Hydrangea aspera - is it on the way?

Hydrangea heat.
I think this is it.
I love them!
I just bought another one Hydrangea paniculata Pinky Winky - its flowers are changing color to pink while fading...


Another one, that I would like to invite is Hydrangea aspera.
I saw it lately growing in another garden - it looks spectacular... what can I do...
Have a look by yourself...





It is not fully hardy here (zone 6), because zone 7 is used to be coldest for her, but you see... this pictures is taken 1 km away from me - so, it is possible to ensure the right conditions...



I am asking "Is it on the way?", because sometimes plants get their own way to your garden....

Does your kitty like to be washed?

This morning we decided, that it is time to wash Aslan again. We do it not frequently, but few times in a year.
He used to purely hate it at the beginning, but this time - maybe because of the camera presence, he decided to be more dignified and to not give us the chance to laugh at the pictures till the end of year...
There was no doubt that he had to be washed and I was hoping to get more funny pictures, so I am little dissapointed in a way. On the other hand I really admire him to be so patient - hopefully next time he will also behave...



His fur is very very dense. It takes long time to make it wet.



Then shampoo goes on the kitty and he tries to shake it off....



Cute, clean, wet kitty looking for rescue....



"Why the food suppliers have to make me dirty? Now I have to clean myself - sleeping would be so much better."



... and again... while some of us are in beauty parlors... the others have to work...



...while Aslan was taking bath, Atomic brought mouse again...

Atomic, your time comes next and soon!

What about your cats? Do they like to be washed?

They say the scent of roses can be found in a word... - GBMD September

* * *

they show me words

they say

the scent of roses can be found in a word

but all I find is paper paper and more paper neither

fragrance

nor color

and I know that a spray of sparks

when workers are welding streetcar rails

while we stand around two ten-year-old boys and I

that spray of sparks

means light much more

than the word light

and when my friend paralyzed in a wheelchair

bites off a piece of bread I hand to him

the way he bends his head

the movement of his jaws

have more life in them

than the word life

Poem by Halina Poswiatowska, Polish poet (1935-1967)

Garden Bloggers' Muse Day is hosted kindly by Carolyn Gail at Sweet Home and garden Chicago.

Hummingbird Moth (one of the biggest Moths) in my garden. Good omen!

This morning I got up not too early... I took my coffee and looked at Periclymenum Serotina, that grows at the kitchen window and my heart started to beat faster... can I believe what I see?
I looked closer... and closer.... I have opened window and looked even closer...
YES! this is it! Humming-bird Hawk-moth! (Macroglossum stellatarum) - it visited my garden!



This is the biggest event of this year. And weirdest moth I have seen with my own eyes. Have you seen it before? I grew up in the nature, North of Poland and I have never seen it. I even heard of it for the first time 2 years ago.



This moth can fly with the speed of 50 km/h and can fly really long distances.
It is flying very fast - this is why is difficult to photograph.

While hanging over the flowers for just a second - it drinks nectar and immediately move over to next flower...

This extraordinary meeting was short, but afterwards the moth was hanging on the wall in the ivy... so I could examine it little longer...

Finally it visited also my garden! Similar to hummingbirds, moth in reality. They are tropical and subtropical moths, not popular in Poland - they come as immigrants from South of Europe, but are unable to overwinter. Why do they come then? Are they going back?





I have red somewhere, that they have unique habit of visiting the same flowers at the same time in a sequence... hmm... will see tomorrow.

So unusual view... It made me so happy - I just red that in Italy and Malta it is a good omen to see it... right... that was a very good day...

I can not have hummingbirds in the garden, because they don't like this continent.

At least a moth, that fakes hummingbird...


Below you can see map, showing the places of appearence. I found special website dedicated to Sphingid Moths of Poland. It is also available in English, if you would like to check - click here.

I am going to add my observation as well - it will be located more or less centrally.

Love and propagate... hostas....

OK, I know this is not a hosta and probably you think what does it have to do with it? Nothing actually... Just lovely flowers NIMG :)

.... but going to hostas.....

End of August, which is end of summer here in Poland, is perfect time to propagate hostas. It is best, for three main reasons - you still can see them :) and you know how to divide it, second - after the shock of digging out they get the chance to start to grow roots, temporarily planted in pots, before you plant them in new place, third - you can still see the leaves after planting, so it is easier to keep the proper spacing between the plants.
My lovely hostas are growing in accidental places - but that is going to change, because the owner of the garden (me, me, me) got out of the 'planting heat' and now some more sense will be introduced in the garden.
I rarely go to nurseries, compare to previous years, when it was my daily excercise. Now I go maybe once a month - I simply ran out of planting space. There is kind of balance now - I go equally often to clothes shopping, as to plant shopping.
Thinking again - 'running out of planting space' is not possible, is it?
This is relative, because depends a lot on what is your plan. Mine is propagating plants that I have in my garden, because it is nice collection of 'Favourites'.
There are still some plants that I would like to have, but I know what I want. They are still in plans, because I couldn't buy it - they are not available in the shops that I visit.
Today I will show you, how easily I have propagated one of my favourite hostas, which was growing in a wrong place. Wrong place, because I couldn't admire its beauty - it was too much hidden.
Can you see how big it is?


Propagating them was easier that expected. Just first cut was most difficult, because hosta is hard to deal with it, if you apply power - it sounds familiar, doesn't?
I dug it out first.
Then cut by half wih spade.


After this it was easy to divide it with my hands.


I wanted get maximum of it, there was 8 plants in total.


They go to pots for 2 weeks and after that, in September, I will make new place for them and plant it directly in the soil.
Even if they stay in pots for the winter, these lovely and hardy plants will survive and in the spring will grow like nothing happened.

Wonder May Happen....

It was raining a lot this weekend, but suddenly this Sunday in the afternoon, sun came out and there was immediate change of mood. From very melancholic and lazy to feeling of 'wonder may happen any moment, and then look how beautiful it is around'.

Bory Tucholskie - one of the oldest forests in Europe

Can you spot the deers on the picture?



... or maybe on this one?


In these forests there are for example lichens that are 10.000 years old. You can spot it everywhere......




Even in the garden of the forestry office, some plants which were planted not so long time ago, are already colonised by lichen.... it is known, that it grows only in the cleanest environment.....

Hollyhocks in Warsaw

Let me take you today for a little walk in Warsaw, where I have spotted flashy hollyhocks bed on Ciolka Street, in Wola District.
Surprising view, right?

Tradition Survived Centuries

Another shrine in the closest neighbourhood. Previous one posted here.

Close up...


... and larger view...

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day - August 2008

"Mary Rose" still in bloom.



As you can see, there are Nasturtium leaves around my Mary Rose - they keep them healthy.

Hibiscus syriacus "Ardens".

Phlox paniculata.

Pelargonium...

Hydrangea macrophylla - no more words needed. Beautiful.

Hydrangea paniculata 'Kyushu' has very lacy flowers - some like it, some don't... I think I am not very fond of it.

Hydrangea paniculata 'Tardiva' - has very nice flowers and nice upright growing habit - no problems like with 'Grandiflora', which is growing messy, because flowers are big, but stems weak..

Hydrangea arborescens 'Annabelle' is still blooming, because of pruning the new growth late May in order to get more, but smaller flowers...

Hydrangea paniculata 'Limelight' - great plant worth to be recommended to every garden.

Physostegia virginiana just fell and flowers are obeying the gravity...

Perovskia atriplicifolia... transplanted in the autumn last year, is not doing so great yet.

Rudbeckia fulgida "Goldsturm"...

Oldfashioned Lavatera trimestris...

Heuchera started to bloom again - we have plenty of rain since one month - everything is growing like it would be spring...

Anemone hupehensis in a row... look neat...

Platycodon grandiflorus.

Tagetes tenuifolia with sweet small flowers...

Unexpected guest appeared among Marigolds...

... not fully opened daylily...

Lovely flower of the eggplant - I include it here, because it is my great achievement that I grow them from seed this year...

This pink Zinnia flower for some reasons grew asymmetrical and still is...

Zinnias are blooming since one month - the same flowers! Very persistent...

Echinacea in the peak attraction :)


GBBD is a lovely gardening tradition boosting our interest in flowers, hosted kindly by Carol at May Dreams Gardens. Thank you Carol!