Tuesday, 13 July 2021
At home
I finally got to the most unrewarding bed in the garden….Well, unrewarding in summer. In winter, it has flowers from a yellow hamamelis and Ribes speciosum and a Stachyurus salicifolius with willowy leaves and the new but still very young Stachyurus praecox; I had a mature one in my old garden and look forward to it getting that big.
A friend gave me three ‘Graham Blandy’ columnar boxwoods which I planted in the front of the bed, further hiding the ginkgo. I cannot recall why I thought that was a good idea, maybe because they are so narrow I thought they’d offer framed views.
In the summer, that bed used to have a good show of lilies, but this year they are stunted because I failed to do a proper spring weeding in here, and then came the heat.
I had counted on a variegated ginkgo from Gossler Farms to brighten up mid front of that area. Pretty sure it’s ‘Majestic Buttefly’, which is supposed to get to six feet tall. Mine is ten years old and still about two feet tall. This might be from too much shade, too poor soil, competition from the two old trees (an apple and the rather ugly purple ornamental plum) and the invasive wild plum that send shoots in from next door. Any mulch I add to this bed just disappears and the soil remains dusty and sad.
After weeding and some pruning, the area is layered greens, with just one splashy variegated pieris, and the ginkgo that doesn’t show. It’s quite dull. I should have deadheaded the euphorbia that is making a brown blob. I thought it would add interest if left that way. It does not.
I could call it restful, but that’s not enough for me.
Way at the back, I planted two Euonymus ‘Green Spire’ early this spring which are still struggling along at a few inches tall. I may remove them and plant something variegated back there, perhaps a showy green and white elderberry from my leftover plant sale.
I got three full wheelbarrows of debris out of that small area.
In a happier garden area, the hydrangea I took out of a pot is thriving spectacularly.
As is Fuchsia ‘Delta’s Sara’.
Allan is the one who noticed and photographed these while he was cleaning up the branches I had dropped in yesterday’s pruning.
An aside: Expert gardeners who tour through a garden can leave lasting memories. A friend of a friend from Portland walked through my garden one day several years and said disparaging words about hydrangeas and my two patches of Shasta daisies. My appreciation of those plants was not changed, and yet almost every time I look at them, her delicate sneer of disapproval and disdainful words flash into my memory. Actually, it did change how I feel about the daisies; I feel embarrassed and too retro about them now. Yet I stand by my hydrangeas 100%! Even when blogging about gardens, I am pretty careful to not say what I don’t like. My opinion doesn’t matter enough to cast even the slightest pall over someone’s plant choices. (I admit I have slipped at time.)
I took a lawn rake to the old flowers of Paul’s Himalayan Musk rose, as high as I could reach, helping it through its awkward stage of clinging brown flowers.
This was followed by scooping a layer of petals from the ponds, being careful to sort out the tadpoles. Some have legs starting up! I’m not sure if those are froglets or newts. Maybe one of each.
I noticed when watering all my assorted potted plants that the cats are destroying the top of the tree dahlia in the south Catio.
I was thinking I’d have to move the tree dahlia, which is hard because it needs the protection and reflected heat of the south wall. The next day, the solution came to me: move the fun cat walkway board that is right next to the tree dahlia so they can’t reach to play with it.
Despite what they did to my Dahlia imperialis, the yearlings and Skooter enjoyed some fresh catnip that I am well chuffed to have grown for them.
While watering, I noticed some flowers.
We had beetroot thinnings for dinner, including white beets, with beet greens saved for the next night.
I had to look up four plant names for this post that I should have easily remembered. At least I still know the search terms (purple biennial umbel, for example) that helped me find them.
If you could remember the name easily of every plant you’ve worked with over all these years, you’d be so amazing you’d be written up in medical journals. BTW, I may need a cutting or two from ‘Delta’s Sarah’ as I’m not sure mine is surviving the trasplant process.
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Thank you for the reassuring words and of course you can have cuttings of anything 🙂
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I like your echinops.
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Thanks, Mr T!
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So many pretty blossoms! That hydrangea is beautiful.
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