Welcome (back) to Dan & Rita's Garden!

In contrast to last years drought, the summer of 2003 had plenty of rainfall -- YIPPIE!

Vibirnum, "Juddi". VERY fragrant. Our neighbor gave us this one after we "went on and on" about how good hers smelled. We could enjoy it from 30 or 40 feet away when the breeze was in the right direction. Can't wait till ours gets big enough to smell that good!
Photo taken April 15.

Early variety purple iris.
This short variety blooms early and sometimes will surprise you with a few more blooms in the fall.
A gift from a friends garden.
Once you get these established, they are a fairly reliable bloomer with no pest or drought problems to speak of.
Taken April 16.

Rita is cutting some tall iris for our table. These are another gift - this one from my sister's garden
Thanks Sharon!
This picture was taken May 6, 2003.

Kevin hangs out in the shade by our lavender rhododendron.
This is another reliable bloomer, planted on the North side of our house it gets no direct sun.
Taken May 6, 2003

This hardy long cane rose "Zepherine Drouhin" is virtually thornless. The long canes sprawl if I neglect trimming and I wish I had a taller trellis to tie it to. It requires some fungicide in the humid summertime as it gets black spot and mildew otherwise.
Somewhat fragrant blooms with a big flush in May and some lesser flushes later in the season.
Taken May 11, 2003.

We grew these red hot poker from seed. This was their 2nd spring.

They are pretty but had a LOT of sprawling dense bottom for the amount of bloom.

We're not 100% sure if we're gonna keep them here or not but they do have a memorable name!
Photo June 26, 2003

You get a lot of "bang for your buck" with branching sunflowers

No garden is complete without some sunflowers!

The wildflower bed is rather taken over by a few of the taller varieties.

For that reason we pulled most of it out later in the season. I'm going to replant it in March '04 and start over.

Wildflowers are always a surprise and I wish Rita would let me have a bigger bed of them!!

I can almost hear Rita now -- "put down that camera and get over here and help me pull weeds!!"

Rita is dead heading the red canas next to the elephant ears. These both have to be dug and stored in the basement each year but they are worth it!

July 12, 2003

This white cleome is also known as spider flower but it looks like a hat pin cushion to me!

This is an annual that usually self seeds enough so that I no longer save seeds from year to year. If necessary I transplant the volunteers to get them back where they belong.

July 12, 2003

If it weren't for the problem of mildew on the foliage the Zinnia would be just about the perfect cutting garden flower. I WISH that they smelled as good as they look. Non fragrant and the more you cut the more they bloom.
Zinnias are annuals that you can sometimes save seeds from but they are cheap and available almost anywhere.
July 12, 2003

I just had to include another zinnia.
I remember my mom letting me plant these wonderful flowers when I was a child.
I don't know where else you can get more blooms of all colors for a 50 cent pack of seeds!

July 12, 2003

Balloon flowers - platycodon are members of the carrot family!
If you dig up some you will be able to tell from the roots.
Reliable perennial bloomers who's only fault is they tend to flop over a bit after a rain.

July 12, 2003

Stargazer lily perennial.
Smells wonderful, looks wonderful, has a wonderful memorable name.
Not all lilies have a good fragrance - this one does!
What are you waiting for?? Go get some!!

July 12, 2003

White Asiatic lily - var. unknown
These smell SO GREAT I would plant them even if they didn't look good.

We have to put a little chicken wire fence around ours so the bunnies won't chew them off at the ground right at bloom time.

July 12, 2003

These purple coneflowers and black eyed susans are slowly trying to take over this part of our garden.
I think we'll let them do just that.
Very reliable perennial. Just give 'em some water when they get dry.

We leave ours stand most of the winter as the black capped chickadees like to pick the seeds in winter.
July 12, 2003

This "spider and web" is made of copper wire and marbles.
Very low skill required!
All you need is a soldering iron, some solder, wire, marbles and a couple of hours.

July 12, 2003

This white hardy hibiscus
was another gift from a friends garden.
My only complaint about these lovely flowers is that each bloom only lasts ONE day.
They are beautiful though!

July 12, 2003

This is a close up of our butterfly bush - budleah var. unknown.
This one is very reliable and is 3 years old.
Our yellow one died last winter and a nurseryman told us the yellow were less hardy. We replaced it anyway.

July 12, 2003

This garden phlox, paniculata "Nicky" is pretty to look at AND it smells great!
It's come back every year for 3 years but has not multiplied.
I thought it would and wish I knew how to propagate it!

July 12, 2003

We bought this majesty palm at Wal-Mart for 6 bucks as a mid summer clearance.
It doubled the size shown in this picture by fall and looked great beside our pool.
They are very fussy to keep over winter but we are trying. Rita took it to work where it gets a south window's sun every day. She also is misting it every day and as of January 21st she says it's doing OK.
July 12, 2003

Purple sweet potato vines on the deck rail with lavender wave petunia and cana var. tropicana all did well on our deck.
We really enjoyed our potted plants this year but, wouldn't you know it, we had plenty of rain this season.
You still have to water your pots nearly every day & someone has to do this when you are away on vacation!

July 12, 2003

A close up of cana tropicana.
Just stick the pot in the basement for winter -
next spring, pull it out of the pot & divide it. Give some away and put about half back in the pot. Feed heavily. Enjoy!!

July 15, 2003

A pot of mixed coleus adds a splash of color to a shady corner.
They can stand some sun but their colors tend to fade if they get too much.
Tender annuals that are toast at first frost.

July 21, 2003

We picked up this "green spotted" lizard at an art fair.
Rita carried it on the back of our motorcycle while we rode through heavy traffic.
Yeah, we did get a few "looks" on the way home.

It's made of 1/8" steel plate. I expect it to outlast me!

Even the monkey grass - lirope bloomed nicely due to the steady rain we enjoyed most of the summer
This plant is as bullet proof as it gets.
Cut it back to ground level in January or February. Divide it every few years. It's very drought tolerant but responds nicely to water and light feeding.

September 9, 2003

I was trying to capture the brilliant oranges in the trees in our back yard.
We had great color in our trees due to decent rains for a change.
The early morning sun really lit them all up.

October 24, 2003

I don't know what the brilliant orange tree back there in this photo is.
It might be sassafrass.

October 24, 2003

This picture makes me melancholy!
I've placed the leaf net over the fishpond one more time.
It will be cold very soon but we had a really decent November and December.

We rode our motorcycle on Nov 2 and it was 80 degrees!
This photo taken November 4, 2003

It looks like it's about time for our Pink Flamingos to head South!
November 4, 2003

We were amazed and thrilled that our Morning Glory "Heavenly Blue" were still going strong on
November 4, 2003

This is a lilac, syringa hyacinthiflora "Pocahontas". It smells great!
Get one for yourself! April 26, 2003

Wow, we had a lot of pictures to show this year! Thanks so much for visiting our gardens.
If I encouraged you to plant one more flower or to stop one time to smell the roses in God's great big garden then I have accomplished my mission for this page.

These pages were ALL created with plain old NOTEPAD.
If I have misspoken, misspelled or made a typo I'd be grateful if you'd drop me a line so I can fix it.

Thanks for stopping by. We hope you enjoyed your visit to our tiny piece of Kentucky!
Come back, anytime!

Up to the top of this page
This way to the Pond page!
Let's visit the garden in winter!
Take a time machine back to Summer 1999!
To Dan's Garage