I have total lusty garden envy this morning.  I have been checking out Lauren’s (the Garden Diva’s) beautiful (relatively) new website and I came across this drool inducing project.  She titled it ‘Love in every Language’ which has me wondering if there is some greater meaning to the design or if there is a fascinating story behind this garden.  Not sure, except to say that I amore, leifde, láska, cariad, grá, love it.

That is Stone Pine (or Umbrella Pine) and Seven Sons Tree (or Northern Crape Myrtle).  I’ve planted neither, but that isn’t stopping me from obsessing.

Graceful midsized, arch topped trees is clearly what I am craving.  In my garden I can actually have the Seven Sons Tree and unless one of you inform me of it’s horribleness in the comments, I will probably plant 2 or 3 right in front of my compost area this season.

Heptacodium Miconoides (Seven sons tree)  Isn’t it a lovely shape?

The Pinus Pinea, on the other hand is just out of my (zone) reach. Dang. I’m really hot on this tree too.

Pinus pinea (Stone pine in Rome, Italy).

Do you live in zone 8 or 9? You could plant Pinus pinea in your garden (BTW, they take a really long time to look like this — but isn’t that some awesome city tree?).

Both trees are an excellent focal point and should be placed where their sculptural beauty can be appreciated and highlighted by the surrounding architecture (or lack of),  or plants.  Pinus pinea reminds me of England.  At a mature height it looks alot like Cedar of Lebanon.  When we lived in England, I found that when lost in the country (which was often), while looking for a famed garden or an old castle, you can look at the skyline and see if you see a cedar of lebanon poking above all else.  That will, for sure, be where you are going.  I can only surmise that these were very popular with garden designers a long, long time ago as every old garden has one.

Stone Pine in Portugal.

Both the stone pine and the Cedar of Lebanon remind me of clouds.  The Stone Pine is the fluffly but dangerous Cumulonimbus whereas the Cedar of Lebanon is like the less menacing lenticular.   I wish I could grow them both.

Back to focusing on real possibilities for my New England location, here is what I am most excited about with the soon to be Heptacodium Miconoides:

Apparently they grow pretty fast and when new and small they look kinda like this:

but a simple prune can near instantly turn it into this:

In my book that is some satisfying pruning when you can make a blob into a winsome elegant little tree.

So tell me, have you grown either of these two trees? Do you have lessons to share? And can I come visit your stone pine?

images from fossilflowers, findtarget, luis fontes and GardenWeb.

Listing my top 5 landscape plants has this fun feeling of being in (one of my favorite movies) High Fidelity.   Can you give me your Top 5 list of musical crimes perpetrated by Stevie Wonder in the 80′s? No, but I can give you my top 5 landscape plants.

Who’s going to be the horticultural Jack Black to my John Cusack?  (yes, of course I get to be John Cusack, this is MY imaginary garden list post)….This is going to be fun, and just like the movie — if you denounce my choices you have to give very valid rational reasons…..;0)

So here’s my Top 5 list of Landscape Plants that should be considered for every (New England) garden……

Miscanthis sinensis (nearly every variety excluding ‘zebrinus’ — which I find plain tacky)

As I thought through this list, I realized that I don’t think that there is a single garden that I have planned which does not have some variety of miscanthus (probably ‘Graziella’ or ‘Karl Forester’ as these are my favorite and are also easiest to source).  Grasses are great inexpensive fillers, they are easy to grow and maintain and the they readily provide splittable specimens to give away to friends and neighbors.  As landscape plants they flexible and can provide a modern edge or soften a country garden.

Ajuga reptans (again, nearly every variety except for ‘Burgundy Lace’ which is cheesy like an 80′s chinz).

Every garden needs ground cover somewhere and ajuga is the slightly surprising but easy to grow solution.  It generally tolerates sun and shade and spreads only in a slow and polite way.  I have patches of it growing in the aisles of my veg garden.  Its a volunteer there, but it is just so fresh and it has such a perfect puddle shape that I can’t bear to disturb it.

Both High and Lowbush Blueberry - Classics never go out of style.

I never tire of the amazed response that most people give me when I tell them that they can pick the berries and eat them. (you would be surprised how many people don’t know that) I really do think that people need to get slightly more in touch with where their food comes from and easy growing blueberries seems a perfect place to start.  Plus, around New England they are a great substitute for the desired fall reds of the invasive burning bushes that (finally), only recently, were outlawed.

Lucanthemum superbum (Shasta Daisies)

They go with everything, and while they rarely take center stage, their presence makes everything around them shine brighter. Shasta’s are the chameleon of the garden. Put them with poppies and they are like a pretty summer dress, plant alongside clipped boxwood and they are more of a handsome brooch on a sexy business suit, pair with castor beans and scarlet penstemon and they become exotic and sophisticated.  The options are endless.

Boxwood – (Duh, aren’t these on everyone’s list?)

I don’t know that a garden (except in the middle of the desert) would be a garden without them.  They give the garden it’s distinctive earthy smell, they are handsome and strong, they have a strong jaw line and through summer and winter, they stand tall and proud.  It’s enough to make a girl swoon.

What is on your Top 5 list?

Check out the posts of my fellow rountablers, It will be fun to see what they think. I imagine today’s post to be the online version of all of us in a cluttered old plant shop insulting each other and arguing over the cultural merits of our choices…..

Nan Ondra : Hayefield : Bucks County, PA

Andrew Keys : Garden Smackdown : Boston, MA

Christina Salwitz : Personal Garden Coach : Renton, WA

Genevieve Schmidt : North Coast Gardening : Arcata, CA

Ivette Soler : The Germinatrix : Los Angeles, CA

Jocelyn Chilvers : The Art Garden : Denver, CO

Laura Livengood Schaub : Interleafings : San Jose, CA

Lesley Hegarty & Robert Webber : Hegarty Webber Partnership : Bristol, UK

Rebecca Sweet : Gossip In the Garden : Los Altos, CA

Susan Morrison : Blue Planet Garden Blog : East Bay, CA

Images: Miscanthus  and ajuga reptans by Cheryl Pedemonti, ajuga reptans from thegrowspot.com, blueberries from ifood.tv and leucanthemum from everwilde.com

I have recently been receiving lots of packages (I love packages).  My little people don’t love it so much, they are used to the heady days of November and December when all the packages are presents for them.  But now that spring has arrived it’s mostly for me (Yea!)….books, products, seeds, mail order plants, etc, etc.  Some I bought, some have been sent free for review – like the Flat Tire Decor Basket that came last week for me to try out.   That’s it below with the potato starts (‘Kennebecks’ and ‘Yukon Golds’) that we planted on Easter (As another ‘try out’, we planted them in the potato bags that I paid for with my own money at Agway – we will let you know what we think of those later in the season)

But before I get into my review, I want to reassure you that when I’m given something – whether it’s a book or a plant or a recycled rubber tire tub  – I’m upfront about my experience with that product (or sometimes, namely with books, I follow my mother’s advice and don’t say anything at all –because I truly haven’t the heart to poorly review another writers work).  Anyway, I make this clear to people who send me stuff and if they don’t like it, they can choose not to send it (but so far that hasn’t happened).

So let me tell you about these rubber tubs from flat tire decor.

Here is what I liked:

* The shape.  I got the one with the handles and the handles are quite large in scale to the actual bucket part.  They almost make it feel like you could use it as a purse.  (Really — with the right outfit it could be perfect). It’s different and has a bit of style.

* The material.  Its a rubber tire, recycled. It’s black which kinda goes with every thing, it’s worn, which gives it an earthy charm and it mere existence means that at least one part of an old tire was prevented from going into a landfill, which is good by me.  And, it doesn’t feel dirty (they must make extra efforts to clean off the road gunk).

* It’s constructed by a company called Curative Industrial Services.  Curative offers training and work experience to people with disabilities.  The aim is to build greater skills, self esteem, and quality of life for people with limiting conditions.

And on the flip side…..

* It does smell strongly like a tire — I suspect this will wear off in time, and for me it’s not a big deal (in fact I kinda like it), but if you can’t stand the smell of a Sears Auto Store, you won’t like this.

* While I like this pot, I am not sure exactly what I am going to do with it yet.  If it were smaller I might put it on my kitchen sink to hold soaps, pot scrapers and nails scrubbers and if it were bigger, I would plant something in it (this seems too small for my delinquent plant water-er ways…it’s black and smallish by my tastes, around here, that is a surefire recipe for scorching something quickly).  For now, we are using it to carry stuff around, kinda like a mini (kids sized?) trug (or a garden purse?), it carried potatoes for planting out to the veg garden, and on the way back it picked up eggs from the chicken house.

I think it will continue to come in handy.  Thumbs up for that.

Display plants or use it for planting up pretty pots…..I think I prefer the former rather than the later myself.

Scout Regalia has, once again, whipped up handy DIY instructions to make excellent garden pieces.

You know how succulents are all craze?  Yes, I definitely love them as much as the next person, but my rebellious nature gets the best of me.  As soon as everyone loves something, I quickly tire of it…..and I am kinda tired of the succulent thing (I know, already!).  But who can help but love a garden that forces you to appreciate the tiny and minute details at close range?   Moss and Stone gardens provide the same appeal as the succulent craze, but with the different twist I am forever seeking.

These are all from a selection of images at Moss and Stone Gardens, where you can buy all the materials to create your own moss garden.