Throw in some big-leafed coleus, some alocasias and a few succulents," she added, "and ya all will have a knockout vignette.”

Speaking of knockout vignettes, check out  these pics of Michelle’s home and "Pina Colada Garden," just 20 minutes north of the Golden Gate bridge.

The original Tropicanna cannas (top) in a container with zinnias (lower left) and lysimachia nummularia 'Aurea' (lower right).

“Thank you so much for the beautiful Tropicannas!,” says Roberta, of Monterey Park, California, who mentioned in her blog comment that her Tropicannas were so gorgeous, some jerk up and stole them on her! “I already have some pots with their names on them!" she says. "I will take photos when they are up!”

 Cool!

Nicky, of 'Dirt and Martinis,' hopes to blog about the Tropicannas and their progress on her site. “I grow in an area that gets hammered with snow in the winter,” she says. “So, I'll take great pleasure bringing these beauties indoors when it gets too cold for them.”

Tropicanna Black cannas in a container with salvia farinacea (left) and dichondra 'Silver Falls.'

Pat Leuchtman, a Charlemont, Massachusetts gardener who authors the Commonweeder blog, hasn't ever grown cannas before, “but I’m ready for Tropicanna drama.”

And with winter hanging on by its icy claws in the Northeast, who there wouldn't?

Again – congratulations, ladies! Enjoy your Tropicannas! And don't forget to send pics!