A little bit more from NC

Was able to get out into the garden to plant some of my little treasures from the trade show.

Here are just some of them:

From Bailey Nursery: two Vanilla Strawberry Hydrangeas (H. paniculata with very nice clear strong pink in the blossoms) and two 'Grand Mum' Monarda (nice soft pink, shortish 20-24" in height - developed in the Morden facility in Manitoba - so my garden should be absolutely tropical for them).

From Plants Nouveau: Helianthus x multiflorus 'Sunshine Daydream' PPAF which will grow 5-6ft tall - 2-4ft wide - from the photo looks to be a nice bright yellow orange double blossom - and according to the literature is free of mildew - stay tuned; Stokesia laevis 'Elf' 8" - 10-12" wide. Very squatty looking - interested to see how the blossoms are held. From the photos they appear to be sitting on the leaves; Campanula 'Viking' PPAF, PBRAF 15-18" tall by 18-24" wide. Looks very cute in the photo - lots of purple blossoms. Promises to "bulk up quickly", does not spread by rhizomes and the seeds are sterile. It spreads, "by spreading underground in the most petite way". I think that's how my hips got to be this size. Hmmmm.

Anyway, more on the new stuff later. It's absolutely glorious outside & am dying to get out there, so here's a bit more about the trip to NC. The weather was a bit iffy on many of the days - making me want to go back to so many of these gardens to see them when it wasn't raining and the light was a little better.

Here is a section of the JC Raulston scree garden. When I thought about visiting NC I thought in terms of magnolias and rhodos and Allan Armitage fancy plants, I never considered that I'd see so many wonderful pointy plants.

Not only are the plants wonderful - but look at how beautifully groomed everything was for our visit.

Here's a new Iresine in the trial garden - it really does glow like the photo. Unfortunately, I'm going to have to do a bit of garden tag CSI work to find out what this new selection is. My camera read the leaves, but overexposed the plant tag.

Look at this marvelous orange cosmos. Chances are it needs the heat of a NC summer to get this far along in the fall. I've been seduced by some varieties that are late bloomers - only to have my heart broken when frost nails the flower buds before they open.

Jumping ahead a day or two, we visited some excellent private gardens. Here is Sylvia Redwine's garden. She is no bigger than a minute, and from what I saw in her exquisite garden, she never sits down. Her business is interior plant design, which you can certainly see reflected in her home garden.

Sylvia reclaimed these old windows - painted them with marine paint and glued the mirrors on the back. Just lovely.

Look closely - you can see the raindrops. What a welcoming pathway.

The spent blossoms of a Yucca.

Does she know her plants and how to combine them or what?

I was shooting at 1/8 of a second and no tripod....still you can see how pretty it all was.

A lovely hand-made trellis.

Look at this. I've never seen a neighbourhood fire hydrant used as a feature. Have you?

And now for something completely different. We took a quick bus-stop-coffee-bathroom break ......Canadians (ok mainly people from Ontario) get very excited to find liquor in a grocery store - ours is locked up in places called the LCBO (Liquor Control Board of Ontario) - pronounced Elsie Beeyo - this is a swish grocery store called Harris Teeter - look at all the fancy hooch - there were 3 aisles of the stuff. However, get this, you weren't allowed to buy any of it, because it was Sunday and it was before noon. So, I bought a bag of King Arthur Organic Flour (unavailable here) and am going to have a biscuit bake-off between Loblaws President's Choice Unbleached to see if I can taste the difference.

Look at the Roman ruins next store to the Harris Teeters - they refurbished them and built a bank.

Back to the gardens. Isn't this cool. Haven't got a clue what it is.

Here are two of the very nice gardens Sylvia has designed in her front yard.

The next shots are from other gardens we visited.

Nice to see the old friend Eupatorium coelestinum growing in this lovely southern garden - ahead of mine by about 3 weeks - looks good paired with the yellow.

I'm not a huge Tradescantia fan. Maybe it's because there's a weedy variety that grows all over here and when I established my garden I had to spend so much time yanking it out. Maybe if it all was as pretty and blue as this one, I might change my mind.

Finally the sun came out....and so did all the little creatures. Was so excited to find this little one, until I saw what he was doing....

Say goodbye to the bumblebee.....He started with the legs that were loaded with pollen.

Aster 'Jim Dai'

More pretty flowers. Sweet little butterfly on the Talinum.

Isn't this a fine green bug?

I was pleased that I was able to grow this variety of Thunbergia

Until I learned that there was this variety....head tilt courtesy of blogger. Blossom was a wonderful periwinkle.

Another little nursery - this spider plant really reminded me of a hosta.

So that's about it for now - the sun is blazing here and they're promising 17C - a ridiculous 63F. Zowee, I can hardly wait to get out there.