• Home
  • ABOUT
  • VIDEOS
  • Contact
  • SHOP

The Impatient Gardener

Garden

I'm back … and so is Limelight

July 25, 2011

I got out of town for a few days and then I was beat when I came back so I spent a lot of time thinking about blog posts and not so much time actually writing them. Anyway, I have lots to update you on, and certainly lots to do in the garden. If you don’t realize how much pulling a weed here or deadheading a plant there makes a difference, just leave your garden for four days in the middle of summer and see what it looks like when you get home. Yikes.
To start of the week, I thought I’d update you on a plant near and dear to my heart. You all know about my love affair with hydrangeas, and particularly Limelight. You might recall that back in April I did a slightly-later-than-I-should-have, rather aggressive pruning of my Limelight.
 
Here she is before the big pruning (I love leaving the flowers on during winter):
 
Limelightbefore 041411
Here she is just a few minutes and a lot of hacking later:
Limelightafter 041411
 
And check this out. This is what she looked like a week or so ago. Flower buds are starting to form and they don’t even really seem delayed, as the new Limelights I bought this year are at about the same stage. Standing at well over 5 feet tall, if this isn’t reason enough to prune confidently, then nothing is.
Limelight
 
So … what’s happening in your garden?

hydrangea pruning
by Erin @ The Impatient Gardener 
1 Comment

About Erin @ The Impatient Gardener

View all posts by Erin @ The Impatient Gardener

Related Posts

  • Don’t sleep on these fall garden standouts
  • Do I dare to dream of spring?
  • The most inspiring moments from great gardens
  • Ripen tomatoes on the windowsill.It’s time to cut your tomato losses
previous post: A couple of plant combinations I'm digging
next post: Is good landscape design timeless?

Comments

  1. Anonymous says: July 26, 2011 at 9:58 pm

    Hi! Limelights are really one of my favorite shurbs, but I like not to prune so hard as you did, because I prefer only to cut the previous season's growth to its lowest pair of healthy buds to "buil" or create a nice framework… and moreover it is also better because you become more flowers, which are not so big, but don't flop so easily..Greetings from Italy, James

    Reply

Leave Your Comments Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

About

The Impatient Gardener

Do you love gardening? Me too! I'm Erin and I garden in Southeastern Wisconsin, zone 5. The Impatient Gardener is all about real-life gardening: the good parts, the bad bits and even the funny stuff. It's part information, part inspiration and a little bit commiseration. Thanks for visiting.

Here's some more about me.

CONNECT

Awards

Garden Comm award

MY FAVORITE GEAR

https://www.amazon.com/shop/impatientgardener

Instagram

impatientgardener

Erin Schanen 🌿 The Impatient Gardener
These sister dahlias are big, beautiful girls. Pen These sister dahlias are big, beautiful girls. Penhill Watermelon (first picture) and Penhill Dark Monarch are the best two HUGE dahlias that I grow. They share slightly twisty petals (Watermelon more so) and, when you look closely, subtle striations that add a beautiful depth of color. Watermelon grows taller than Dark Monarch (7 feet tall or more sometimes) and they both need serious staking, but it’s worth it because they produce a lot of flowers for a large-flowering dahlia. 

I like them both but if I was forced to choose (and who would make me do that?) I’d give the edge to Dark Monarch because it’s a little easier to manage size-wise, produces more flowers and has a bigger variation in flower color so it’s always interesting. 

Which do you like better?
I don’t love tools that only do one thing. But w I don’t love tools that only do one thing. But when there’s only one tool that does that one thing really well, I’m here for it. This pottery/container knife from Sneeboer makes it possible to actually get plants out of pots without breaking or damaging the pot. It’s also really expensive. 😀
A little snippet of a bouquet from the weekend. Zi A little snippet of a bouquet from the weekend. Zinnias, pycnanthemum muticum and bronze fennel shown here.
My love for Nicotiana is not a secret. I love tryi My love for Nicotiana is not a secret. I love trying out new varieties and I feel like they just work so well in my garden from both a design standpoint and a cultural standpoint (they are happy here). Because I grow so many, the ones that self sow can be surprises. 

All of these self-sown Nicotiana are probably at least partly the children of the F1 hybrid Perfume series, which grow to be about 24” tall or so. Last year I grew purple, pink, white and lime versions and these are likely new variations on those. 

Picture 3 is, in my opinion, a good example of how these self sown second-year hybrids can go wrong. I’ll probably rip that one out. 😀

And the last photo is of my favorite colorway, lime, popping up amongst the Zinnias. I find these self-sown Nicotiana popping up all summer, so there’s always a fresh-blooming supply. 

Are you as enamored with Nicotinana as I am?
Load More Follow on Instagram

SEARCH

Popular posts

  • HOW TO MAKE A HOLIDAY WINDOW BOX
  • How to find and deal with tomato hornworms
  • A summer of bouquets
  • Plant to know: Geranium macrorrhizum

Find us on Facebook

Archives

  • ABOUT
  • TALK TO ME
  • TERMS & DISCLAIMERS
  • PRIVACY POLICY
  • Home

Copyright © 2023 · Prima Donna theme by Georgia Lou Studios

Copyright 2009-2021 ©The Impatient Gardener