Bookworm Cottage Style

^ Endless Summer Hydrangeas (blue, existing) and Proven Winners Incrediball Hydrangeas (white, planted this spring)

^ Coneflowers (planted this fall)

Around the holidays we had to have half of our front yard dug up to repair a faulty water main. Luckily, the only plant casualties were the ones that I didn’t care for anyway. My 2024 peonies and hydrangeas remained safe! However, since our yard was already a bit of a mess from the excavation, we took the opportunity to keep on digging it up and do a lot more planting this year. I also felt pressure to get as many perennials in the ground as I could before baby arrived, so that they can continue to grow and mature in the years to come, even if we don’t have the time/energy/money to devote to gardening next spring.

Fall 2024 planting:

• 1 Jan Van Leuween peony root
• 1 peony root (of unknown variety) transplanted from my husband’s late grandmother’s garden
• 1 more Black-Eyed Susan
• 1 Coneflower plant

Spring 2025 planting:

• 11 more creeping phlox
• 3 more creeping thyme
• 2 more Endless Summer Bloomstruck Hydrangeas
• 1 Endless Summer original hydrangea
• 1 Endless Summer blushing bride hydrangea
• 1 Proven Winner Incrediball hydrangea
• 1 Celestial Night rose bush
• 1 Carefree Wonder rose bush
• 1 Perfuma Earth Angel rose bush
• 1 Lady of Shalott rose bush 
• 1 more privacy tree 

^ From left: Parfuma Earth Angel Rose, Lady of Shalott Rose, Celestial Night Rose (all planted this spring)

^ From left: Jacorma peony (planted spring 2024), Coral Charm Peony (planted spring 2024), Jan Van Leuween Peony (planted fall 2024)

What did well this year:

• Older hydrangeas: The two bloomstruck hydrangeas we planted last year are doing so well, as are the established Endless Summer Hydrangeas that were already in our yard. However, the heat has been unrelenting and the blooms look pretty sunburnt.
• Peonies: All four of my peony plants came up this spring, and 3/4 had flowers. 
• Creeping Thyme: 5 out of our 6 creeping thyme plants not only survived, but thrived and spread. However, they didn’t flower this year.
• Coneflowers: These are gorgeous and resilient to the extreme heat we had this summer.
• Black-eyed susan: This plant grew so much over the past year and has also been really resilient to the hot weather. However, the new one we planted didn’t seem to grow at all.
• Roses: The four rose bushes we planted all had at least one flower and seem to be taking to the environment, even though rabbits are eating the flowers. 

What plants struggled this year:

• The creeping phlox we planted last spring survived, but they didn’t bloom or “creep” at all, and actually look smaller than when they started. We’re keeping our fingers crossed that that they just need a little extra time to get established. (Especially since we doubled down and planted 11 more this year.)
• This was a bad year for lilacs throughout the region, so I’m not taking it personally that our lilac trees never really bloomed. We’ll give them a good pruning and hope that next spring corrects itself.

Looking ahead to the 2026 Garden Season

We have a few more hostas we want to dig up and replace with bloomstruck hydrangeas for a unified look near our front door. Our yard also has room for a few more perennials, so we’ll see what’s looking healthy and double down on those. Right now I’m leaning towards Kansas Peonies, Rainbow Sherbet Coneflowers, Echinacea Cantaloupe, Louise Odier Roses, Sarah Bernhardt Peonies and/or Scepter’d Isle Roses.  I’m also tempted to throw some daffodil bulbs in the ground this fall, but I haven’t settled on the right spot for them yet, so we’ll see.