Time to Prune

I am trying to get myself into a better place. A few things are helping me. One is reading blogs and keeping up on my own blog. The second thing is pruning my poor neglected garden. I want a Gothic Garden. I have been working on this for awhile. I call this Garden "Ancient Enchantment". I hope the name gives an idea of the look I am going for. Here are the BEFORE pictures.

Below are the AFTER photos. I did not rip out anything. I did prune the heck out of the peonies. I do love them. They are Magenta. I think next spring I will cut them back as soon as they are done blooming. They block the sun for my other flowers. I think I like my garden before? Maybe its like a new haircut. It looks better in a few weeks. Hopefully all my hard work shows next summer.

I think this might be the third year for this Rose in my Dark Garden. I thought this was "Mr. Lincoln" but its looking more Scarlet then the deep luxurious Red I love. I will have to compare it to one of the roses that I just planted that I know for sure is Mr. Lincoln when it blooms. Mr. Lincoln is one of my favorites of the cheap Red Roses I buy from Menard's. They look like Red Velvet and smell rosey and fruity at the same time. Its on the cusp of being zone five so wish me luck.

This is my Hibiscus. It is very Dark Red. I think its name is "Big Red" not very romantic. They could have come up with way better. Perfect for my Dark Garden. I cannot cut it back yet. It still has some buds on it. I think I will cut it back right away in the spring so it will bush out more instead of letting get get tall and stringy.

This is a Purple Geranium! I had no idea they came in Purple. Its name is "Contessa Purple". Unfortunately where I live these are an annual. The nursery in my town let me have the annuals for a dollar a piece since they are on their last legs.

This Rose in front of the Lion I think is called Carrousel. I am not crazy about it.
The Roses are little and they are not all Red. They Are Red and White. I might mail order the Darkest Rose in the World and put in this spot  next spring. You cannot see it but this year I had a Black Hollyhock! I thought he was dead. I am not sure if they come back or just reseed. It is done for the season so I did not bother to take a picture.

These are Dahlias and Mums. Nothing special but it is some desperately needed color.

 

These are Verbana. One of the few flowers that still looked okay at the nursery. They talked me into them.

The brown leaves behind the Iris is a brand new Hibiscus I bought from the nursery. It is done for the season. Its called "Plum Fantasy". I looked it up and I think it is going to be more Fuchsia then a Dark Plum. I am kicking myself because last week I seen one with the word Black in its name and I did not buy it.

I added three roses that were in pots on my deck. They are not happy. It was pretty hot today. I hope they make it. They are Mr. Lincoln, Oklahoma and probably Mirandy.

The Flowers and especially the Roses did not look good at the nursery. I asked why and they said it was too wet this season. Now I don't feel so guilty about my garden. They are professionals and they had a hard time. I have identified two of my problems when it comes to gardening. I am sure I have more problems then two. One is I think I might be cramming to much it to a small space. The second one is that I take to many free things from people. Free things are free for a reason. They get invasive. I know there are people within a 50 mile radius that are cussing me out right now because of my White Irises.  Sometimes the Roses love fall in my area. I will post some photos if they decide to put on a show.