My FBTS order has arrived. Plants are amazingly large, healthy and well packed!
Salvia x ‘Raspberry Truffle’ x2
Salvia microphylla ‘Variegata’ x2
Salvia BODACIOUS ‘Smokey Jazz’ x1
Salvia mexicana x hispanica ‘Byron Flint’ x1
Salvia x ‘Waverly’ x1
Beautiful specimens all! One of the salvias already has buds. I can’t decide which specimen is my favorite, they all look fantastic. Can’t wait to get them into the ground!
I’ve been fretting about the ferns in the shade bed. Since nearly everything but the ferns and hostas have emerged, I’m getting a little anxious to see if they made it through the freeze.
The ferns in question are of three varieties: two specimens of Japanese painted fern, Anisocampium niponicum, and two specimens of Silver Brake ferns, Pteris argyraea (?), and a clover fern, Marsilea macropoda,
The marsilea overwintered in the garage, but perished when I moved it inside in March. But I had already anticipated getting another specimen from Painted Flower Farm.
Clover fern in the garage bottom styrofoam container
The Silver Brake ferns were marked for zone 9 hardiness according to the Lowes plant tag, so they could have been misidentified/mislabeled. Instead of Pteris quadriaurita argyraea, these may actually be Pteris cretica, at least based on the image lookups I’ve performed. Regardless, I didn’t expect them to resurrect. But I potted up the rootballs anyway to make room for an assortment of new plants.
Ejected the silver brakes from the shade bed
The Japanese painted ferns were giving me the itch to go buy new ones. But I waited them out.
March is the start of the busy gardening season. So posts come and go sporadically as I try to prep the garden, sow seeds, transplant starts and putter around back and forth trying to get as much yardwork done as possible.
But it’s also a chance to look, reflect and gaze upon the daily pulse of spring as it progresses slowly throughout the month.
Here are some new plants that I installed this week: verbena and delphinium.
Some emerging signs of life and budding from the golden oregano, lorapetalum, serissa, ligustrum, abelia, phlox, ajuga, shantung maple and redbud.
I’m also constantly working the flower beds, with special focus on the shade bed on the side of the house inside the fence line.
My order from Annie’s Annuals finally arrived, nearly a week later than the promised delivery date. I should have known that carriers are still dealing with large backlogs and delayed delivery schedules.
The plants didn’t look too good after unpacking, despite the great packaging. I reported the issue to the vendor and Annie’s was kind enough to offer store credit.
Good news for my tomato starts; 15g grow bags have arrived. I plan to transplant them around the beginning of April, once I have acquired cages and come up with a soil mix recipe.
