My Dog

Juno, daughter of White Eagle and Destiny of Florence, Mississippi.

Chrysanthemum 'Gelati' and Juno the Puppy

Chrysanthemum 'Gelati' and Juno

After scouring the countryside for Chrysanthemums yesterday this was the only named variety I could find. All the rest of the mums were not labeled or had a generic tag. Many of the mums have gone by already but there are still a few that are coming out. ‘Gelati’ is considered an early bloomer even though this plant was just coming out.

This white mum was nice. I like the whites except they can look a little funny when they are past their prime. I will be heading out again today looking for some more mums. It is raining fairly hard here this morning but that is supposed to blow over.


Here a few more pictures of Juno. She is a great dog already. After Molly left us we were all in a state of shock and Juno really snapped us out of that. It is kind of like someone lit off one of those big mats of firecrackers in the house and they are still going off, which is okay as I like a bit of intensity from our dogs. She is growing up fast. The Black and White is the first D70s monochrome conversion I have posted on this site. I used the channel mixer to turn it into a B&W.

Jerusalem Artichoke

Jerusalem Artichoke
Helianthus tuberosus

This plant can be a potential weed in the garden. I happened onto a huge stand in full bloom at the NYBG last weekend. The insects were loving the flowers and I was able to get pretty close. Jerusalem Artichoke has no ties to the city of Jerusalem and is not an artichoke (good name for the plant, huh?). It is a species of Sunflower native to the Eastern United States that Native Americans cultivated for food. I have never eaten it except for some pasta made from the tuber but it is widely cultivated and sold.

This Honeybee was busy and didn’t mind me sneaking in for a close shot with the 60mm.


People have been clamoring :lol: for pictures of Juno the new puppy. She has been a wonderful addition to the family and has fit right in. Here are a few snaps of her.


This is a goofy shot of her when she decided she wanted to play with my camera strap.


Ruby Tuesday has taken a maternal interest in Juno. She watches over her when they are not playing together. They have really hit it off. It is funny because Ruby is a 75 pounder and her head is as big as Juno's whole body.

Ruby Volcano Phlox

Ruby Volcano Phlox
Phlox paniculata ‘Barthirtyfive’

Ruby Tuesday again! This is a totally new family of Garden Phlox that is supposed to put all previous varieties to shame. The Volcano type is shorter (24 inches), more colorful (available in 6 colors now with more on the way) and above all it is more resistant to Powdery Mildew. I took these pictures at the wholesale nursery I frequent in Greenwich, Connecticut. I must admit the 100 or so plants that they had were eye catching, actually eye dazzling. If they have truly bred a disease resistant Phlox then my hat goes off to them.


“These new varieties actually owe their existence to the end of the Cold War. Shortly after the fall of the Berlin Wall, members of the Dutch hybridizing firm Bartels Stek trekked the newly-opened countries of Eastern Europe looking for exceptional plant material. Their most exciting find was a group of old varieties of Eastern European phlox that were unknown in the West. While the old varieties weren’t fragrant or very floriferous, they were very disease-tolerant. Cross-breeding resulted in the exciting new Volcano® series of fragrant, abundantly-flowering, compact phlox with high natural disease-tolerance.”

From Volcano Phlox/tesselar.com

Here is the new pup. She is unbelievably cute and cuddly. She is on the right in this picture. That is her brother, on the left, who we transported to CT for a couple from Massachusetts. It was sad when they picked him up on Sunday. We have decided to call her Juno . Her middle name is Grace.

Silverleaf Ponysfoot

Silverleaf Ponysfoot
Dichondra sericea
(dy-KON-druh) (ser-IK-ee-uh)

This plant was marked Dichondra sericea at Wave Hill. There wasn’t much information on that particular species. I have been growing a plant similar to this but it has smaller leaves and more of a trailing habit. That might be Dichondra argentea but I am not really sure (maybe some one can help me out here). Either way having a silver plant with the trailing habit has been a real treat in the garden. This one was growing in a container and I think I will try that next year. It really looked nice against the terra cotta colored pot.

This second plant is Hosta ‘Peidmont Gold’. It is a striking large leaf Hosta that was planted in partial sun. I loved the color and the texture of the leaves. I am not a big fan of Hosta flowers and much prefer them for their foliage.


As promised here are a couple of pictures of the new dog. These photographs are property of Susan Boyd and Morningstar Huskies.com. It is going to be a long two weeks until we get her.


If you are looking for a great Siberian Husky puppy contact them. The dogs from Morningstar have a nice temperament and they are beautiful. This maybe the first time that I have posted a photograph on this blog that someone else took.


I finally got around to visiting some of my favorite gardening blogs yesterday. Problem with not visiting for awhile is it takes that much longer to catch up. Everyone is growing and posting such wonderful stuff.

White Flowering Dogwood

White Flowering Dogwood
Cornus florida 'Cherokee Princess'

Our Molly dog went to heaven yesterday. As much as that hurts it was quite obvious that it was time to help her along. We stayed up with her the night before and her breathing was labored and shallow. She actually stopped breathing a couple of times only to start again. When she stopped drinking that was kind of a benchmark for me. We decided to call her doctor to see if we could ease her discomfort and he came yesterday morning. I have been real sad but at the same time relived that Molly is not struggling anymore. Our other dog, Ruby Tuesday the Border Collie, is stunned. She is 4 years old now and they were like sisters. I am thankful I still have a dog.


Siberian Huskies by nature are fun loving, carefree, curious, and free spirited. Molly had all those qualities in abundance. She had many other attributes that made her, as her doctor said, ‘exceptional’. I was kidding him saying that he probably said that about all dogs but he really thought a lot of her. We did too, as did most humans that knew her. I am glad that you can’t see me right now as I am very emotional.


Here is a picture of her in West Palm Beach in February of 2007. You can see she was beauty even at 11 years of age. Molly was beautiful on the inside as well as the outside. She pretty much went everywhere with us including Maine, Canada a couple of times and Florida four times. The cancer ravaged her in a few short months.

“Good night, sweet princess. Ran fast, jump high, cuddle softly and make friends, just like you always did.”

Molly, whose full name was Molokai (after the Hawaiian Island) Falcon Feather (I always give my animals an Indian name), is at peace now. Thank goodness it was probably hard work bring us all that joy, happiness and laughter.

I thought it would be fitting to post a picture of a Dogwood today. It is one of my favorite trees. I like the whole Cherokee series of Dogwoods and this white flowered one is a heavy and early flowerer.

Remember Our Love

“I was chosen today
I'm learning to fly
the world took me away,
but please don't you cry

And I chose you today
to try and be strong
so please don't you cry
and don't say that I'm gone

When you're feeling alone
just remember our love,
I'm up near the stars
looking down from above.

Remember our love
In a moment you'll see
that I'm still here
beside you when
you're thinking of me.”

Julie Epp

More Japanese Maples

More Japanese Maples

Since the Japanese Maples seem to be popular I thought I would post a couple of more that I shot on Friday. I have been calling this tree ‘Octopus’ for about 15 years now. I am sure that is the way it was sold. However research on the internet seems to point to ‘Octopus’ to being a red leafed cultivar. Oh boy. It seems to have some of the characteristics of ‘Octopus’, as it has very deeply dissected leaves and is short with a lot of congested branching. I will have to post these over at the UBC forums to see if anyone knows what this tree actually is. It is a nice tree no matter what is called. It was fairly big when I planted it and between the deer eating it and pruning it is about 3.5 feet tall and has a spread of about 7-8 feet. It has a large caliper, the trunk is about 6 inches across at the base. Like a lot of the green leafed JMs it gets an orange/yellow fall color. This tree is in at least half shade so I don’t think it colors as well as it would in full sun.


'Red Pygmy' Strap Leaved Japanese Maple (Acer Palmatum 'Red Pygmy')

This next one is ‘Red Pygmy’ and it seems to be a dwarf. This is planted right next to a stream and it seems to like it. The leaves are strap like and turn this bronzy color in the fall. It holds on to its red color well into the summer.

Since I posted a picture of Ruby the Border Collie a couple of weeks ago I thought I would post a picture of my other dog. This is Molly. She is a 12 year old pure bred Siberian Husky. Both of her parents were red colored, so while she is mostly white and black this time of year she gets some red highlights. She is looking a little sad as she has figured out she isn’t going to work. This dog lives to go to work and she is friends with the other dogs on the Estate. She is still young at heart and doesn't act her age.