another bed, with 'Georgia Blue' veronica, 'Black Scallop' ajuga, 'Silver Scrolls' heuchera, blue fescue grass, 'Pewter Lace' fern, 'Black Lace' sambucus

Looking very good over there in East TN!

I bought a planter at Walmart over the weekend because it had so many plants stuffed into it ... 10 or 12. I've got to transplant some of it right away because there are too many plants for the size of pot, but one thing it has in it is what must be an Ajuga in a chocolate color. Oh, I fell in love with that! At least I think that's what it is? I've already removed the Bleeding Heart ... it was the only shade lover in the pot full of sun worshippers.

We had 2 inches of rain in about an hour this morning. You could hardly see 10 ft. in front of you, it was pouring so hard. Some plants got quite beaten down, but I think they will be back up as soon as the sun is shining again. It's still raining. Sigh!

Some newly planted Heuchera. Sure don't look as nice as yours yet.

Your heuchs DO look good, just like they're supposed to for new plants. Mine have been in the ground a couple years, and those particular ones haven't been subjected to multiple transplants around the yard like most of my other plants. Notice I didn't show pictures of those! I bought a tiarella last week and planted it in 4 different places before I finally left it alone.

Posting pictures is really fun, because I can crop out the sections that don't look good. The real yard never looks that good all at once.

Got some photos and meaasurements done today on site, so I can be productive drafting tomorrow if it's wet outside. Forecast says rain tonight.

I need to check out the Lenoir City Walmart, which generally has better plants than the west Knoxville one. You're getting some steals!

Some wild weather here yesterday and last night!! We must have gotten 5 inches of rain. And way too much wind. But no tornadoes so that is the good news. Hope you all are okay.

That planter I got at WM (had) the Bleeding Heart, 2 Heuchs or Heucherellas, a Tiarella, violas, Johnny Jump Ups, Ajuga, Spotted Dead Nettle, something with variegated foliage and little white flowers and another plant with small pink flowers. I've probably forgotten something. I'm unsure of those last two plants so I will try to post a picture and perhaps you can help me with the IDs.

What, no kitchen sink? That planter was chock full of...well, everything! Sure, post the pics and we'll put a name to the plants. (They may end up being called "Larry" or "George", but at least we'll name them. )

Tornado watch here last night, but just got some run of the mill thunderstorms. Haven't been out yet to see what kind of mess there is, if any. Moving kind of slow this morning.

Yah, first I looked at the price and thought "$15!! ... no way ... this is Walmart". Then I got to looking through the planter and thought, sheesh, this is too good to pass up. I can't buy these 10 plants and the planter and soil for $15! No way!! Probably couldn't even do it for twice that.


Here's the varieaged plant with the little flowers which are actually pale purple rather than white. The plant with the little pink flowers is next to it.

Is this a chocolate-colored Ajuga? Sorry about the lousy picture.

The variegated plant is Vinca major 'Variegata'. Excellent for a trailing container plant, but I wouldn't necessarily turn it loose in your yard unless you have just the right spot. Used as a groundcover, it's very aggressive. I've used it before on hills that weren't mowable, and it really does hold a slope nicely. To keep a bed of it tidy, though, you need to groom it once in a while, taking out the vining portion between the rooted sections, and managing the size and spread of the whole planting. Not fun on a slope.


Yup, good spotting, the 2nd photo is ajuga.

Forgot to add - the pink-flowered plant looks like Silene 'Rollie's Favorite'.

Thanks, Red. I have no idea why I didn't recognize the Vinca ... I am familiar with it and have that elsewhere in planters. I am not familiar with the Silene though. Got to go look up the info on that one.

Luv that Ajuga. Does it spread fairly quickly?

Worked like a wild woman again yesterday. I keep waiting for the old bod to say stop, but it seems to be enjoying the sun ... so I won't tell it how hard its been working.

I decided to finish a border for the back shade bed using large 3L wine bottles. So since the ground is soft after all that rain, yesterday I used the bulb hole digger to make holes to press the neck down into the dirt. Don't have enough bottles so I interspersed what I had with sections of white border that I had gotten last Fall when they had all the garden center clearance sales. Still need more bottles. But at least I got started. Also broke the bulb hole digger ... LOL ... it was a bit on the flimsy side anyway. Then I decided that back there would also be a good place to use burned out solar lights, or at least the top part of them, for border or whatever. So might use some of them for that. I'm a yard/garden art affecianado so like to repurpose whatever I can. At least all those bottles are out of the garage now.

If I thought the Vinca could hold its own against the other stuff in my backyard, I'd turn it loose back there. It would have LOTS of competition ... especially from the cuss-ed Bermuda grass.

So what I'm hearing is you need help emptying some more wine bottles, right?

The ajuga will spread, but personally, I don't ever find it a problem spreading too far, too fast. It's very shallow rooted, and I find it easy to pull/transplant to manage where it's growing. Other people find it gets out of bounds too quickly for them.

Hee, hee, hee .... do need more empty bottles. Par-tay at my house.

Linda, I did finally get a look at the JM at WM, and they did have some nice ones. I'm thinking I won't replant it this year. Someone sent me some Corkscrew Willow cuttings and I'm going to plant those. No water or sewer lines in the backyard so I can plant to my heart's content. :thumbsup:

The sun was so bright on this plant so a bit hard to see. Does anyone recognize it? Right now it's Little NoName.

This might be a little better. Or not.

hmm, kinda tough to tell, but maybe a baby Hydrangea paniculata?

I have plants on the brain at the moment. I'm working on a design, and the hard part isn't deciding what plants will work, but what plants to leave out.

OK, I've been told the plant is Indian Pink. I think that might be right although I haven't seen it in bloom. :biggrin:

The old solar lights and bottle border is coming along. Anyway, you get the idea.

Yup, sure enough, you need more empty bottles. Just say the word...

Got a lot done while the weather was nice, and remembered to take some pics. All of a sudden, everything is blooming. Roses, iris, and clematis are all starting to flower. My Amethyst Falls wisteria was about to bloom but then I transplanted it, so we'll see if that messes it up . I found some of my elephant ears that overwintered outside. They're about 2 inches tall at the moment, but they're alive.


Blushing Knockout, Double Red Knockout and Zepherine Drouhin roses

'Immortality' bearded and purple roof iris

Ville de Lyon and Multi-Blue clematis

Oh, sooooo pretty!!

Well, we had been fortunate until just after midnight Tuesday when a big old storm with tornado force winds and probably a funnel hit us here. We've been without power for two and a half days until last evening. Things are a real mess in places around town with huge trees uprooted and broken, property damage, and so forth. We had no damage to our house or property ... thankfully!!!

It's raining here again today.

My Cl. Cecille Brunner and my Double Red and Double Pink Knockouts have a lot of buds and will be blooming soon. :)

I love your pictures ... keep them coming.

Salvia 'May Night'

I'm so glad you're OK. It's been one violent storm system after another this spring.

The constant storms have made me reevaluate the trees we have. The previous owners left some really awful trees, that could only have been purchased because they were cheap. If you could get it for $20 at Home Depot, they bought it. The pin oaks and silver maples are maintenance nightmares, but they are our main shade trees during the summer, so we've been reluctant to take them out. They are in prime locations to fall on the house during one of these storms, though. Ugly is one thing, but ugly and dangerous it not good. We're going to start replacing them with better trees, placed in better spots. Oh, my aching wallet - I hate spending good plant money cutting down bad trees!

Your salvia looks great! May Night is such a good performer, isn't it? If it didn't smell the way it does, it would make a wonderful cut flower. I once made an amazing centerpiece of salvia and shasta daisies. It looked fantastic, but the house reeked!

Are you okay over there, Red? What a week of wild weather and today's forecast is for more severe storms! I know there is flooding somewhere around here since we've had over a foot of rain this past week at our house.

I have no idea where I'll find some of the seeds I planted. Probably in the neighbor's yard.

Honestly, I am amazed at how good some of the plants still look. But I think every Tulip Poplar bloom in the woods and the neighborhood is now in my backyard.

I'm okay. We had a sudden storm the other day that came in fast and pummeled the area, then blew out just as quickly. So everything's super soggy, deeply wet. I looked up yesterday afternoon from the plan I was working on (got it finished! ), and it was raining hard yet again. So everything's still really, really wet. Grrr! No storm damage here, except some small branches and debris, but a couple buildings closer to downtown were hit hard.

From the window, the yard looks overgrown, and messy from all the scattered leaves and twigs. All the new lush growth is flopped over from the weight of the rain. Mowing isn't possible, but I may just decide to brave getting wet and go pull some weeds or something. I need a yard fix.

I've got 6 more WS containers that are ready to go out into the yard once things dry out. My WS stash is slowly dwindling - about 20 containers left, but they have so-so germination and tiny sprouts, so no prospects of finishing them up soon. We could use the deck space back.

Um, this current storm is not so friendly. In a matter of minutes, the entire ground is covered with golf ball size hail. Peering out in the dark, I can see the shredded remnants of my plants. Surveying the damage tomorrow morning is going to be very difficult. Will take pictures if I can stand it.

Still, we're safe and the house is still standing. No broken windows or torn off roofs or anything. Word is a tornado touched down on the north side of Oak Ridge this afternoon, and Chattanooga took a beating too. Be safe, everybody.