These are the last blooms to grace the October flower beds as we head into the chilly temps of winter.
Rose Sugar Moon displays some pink tinged petals that records the temperature swings we’ve experienced lately. As usual, it boasts a lovely fragrance, regardless of weather.
The salvias are showing off some fiery blooms. I’m quite fond of the salvia regla’s tidy upright habit and the splashy foliage on Dancing Flame salvia splendens.
We neglected the front yard beds over the height of summer (June-August) and emerged over the Labor Day weekend to perform some maintenance. I spent a couple of weekends in September cleaning up the beds, trimming back some shrubs, and uprooting the casualties. Some plants obviously did not take too well the stretch of 100+ temperatures in August, most noticeably the young azaleas and our Waterfall Japanese Maple. At first we thought the drip line system to blame, but when we had a contractor come out to inspect our sprinkler system, he recommended that the drip system be run a minimum of 20 minutes–much more than the 5 minute run we had originally programmed. Safe to say that the plants are much happier going into Fall.
The cleanup obviously opened up some gaps in the garden beds to introduce new plantings as well.
Now if I can only muster up the energy to get some spring-flowering bulbs into the ground!
It’s the August plant sale! Time to stock up on cheap perennials for $1-$2 a piece. Calloway’s and Lowe’s had plenty of specimens to choose from: salvias, verbenas, irises, coneflowers, lantanas, stonecrop. I also picked up a lisianthus (not pictured) and some kind of woolly or elfin thyme (?). The bag of Miracle-Gro will go toward planting a dark-leafed canna.
Yikes, gone a week without posting but not without gardening. A brief summary of what transpired in the garden in the past several days:
Did I mention something ate my onion chives and decapitated my Genovese basil? Pictures forthcoming!
My shopping spree carried over into Sunday, but I didn’t spend as much time as I did Saturday. After all, plants don’t plant themselves (at least, not very often in my own garden).
I did head out to Lowes and Home Depot again, looking for bargains. I ended up with 4 pots, a 9 pack of ornamental kale, and a bag of tulip bulbs, Happy Generation. I know, I know…I just can’t resist those bulbs. And where did I end up putting them? In the front yard bed. That gets a fair amount of water, on and off season. Ah well, I will content myself with tulips being annual…but I’m hoping for a decent show next spring.
So it ended up being sore work Sunday afternoon. Fifty pansies, 36 violas, 30 giant grape hyacinths (Bellevalia pycnantha according to my American Meadows order), 18 tulip bulbs, 6 fall crocuses (Wild Saffron), 9 mixed ornamental kale all found a home. I relocated the 2 Stella de Oro daylilies in the front door landing strip, along with 2 struggling Silver Dust dusty millers. I also tore out the 2 Confetti lantanas flanking the Autumn Monarch azalea (which happens to be blooming quite profusely at the moment) and took cuttings in hopes of overwintering them. Did I mention one of those Confettis had a root as long as I was tall–we’re talking at least 5 feet long! Last, but not least, I also relocated the Seabreeze salvia into the front flower bed.
Next, I spent the rest of the afternoon re-potting pepper plants and hostas. I managed to dig up the struggling remains of the Wide Brim hostas from the shade bed. They were unsuccessful in the bed due to the constant slug onslaught and too much sun exposure. I also got my Francee hosta roots transplanted into their own pots. The Gold Standard and the Minuteman hostas also moved into larger homes. In addition, nine pepper plants also received new homes; unfortunately I’m at a loss at identifying them at the moment. I think the doubled up pepper plants are the Thai chilis. I should have the Jupiter bells, banana peppers, and Fresno peppers surviving from the July starts.
Back and backsides are sore…it comes out of hunching over on uncomfortable bags of sand, while carefully replanting things. I’m still sore just thinking of it. But I have some basil to take indoors with me during the winter time: Pesto Perpetuo, lime basil and classic Genovese basil.
Hey, at least I’m in the spirit of autumn now. I’m referring to the pumpkin display decorating my front porch.
Why is it I can’t seem to successfully photograph the Moonglow salvia greggii’s true yellow color blooms?
Wishlist plant of the day: tricyrtis “Imperial Banner”.
