Wouldn’t it be great to be able to see photos of more plants from the Plant Sale? You can help with this project! We would love to have photos of your plants and gardens to put on this website and into next year’s catalog. For 2009, we plan to have more color pages with photos in the catalog!

In fact, we really need them, because otherwise we are limited to using photos we take ourselves in our own gardens and photos from the websites we have permission to use. And this supply of photos is dwindling.

We need both photos of individual plants that you bought at the sale and photos showing how the plants look in your garden, window box, or container. In fact, it would be great if you made a point of taking photographs in your garden this summer of both previous purchases and new 2008 plants.

We are more interested in practical photos that show the plant or flower clearly than in “beauty shots,” but either would be welcome! It’s not required, but we would also be interested in hearing about your impressions of the plants, both positive and negative.

There are various ways you can share your photos with the Friends School Plant Sale community:

1. If possible, email your full-size digital photos to us at photos@friendsschoolplantsale.com — we will take care of cropping them and making them the right size. If you know the name of a plant, that is definitely helpful but not necessary. In many cases, we will be able to recognize it. Let us know if you want your name with your photo or not.
2. If you have print photos, you can mail them to Friends School Plant Sale, 1365 Englewood Avenue, St. Paul, MN 55104.
3. If you are a gardener with a lot of Friends School Plant Sale plants in your garden but do not wish to photograph them yourself, email or write to us and we can discuss having one of our volunteer photographers take photos. Or let us know if your garden will be on a garden tour this year!

If you feel like sharing photos of what you got at the sale — either before planting it or after — please email them to us.

Here are photos of my haul. See if you can pick out the Anthole begonia. And I couldn’t resist the variegated Colorguard Yucca, which was a surprise addition at the sale (we had tried to order it, but the grower said it wouldn’t be available.. and then it just showed up!).

I also felt moved to bring home these two charming birds (vultures?) from Dick’s Designs. They’re keeping a careful watch over some gold-green hosta, Japanese Forest Grass, and a bunch of Rue Anemone. In the background are several Pink Spike Black Cohosh — man, those are going to be beautiful!

New gardener and Plant Sale shopper Susan writes:

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.

This year I’m planting a boulevard garden. I can’t wait for May 9th!

Thanks, Susan! We’ll be on the lookout for you.

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

Paulette sent this Pink and White Showy Lady Slipper (Cypripedium reginae), U015, page 26. She says she planted it four years ago and it first bloomed in 2007. I’ll bet that was exciting!

Sharon sent several photos. First is round-lobed Hepatica (Hepatica americana) N099, page 32. This winsome woodland native might be blooming right now (although it may be a bit delayed with this year’s late spring).

Sharon’s second photo is of Golden Moneywort (Lysimachia nummularia) P494, page 17. I just added a bunch of this to my garden last year as well. It’s a groundcover that definitely spreads, but provides bright, attractive undergrowth in a range of light situations. Here, you see it juxtaposed in Sharon’s early spring garden with sweet violets.

Finally, Sharon sent this photo of one of her beautifully designed window boxes. At center is a Tuberous Begonia (Begonia hybrida), page 39. I especially like the juxtaposition of the lime coleus with the darker begonia and trailing million bells.

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

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. grandiflorum is the most showy trillium, and in my garden it self-seeds. The seedlings don’t look like the parent plant but show a single leaf, somewhat like a lily seedling or a broadish blade of grass; the seedlings do not appear until the second spring after dispersal.

Trillium erectum (left) and Trillium luteum (right). Both images are from the Wikipedia’s entry on Trillium.

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 the Woodland Wild Flowers on page 33, T. erectum and T. luteum in the Garden Perennials, page 21).

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

Plant Sale shopper Heather wrote in to make sure she was on our catalog mailing list, and sent along these photos from her garden. She writes, “I’m so excited for the sale I can hardly stand it!”

Thanks, Heather!

Heavenly Blue Morning Glory (Ipomoea tricolor ‘Heavenly Blue’)

Left: The very tall, old-fashioned annual Kiss-Me-Over-the- Garden-Gate (Polygonum orientale) and right: Clematis Comtesse de Bouchard.

We haven’t carried the Comtesse for several years, but it looks like we may have to bring her back next year!

We tend to show photos of flowering plants on this website, but Plant Sale shopper Mimi Schirber reminds us about our many loyal vegetable growers. She writes:

“I’ve enjoyed the sale two years in a row now! This year we got a mixed four-pack of heirloom tomatoes (red and yellow Brandywines, Aunt Ruby’s German Green, and Cherokee Purple) that are FABULOUS!!! Thanks — while we are still enjoying our harvest, it is hard not to start dreaming about next year’s garden!

“We are growing broccoli, cabbage, kale, chard, a number of different squash, cauliflower (that looks more like purple broccoli??), and kohlrabi — all from your sale!! Then vertically we are growing some cucumbers, beans, and a few tomatoes - a fun way to save space and makes harvesting really easy! Beans, beets, carrots, cilantro, parsley, potatoes, radish, and a variety of greens from seed.

“This is really my first veggie garden. My dad always had one growing up, and I have always had a tomato or two, but this year I am sharing a garden with a friend and it has been a serious garden. We are having a wonderful time (and it is great to share the watering responsiblities) and are already making plans for next year’s garden! Thanks for always offering interesting and healthy plants!!”

Your garden looks like a great use of yard space, Mimi. You’re inspiring me to try some vegetables next year in my limited sunny areas. Thanks for sending in your photos!

We would love to see photos from your garden, too! Send them to photos@friendsschoolplantsale.com.

Plant Sale shopper Jane Horn of Prior Lake writes:

“I buy Jewels of Opar (Talinum paniculatum ‘Kingswood Gold’) each year from the Friends School Plant Sale. This wonderful chartreuse annual seeds generously and I enjoy the tiny pink blooms and seeds that form on the wiry stems. I finally got a pretty good photo of them.

“Also visible in the photo are balloon flower (Platycodon grandiflorus ‘Sentimental Blue’), Upright Stonecrop (Sedum ‘Purple Emperor’, back left), Artemisia (Artemisia stelleriana ‘Silver Brocade’, lower left), and Alpine Lady’s Mantle (Alchemilla alpina, the small-leaved plant in the left front).

“Another plant that I bought from the sale in 2007 and really love is Coleus ‘Gay’s Delight’ (below).”

Thanks, Jane, for sending in your photos! We would love to have photos from other Plant Sale shoppers. You must have taken one or two this summer! Send them to photos@friendsschoolplantsale.com.

This is almost always the answer to “Where did you get that?” when people are looking at flowers in my front garden, which is mainly annuals and tropicals. I thought seriously about just making a yard sign or wearing a button: “90% of these plants are from the Friends School Plant Sale.”

The dark purple leaves are Perilla or red shiso, used in Asian cooking. The plants are now twice this size — next year I won’t plant them so close together!

The yellow and maroon daisy is Rudbeckia ‘Chocolate and Orange.’

The plant that somewhat resembles a Japanese maple tree is Hibiscus ‘Maple Sugar.’ Again, the four that I bought are about three times this size now which shouldn’t be a surprise since the catalog said they would be 48-60 inches tall, but as usual I thought “Surely not, in just one short Minnesota summer.” It has been completely healthy-looking and never even needs a yellowed leaf taken off. And it may still flower.

Here’s one of my favorite plants, Euphorbia cotinifolia ‘Burgundy Wine,’ an annual spurge which would grow into a tree if it lived in Florida. I buy more of these every year.

This is papyrus or umbrella palm (Cyperus involucratus): no one can pass by this plant without touching the soft, feathery leaves. I thought it would need to be in a pond or at least a damp place, but it has been absolutely fine all through this hot, dry summer. It is six feet tall — I love really tall plants that never need staking!

This photo of the Amaranthus ‘Hot Biscuits’ utterly fails in showing the size of the monster: about five feet tall and almost as wide. My husband thinks its leaves look a bit weedy (true, but they are very healthy and green!) and doesn’t fully appreciate the wonderful brown color, but I like it even better than I thought I would and will plant it next year.

Another brown plant, one of several different Sedges or Carex I bought, but not different enough that I can tell them apart. This one might be ‘Cappuccino’ or ‘Toffee Twist.’ Brown just looks so good with orange and burgundy. The green blades in the other pots are Crocosmia that haven’t flowered yet. A couple of these that I planted in the garden grew to full size and then turned inexplicably brown, but it’s kind of a nice brown, so I just left them where they are and pretend they are a broad-leaved Carex.

One of the things I love about all my annuals and tropicals is that they love the heat and look great in August (and until frost!) when other plants are in decline.

I signed on to be part of this year’s St. Anthony Park Garden tour on Saturday, June 30, from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. You can get tickets ahead of time at neighborhood businesses, or just show up Saturday at the St. Anthony Park Library in St. Paul, located at Como and Carter Avenues. Get a map to the library.

Much of my garden is self seeded, but many other plants came from the Friends School Plant Sale. Here are a few photos from this spring and early summer.

Below: Self-seeded annuals join with perennials such as Delphinium chinensis ‘Butterfly Blue’ in the south-facing, narrow, rocky area between the sidewalk and the fence. Clematis jackmanii and ‘General Sikorski’ grow on trellises behind the fence–in keeping with the clematis “heads in the sun, feet in the shade” preference. This is pretty close to the way the garden will look for the garden tour.

Below: A John Davis climbing rose grows in the front corner of the fence. It has finished its first bloom as I write this in late June, but during the garden tour you’ll see blooms of Clematis ‘Roguchi’ growing among the leaves.

Below: Earlier in spring, the garden inside the front gate showed daffodils, foamflower and spurge. The variegated leaves of Yellow Archangel ‘Herman’s Pride’ (Lamiastrum galeobdolon ‘Herman’s Pride’) are visible along the sidewalk, and still look good today. Everything else has been succeeded by taller plants, and lilies have come up throughout.

Below: These Claude Shride martagon lilies just finished blooming before the garden tour. (Lilium martagon ‘Claude Shride’ is very vigorous and I recommend it to anyone interested in lilies.) But a number of different asiatic lilies are in bloom at this point.