Stan Follis' Garden Fort Wayne, Indiana

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The yellow flowered evening primrose starting the slideshow were photographed between 6:39 p.m. and 7:01 p.m May 18, 2006 for the two flowers and 8:06 p.m. to 8:19 p.m.May 26, 2006 for the group shot. As the weather warms in early June the flowers get smaller and open later until it is just before dark making it difficult to have enough light to photograph them. They bloom until August, the longest blooming perennials I have. Unfortunately, the blooms quickly shrivel on hot days so flowers are not noticeable during the day.

Pushkinias minor bulbs	Daffodils in 2005	Daffodils December 2005	Variegated red tulips

My garden plant collection in Fort Wayne, Indiana USDA zone 5 was on its second display June 17, 2006 in the Eleventh Annual Foellinger-Freimann Botanical Conservatory garden walk. In 1996 it was in the first garden walk and featured in local newspaper promotions. I have discovered old heirloom garden plants in cemeteries as part of my genealogy research and either have similar ones or added some to my garden. Unfortunately, many of those plants are being lost as changing growing conditions and modern cemetery maintenance destroys most of the century old plantings. I can only wonder what plantings were lost before I visited the cemeteries. I have visited and heard of several cemeteries that are considered botanical gardens. One such cemetery is Spring Grove Cemetery and Arboretum in Cincinnati, Ohio with 400 acres of maintained landscape where they even conduct weddings!

May 28, 2006 the local newspaper featured my garden for the June 17, 2006 Inside the Garden Gate garden walk. A surprising number of hits for this newspaper article in internet searches appear on web sites I never heard of.

I occasionally think of myself as an artist turning clay into soil. Spreading seeds and plants across the canvas. Arranging and rearranging plants as they thrive or decline with the extremes of Midwest weather. Cold and wet, then hot and dry. Winters seem milder and summer droughts longer and hotter. As my knowledge of plant growing preferences improved, I eliminated the finicky plants replacing them with larger masses of the same or similar plants practicing the "less is more" design concept of sweeping vistas of similar colors, shapes and sizes. Mother nature is my model having visited examples of most of Indiana's natural landscapes. Native plants thrive and intermix with non-natives, often tolerating stresses the non-natives cannot. Many purchased perennials are short lived disappearing over time, while the natives generally reseed and spread. Most of Indiana was formerly temperate forest, the urban landscape today more closely resembles hot droughty western prairies. The cold wet winters eliminate most western arid plants so southern and Midwestern natives do best.

More Daffodils in 2005	December Daffodil area	Specie tulips in 2005	Tulips December 2005

Most people do not realize that Indiana has one of the highest number of native orchid species in the United States, 42 species mostly with non-descript flowers while Hawaii has only 3 species which are much more colorful. We have several native cactus found mostly in the western and northern counties. The northern counties have cranberries bogs typically found in cooler more northern regions, bald cypress swamps around Evansville more typical of the Louisiana bayou and a few southern counties have mountain laurel more typical of the Appalachian mountains to the east. We even have carnivorous pitcher plants, sundews and aquatic bladderworts in a few northern counties in sphagnum bogs typically found in the southeastern United States. This is because we are on the edges of the eastern forest, western prairie and northern arboreal forest.

Hosta September 2005	Hostas December 2005	Azaleas in 2002	Azaleas area 2005

I had habitat gardens ranging from common perennials, acid soil loving azaleas and rhododendrons which require too much care in our alkaline droughty midwest soil, bog and water plants like arrowheads, marsh marigolds, primroses and water lily, to rock garden and drought loving cactus plants. I still have thousands of spring flowering bulbs, dozens of lilies, 45 different varieties of hostas and an assortment of ferns in my woodland wildflower garden.

My plants struggle in droughty weather often weeks of hot weather without any accumulation of rain as it goes around the "summit city". Many times I watch the local weather radar as the rain splits to the north and south, hitting the local airport weather station, 11 miles away, dumping an inch or two of rain that never makes it to my garden on the northeast side of town. The storms generally regroup in Ohio after they pass the city. Often the airport reports 2 to 4 inches of rain a month we never got, lowering our level from 35 to 36 annually to around 30 inches or less per year.

I grow sunflowers for the goldfinches and Texas sage, lobelia and cardinal vine among other plants for the humingbirds. Some prairie plants grow 8 feet tall in the blazing sun with the help of irregular watering, but are floppy due to too much nitrogen as they prefer low nitrogen soil.

July 2005 flowers	December 2005	Venus Flytraps 1997	Flytraps in garage

I grow carnivorous pitcher plants in containers. My Venus flytraps are growing, but not thriving as I found out the hard way they die using our hard alkaline tap water instead of soft acid rain water. The pitcher plants seem indifferent to tap water as I water daily to keep the moss wet and growing. Several pitcher plants did not survive the 2005 winter outside on the patio, so I assume were from southern origin. The surviving pitcher plants are doing ok in 2006, but any that die will not be replaced again.

Hybrid pitcher plants 2005	Hybrid pitcher plants 2005	Pitchers December 2005	Purple pitcher closeup 2005

My garden was in the first annual Foellinger-Freimann Botanical Conservatory and newspaper promotions in 1996.

The gardener gone mad heading resulted from a rainy day in April when I was soaking wet when the first reporter arrived. I told the second reporter a month later that it helps to be a little mad to work in the rain when it is better for the plants, than the gardener. I had gardens of perennials with prairie plants growing 8 to 10 feet tall, carnivorous pitcher plants and Venus flytraps that eat bugs. A small water lily pond with bog plants, rock garden with hardy cactus and succulents, shade loving ferns, wild flowers, hardy and tropical orchids, azaleas and rhododendrons. Happy accidents occurred when seeds from different habitats carried by ants, birds and animals volunteered seedlings in unexpected combinations.

I easily aced horticulture classes at Purdue University in 1993 and spent a few years trying different careers with internships at theFoellinger Freimann Botanical Conservatory here in Fort Wayne, Indiana and the Chicago Botanic Garden where I wrote this paper on witch hazel shrubs. I worked as a landscape foreman, then for Heartland Restoration Company which collects native plant seeds and restores prairie and wetland habitats with the seeds and locally grown native plants. The physically draining 50-60 hour work weeks enduring daily sunburns, bugs, poison ivy, heat, humidity and the constant dirt that goes with the territory no longer seemed rewarding.

The growth of computer technology and related careers motivated a change. I like working with computers and digital data, researching, writing and learning new skills so started taking computer classes in 1999. I plan to stay in Fort Wayne, which limits my career choices. I worked a couple of years for a Sprint cell phone affilite then was downsized. I would like to find an environmental job that makes use of my science and family research background using current computer technology. As a weekend gardener I still spend too much time working in the dirt, but at least I work at my leisure on my schedule.

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