We started the day just a bit late but filled with optimism that we could get some cosmos planted before the predicted rain. We were also filled with optimism about the rain itself because all the gardens very much need it. With the car almost full, we stopped at The Planter Box to get one flat of cosmos ‘Sea Shells’ and ‘Double Click’, all we had room for. We also got one six pack of a variety called ‘Happy Ring’ and on the way north, I googled it, to find that it gets only 2-3 feet tall, and I am not entirely sure I like the way it looks:
Cosmos ‘Happy Ring’
Hmm. Looking at it again, I like it better than my first glance on my phone…. Because it is so short, I decided it should go to the front of the boat at Time Enough Books. Now that I am liking it better, I think perhaps it could also go in Robert and Larry’s garden boat.
I hoped that our first planting stop would be Klipsan Beach Cottages, followed by Wiegardt Gallery and Marilyn’s garden, but by the time we neared KBC the rain began in earnest. Sometimes at a resort it is best not to be working in terrible weather; it can make the guests feel sad. We decided that we would go back south to the Basket Case and pick up some of the short plants for the Long Beach welcome sign. Brachychome and Bidens could ride in the trailer without being damaged by highway wind.
I felt so frazzled by the changing of the day’s plan that I did not take any photos, so here is one from a couple of days ago of Basket Case owner/plant designer Nancy’s beautiful baskets:
hanging baskets
Fred had a new availability list to peruse and of course I had to pick out some fabulous perennials which will arrive Friday. We’ll try a new Echinacea called “Green Jewel’. And of course more Agastaches, because I am still enraptured even though Fred is getting jaded about them. (No new Sanguisorbas. I adore them but seem to be the only one who buys them.) During all this time, and as we drove off, rain alternated between pelting and drizzling. We thought we would just go home. I felt disheartened at the idea of unloading all the plants and then reloading them…and then the rain stopped. I said maybe we should drive all the way back up north to KBC but realized that doing the welcome sign in Long Beach would be a much more practical plan, even though I felt deeply worried by winds of 30 mph predicted for tomorrow.
So…On to the welcome sign where the town of Seaview becomes the town of Long Beach. We had a whole new crop of horsetail to pull. It is coming up from the ground below the sign garden and will never be entirely defeated but we must find time to pull it often enough to give it a setback.
This year, I decided to back the sunny “Welcome” side of the sign with bright yellow Agyranthemum ‘Butterfly’ instead of the usual Cosmos ‘Sonata’ mix. I think it will be showier and easier to deadhead. Instead of a middle row of blue brachychome (much liked by parks manager Mike Kitzman) and a row of yellow Bidens along the edge, we alternated the blue and yellow. It seemed that last year the middle row of blue got lost, and I know from growing Butterfly at Andersen’s RV Park that it gets quite large. We still used Cosmos ‘Sonata’ (seven six packs) on the back side of the sign. We did not have enough brachychome and bidens to finish. I knew that would happen because we simply did not have room to transport all that we needed.
Bidens, Butterfly, Brachychome
I worried that the soaker hose gets the garden there too wet so turned it off. Now we must remember to turn it on intermittently; seeping all the time is probably too much water for Butterfly.
The bulb foliage is a problem. We treat the tulips as annuals and yank ’em but like to preserve the Muscari (grape hyacinth) and Narcissi. But we need light for our new plants so the best we can do is cut the foliage back by half instead of letting it entirely cure, and hope for the best.
foliage partly cut
Allan cutting more of it
The sign garden is going through an awkward stage.
front of sign with new not yet bloomed plants and old bulb foliage
Yellow, said garden designer Lucy Hardiman in a lecture, “stops the eye” for just a split second and I think it will draw attention to the sign to have the yellow Butterfly in the back of the bed.
I only wanted to plant Cosmos today in areas protected from wind (like the backside of the welcome sign). Two or three years ago, a freak wind after Mother’s Day had decimated all the Cosmos ‘Sonata’ in the Long Beach planters. I am sure it was over 30 mph because (as I found out after the storm) the Cliff Mass Weather Blog had posted an entire entry about it. The Cosmos shriveled, blackened and died and I had to replant it in all the many planters. So just in case, today I thought that two safe places to continue planting would the be gardens on the north sides of the Depot Restaurant and Time Enough Books.
On the way, we detoured out and back the Bolstadt Beach approach to see if the planters there had survived the drought. (Also, well, there is a convenient rest room out there.) We had not had time to water those planters, and the happy news is that from now on the city crew will water them with their water truck once a week (a handy piece of equipment recently acquired since the city now hangs some of the Basket Case hanging baskets up way high where a regular hose will not reach). The planters looked fine because of well chosen drought tolerant plants like sea thrift and yarrow.
The Rugosa roses are just beginning to bloom out on the approach garden.
It was about 3:30 but I figured we had till 5 PM opening time at the Depot to take a good parking spot and spread out our cosmos six packs. I set them up along the edge of the garden and we got started. But wait, why was a car pulling up at four PM? Oh no, I realized…It’s MOTHER”S DAY and the car park was filling up because the restaurant had opened an hour early.
We worked as fast as could be hoping that we could get done before finding it necessary to move our vehicle down the block to free up the last good parking space. I am glad to report that we got done without having to re-park.
Mother’s Day crowd
The Depot garden is now planted up with eight six packs of Cosmos ‘Sea Shells’, ‘Sensation’, ‘Double Click’ and ‘Psyche’, two new Eryngium (because I love them) and one six pack of painted sage (ditto).
There are still some tulips and, amazingly, one Narcissi going strong, but I forgot to get a picture of it. It is out in my garden, too, but I am writing this after dark. Checking the Van Engelen catalog tells me it is probably this one:
Dreamlight
and I tell myself that I must plant hundreds of this one next year.
The Cistus under the east window of the dining area is starting to put on its excellent show:
Cistus (rock rose)
You can see on its petals the rain that decided us to end the day without planting the comparatively few cosmos in the Time Enough boat. The day had gone better than early afternoon had portended and we were only left with half, instead of all, of the plants we had optimistically set out with at midmorning.
Bonus left over from Saturday: two evening photos that Allan took of his garden…
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Tangly Cottage Gardening 