Tag Archives: salvia

Rise of the coral nymphs

May 31, 2011 epicureasian

The coral nymph salvia began blooming this Sunday past. These are the bicolor pink and white salvia coccinea that I started from a single specimen a year ago. It’s not a perennial, but here in Texas, it is a crazy self-seeder, as evidenced by the dozens of seedlings I discovered in pots, planters and across the flower beds in our tiny courtyard. As soon as temperatures warmed into the 80s and 90s about mid-April, the seedlings began to appear. And flourish. And multiplied.

I’ve plucked and transplanted what I can. These things are durable…as tiny rooted seedlings pulled from the beds, I just press them into the soil where I want them to grow. Add water, and they’re back to looking healthy…as if nothing ever happened to them. Easy to kill, but hard to eradicate…they come back with a vengeance. I am eying some particular specimens for removal even now and hope they don’t come back.

Meanwhile, I increased my planter footprint nearly five-fold this weekend. I’ve created my miniature gardens with the leftover plastic planters and new bags of soil and compost. Everything from the sweet potato vine to the newly purchased vinca are in new homes. One oversight I made, however, is neglecting to drill holes in my ceramic pots, so some of my summer color might either drown or bake this season. Because they’re already filled, it’s most likely too late. I will have to keep careful watch on the plants and see how they fare in their new homes.

Petunias, dusty millers, Lanai purple star verbena, red-eyed vincas and one Calico ornamental pepper are featured prominently in pots. I still have an Aztec red trailing verbena, a red-white vinca, and a dusty miller needing a new home. Luckily, friend Kathy gave me a spare ceramic pot from her collection.

What’s killing my peppers? I’ve added soil to see if it will stop the wilt. But I suspect poor soil drainage is the culprit, and adding more water may kill them. This morning, three were afflicted: a hot banana, a thai chili and a Jupiter bell. This afternoon, I came home to discover another ailing Jupiter bell. Oh the cruelty!

A friend that I gifted some pepper and basil seedlings to mentioned that when he stopped watering everyday, the seedlings took off. So I’m following his practice and going to alternate day irrigation to see if the peppers can bounce back.

The same could be applied to the basil seedlings I transplanted to their new homes. I have 2 plastic pots planted with Thai, Genovese, Pesto, and Lime basils. I’m hoping they will grow and prosper fast…I’ve been craving fresh basil in my lunch and dinner recipes.

Ye Olde Garden

Late May seed sowing

May 25, 2011 epicureasian

Timing may be late since we are on the cusp of summer, but the ground is wet enough for seed sowing. I dumped all the alyssum packets in the shade bed (Wonderland White) and on the bald patches of ground surrounding the fence door (Deep Purple and Mulberry Mix). I’m not holding my breath that the seeds will take, but it would make me happy to see the empty areas disappear under some kind of color.

I put all of the cosmos seeds in, after scraping the tree ring soil into a trough. My honey finished the sowing mission by dumping the rest of the Durango marigolds and Lady in Red salvias also in the same ring. No point in hanging onto them; most seeds have a shelf life.

As a side mission, I also planted out 6 columbine seedlings that have long sat under the grow lights. They appeared to be browning–from age, I hope–so I went ahead and potted them up, put them out in the lily bed.

While I was inspecting the cutting planter boxes, I was pleased to discover that one of the Tricolor sages has a healthy root system breaking out of the jiffy pot (should be about 4 weeks old now). All of the sage and basil cuttings appear to be putting on new foliage–a great sign! The Thai basil seedlings in the same planter box are taking off, growing several branches and heavy foliage. I think with all the warm weather the rest of the week, I will bring out the basil and salvia seedlings from the bathroom greenhouse. Heck, I might just bring them all out.

Ye Olde Garden

Storm tossed Tuesdays

May 24, 2011 epicureasian

Still more rain today. Still no A/C today. Email from the landlord says unit has shipped, waiting on installer. I can’t blame the installer; who’d want to work in the rain?

So no new pictures today. Observations aplenty however. Like, how there are no Asiatic lilies blooming right now, just waiting on the Navonas to bust out. Along with the Navonas, all our Dallas Stars have buds on them, and still more buds to come. Can’t wait to see them in bloom. I think I spotted a couple of buds on our new Stellas; but the other one doesn’t seem to be cooperating. Their leaves have turned yellow quite a bit, so I imagine they are acclimating to their new home. The only daylily without a single bud this year is–you guessed it–Hyperion. I asked the honey to cut back the Hot Lips which has again overgrown the lily bed. Perhaps the Hyperion will benefit from the shearing.

The replanted callas might be enjoying all this rainfall. Some of the Flame specimens I replanted along the salvia wall seem perky; the leaves appear lively and healthy-looking. I should think about rehoming some of the potted callas.

The dozens of coral salvia seedlings are assembling into a formidable army of growing plants. Some of the transplants are militantly swelling in size and girth–crazy! I hope the Ladies in Red are similarly vigorous. I’d hate to see them overrun by the corals…I was counting on a brilliant red display in the front yard. In addition, I hope to finally get the cosmos seeds sowed into the tree ring. along with more marigolds; and alyssum in the bare patches near the front yard fence line. I figure I might as well sow them somewhere and hope they don’t mind the short growing season.

Egads, temps are looking to be around the 90s the rest of this week, with the wet weather behind us. I expect humidity and a lot of lying about the house…until the A/C is fixed. I’m hoping we don’t go cooler-less this weekend…I want to get some work done in the garden before summer hits. Those two bags of Spider lily bulbs won’t plant themselves!!!

On my garden wishlist today: variegated Snow Fairy caryopteris and variegated lacecap hydrangeas.

Ye Olde Garden

A quick look at the May front yard

May 19, 2011 epicureasian

Now we have another Victoria Blue salvia blooming on the far end of the front flower bed. So that makes for two flowering salvia farinacea that have returned from last year. There are yet 2 more young Victoria Blues that have been slow to come up. I don’t mind their slow return, which saves me from purchasing more, but the man wants that extra pop right now.

Talk about slow…the gardenia has new leaf sets, despite that it has lost about 75% of its foliage. It survived the bitter winter frost, which is amazing in itself. I don’t want to prune it back because there is evidence of new life on it. It’s going to be a very slow recovery.

One of the Confetti lantana is putting on a set of buds. Its sibling about a foot away has been more interested in trailing rather than flowering. I also had some criticism for the man for planting the vinca seedlings so close to each other. They grew into monsters last year, and I don’t expect it to be any different this year.

The man trimmed back our centerpiece loropetalum in this front bed, just to give it some shape for the rest of the year. I am interested in seeing it grow higher, but I won’t begrudge it a little width to shade the tiny impatiens seedlings at its feet. The man also hacked down the Hot Lips salvia…that thing has grown into a monster in the front bed and is in constant need of pruning. We did finally get another Hot lips planted next to the Autumn Twist azalea and expect the same vigorous growth this year.

Notice the verbena colors? Maybe I don’t need Mosaic after all. The Dallas Star daylilies are heavily laden with scapes!

Finally, my newest heuchera seems a little lonely in its corner of the shade bed, but I hope it will be happy there. It has a caladium bulb for a neighbor…although I can’t say that I don’t want to plant another hosta next to it.

Dandy, Doogie, Flash, Furkids, Ye Olde Garden

Flowers & cuttings, pups & kitties

May 18, 2011 epicureasian

I took about 10 lemon thyme cuttings earlier this week. Made some more cuttings today of rosemary (x2), yellow salvia (x1), and tricolor sage. I got too impatient and yanked out one of the sages from the jiffy pot. It had a nice root on it, less than half an inch long. I should learn to just let it do its thing and give it about a month.