2025 Virtual Garden Tour - welcome

I've had a good sized Weigela florida variegata for quite a few years in our front yard. Seedlings pop-up regularly and typically I'll pull 'em out. I left one from year before last and it showed up as a solid coloured leaf seedling both last year and this year. Having said that, I was taking a close look earlier today and noticed 2 things. First off it's flowering and the flowers are a singular colour rather than the variety of pinks and white you get from from the progenitor, and secondly, I spotted some leaves showing variegation, what a surprise!

 

I'm assuming the seedling now looks like the original plant? At least, from what I have just read, that plant is supposed to have variegated leaves and pink flowers. I'm also assuming that the variety in flower colour from the parent is really from the aging of the individual flowers. Open white and turn pink they age? Or is that not how it works? That doesn't actually match the description. Your photo seems to show new pink flowers. I clearly have never paid attention to Weigela.

 

These are the typical flower clusters you'll find on the variegated weigela...

 

Yes, so that looks like what happens on some cherry blossoms that open white and age to pink. There are pure white flowers, and ones that look like they're starting to go pink in the centres, and then ones with even darker centres and pink petals. The only buds in the photo are white. But on your first photo, I see some pink buds, so maybe the offspring are behaving differently.

 

Nope, there are differently coloured flowers, even in the same cluster. This is from early May and clearly shows pink buds.
In this last picture you see some solid-coloured leaves on a short shoot, I was quite excited about that and was looking forward to seeing it develop next year, hopefully into the same colour again. Unfortunately I noticed yesterday that the shoot this is on has died back all the way to the ground and there really wasn't enough life left in it to even attempt to root it. Oh well....
Late May and it's just loaded with flowers, and it has continued to bloom ever since, though not this heavy of course...

 

Well, some white-flowered cherry cultivars open from pink buds, then turn pink again as they age. Another extreme example of that is Brunfelsia floribunda, common name yesterday today and tomorrow, for which the descriptions are like this one: "flowers bloom a deep purple color then slowly transform into light lavender and finish in brilliant white." When you look at the shrub, it looks like it produces different coloured flowers.
Yesterday Today and Tomorrow Bush (brunfelsia floribunda) – Urban Perennials

It would be interesting to me to put a tag of some sort on some white flowers and then check whether they turn into pink flowers.

 

When you think about it, there seem to be many flowers that do this.

Ornament cherry Fudan Zakura has pink blossom that slowly turn white as they mature.

Rhododendron 'Percy Wiseman' opens pink and turns bright white.

'Nancy Evan' has red buds that open and changes to yellow.


There are several varieties of honeysuckle that will also change color as they mature such as 'Halls' that opens yellow and turns white.


There is even a southern bush honeysuckle 'Cool Splash' that starts to develop variegated leaves only when it flowers - the plant's new leaves emerge solid green but as the flower buds start to appear so does the white, starting on the edge and then moving inward until some leaves are almost white.


Ringo Rose is very dramatic because the buds start out orangish in color and open to reveal a red center. As they mature, they will gradually fade to yellow and then continue to change color until eventually they are pure white with a rose-pink center.



*** Sorry about the image sizes, I lost all my photos from last year and had to "cut and paste" these images from previous posts and other sources of mine.

 

That's really interesting, something I've never notice or known would happen.
Nice flower examples.

 

The other example of leaves changing color is the 'White Painted' hosta. The new leaves emerge bright green edges and white in the center. Then things get weird as a second color of green starts to appear (so now you have two shades of green) and the white begins to turn yellow. The greens slowly deepen and the yellow fades. By the time the flowers emerge in July, the leaves are solid green in color.


Believe it or not, these photos are of the same plant taken 2 months apart.

 

Hah! The flowers seem to insist on not having competition.

 

Hosta 'Fortunei Albopicta' is but one example of what is referred as a viridescent hosta. Another one I have that's viridescent is 'Dawn's Early Light', it starts out nice, bright yellow and gradually goes chartreuse; how quickly somewhat depends on the direct sun exposure. Then there are hostas that are lutescent, they go yellow(ish) as the season goes on and again, it'll depend on overall direct sun exposure how quickly and how far that goes.

 

Here are a few late summer bloomers...

IMG 5497 - Harlequin Glory Bower.
IMG 5536 - Lisianthus (aka prairie gentian or bluebell gentian) 'Arena III Apricot' has double blossoms. This plant is listed as a tender perennial.
IMG 5563 - Texas Star Hibiscus is listed as a hardy perennial.
IMG 5571 - Autumn Gentian is a hardy perennial.
IMG 5607 - It's going to be a bumper-crop of bitter oranges.
IMG 5550 - After 5 years of nothing, this bromeliad has decided to flower.

 

There's still plenty of flowers around. This here is Hosta clausa var. normalis and if you carefully down the scape you'll see all the flowers are setting seed which is what you'd expect from a specie. And here's another specie, H.sieboldii 'Alba'. Both of these are late flowering and both are showing early signs already of the impending senescence, I've removed the earliest leaves from both.


Salvia microphylla 'Hot Lips' is not showing any signs of slowing down, neither is Salvia 'Blue Chill'.


My variegated Weigela has all the signs of the impending fall season...

 

I'm still working on my major redo's but did get a chance to see how things are doing without my normal care for them. And perhaps by next week I can actually get out and clean and care for some of them...

IMG 5712 - Common hibiscus (Hibiscus syriacus) 'Rose Satin'
IMG 5719 - Turtlehead 'Hot Lips'
IMG 5721 - Rice Paper Plant (Tetrapanax papyrifer 'Rex') growing in one of my mixed beds
IMG 5722 - Dwarf Tamarillo; this plant was seed grown in 2022 and now producing regularly but must be overwintered indoors.
IMG 5725 - Persian silk Tree with seed pods
IMG 5732 - I thought this Black-eyed Susan Vine looked nice climbing this solar light.

 

And in case you're wondering what I've been doing in my gardens that has been keeping me from enjoying them this year, I thought I'd share some photos of one of the larger projects...

IMG 4545 - the fern bed as it was.
IMG 5630 - getting started by moving the ferns and removing the cherry tree that was in the large round black pot (60cm across) - the remnants of which can be seen just off center of the photo.
IMG 5636 - the medlar tree 'Breda Giant' as it was located on the upper deck; growing in a 60x60x60cm pot and growing through the 60x60cm hole in the glass roof.
IMG 5638 - the "fern" bed with the new planter box for the medlar (and a better view of the cherry tree pot).
IMG5680 - removing the fiberglass planter from the medlar.
IMG 5681 - the fully exposed root ball.
IMG 5683 - the medlar has now been moved from the second story deck to its new home.
IMG 5684 - job complete, now cleanup can begin...and then onto the next redo.

 

Here is another project that is now complete...
We discovered the waterfall was leaking so decided to do a rebuild and make the basin deeper. Now we just have to let the patina of algae regrow and by spring the plants will have forgiven us. :)

Oh, and last couple of photos I had to share because I have never seen a rat like it outside of a pet store. He came to visit the waterfall while it was "under construction". I thought at first it was just light and shadows but the markings on the animal do not change (he's just above the ivy leaf to the right of center).

 

Here we are officially into fall. Sure enough, there's plenty of signs of the 'fuglies', as in 'fall-uglies' yet many plants still show their summer colours, this is just a sampling of what I still encounter in my yard.
This Cyclamen hederifolium is hidden this time of year below what has grown into a massive Hosta 'Empress Wu'. With the size the hosta has presented itself in this year it's become clear to me that if I wanted to see these Cyclamen in bloom -I have both a pink as well as a white one- that the tubers will have to be relocated. Obviously too late now but I'll have to make an effort to lift them mid-summer when they're still dormant and take advantage of that opportunity to divide them. I do have some seedlings I've spread around over the past few years but they're so bloody slow growing....
Last year a neighbour gave me some cuttings of Doronicum orientale and mixed in with some of those I found Campanula portenschlagiana and now towards the end of growing season it has put on some size and it's in full bloom, nice little flower show.
It's not really something you'd still expect to find this time of year, Dicentra formosa in bloom..
Going strong still, Salvia 'Rockin Fuchsia'..I think...
I forget where I found this, probably in some pot and I must have found it worthwhile to prick-out and grow on. It's Cymbalaria muralis and I like it's cute little flower. Can be a garden thug by the sounds of it though, not sure I'll keep it around.
Some but certainly not all of the leaves on Weigela florida variegata show an interesting fall colour.

 

Well, it's been a month since the last contribution, guess it's time for another one...
The salvias we have here are Salvia guaranitica and Salvia microphylla 'Hot Lips'. Both were spring gifts from a friend, along with Salvia elegans. They're all still in pots but we're in the process of doing some re-jigging of the yard and should be able to find a more permanent spot for them.

It's too bad in a way that we don't have this lovely colour combination over the growing season but I enjoy it in the fall while it lasts.
There's a corner in our backyard that's essentially open shade, it's in the lee of a fence and some cedar hedging and it provides a great environment to highlight a nice variety of Tardiana type hostas. They include Hosta 'June', 'Halcyon', 'Touch of Class', 'First Frost', 'Bulletproof', 'Remember Me', 'Touch of Frost', 'Ben Vernooij' and 'Sleeping Beauty'. That's them with the nice glaucous blue leaves, the brown ones are from a different genetic background and they fall into senescence much earlier.
Even though pretty much everything is showing signs of settling down for the winter there are a couple of examples already of what to expect coming spring. This here is a small patch of Anenome coronaria and in other parts of the front yard Muscari are making themselves known, and it won't be long before I'll see the first Iris tuberosa break through. So, don't despair, we'll have to go through the winter blahs but they'll be a distant memory before you know it....

 

It was a lovely fall day yesterday and my wife pointed out some things on a tree branch she uses to display some Sempervivums and more. With all the moisture we've seen over the past few weeks there's plenty of mushroom fruiting going on, including what you see here with some moss and other fungi.
One of our neighbours gave us a 1 gallon pot with a Chrysanthemum cutting last year or perhaps earlier this spring, don't recall and that really don't matter. It's just over the top, massive display of flowers and substantially taller than the one they have in their yard. It'll get transplanted to the front yard to provide some welcome fall colour.
I have a small 4 inch pot with cuttings from my Weigela florida variegata and was struck by the colours being displayed by them, much nicer quite frankly than what I've seen on the parent plant. Too bad it won't last much longer like this....