I spent my lunch hour today visiting Cristina’s and Lowe’s. I walked out with an 18-count flat of dianthus (Telstar mix) from Cristina’s. At Lowe’s, I scooped up a 6 pack of white tulips that were going for 50% off and bought 3 3.5″ pots of Chocolate Chip Ajuga. Dad told me I should’ve waited out the local chain home improvement stores for the plants I wanted. 🙁 But of course there weren’t any Salvia greggiis that caught my eye (was hoping for white greggii).
So…for homework, I’m looking to propagate the following plants over the weekend: rosemary, salvia, and gaura. Not sure how the Crimson Brandy gaura that’s thriving in B2 will take to a disturbance, but this plant has intrigued me to the point of experimentation. As for rosemary, I’m inclined to believe that our yard is ready for a hedge of them, if only to alleviate the dog smell wafting from our yard. Dad says that 5 days in water will persuade it to root, and I’m thinking that unruly specimen in B5 is in dire need of a whacking. As for the salvia, the one remaining white salvia in B4 looks to be resurrecting itself in the warm weather. I’ll be inspecting it regularly for cuttings. And I’m going to keep trying to propagate more of the Hot Lips for sharing–I’m amazed that the 3 cuttings I took last year and sank into the ground before winter are still there, if a tad bit to puny. Hopefully I can also harvest some cuttings of the new Salvia chamaedryoides in B3.
Here are some early evening (approx 7pm) shots of S1, B1 and B3 flowers. I suspect the plum colored iris in the photo is either histriodes George or reticulata JS Dijt. Incidentally, that’s the first Muscari botyroides album that I’ve caught sight of blooming in the gardens.
What I originally thought was the first Thalia narcissus bloom in my garden bore further inspection after I took snapshots of it yesterday. This was not the all-white, multi-flowering, orchid-like daffodil that I was expecting! Both blooms that I had seen so far boasted a white perianth and a yellow (!) cup. It caused me grave concern as I was about to shoot off an email inquiry to Brent and Becky’s about it…until I racked my brain trying to remember if I had EVER purchased and planted daffodils before.
Then it hit me…Breck’s. I scoured my old archive email for an answer–thank goodness, I still kept those around. And there it was, dated 4/14/06, an order from Breck’s for 2 packages of Accent Instant Bloom Daffodils along with some Inzell, Frosty Beauty, and a color assortment of tulips. The tulips which I had lost in the beds some time ago had occasionally surprised me with a red or yellow bloom here and there (I wrote off the Frosties a long time ago), but I had never caught sight of the Accent daffodils until now.
It made perfect sense now why the yellow cups faded to pink, as the Accent supposedly had salmon/pink cups as they aged. I’m not sure how many of these Accents have survived over the last two years, but it’s a testament to their hardiness that they persisted this long. Mystery solved.
Weather.com tells me that we’ll be seeing 40-70 degree temperatures in Wylie for the next 10 days. Time to start sowing those seeds! Cornflowers, nigella and cosmos need to go down now!
Yesterday, I found myself walking out of work confronted by abundant daylight due to the “spring forward” time. I hurried home and started digging a trench about 4″-6″ deep and wide around the S1 side yard. With the ground damp, it was quick work loosening the soil and ripping out the bermuda grass invasion. I started lining up the bareroot Silver Dragons along this trench, spreading them about half an inch or less apart. Surprisingly, the 50 divisions distributed evenly along the trench I dug up all the way to the privet hedge. I thought about using the two remaining bags of topsoil sitting in the bed of my truck, but with the light quickly dwindling, I opted to tamp back down the mud that I had dug out. I’m hoping the wet soil will be enough to rehydrate the liriope after 5 days sitting in a box with only wet moss and newspaper for moisture.
Where was a camera when I needed to take some pictures this morning? I hope to post a snapshot of the S1 border soon.
