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Now I’m stumped

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What the heck is this anyway?

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I thought I planted a clematis.

I’m sure it’s flowered for the last two years and that it produced flowers that look very much like a clematis’ flowers.

This is the first year that I’ve ever noticed berries on the vine.

I’ve even got another “clematis” growing with one of my honeysuckles and it too appears to be producing berries.

I tried doing a search to see if any clematis produce fruit or berries and I didn’t have much luck in my search. Does anyone know if this is a clematis and if it’s not what could it be?

This is so strange!

I’ve got to admit that whatever this is the berries are nice and plump and healthy looking.

I’d like to wish a Happy Thanks Giving to my fellow Canadian visitors. It’s a long weekend here and that’s one of the reasons why my GTS post is a bit late. I hope that those celebrating Thanks Giving are having a fantastic long weekend.

Gardeners, Plant and Nature lovers can join in every Sunday, visit As the Garden Grows for more information.






Heuchera – Easy to grow and So lovely in the Garden

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Don’t you just love the look of Heuchera leaves?

Heuchera Purple Palace leaves

Heuchera Purple palace leaves

They’re so colorful. I have heuchera’s growing in shady places in my garden, even below other plants that are in otherwise sunny areas. For example I’ve got coral heuchera growing underneath our ornate Japanese maple tree. The branches drop down almost to the ground so they shade the heuchera from the sun. (the green behind the leaves is astilbe – not weeds!)

Heuchera also bloom. If you grow them you’ll have seen them in bloom in June or July. Flower stalks sprout up from the leave plant by the score. I’m certain some of my plants put out 50 to 100 flower stalks!

Heuchera Amethyst mist in flower

Heuchera Amethyst Mist in flower

I guess I grow three types of Heuchera. The Amethyst mist and Purple palace that I’ve shown above and the coral one that I can’t remember the full name of right now … it’s leaves are coral and gold, very pretty.

I think most heuchera are fairly hardy. I believe all of mine are hardy to zone 4. They are easy to grow as long as they have enough shade and if they are covered in mulch in the winter it must be removed early as they have a shallow root system and they can fail to come out of dormancy if they are buried too deep or left in very damp conditions. This last bit is knowledge gained from personal experience. In the winter the only plants of mine that have ever lifted from the ground when it thaws have been my heurchera’s, so watch for that too.

I also love to say the word Heuchera. LOL if you say it forcefully it kind of sounds like someone being sick. Huecccccccheeeeeerrahhhh! See what I mean? Yeah, I’m a nut – a gardening nut.

Butterfly Milkweed

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I noticed that my hybrid Butterfly Milkweed – Asclepias tuberosa – had started to form buds. I had noticed the developing buds about a week and a half ago as I took a walk in my garden checking on all the plants as I went.

Luckily I had my camera at hand and I was able to take a few nice photos of the developing buds:

Milkweed tuberosa buds

Butterfly weed is a herbaceous perennial that grows up to two feet in height. It dies back each winter and then re-sprouts in late spring from underground tubers.

Milkweed is slow to come up each spring. If you grow any form of milkweed you should always take care to mark the spot that it grows in each fall or at the very least try to remember where it was as it’s slow to make an appearance and you wouldn’t want to dig in the area and damage the plants roots.

Flower clusters of brilliant orange or red appear in midsummer. Once the blooms are spent attractive green pods develop. When the pods mature they open to release silky parachutes that drift away on autumn winds. This is how the butterfly weed propagates as the seeds of the butterfly weed are on these silky floating strands.

Each cluster has many flowers, several of these flowers will have an inner whorl of petals that are called the corolla and an outer whorl of sepals that is called the calyx. Butterfly Milkweed is a little different from other species of milkweed in that the sap is not milky nor are the leaves opposite.

Butterfly weed is a naturally occurring plant that grows east of the Rockies in North America. It’s preference is for well drained sandy soils.

If you’d like to grow these lovely flowers plant them in full sun to very light shade. Butterfly weed is hardy to USDA zones 4 – 10.

If you’d like to encourage butterflies to visit your garden this flower is a must as the caterpillars of Monarch butterflies feed only on milkweed foliage. Adult butterflies of many species enjoy sipping the nectar from the butterfly weeds blossoms.

I grow a few types of milkweed in my garden and every time I gaze out my kitchen window I see butterflies visiting many of my plants.

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