Photo/Illustration: Courtesy of Odile LaComb
Happy Boxing Day, everyone! Today’s photos are from Odile LaComb in Messina, New York. Odile says, “We live in Massena, New York, on the St. Lawrence River, which is the border between Canada and the U.S. I’ve always treated my area as zone 4 but I looked it up on the zone map and see that it’s classified as zone 5a. Perhaps with the change in climate that’s true now.
Photo/Illustration: Courtesy of Odile LaComb
I’ve loved flowers since I was a kid, but never had much time to devote to it until I retired 14 years ago. It’s a difficult yard to assess with respect to sun and shade. It’s surrounded by large trees so it’s hard for me to find any area that gets 6 hours of sunshine through spring, summer and fall. It’s been an exercise of trial and error. At any rate I have a lot of shade plants and an extensive variety of hostas.” Beautiful, Odile! For those of you who are curious… “Odile is pronounced O’deal. . .it’s a French name I inherited from my French Canadian grandmother.”
Photo/Illustration: Courtesy of Odile LaComb
Photo/Illustration: Courtesy of Odile LaComb
Photo/Illustration: Courtesy of Odile LaComb
Photo/Illustration: Courtesy of Odile LaComb
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Comments
What a lovely burst of color on a gray winter day! Your walkway is very inviting.
Although Odile modestly admits to "trial and error" in her garden efforts, her pictures reveal the end results as delightfully successful. I love all the vibrant purple tones which go so beautifully with the chartreuse and white.
A grand assortment of plantings! Those bleeding hearts are vibrant... don't forget to put out the hummingbird feeders.
Lovely. Would like to see pictures showing it in winter too.
Love the bleeding heart!
Exquisite flower combinations.
I loved every one of your pix, Odile, + am putting them in my saved Fine Gardening acct. Would you please share the name of the gorgeous yellow + green hosta? Thanks!
beautiful work!
Lovely pictures. Spring seems so far away and this garden brings it back to heart.
Priscilla:
The name of that hosta is "Montana". It's my favorite.
Odile
Every view of your garden is spectacular, Odile. I do have a question, though. I love Lady's Mantle, but it looks so awful in winter. Do you cut back the brown leaves, cover with mulch, or let them be?
Hi Soilgoil:
I don't do anything to the Lady's Mantle for the winter.
It gets covered with snow anyway and I just clean it up in the spring. What zone are you? And thank you for your lovely comments.
Odile
Spectacular! What a beautiful place, and a wonderful inspiration. Thanks so much for sharing! You gave me some ideas how to work with the alliums I still have to put in the ground while it's still almost 60 here in St. Louis.
Hello Odile, I live just across the border from you, also on the St. Lawrence but on the Canadian side. Your garden looks lovely. You have the same challenges I have.. lots of trees and real difficulty finding 6 hours of full sun. Since you are so close I would love to visit your garden and invite you to mine. Any chance we can arrange that for sometime in 2012?
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