Garden Gallery

Click on any photo to see a larger version, description and link to the plant elsewhere on the site.

You can share your garden photos with other gardeners! Email them, with as much plant identfication as you have, to photos@friendsschoolplantsale.com We love to see how your plants look in combination as well as individual plants.

Bells and Jewels

Plant sale shopper Cherie H. writes, "Here are some photos of Bells of Ireland (Moluccella laevis) and Jewels of Opar (Talinum).

"These Bells of Ireland were purchased at the Friend's sale a couple of years ago. They self-seed and have become more like a perennial than an annual.

"Another gardener posted a photo of her Jewels of Opar plant. I am submitting photos of the flower stalk. They are prolific re-seeders so, again, become more like perennials than annuals."

Bells of Ireland, green flowers on a vertical stalk

Jewels of Opar, wiry stems and pink small flowers

Beth's Flowers

Long-time plant sale volunteer and gardener Beth sent in these reminders of summer as we get ready for this year's sale.

Thanks for sending them in, Beth! We would love it if you would share photos of your garden, whether individual plants or showcasing how your plants look together in your garden. Send them to photos@friendsschoolplantsale.com.

Green stem with many magentapurple flowers iwth yellow stamens

Light green flowers in a bed with dark snapdragons and peach hummingbird mint

Huge peach-pink poppy with dark center, dark lavender small flowers

Huge pink hibiscus with feathery fennel, yellow and orange sunflowers

Flowers from Peg

Plant Sale shopper and volunteer Peg sent in these beautiful photos of her plants. Thanks so much for sending in your photos, Peg!
If you’d like to share your photos with us, email photos@friendsschoolplantsale.com

Dusky pink panicles of flowers on tall dark stems

Iron garden gazebo surrounded by multi-colored hollyhocks.

Mix of red and yellow flowers with a bird house in the midst

A First Time Gardener

New gardener and Plant Sale shopper Susan wrote to us:

"Last year I planted my first garden with plants from your sale. It was fate–I had just visited the library for a book on planning a garden and the plant sale catalog was on a nearby table. I found a plan, made a list of plants and spent a very happy two weeks poring over the plant sale newspaper. As you’ll see from the pictures, my garden bloomed beautifully. These were taken in June, roughly 6 - 8 weeks after planting."

Newly planted bed in a front corner of a yard

A Glimpse of Summer

Plant Sale shopper Michelle G. sent in these photos of some of her favorites from the Plant Sale.

Thanks for the photos, Michelle! They’re very appreciated. If you’d like to send us photos of your plants, email them to photos@friendsschoolplantsale.com.

Monarch butterfly on red and orange flowerhead

Tall clump of silvery grass with prominent fluffy seedheads

Light-bright yellow marigolds with feathery foliage

Darkest purple cornflowers with gray-green foliage.

Dark leaves and reddish-orange dahlia blooms

Bright orange single, zinnia-like flower.

Summer Photos from Carol

Here are a few photos of plants from the Plant Sale.

Long thin dark eggplants growing on green plant

Red-pink flowers foreground, purple in background

Orange rose hips on climbing rose over a fence

Cuke-Nuts Are Cute and Tasty

Plant Sale shopper April sent in these photos of her cuke-nuts. Known by the obscure botanical name of Melothria scabra, cuke-nuts have been increasingly popular at the sale. From what April says, I can see why.

April wrote: Next year I plan to buy more cuke-nutes and plant them at the base of all my tomato plants. Thanks for all the work you do at putting on the sale. I’m already making my list for next year. I’d love to see some lingonberry bushes there. (Wink, wink!)

We’ll be looking into the lingonberry idea (added in 2010 and available again in 2011). In the meantime, if you’ve got garden photos, send them to photos@friendsschoolplantsale.com. We love to see them!

Collection of miniature green watermelon-like fruits

Vining plant with green fruits growing beneath tomato plants

Cacti of the North

For several years, the Plant Sale has been offering Minnesota-hardy cacti from Dennis Hoidal, who grows cactus in Forest Lake. We made a few trips up to visit Dennis and look at his plants a few summers agi. (Note to self–don’t visit a guy who grows cactus when it’s 90 degrees.) Dennis has been growing all of these varieties in his northern suburban yard for years.

Grasslands prickly pear, fluorescent yelow flowers, green pads

Little prickly pear, light yellow flowers, small green pads

Little Gray Beard prickly pear, one of the smallest

Little Prickly Pear from Burleigh County, N.D., light yellow flowers

Prickly Pear 'Chartreuse', light yellow flowers with a green cast

Crystal Tide prickly pear, ivory flowers

Orange-flowered prickly pear, flower is dark gold more than orange

Prickly pear, flowers pink with a dark center

Purple Desert prickly pear pads have a purple sheen. Purple flowers.

Smithwick prickly pear, bright yellow flowers

Photos from Shoppers

Plant Sale shoppers Paulette and Sharon emailed a few photos to share. Thanks!

We’d love to see photos of plants you got at the plant sale. Send them to photos@friendsschoolplantsale.com. Thanks!

Window box with apricot begonia, lime green coleus.

Trilliums

Years ago, when we first moved into our house and I started gardening, I envied my neighbor’s clump of Trillium grandiflorum which she’d brought back from The Lake. Since I shared the shade and leaves of her oaks, I figured I could grow them too.

I bought one plant, chose what I thought was a good spot and waited. The plant did not thrive. I added two more plants in different spots the following year. They did not thrive.

Some years later I noticed a small clump of healthy trilliums growing out of the bottom of my stone wall. I knew I hadn’t planted them or even thought of cramming a plant into what looked to be an inhospitable site. Squirrels! They’d planted the fruit/seed pods in exactly the right place; I was suitably humbled. (I’ve since learned that the seeds of trilliums are attractive to ants, who help disperse them by leaving seeds in their tunnels, where the seeds germinate, so ants might deserve the credit.)

Now I have many clumps of T. grandiflorum around the garden, and my habit is to plant them amongst good sized rocks, where they seem to thrive.

T. erectum’s flower is not as large as T. grandiflorum but it is striking, usually dark red, and the plant makes large clumps. It is propagated easily by division and will also seed (although mine hasn’t).

T. luteum has an unusual yellow flower and handsome mottled leaves.

All these trilliums grow in deciduous woods in neutral to somewhat acid soil. Dig in leaf mold when planting. I top dress with compost in the spring and add a light mulch of shredded leaves. Some growers use a liquid 10-30-20 fertilizer to get bigger blooms. This can be done twice a year, as the shoots appear and then as the flowers fade.

These trilliums are available at this year’s Friends School Plant Sale (T. grandiflorum in Native Wild Flowers, T. erectum and T. erectum luteum in Perennials).

Try some, and bring home a bit of The Lake.

White trilliums blooming near an iron planter