The latest and greatest in the garden.
Hoopla
The basketball hoop couldn’t have been sited more perfectly. Not only does it bring height to the garden. Not only does it act as much needed hardscape in a sea of green. Not only does it bring more visitors into the garden.
But it also forces me to clean up a weed-filled section of the garden that will now be home to stone. I also feel like this section of the garden has now been perfectly divided and provided me with a chance to do some serious design.
Divide and Conquer
It may be time to figure out how to divide all of my Nepata (Catmint). This is how most of them look right now. They’ll look better after I cut back the spent blooms, but long term I need to take care of this.
Have any of you ever divided Nepeta?
The Lady in Red, she’s …
The good news: I’ve never had this many blooms on my Hydrangea ‘Lady in Red’.
The bad news: that was the view from the back of the shrub against the foundation of the house. Here is how it looks in the front. Damn deer nipping away all fall and spring.
My First
Shhhhh … don’t jinx it. I’m about to get an actual bloom on my Cimicifuga (Bugbane).
Anticipation
Many blooms coming on the Purple Prairie Clover
Seedheads
The seedheads on the Baptisia still make this perennial a showstopper.
I just finished dividing my Nepeta Jr. Walker. You pretty much can’t mess it up. They are survivors par excellence. Cut through the root mass, plunk a chunk of plant into a hole, water it, and stand back. I keep watering mine until I see new growth at the base, then they are on their own.
Lady in Red is another survivor, and will grow to massive proportions. The deer will never be able to keep up, once she gets a head of steam. I chop mine back to keep it from engulfing a fothergilla on one side and an oak-leaf hydrangea on the other. Hopefully you’ll have many many blooms next year!
Ethe basketball hoop/standard is way cool man!
Rather than divide your nepeta, consider staking it next year. I put short stakes all around my clumps and one in the middle. Then use lightweight soft garden twine to create a cat’s cradle, supporting the flower spikes. I put the string about halfway up what the height of the mature flowers will be, long before it comes into flower, and this allows me to shear the stems back after flowering for a second bloom.
Did I “divide” Nepeta? Hmmmm … that may have been the hot babe I woke up next to after a beer-fueled frat party in college 25 years ago … she asked for my number which I gave (was actually the number for Domino’s Pizza). … great memories :o)
cimicifuga – yahasss! i have had 4 plants for close to 10 years, and i NEVER had a bloom until last year, when i had ONE bloom. this year, THREE of them are starting up a bloom, and the fourth, which is the wimpiest of the litter, might yet put one up.
this is very much like my endless summer ‘twist & shout’ hydrangea, which never had more than one bloom, always in the same place on the plant, for five years. then last year – 27 blooms all over the plant! this year, it’s back to only one bloom, in the same place as previously.
almost all of the rest of my plants are having their best-ever year for blooms. –suz in ohio
I agree with Kate. Nepeta is easy to divide and hardly misses a beat. I like to divide mine in the spring, just because the plants are shorter and more compact then. I dig up the whole rootball and use a shovel to cut it in half (or quarters, if it’s large). Just replant, water and watch it grow!
Do you grieve hyssop? Looks rather weedy but The pollinators love it.