As soon as I had decided on what to plant in the blue garden, the fiance and I rushed out to Strong’s to pick up some white coneflowers and asters (Wood’s Blue), but we had to make a detour first at Covington’s to see if they had anything else to add to our garden. I ended that shopping trip with 4 annual phlox, 2 scabiosa (Butterfly Blue), and a blue hosta, Prairie Sky, which was in the middle of sending up some lovely flower plumes.
The extreme heat isn’t doing our herb garden any good, so we’ve decided on twice daily watering for the time being. Having sprinkler systems is a great boon, which means the lawn is getting some much needed loving as well!
This past week heralds the arrival of the daylilies. The Dallas Stars are a vigorous bunch of daylilies planted in the front bed that can endure periods of part shade. Our newest arrivals are nearly yellow with a hint of pink. The past few weeks have also seen the crape myrtles blooming full blast. Not to be outdone, our first Desperado Sage is covered in bright lavender pink blooms, that contrast well with the silvery gray foliage.
It’s been several years or more since I dined at Jinbeh (the Las Colinas branch) and thought it was time to sample its satellite spinoffs. For a Friday evening, I took the fiance out for some sushi at the Lewisville location. Tucked away in a strip mall, this location isn’t as upscale as the original, but it is still nicely decorated and spacious. Guests walk past two hibachi rooms before arriving at the sushi bar in the rear, an excellent setup, since we were nearly convinced to partake in the grilled foods.
But I had my heart set on sushi tonight. For a starter, we ordered the fried soft shell crabs, which were nicely crunchy but needed the flavor of the lemon and ponzu to perk it up. The seaweed salad didn’t fail to disappoint. For the main courses, we order nigiri-style mackerel (my old standby) then 3 of the house rolls. The first was a delightful roll that was sweetened by the mango inside…I couldn’t get enough of it! The 2nd was a spicy salmon and crab roll, decorated with two sauces, one of which was a zingy wasabi dressing. This one paired well with our mango roll, forcing me to jump from one plate to the next with each bite. The finale was a tempura fried stuffed jalapeno roll, piled high on a plate decorated in fire–ok it wasn’t really fire, but the sushi chef made it look like it was, using sriracha and mayo sauce. While the jalapeno wasn’t close to the heat in our other dishes, we nevertheless enjoyed the crunchy contrast it provided, and liberally sopped up the sauce from the plate.
We warned our waitress that we’d be using a coupon for tonight’s dinner, which she obliged without a fuss, so our $60 dinner only cost us $50 and tip. I felt this was a great price for a goodly and tasty amount of food. I can’t wait to come back to try their other Super-Mario-themed sushi.
I rearranged the blue garden this past weekend, moving the Oertel’s Rose Common Yarrow and the 2 straggling Nepeta faassenii (catmints), to make room for some new tenants. I had found a white plumbago at the local Home Depot so I had to snatch it up to pair with the Imperial Dark Blue. Also I picked up two purple leafed Oxalis triangularis to add some drama to the bed, 4 Serena Angelonia (2 purple, 2 white) to give the bed some vertical lift. I had some leftover dianthus that hadn’t gotten planted from the last flat I bought; 3 picoteed purple dianthus for some contrast. I’m hard pressed however to find any blue flowered summer plants within the 1-2 foot range. I’m less inclined to plant annuals, but it seems that is all that manages to flourish in the heat right now. I’d like to find more Felicia daisies and/or these Tropical Breeze verbena.
We finally got around to visiting North Haven Gardens and discovered that it deserved its reputation for being a fantastic source of unusual and uncommon plants. They had a vast selection of plants, trees and shrubs, many of which I desired to take home. One particular eye-catcher that immediately made my wishlist was a dwarf variegated bamboo, Pleioblastus fortunei, which unfortunately they were out of stock on. Aside from the Angelonia that we purchased, we also picked up 2 Golden oregano and 1 Hot and Spicy Oregano, which was truly a surprising tongue-tickler.
