The 2" Soaker Finally Arrives!

The picture of the sunflower (Helianthus annuus) above was not taken today for sure and was actually taken at the Klehm Arboretum in Rockford, IL. What a great plant for kids to start from seed in spring and observe thru the growing season! Today was overcast and drizzly from about 7:30 am on (still going at 8 pm). We've had close to two inches of rain throughout the day and this drizzle is a true "timely blessing" as the moisture has time to really soak in as opposed to flowing off quickly with a downpour. We've needed this rain for awhile now and certainly don't miss running sprinklers all day. This is also a nice way to water our 15,000 plants out in the plant sale.

In goint thru our woodland walk garden, I spotted another cool sedge that we planted this spring. Called blue sedge (Carex flacca 'Blue Zinger'), this is a good candidate for the shade garden. I love the powdery blue appearance of this sedge but we are considering this one "experimental" as the species is known as a moderate spreader but this variety is said to be more clump forming. We have it in part sun along paths and if it looks aggressive, we'll yank it out and use it in containers. The leaves you see in the image are from our cottonwood trees (Populus deltoides) that always seem to drop early. We're already starting to collect the annual deluge of 1 billion cottonwood leaves (a bit of an exaggeration, but not by much!).

Below is a neat foliage tropical that is a mouthful to say. This is variegated shell ginger (Alpinia zerumbet 'Variegata') that has beautiful striations of cream and yellow throughout long, leathery leaves. What a great tropical for part shade! Buy this as a plant and bring it in as a houseplant to overwinter it and enjoy its increasing size! We've used it successfully in both containers or open planted in beds as seen below in our sunken garden.