Tag Archives: salvia

Ye Olde Garden

Seed collecting and the indoor greenhouse

I brought indoors all of my potted tender plants Thursday night in advance of the cold front that hit us. The big potted ginger lilies didn’t join the others in converted bathroom greenhouse, since I had taken up all of the available counter space. For about next 4-5 months, these plants will be hanging out here in relative safety.

11/5/2011 Seeds and indoor garden (1) 11/5/2011 Seeds and indoor garden (2)

I really need to snip off that chili pepper bloom head. But then again, I think all the young pepper plants could use a trim to encourage more foliage. Not so with the new hostas leafing out.

11/5/2011 Thai chili pepper bloom head 11/5/2011 Thai chili pepper bloom head closeup 11/5/2011 Hosta Wide Brim emerging foliage

I took a cutting of the groundcover salvia sinaloensis, or more commonly known as bicolor or Sinaloa sage, when I trimmed them back earlier in the week. This salvia is unusual in that it hasn’t turned woody and that it spreads via runners. It competed against an aggressive yarrow and has managed to hold its own, with a little intervention. The electric blue blooms have been disappointingly sparse and sporadic in its current part-sun location. It’s better valued for its foliage though; it has distinctive purple-tipped leaves on new and fall growth.

11/5/2011 Sinaloa sage cutting

I do need to move some of the pots into the bathtub, to make room for seed starting flats. Saturday morning, I collected 3 sandwich baggies of seeds from the Cosmic Yellow Cosmos, Durango Marigold Red and Durango Marigold Bolero.

11/5/2011 Cosmos Cosmic Yellow seeds collected 11/5/2011 Durango Marigold Red seeds collected

The Durango Marigold Boleros tend to bloom on the smaller side compared to the standard marigold colors.

11/5/2011 Durango Bolero marigold among the Outback mix

Sadly, I didn’t collect any Cosmic Red cosmos seeds or Lady in Red salvia coccinea. The red cosmos was nowhere in sight, while I didn’t have much luck finding seeds of Lady in Red still on the plants.

11/5/2011 A new Lady in Red salvia coccinea from dropped seed

Ye Olde Garden

Scenes before a cold front

Another day, another eggplant flower. The fruit is looking pretty good, despite some skin damage.

11/02/2011 November Scenes (1) 11/02/2011 November Scenes (2)

Purple pastel salvia greggii behind a red salvia greggii cutting in bloom.

11/02/2011 November Scenes (3)

In the same bed, you can see the hack job I performed on the Oertel’s Rose yarrow, which was once three times its current size. That doesn’t stop it from budding and blooming. But the smaller footprint allowed some room for the irises; here, Mariposa Skies is putting out new foliage. A neighboring iris, Immortality, also displays new leaves.

11/02/2011 November Scenes (4) 11/02/2011 November Scenes (5)

In the lily bed, the white mums are aging gracefully into blush pink senescence. Now, if I hadn’t stuck markers where those strap leaves were emerging, I’d have forgotten the spider lily bulbs I planted in the bed sometime back in June of this year.

11/02/2011 November Scenes (6) 11/02/2011 November Scenes (7)

The tree ring out front is  still non-stop a-bloomin’! Of course, it’s looking somewhat bedraggled these days–apparently, a hare or a family of them has been using it for daytime cover. So it looks well-trampled in some parts. I can’t bring myself to yank out all the marigolds and salvia. It’s always fascinating to watch how long they will keep blooming their heads off.

11/02/2011 November Scenes (8) 11/02/2011 November Scenes (9) 11/02/2011 November Scenes (10) 11/02/2011 November Scenes (11) 11/02/2011 November Scenes (12) 11/02/2011 November Scenes (13)

I also managed to catch a lone loropetalum bloom. And a nice arrangement of Hot Lips salvia triplets.

11/02/2011 November Scenes (14) 11/02/2011 November Scenes (15)

Here is something I haven’t observed; fall foliage color on the potted lantana. Is this normal?

11/02/2011 November Scenes (16)

And the rest of today’s photos: caladiums, vincas, potato vines, Thai basil, miscellaneous herbs. And let’s not forget the many rose buds on the Midnight Blue.

11/02/2011 November Scenes (17) 11/02/2011 November Scenes (18) 11/02/2011 November Scenes (19) 11/02/2011 November Scenes (20)

Ye Olde Garden

October Yardworks

I got a new t-shirt, seeds and digging gloves at North Haven Gardens yesterday.

10/30/2011 October Yard Works (1) 10/30/2011 October Yard Works (2)

Today’s yard projects consisted of: planting coreopsis, Thalia narcissus bulbs (I found only one from my last planting of daffodils), Snow-n-Summer Asiatic jasmine, garlic cloves, and larkspur seeds. I trimmed back the bicolor salvia in the blue bed before adding another bag of soil to level the bed.

10/30/2011 October Yard Works (3) 10/30/2011 October Yard Works (4)

While the man went to work on mulching the blue bed, I got to work cleaning my pruning tools. Naval Jelly worked wonders on these rusty shears. I made sure to spray them down with BP50 lubricant before covering them up and bagging them.

10/30/2011 October Yard Works (6) 10/30/2011 October Yard Works (7)

Had a little time after drilling holes into pots to smell the roses.

10/30/2011 October Yard Works (5)

Ye Olde Garden

Salvia transplants and cuttings

Early in the year, I gifted my friend Kathy with some salvia cuttings and transplants. She lives in a rental home in Lewisville, whose lawn and yard is mostly tended by very friendly and considerate neighbors. She swears she has a brown thumb, but I was quite certain that she couldn’t kill these plants. Her front yard is a steep grade (nearly 45 degrees) from the street to her front door, and she swears anything she tries to plant in it gets washed down and away.

I provided her with two red salvia greggii cuttings, 2 Hot Lips salvia cuttings, and 2 sets of Coral Nymph salvia coccinea seedlings that volunteered from my own garden. We planted them into a bed just in time as the onset of the summer heat. Her yard gets the benefit of some high shade during the early morning and afternoon. She refused to mulch because, again, she was concerned that it would all wash out of the bed down the slope toward the house. She watered deeply during the drought, but I’m certain her watering schedule was infrequent. During the summer heat wave, I visited once a month; she lost one of the greggiis, but the rest survived.

On Friday afternoon, I visited her house to tend to her pups while she was out of town and beheld this:

10/30/2011 Kathy's Salvia Bed

The remaining plants I gave her were in bloom. The Coral Nymphs appear to have multiplied (crazy reseeders that they are); the Hot Lips were a solid red, but I was sure it would revert to the bicolor blooms sooner or later. Next spring, I expect them to grow 2x to 3x their size.

Salvias thrive on neglect–which makes them perfect plants for xeriscaping and forgetful gardeners. The occasional rain perks them back up again and  guarantees a flush of blooms every time. I love these plants!

Dandy, Furkids, Ye Olde Garden

Half a hale o’ bay

There she is, Miss Midnight Blue!

10/28/2011 Roses, Salvia, etc (1) 10/28/2011 Roses, Salvia, etc (2) 10/28/2011 Roses, Salvia, etc (3) 10/28/2011 Roses, Salvia, etc (4) 10/28/2011 Roses, Salvia, etc (5)

The rose has at least 15 buds on it and promises to give us another show before the onset of winter.

The orange mums in the lily bed have aged into a beautiful golden color. Notice the new tenant (Oertel’s Rose yarrow) is putting on new foliage? It seems to be happy in that spot, but then again, it appears to adapt to any situation I’ve thrown at it so far. The two cuttings I planted in the full shade bed appear to be thriving as well

10/28/2011 Roses, Salvia, etc (6) 10/28/2011 Roses, Salvia, etc (7)

The sedum basket appears to be doing well despite the danger of frost looming in the distance. It sits in the rosemary bed along with the ornamental kale, who are still homeless.  The rosemary topiary has filled out, but there are some dried out/dead patches–mostly located at the base–that have not filled out. I am considering trimming the base to coax it into a topiary shape, maybe a ball on a stick. Geez, my camera still can’t capture that true yellow bloom color of the Moonglow salvia.

10/28/2011 Roses, Salvia, etc (8) 10/28/2011 Roses, Salvia, etc (9) 10/28/2011 Roses, Salvia, etc (10) 10/28/2011 Roses, Salvia, etc (11)

The salvias on the opposite wall are bloomin’ crazy. The intense red and multiple whites are stunning. They will most likely continue to bloom with the occasional rain we get in the next few weeks.

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The Licker decided to finally sit and poise for me after much coaxing.

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I couldn’t resist the $2 sale on these new Cherry Pie Coreopsis at Calloway’s. I read up on these Terra Nova introductions and learned that they had some frost tolerance and therefore suited to fall plantings. So I am eager to give them a test drive in the front flower bed.

10/28/2011 Roses, Salvia, etc (21) 10/28/2011 Roses, Salvia, etc (22)

Yes, I also did purchase “half a hale o’ bay” while I was at the store. I caught myself repeating it again–then questioned whether I should have skipped breakfast. To my relief, the cashier made the same error too and we were both chuckling at the tongue twister. I installed it on my Halloween porch display along with the obligatory holiday signage (also 50% off, I might add).

Wishlist plant of the day: Coreopsis Cherry Lemonade.