Shaun’s Perennials

Shaun is a master floral designer and a great gardener. One of his favorite flowerbeds is his Perennial Shade Garden. In the garden are Solomon’s Seal, hosta, fern, astilbe, epimedium and Japanese anemone. Everything in the bed blooms with a white blossom, but the only two left to bloom this season are the hosta and anemone. He divides everything up every year to keep this bed full.

The garden runs the length of this walk as you enter the backyard. Across from it are the three containers we saw in Shaun’s Containers. The Solomon’s Seal really dominates here.

July 8

The stately astilbe

The quiet calm of epimedium

The cool hosta

Understated Japanese anemone

July 25

On this date I returned later in the day when the shade was fuller to see the deep greens of the shade garden.

August 19

The Japanese anemone finally blossomed…

… and so has the hosta. This particular hosta exudes the sweetest fragrance, like baked goods out of the oven.

In the springtime, Shaun's gardens bloom in cooler colors, like blues and lavenders, but in late summer oranges and reds compliment the hotter months. Some of the cooler colors can be seen in Shaun’s Containers post in the clematis and liatris.

Shaun also has a Hot Weather Perennial Garden that really came to life on my second visit July 25.

The bed lines the back porch and is full of dahlias, lilies and liatrus, just to name a few.

Vibrant dahlias

A lovely white lily

The astute liatrus

Thanks Shaun for sharing your beautiful garden with us! We’ll be back soon to take a look at your vegetable garden.

Shaun’s Containers

When I think of flowers and arrangements one of the first names that comes to mind is my friend Shaun. Shaun is a master at floral design. I have watched him create arrangements from weddings to corporate events and have even helped on some really big jobs placing flowers and greenery in hundreds of vases. I was delighted when he allowed us into his garden. Since his garden is so big I broken it up into three separate posts: Shaun’s Containers, Shaun’s Perennials and Shaun’s Vegetable Garden. I visited his garden on three different occassions: July 8, July 25 and August 19.

July 8

When you first enter his backyard these three fantastic containers greet you. Shaun likes both symmetrical and asymmetrical design and likes to use an odd number of items. You can see this here with three containers, three different clematises with trellises and three plants that fill the bottom of each container.

The clematises are three different shades of color: dark blue, pink and purple. The clematis was left over from last year and cut all the way back.  Also in the container thrives a Liatris spicata ‘Gayfeather,’ vinca and petunia. The vinca was also carried over from last year, while the liatris and petunia were planted this year.

This container is one of two that sit by the entrance to the patio from the backyard. The container holds a canna in the center surrounded on this side by three different coleus creating eye-popping brilliance.

On the other side of the container you can see two spillers; a potato vine and a lotus vine.

On July 25 I visited his garden again. A covered porch lines the back of the house and you can see the two containers in the center of the picture that frames the porch entrance from the yard. The canna in the container on the left has bloomed red.

This is the container on the right side of the porch with two other friends a strawberry pot in front of it and a large liatris in the bed to its right. Note the trailing lotus vine spilling out of the container's right side.

This lotus vine or ‘Parrot’s Beak’ bloom is beautiful and exotic.

The canna blooms in the left container.

Hanging from the porch are three begonias.

Shaun used plants from his garden to make these floral arrangements with liatris, sage and begonia blossoms.

August 19

The two containers that frame the porch entrance continue to stun you with their beauty. 

Shaun's aesthetic of symmetry and asymmetry and his working with odd numbers can be seen with these two formations. The left side of the porch with the canna container, strawberry pot and liatris.

The right side of the porch with the same. 

The begonias continue to stretch their vines.

Thanks for sharing with us Shaun. We’ll see you next time for Shaun’s Perennials.

Koreshan State Historic Site

I recently visited friends in Ft. Myers, Florida. While there I wanted to tour the Sarasota Botanical Gardens, but unfortunately it poured down rain on that day. My friend Kerry suggested exploring the Koreshan State Historic Site. The park has 200 acres where you can picnic, hike, canoe, camp and explore the grounds of the Koreshan Settlement.

The Koreshan Unity was a communal society that started in 1880 in Moravia, New York. Their movement believed the entire universe existed within a hollow sphere and sought out a utopian society away from societies ills, like crime, tobacco and alcoholism. The colonists believed that they found the center of the universe in what is now Estero, Florida. More can be found at the Park Site and the Koreshan's Unofficial Blog Site.

The Koreshan colonists were very industrious and built structures for industry, education and the arts dating from the early 20th century. What I discovered was a great deal of interesting flora some native, but like the Koreshan many transplanted.

This Sabal Palm is a native.

Night blooming cereus of South America

It attaches to other plants like the Sabal Palm.

Spanish moss covers this Eucalyptus tree from Australia. The building in the background is the Planetary Court.

Moss isn't the only thing growing on this tree.

Arborvitae from China

Fishtail Palm from South East Asia

Sausage Tree from Africa

Spanish Bayonet a native yucca

Grapefruit Tree from Barbados

Resurrection Fern native

Sago Palm from Japan

Monkey Puzzle Tree from Australia

Red Pineapple from South America

Screw Pine from Tropical Pacific Islands

Coontie native

Washingtonian Palm of Mexico

Crepe Myrtle from Asia

Orchid Tree of India

The following plants had no identifying tags.

Giant Bamboo with my friend Kerry

Pineapple plant

Mango Tree

Orchid

The building structures were very interesting and I thought I’d share some of them.

The Planetary Court where seven women lived and governed the day-to-day business of the Settlement.

Small Machine Shop with Electric Generator Building behind it

Large Machine Shop

Conrad Schlender Cottage, a shot gun shack

Founder’s House

Bridge from the old Victorian Gardens

This was a very great day trip and much was learned of the different species, which have called Florida home.