We moved here October 2011. The former owners didn’t have a flower garden, only a few small spots with flowers. I needed much more room for the flowers that we took with us.
Dave and I picked out our favorite phlox from our old garden. Then he divided most of the peonies and daylilies, dug up a couple other favorites, like my epimedium, and got most of the phlox. We hired a young man to dig holes in the back yard and plunk the flowers in the holes, hoping they would survive the winter and we would make a new perennial garden the next spring.
That did not happen! 2012 was incredibly hot and we didn’t get to the garden until last September when it cooled off enough to work outside. In fact it was darn cold and rainy all fall, but we got the garden laid out with new good dirt and edging. (The same young man graciously came from college to work two weekends here.)
Then it was time to move the plants, those that survived the torrid summer. I had a garden plan, but somehow didn’t end up with the same number of plants that we had moved. The peonies self-divided, the iris had multiplied like rabbits and I was missing several daylilies and phlox. Plus none of my brown eyed Susans made it.
I did my best to find each plant and give it a new home. We had some surprises this summer!
This pink phlox was purchased as a plant, I think from Parks, and had been stuck in a shady corner in the old garden. It didn’t do much there but here it is thriving. Three of the bright cerise pink phlox that grew themselves made it as did two white plants. (My phlox self-seeded and we kept the pretty ones.) But my very favorite, also a purchased plant, that had coral with a streak of purple, did not survive.
This Pink Phlox Moved with Us from Our Old Home
Our iris likewise did well. They got almost no attention in the old garden but here have plenty of space and sunshine.
Peonies and Iris Budded Out
Some peonies did super; some didn’t bloom – and some were rabbit food. My daylilies were an odd mix. In our old garden we had a gorgeous bright gold daylily that I could not find when it was moving time. Thankfully we found Hosanna by Brother Charles Reckamp, a similar daylily that lost its name but blooms and blooms and a tetraploid Mary Todd. We decided at the last minute to move some rather ugly dark maroon and yellow with red flush daylilies too. And I know that I moved our Lemon Lily, the old fashioned early day lily that smells so sweet.
Summer Hosanna and Mary Todd
The results? The red daylily somehow morphed into two plants, both with lots of striking dark red flowers, much prettier than at the old house. The yellow with red one also managed to somehow become two daylilies, only marginally better than before.
Tall Red Daylily
Hosanna did the best it has in 20 years. Beautiful, large ruffled flowers with orange, peach, yellow, gold all together made two plants simply gorgeous. But my Lemon Lily did not show up. When we planted the flowers in the back yard, we watered them, but we didn’t do anything to keep the grass down. Maybe the grass overcame the lemon lily or maybe the 2012 hot, dry, rocky soil was too inhospitable.
Now the other side of moving to a home with a few established garden spots, albeit small. This spring the bleeding heart was wonderful.
Bleeding Heart with Astilbe and Bergenia May 2013
The begenia bloomed in this spring – except for one plant that bloomed in late summer! I’m pretty sure this is a bergenia, but if anyone recognizes it as something else please let me know.
Maybe a Bergenia Close Up
There is a small garden spot in the front, right in the center of the driveway, that gets a lot of sun. Originally it had perennial pinks and red gallardia around the edge and holly bushes in the center. The chipmunks have damaged the pinks, killed one and nearly killed two others, and only one gallardia survived. I’ll show you what we did there in a future post!
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