Your Home, Garden and Travel

Pink mums perk up the garden for the third year.

The cottage garden is hanging on with blooms of mums, zinnias and autumn sage. With no frost so far, the bloom season suddenly improved after the last rainfall.

The garden mums are now in the third year. I simply divide the mother plants when they get too large. I plant out the offspring and those are bloom in their first season.  The foliage remains evergreen here in zone 7b. I pinch back the plants until the July 4th to create a mounding shape, loaded with autumn blooms.

Zinnias are still fabulous. The butterflies and bees are grateful for the nectar!

The Monarch butterflies reared in my garden were grateful for these late zinnia blooms. Six Monarchs recently emerged in one day! It was delightful to see all six sipping from the zinnias. I am glad that I hadn't pulled out the tall, lanky annuals. There are still so many buds left to open.

I planted zinnia seeds from May through July to keep the blooms coming. These are also wonderful cut flowers. The more I cut, the more branching and blooms. A great investment for a few dollars in seeds.

Benary's Giant Zinnias continue with robust blooms.

Different shades of pink and purple dot all of my gardens as the salvia greggii varieties are putting on a spectacular show. However, they are difficult to photograph—even in all their glory!

The greggii varieties might not do well in the cold zones, but for zones 7-9, they are great xeric plants that bloom profusely in spring and again in autumn. The hummingbirds rely upon these early and late blooms as a food source. Good companions include sedum and stachys.

The forest leaves haven't yet turned. We're still having warm days, but the mornings are noticeably cooler. Until the first frosts, I'm happy to enjoy the pinks and purples.

Just one of many salvia colors. This is salvia greggii 'Diane'.

Salvia greggii 'Ultra Violet'.

Words and photos by Freda Cameron, Defining Your Home, Garden and Travel. Deer and rabbit resistance varies based upon the animal population and availability of food. All company or product or patented names mentioned are registered trademarks, copyrights, or patents owned by those respective companies or persons.

Geranium 'Rozanne' blooms and foliage work well below roses and coneflowers June 16 2010

"In the third year it leaps" is an appropriate description for the growth habit of perennial geranium 'Rozanne'. The first two years of growth were not that impressive and I had to protect the plants from rabbits. It is now October, and 'Rozanne' continues to bloom, though not quite as heavy as in June. I'm now convinced that I want to keep this perennial going—and if I had more space, I wouldn't hesitate to grow it—rabbits be darned!

With a bit of supplemental water through our driest and hottest months, 'Rozanne' never looked unhappy for more than a day. I cut back the geranium whenever she gets too long and leggy. This keeps the mounding shape in check and encourages more flowers.

Cranesbill geranium 'Rozanne' can be grown in zones 5-8 in full sun or part sun. I have to provide a bit of afternoon shade here in the hot south by growing it below my roses and coneflowers. The mounding (if shaped) habit is 12-15 inches in height and width. Left unchecked, it can sprawl several feet in every direction. 'Rozanne' is an introduction from Blooms of Bressingham® Nursery.

Geranium 'Rozanne' with spires of salvia 'Victoria Blue' August 2010

Words and photos by Freda Cameron, Defining Your Home, Garden and Travel. Deer and rabbit resistance varies based upon the animal population and availability of food. All company or product or patented names mentioned are registered trademarks, copyrights, or patents owned by those respective companies or persons.

Helen, Freda and Carolyn Gail

Carolyn Choi from Sweet Home and Garden Chicago, Helen Yoest from Gardening with Confidence™ and I had a wonderful lunch together. We met at a local restaurant and took our time visiting and chatting.

It was wonderful to meet Carolyn as well as see Helen again.

Speaking of Helen, if you are going to the North Carolina State Fair in Raleigh, October 14-24, be sure to visit the garden exhibits. Take special note of the Raleigh Garden Club's exhibit where Helen, and other members of the garden club, have supposedly worked their magic with moss!

After lunch, Helen and her children had to head home, so I took Carolyn to Duke Gardens in Durham. A very pleasant day for our outing! She certainly impressed me with her knowledge of ornamental trees—and speaking Korean to a family that we encountered in the gardens!

So much fun!

Words and photos by Freda Cameron, Defining Your Home, Garden and Travel.

I am frequently asked for the house paint colors!

Although I try to answer questions sent to me by email, I have a backlog lately due to other distractions. Here are a few recent questions with the answers.

1. What is the exterior paint color used on your house? I still receive this question quite often due to my past participation on the GardenWeb forums. The sage-gray body color with off-white trim is a custom mix and I posted the formula here: House Paint Colors. A reader who saw the story about my deer resistant garden in the July 2010 issue of Southern Living Magazine even wanted to know the house plan! While the outside looks similar to the plan, I completely redesigned the interior of our house so that it bears little resemblance to the original plan.
2. Do deer eat zinnias? The deer tend to leave my zinnias alone until August, when food is scarce. Once they have little food, they will eat the zinnias. I grow Benary's Giant variety. The rabbits, on the other hand, will take down the four-foot high plants, at any time, as though they are cutting down trees!
3. How to Grow Lavender? This is a frequent question and an excellent story, written by local lavender farmer, Annie Greer Baggett, provides the best information. Annie wrote the story for my blog and I keep it linked in the left sidebar under "Reader Favorites".
4. Companion plants for rose campion? After lavender, I receive many questions and blog searches for information on rose campion (lychnis coronaria).This flower is a self-sowing annual and will winter over as a perennial/biennial in warmer zones. I like to use yarrow (achillea 'Pomegranate'), big lamb's ears, and autumn sage (salvia greggii), nepeta and Spanish Lavender as companions. Larkspur, poppies and cornflowers—self-sowing annuals also look good with, and bloom at the same time, as rose campion. 

There are links in the left side bar to BLOG PAGES of popular topics which will also answer many of the search terms/keyword searches on my blog. I created these pages for my own record-keeping as well and make updates from time-to-time.

Flowers from Seeds:  Flowers that I grow from seeds (with bloom photos).

Deer Resistant Plants: I try to update this list as the information changes and when I add new plants. Your results may vary from my results.

Rabbit Resistant Plants: By far, rabbits do more damage in my garden than deer.

Agastache Garden Plan: This is a labeled planting plan (photo) with a grouping of some of my favorite agastache varieties. I have more favorites, such as agastache 'Cotton Candy' that is not shown on this plan.

Monet's Gardens and Paris: This is a page with links to all the stories (with many photos) that I wrote about our visit to Paris and Monet's Gardens in Giverny, France in May 2009.

Monet's Gardens in Giverny, France

Words and photos by Freda Cameron, Defining Your Home, Garden and Travel. Deer and rabbit resistance varies based upon the animal population and availability of food. All company or product or patented names mentioned are registered trademarks, copyrights, or patents owned by those respective companies or persons.