some planting accomplished

And so the planting continues.  I got off lightly as till the last job I just planted in containers and did pruning and weeding while Allan got the plants into the ground.

First:  Larry and Robert’s garden.  This satisfying project from last year, just half a block from our house and across Pearl from the Hornbuckle garden,  is looking very nice indeed, and got some of my two favourite perennials, Eryngium and Agastache, as well as three of one my favourite annuals, Nicotiana langsdorfii.

Larry and Robert’s garden boat

narcissi

corner garden

I am so happy to see that their brand new Robinia pseudoacacia ‘Frisia’ (background, above) has tiny new leaves coming out (as does mine at home).

Muscari ‘Ocean Magic’

Then we added some plants to the Port Office garden:

Allan planting at port office…foreground: Eryngium ‘Jade Frost’

We did some weeding in the Howerton Street curbside gardens, including Time Enough Books:

Time Enough Books garden boat

tulips in the boat

Fuchsia magellanica about to bloom in the boat…already!

early tulip by Howerton Street

Down the block we added some plants (Eryngium ‘Sapphire Blue’ and three different santolinas) to the gardens by Queen La De Da’s Art Castle and The Imperial Schooner Restaurant.

Allan weeds while I set the plants out 

Tulips by Queen La De Da’s; these were just in bud last time…

Narcissi with tiny cup

how the garden relates to Queen La De Da’s

Then we took some plants to Nancy’s fine new garden border.  The sun was all brighty-shady, hard to get a good photo of the whole thing.

Nancy’s garden

halfway up

Narcissi with pale apricot cups

tulip

Because of all the exciting new plants and especially the tulips, Phil has built a handsome fence around the garden.  I will remember to photograph the fence next time.  Today the spring bulbs distracted me.

Next we put some blue and red plants into the garden at Veterans Field in Long Beach:  Eryngium ‘Sapphire Blue’, Salvia ‘Hot Lips’ and Lobelia tupa.  The Lobelia tupa tag says it wants a sheltered location, and this is pretty exposed, so I am only trying four of them here.

Veterans Field

I bet the builders are feeling the pressure to get the stage building done before dedication day on  May 5th.

Veterans Field from the entrance point off the main LB street

Above:  Allan is walking toward me because we have a brief non-gardening mission: to get a treat from a new shop.

Sweet Celebrations, new shop just south of the LB Pharmacy

We had delicious cupcakes, me tiramisu and Allan ‘smores flavour.

At the entrance garden to Veterans Field, we planted a blue potato vine (Solanum crispum ‘Glasnevin’).   Once upon a time a huge one grew here.

baby blue potato vine (Can you see it?)

once upon a time…

Yes, that plant above is a blue potato vine reaching the very top of the Funland buildings wall.  It was a showstopper.  The Big Blow of 2007 took it down.

Back then the darn Phormiums were not huge in this garden.  I would love to have them removed but I believe the garden belongs to Funland, not the city.

huge and accursed Phormiums

I really do like the way I pruned the tree, though; it was sticking branches out over the sidewalk.

well behaved tree now

After hurriedly eating our scrumptuous cupcakes we hastened to The Anchorage Cottages and planted two more blue potato vines in the spots were two Rose ‘Paul’s Himalayan Musk’ roses had grown till last year.  Those roses want to cover a building and were instead on low railings around the courtyard, constantly sending poky branches into the walkways, suffering from blackspot, and looking amazing only for their brief period of bloom.   Rose branches also loved to jump forward to the corner chairs where guests were trying to lounge in peace.

Allan planting a replacement for the rose

potato vine in the other corner

I am sure they will do well, as once I had this Solanum up and over the center courtyard arch but it had to be cut back severely for the arch to be re-stained and then it died.

Meanwhile, I planted a few plants in the containers around the entrance and in the courtyard and enjoyed the tulips while exercising care to not snap any off.

office courtyard

pinky green bud

deep luscious red

aglow

I had a desperate urge for more Lobelia tupa and Sanguisorbas so rushed off next to The Basket Case, but first detoured to see a tree whose beauty had been recommended by Theresa from The Planter Box garden centre.

just wow

Basket Case, middle greenhouse

At the Basket Case, we got our perennials and could see the big middle greenhouse with many annuals coming on.  Between here and The Planter Box we will acquire the plants for Annuals Planting Hell starting around Mother’s Day and going frantically till it is done.

I needed to figure out how to end the gardening day and decided on a project which turned out to be much easier than I thought it would be.  In three of the Long Beach planters grew six large Sanguisorba ‘Pink Elephant’, a lovely feathery flowered plant that had turned out to be much taller than I had expected and thus tended to flop into the street.  I wanted to move them into the rather moist Fifth Street Park.  They came out like a dream!

two of the six pink elephants

Then into the park they went, along with some of the other cultivars I had gotten at the Basket Case.

Fifth Street Park, one area

I think they will do very well with Cosmos in this park.  It looks tatty now with lots of spent crocus foliage but does look well in summer (and earlier when the crocuses are in bloom).

I adore Sanguisorbas and have done ever since I saw them in a slideshow by Piet Oudolf at the Northwest Flower and Garden show some years ago.  Back then they were hard to find.  I ordered some from Dan Hinkley’s Heronswood when the cultivar names were just DJH (his initials) and a number.  Now I can get several cultivars from the Basket Case via Blooming Nursery and that makes me very happy.

While passing through Long Beach today I saw one of the regulars there, a fellow who walks around town during the day.  He waved, I waved, and I suddenly felt quite swept with joy at what a fun job we have working in a cute little beachy tourist town.

On the way home we stopped by Nancy and Phil’s again and they gave us some clams which, as I write this, Allan is cooking per Nancy’s instructions, and again we will be eating at about 10 PM.  The earlier part of the at-home evening was spent refurbishing a Facebook page for the Water Music Festival so blogging got a late start.  How I will manage to blog when the daylight time gets longer I do not know.