Tuesday View: The Tropics 09.13.16

Sep14

Cathy at Words and Herbs has been following a weekly view of her garden throughout the season, and each Tuesday I’ve been trying to join in and keep track of my own weekly view in order to catalog the changes. This week the roofers are next door and this afternoon they’ve made their way to the side where the tropical garden grows.

This afternoon’s view of the tropical garden.

Other than a few stray roof shingles and tar paper strips the garden has escaped damage, and that’s great because now is the time of year when every day is a celebration of summer and every night is a reminder that colder weather is on the horizon. As nighttime temperatures cool off I’m beginning to notice a tint of red in some of the clumps of annual burning bush (Kochia scoparia). Me thinks in a few weeks the ‘will it burn or will it snuff out’ question will finally be answered.

The clumps of burning bush (Kochia) are actually several seedlings all planted into the same hole. Most of the season they’ve appeared to be one big bush, but now a few here and there are going their own way and beginning to show color.

I can’t imagine these plantings will be as successfully bright as some of the photos I’ve seen online but if they’re halfway interesting I will be happy enough. As it is their fluffy green mass has been a welcome green rest in an otherwise overloaded bed of color.

One of the less-than-bright kochia seedlings. More of a tan in my opinion, but things are all under a little stress here in the shadow of the canna clump…. with the exception of the tall purple salvia splendens seedling, it’s still doing just fine!

The rest of this post is gratuitous canna color. I posted canna ‘Cannova Rose’ last week, but it’s still outstanding, and deserves another mention.

Cannas and dahlias with an orange zinnia and purple petunias. The petunias were planted as petunia intergrifolia but I bet there’s something else in there as well, and that’s just fine since I like the bold mini-flowered purple groundcover it’s become.

Canna ‘Tropicana’ is always over the top. I think you either love it or turn away in disgust, but either way it’s a bright tropical show.

Canna ‘Tropicanna’ in a bed of verbena and backed by one of those dark leaved, huge, grow-it-as-an-annual, Napier grasses (Pennisetum purpureum). Hard to see in the picture, but the grass is just over five feet, so probably much bigger than you’d guess.

I know I’ve called Canna ‘Bengal Tiger’ my absolute favorite canna, but there’s a new kid on the block this year. Canna x ehemanii is an old hybrid which tops nearly every other canna in the gracefulness category. I did not suspect my small plant would bloom this year but here it is opening its first flower. A little short for this variety, but much easier to admire when it’s down here amongst us mortals 🙂

I saw Canna x ehemanii growing in a corner of Chanticleer a few years back and have been looking for my own plant for years. Once open its flowers will arch and hang with an amazing tropical grace that you’ll have to trust me on right now, but I’m sure more pictures will follow as it develops.

We are into the one month countdown. First frost typically hits around mid-October in these parts, and for as much heat and drought and storm this garden can take, it can’t take a hard freeze. That’s a Tuesday view I’m not looking forward to.

In the meantime please give Cathy a visit and find out what she and other bloggers are seeing this Tuesday. It’s a great way to keep up with the changes and really see just how much goes on in your garden!

Thursday’s Feature: Bessera elegans

Sep9

I really need to apologize for yet again neglecting comments and neglecting blog visits and for neglecting most of the fun interactions which make blogging so rewarding. I think on Tuesday I went on about how lazy I’ve been lately, but now I’m afraid it’s becoming borderline rude, so for that I apologize. That said I’m not really worried about offending anyone, I think most who read this have their own busy lives which heat up and cool down, but I figured I’d throw it out there just in case. I really do appreciate the interactions.

But it is already late on Thursday and since it’s a day when I like to join up with Kimberley of Cosmos and Cleome for her Thursday’s Feature it looks like another night of post first, blogworld later. Who could blame me for just wanting to sit here for a few minutes before bed and write about Bessera elegans anyway?

The dainty yet boldly colored flowers of Bessera elegans. a bulbous goodie from Southwestern Mexico.

Before I get you too excited, this plant has long, sloppy, narrow leaves which flop all over the ground. The non-hardy, bulblike corms seem to rot easily during winter storage. It doesn’t like cold weather. I’ve seen it referred to as “fussy”. All of these are good enough reasons to plant a marigold instead but then the flowers come and you’re hooked. The color is saturated bright and they hang in clusters at the top of long wiry stems. For as spineless as the foliage is the flower stems never seem to need support, and they hoist the flowers up to dance in any breeze which happens to come through on a hot and muggy summer day. I’ve heard them described as like a red snowdrop, but I don’t see it. To me maybe parachute, umbrella, maybe a little fairy…. I don’t know, it’s a cool form with the long stamens and pistils sticking out of the inner skirt, and before I start sounding too wacky I’ll leave it to you to find a better description 🙂

I didn’t notice the spider lying in wait, but I do notice the odd greenish pollen every time I do a closeup examination of these elegant little flowers.

My bulbs originally came through Brent and Becky’s and the fact I’ve been able to get blooms from it each of the last three years says a lot for its toughness. I’ve always grown them in pots in a well draining potting soil and they seem to appreciate regular water and full sun and just take off during the growing season. The flowers last for a relatively long time and there are several flowers on each stalk. I would almost say they’re easy then, but when winter rolls around the trouble starts. Without revealing how close I’ve come to killing them each winter (last year I was truly amazed those last remaining spots of corm even grew let alone bloomed), I’m just going to say my best success has been keeping them bone dry and on the warm side when in storage… but I’m open to advice on this.

I really have no business adding any more plants which need pampering over winter but such is curiosity. The red version is cheap enough (10 for $6 last time I looked) that one can just plant and abandon them once winter arrives, but there are other colors and of course other colors mean collecting opportunity. I’ve seen mention of crimson, pink, lavender, and a dark purple, each with varying flower sizes and markings, and of course I want to try all of them. Telos Rare Bulbs has the “outstanding” purple form for sale but at $15 a piece I’m reminded of how poorly my current plants survive the winter and it’s taking all my strength of reason to resist. It even says “few available” and that does absolutely nothing to calm me down.

I will wrap it up here. I need to get some rest before someone clicks and orders something they shouldn’t, but in the meantime please consider a visit to Kimberley’s blog and see what others have featured this Thursday. I was fortunate enough to have her pay a visit to my own garden last weekend, and had she not needed to rush off early I’m sure I would have gone on and on about this plant. As it is I’m sorry she missed it 🙂

Tuesday View: The Tropics 09.06.16

Sep7

One of the benefits of regularly joining Cathy for the Tuesday view has been that little push each week to actually follow up on the observations made the week before. The fear of confessing laziness and sloth publicly has been great for keeping on top of the weeding, deadheading, staking, and planting and it’s also a great regime for someone who goes through bouts of couldn’t-care-less and stretches of I’m-bored-with-this-garden-thing. Now might be one of those bouts, and as the days grow shorter and our latest dry stretch begins to stress plants out again, I look at the water hose and then look at the recliner and typically chose the recliner. So I apologize ahead of time if my mood comes through, I’m sure colchicum season will come along soon enough and snap me back out of it.

A quick picture taken this evening. I find the low sun angles to be absolutely disgusting and far prefer June.

The cannas keep going from strength to strength and I’m glad to see this bit of ‘Cannova Rose’ finally showing off. It went through a rough spot which I suspect were the aftereffects of stray weed killer, but the latest bloom stalks look mostly normal… unless you’re really neurotic and notice that one stalk still has thinner petals and is quicker to fade…

Canna ‘Cannova Rose’, a newer seed strain which grows without complaint (even in cooler weather) but has been pointed out to have somewhat boring foliage. It looks nice with the first flowers of dahlia ‘Mathew Alen’… throw in a few orange zinnias and some purple petunia and you’ve got a nice patch of color.

The dahlias are slowly starting up. They seem late, but that would be because I planted them late, and there’s no sense in complaining about that now. An earlier show would have been nicer is all I’m saying and of course next year none of this will be a problem since as of now next year is still perfect 😉

Had they been staked properly this patch of ‘Sylvia’ and ‘Red Cap’ dahlias would have risen just perfectly amongst the cannas and verbena. Who knows, maybe the red will still rise up a bit, but if it doesn’t serves me right for slacking.

I’m kind of at a loss as to why I’m down to just three or four dahlia varieties. I’m sure in June I had a brilliant plan as to where they were placed and who their neighbors were, but now it seems to all be ‘Mathew Alen’. Vaguely I remember thinking I was bored with a few and felt all empowered when I tossed them onto the compost pile, but naturally I just assumed things would come together later and there would still be a good bit of variety. So much for that. I guess it doesn’t help that several were swamped by other plants… but oh well, another serves me right moment.

Something for the future. If this Colocasia esculenta ‘Tropical Storm’ can get through a serious spider mite infestation I’m sure it will be worth the $2 I spent. My icecream cone was actually more expensive than this soon to be amazing plant 🙂

There’s only about another month and a half left in the tropical garden and it’s absolutely not the time of year to get into a ho-hum mood about things. I really need to treasure every shortened day and to that end will keep reminding myself as I self medicate on fried foods, baked goods and chocolate. Give me another week and I’m sure I’ll have come to terms with the waning season and maybe just maybe I can look forward to autumn. Many people claim to enjoy that season and I guess it’s only fair I give it a try as well.

Have a great week!

Tuesday View: The Tropics 08.30.16

Aug31

It’s Tuesday again and time to join up with Cathy at Words and Herbs to take a look at the Tuesday view. I’m going to guess that the purple leaved cannas are at full height and full bloom now and things are about as close to a peak as I can imagine 🙂

The Tuesday view this evening. I managed to get the pictures just before dusk, and finally for once the photos didn’t come out all blurry and overexposed. I can see why photographers enjoy this time of day and may have to reconsider my strong commitment to doing nothing at these closing hours of the day.

I’m not thrilled about the sun being lower and lower in the sky each week, but the low evening light hitting the canna tops really highlights their bright little blooms.

The garden has become very popular with the hummingbirds as they go from verbena to canna to salvia to everywhere in between. I wonder if they are local youngsters or just birds starting to work their way south.

In case you’re wondering most of the dahlias have been staked. It was a struggle but since the spool of twine has been sitting on the walkway for days now I figured it was time. Hopefully the dahlias can bloom in peace and sway gently in the wind with their reassuring support system… although now it’s the overhanging canna leaves which threaten their happiness…

I can’t help but put in another photo of the sunflower which came up near the fence. It’s got some doubling in there but I think the dark anthers poking through around the center are what really make it stand out for me.

As long as I’m just putting in gratuitous plant pictures I might as well show my absolutely favorite canna ‘Bengal Tiger’ again. It’s practically stunted in comparison to the others but gardeners all know that the show is always going to be better next year. I’ll just have to get something taller to go with it since right now it matches perfectly with the verbena bonariensis… but that won’t be the case net year if it sprouts up to six feet (which it should have no problem doing).

Canna ‘Bengal Tiger’ with the purple of Verbena bonariensis.

Speaking of plants which are sprouting up, the banana ‘Bordelon’, which spent last summer potted on the deck, has finally recovered from a neglectful winter in the garage and a tough spring with a rough crowd in the back of the bed. I hope this winter I can do better with its care and avoid this setback since I used to be able to just throw the stem with a few roots into a basement and they would survive just fine. Something’s changed though since lately they’ve been just plain struggling.

Banana ‘Bordeleon’ rising up above the verbena and knock out rose. It’s still got a few more weeks before being dug up, so I hope it keeps going strong.

Actually I don’t even want to think about overwintering anything yet, so before I go I just want to point out one of the most enjoyable late summer events which occurs around the tropical bed this time of year. Just across the grass path you’ll find a nice patch of hosta in bloom. I received it years ago as an incorrectly labeled plant but I believe it’s hosta ‘Royal Standard’ and it completely fills the evening and nighttime air with a sweet tropical fragrance which reminds me of gardenias minus the mustiness I sometimes get from them. I love the scent and the plants are indestructible and even if they’re as old as dirt compared to all the new, fancy hybrids I would never consider getting rid of them.

Hosta ‘Royal Standard'(maybe). Full sun and drought fried the tansy to the right of it, but the hosta just trudged along with a small bit of leaf scorch and yellowing.

That’s about it for the view. I was beginning to think there wasn’t much new going on anymore but once you start poking around there are always a few surprises. Hopefully I can keep it up a few more weeks. As usual thanks to Cathy for hosting!

Tuesday View: The Tropics 8.23.16

Aug24

It’s another Tuesday and although I missed last week due to a quick summer jaunt up to the mountains of New Hampshire, this week I’m back to joining in with Cathy at Words and Herbs in order to look at the weekly progress of the tropical border. Heat, humidity, regular rain showers, and strong summer sunshine in between have brought on an explosion of late summer growth and the purple leaved cannas now dominate the bed.

Purple leaved canna indica, maybe ‘purpurea’ or ‘red stripe’ or ‘Russian red’… I don’t really know since they were given to me years ago as just plain old canna… have now topped off at around 8-9 feet.

You’ll probably notice the small red blooms the cannas have put out. They’re nice enough as a little decoration up top but hardly enough reason to grow these plants. It’s all about the foliage and it’s looking particularly good on this deliciously cool and clear, breezy summer day.

Canna indica ‘purpurea?’ blooms against the bright blue of a clear summer sky. A very popular flower with the hummingbirds.

Have I referenced “summer” enough yet? I’m hoping that if I keep saying the word it will hang on forever, and we’ll never have to deal with the cold little deaths called autumn and winter. Surely it’s a part of life here in Pennsylvania, but I don’t mind if it holds off for another two months at least.

I need to add more coleus to the bed next year. As things grow so does the shade, and this coleus (maybe ‘Alabama Sunset’) fills in nicely rather than fading away like some of the zinnias.

There’s a whole back half to the bed which has been blocked off by the main clump of canna. It’s a little messy but hopefully in the next few weeks a dahlia or two can break through and add a little color as other things begin to fade out.

Is ‘Tropical Weed Patch’ a look? If I can only think of a better name maybe it will catch on but in the meantime you may notice the salvia ‘Caradonna’ which constantly annoys me is still exactly where its always been. Sometimes things don’t move too fast around here 🙂

With such a mess of randomness there’s bound to be a surprise here and there, and sometimes that surprise even turns out to be a nice one. This week it was the salvia which has just come into bloom. My favorite version of the stout, too-red, gas-station salvias (Salvia splendens) are the ones which don’t look like they’d end up in a gas station planting at all. They’re the tall and lanky ones which are sometimes referred to as Salvia splendens ‘Van Houttii’ and up until now I’ve only succeeded with a peach colored one. But last year I did have a short purple bedding type nearby, and apparently things happened at night and lo and behold this year one of their children is a tall, lanky purple.

At about three feet tall this purple salvia bloom has all the grace and style which its shorter cousins lack. Even better was that I found this as a self-sown seedling and was lucky enough to nurse it on to blooming size. This makes me wonder as to what the other seedlings will look like.

I’ve shown it before but have to show one more photo of the castor bean. The bright seed pods look perfect amongst the purple foliage.

The spiky red (and remember poisonous as well) seed heads of castor bean ‘carmencita’

This afternoon the sun hit the back corner of the bed perfectly. You don’t even notice the weeds when the light is like this.

Verbena bonariensis is the workhorse of this bed and although it threatens to swamp everything else here it’s still worth any bit of trouble it causes.

At this time of year it’s easy to ignore any maintainence and just enjoy the plants as they slide on into autumn, but dahlias are yet to come and dahlias need staking. Two weeks ago would have been the best time to do this but things happen and when things happen the dahlias fall over. It will require twice as much time to carefully put them back up and some might just stay where they lie. It will be more of a groundcover look, but with the way they are stretching away from the canna’s shadow nearly all the plants have verticality issues which might not be worth fighting.

There are dahlias in them thar purple verbena, but for now lets just focus on the panicum ‘Northwind’ which is turning into a tight fountain of frothy seed-heads.

Dahlias will hopefully be staked tomorrow… or Thursday. Weekend at the latest. It’s so nice right now with green grass, butterflies, and flowers who wants to stake stuff? Plus I needed to tackle a hedge of crabgrass which sprouted overnight in one of the other beds, it’s an embarrassing mess, but at least it’s green and green is so much nicer than the dead brown which surrounded me last month.

Mess or not I hope you enjoyed the view and if you’d like give Cathy a visit and see what this week has brought to her garden and others. It’s a nice way to keep tabs on things over the season and it’s also a great way to get things staked and weeded. Shame is a great motivator and even if it means I have to stake with one hand and take pictures with the other, the job will get done long before I even consider publically admitting that the twine has defeated me 🙂

Tuesday View: The Tropics 8.9.16

Aug9

Another Tuesday and another view! My camera has traveled on to other destinations so this week we’re going to see how well the phone camera works. Fortunately when I headed out to take the pictures a few clouds rolled in to filter the light, and things don’t look too harsh here.

Today’s view of the tropical garden. A little dark, but look at that weird color which the lawn has developed… Green!

I’m going to admit to doing little more than admiring the garden this week. There was another nice rainfall last Saturday and for the first time in months things look relatively happy. I even went as far as to mow parts of the lawn short and throw some fertilizer around to help the lawn recover now that it’s making an attempt at coming back to green.

There’s more to healthy growing than the color green. Here’s my favorite offensively festive canna, ‘Tropicana”.

I do have a soft spot for the lushest of cannas. The tall purple leaved ones are great, but ‘Tropicana’ and ‘Bengal Tiger’ both bring vivid variegation into the mix. After years of trying to get a virus free plant of the later I think I’m finally there and hopefully it’s with me for a while again.

Still small but growing, canna Bengal Tiger (Pretoria) might be my very favorite canna. The yellow striping is amazing and I think when this becomes a big clump (fingers crossed) it will be quite a sight.

My Bengal Tiger has a way to go before it’s as inspiring as the ones I saw last year at Chanticleer but I have patience… sort of. In the meantime the amazingly fast growth of the Kochia scoparia (burning bush or summer cypress) continues to impress me. I love the fresh green color and soft fluffiness of the plants, and I hope it keeps looking good until (with luck) it lives up to its name and burns bright red this autumn.

Kochia with Verbena bonariensis and orange zahara zinnias.

So that’s where we are this week. If you’d like to check in with a few other Tuesday views give Cathy at Words and Herbs a visit and if you’d like to join in feel free, I’m sure she’d be happy to have you!

That wasn’t smart 6.0, 6.1, 6.2, and 6.3

Aug1

Well I really racked them up this weekend. My favorite nursery, Perennial Point, was having a customer appreciation weekend and all plants were on sale for 30% off. A dead garden will make you weak in the face of temptation and I guess I blinked.

Not smart version 6.0: The garden was bone dry and I couldn’t even take care of what I had. Weeds are having a field day, the lawn is dead and other plants are dying left and right. I just bought home several delicate, nursery-perfect plants which probably haven’t even broken a sweat their whole lives and I’m planning to throw them into this nightmare.

Three big ticket items followed me home, ‘Plum Magic’ crape myrtle, hypericum ‘Red Fame’, and daylily ‘Bubblegum Pie’.

Not smart 6.1: I don’t like daylilies, don’t ask me why I would buy one. The leaves look horrible in late summer, the old blooms look like soggy tissue messes which need daily cleanup, and the name ‘Bubblegum Pie’ is insanely dumb. The flower on this one is fat and fleshy and overdone with way too many ruffles. There’s nothing graceful or elegant in the flower but I’ll plant it near the one daylily which came with the house (and resprouted after I thought I sent it to the compost pile) and the other species daylily which I grew from seed (Hemerocallis atissima, a tall and graceful night bloomer). We will see how it does.

Look at the fruits on Hypericum inodorum ‘Red Fame’! I’ve seen these used in flower arrangements and never thought it might do well in the garden, so we’ll see if it does. btw the crystalline glisten on the leaves is something called raindrops, yeah it took me a few minutes to recognize it as well, apparently we used to get a lot of it back in the day.

Not smart 6.2: I bought a Hypericum ‘Red Fame’ which I think is cool with its juicy looking bright red fruits and according to what I’ve read may tolerate drought just fine, but I also bought a crape myrtle. Crape myrtle are not hardy here and even at 30% off this one still wasn’t exactly cheap but somewhere deep down inside I seem to think someday a miracle will happen and one will survive. Maybe fourth time’s the charm….

Three new caladiums and a new coleus. Buy one get one free on annuals since no one bothers to buy annuals on the last weekend of July… no one except me apparently.

Not smart 6.3: I bought more annuals. Tomorrow is August 1st and the days for annuals are numbered and I should be focusing on limping through the summer and getting ready for fall gardening rather than wishing for another June and July. Plus I seem to remember telling myself (you wouldn’t remember since Iwas talking solely to myself) that I had too many coleus last year and I should let some meet their maker when frost came. Now I’m adding more?

Caladium ‘Pink Splash’ which I managed to overwinter from tubers purchased last year. At least that was smart. Also smart is the healthy, dark-leaved Eucomis (pineapple lily) grown from seed supplied by Nan Ondra. I’m hoping it will be big enough to bloom next year!

Not smart 6.4: I already have too many caladiums for a reasonable Pennsylvania garden, but if you hang on for another minute I’ll tell a quick caladium story. It used to be I could overwinter them with ease and even had some survive for more than 5 years, but then my luck changed. Dead tubers would greet me each spring and I wasn’t sure what was wrong. Short story even shorter last winter I tried keeping them completely dry in their pots and in a warmer spot and lo and behold they made it through perfectly. Logical next step is to take advantage of any good caladium deal which you come across and then be immensely disappointed when they go back to dying next winter…

White caladiums and a pot of mixed tubers which I found on clearance. The spotted one is my absolute favorite.

Pristine white caladiums filling a terra cotta planter in the high shade of a southern garden is tasteful. My mixed, gaudy plantings in reused plastic nursery pots are not. But I digress, and will leave you with one last glimpse of my new daylily.

The disgusting daylily ‘Bubblegum Pie’ with all its offensive frills and flounce. It really is too much of everything and I’m positive this will be the one and only daylily I ever purchase for this garden. Since I have it I might as well plant it, and I might as well even spare a few shovelfuls of my precious compost on it. The pot has three fans already and I can only imagine three or four deliciously overdone stalks next year filled with more of these flowers!

Not that smart 6.5? A few days ago I ordered some iris through the Historic Iris Preservation Society’s annual fund raiser. That’s innocent enough, but now that the sale has wound down I noticed a posting on Facebook looking for volunteers to take in leftover rhizomes and grow them on for a year before sending them back for next year’s sale. I’m wondering where I would put 10 or 20 more iris 🙂

It rained by the way. An absolutely amazing soaking rain which stretched out for hours and got into many of the driest nooks and crannies of the garden. I’m quite pleased and know it will be a good week and wish all the best for yours as well.

Tuesday View: The Tropics 7.26.16

Jul27

We returned from Florida this afternoon and were pleased to discover that the weather here was even hotter and drier than 1,200 miles South. The few scattered thundershowers which should have given the garden some hope while we were gone just weren’t enough, and overall things look completely miserable. Here’s a view from Florida since I’d rather not face Pennsylvania yet.

At least in the tropics an afternoon downpour can give some relief. Here in Epcot I liked the way these mixed cannas filled the bed, a little short of a plant for my taste, but I’m sure they’ll fill the area with color all summer.

I hope to catch up a little tomorrow, but for now it’s ok to be back and we’ll see if I can scrape together enough care to bring the garden back from crispiness. If I never post again I just want to say thanks for all the comments and friendship and I wish you all well.

Thursday’s Feature: Allium flavum ssp. tauricum

Jul8

This week’s feature is a mouthful, one unlikely to be spoken while browsing the plant racks at Home Depot or even on the tables of your better nurseries. It’s not particularly showy or amazing, but all the same it’s showy and amazing and I’m glad to have it here in the garden.

Allium flavum ssp tauricum, a range of pastel flower colors as well as a range of foliage colors, from straight green to blue-gray.

This small, summer blooming allium is one of those onions which may surprise gardeners who typically think of flowering onions as mostly purple, and mostly late spring bloomers, but here it is in all its early summer, pastel tones. Mine came via the North American Rock Garden Society seed exchange (another mouthful) and were labeled “ex McDonough”. For those of you not in the onion know, Mark McDonough is the onion man, essentially a global authority on all things allium and if you’re interested he hosts a website called PlantBuzz to which I heartily recommend a visit. If you can’t find anything interesting on his site I’m going to guess you stopped reading my post after the first few sentences, but if you’re still with me give it a click… if only to look at wonder upon the different forms of even something as simple as chives!

Another view, same clump…. Allium flavum ssp tauricum ex McDonough. I feel like my onions have quite the pedigree 🙂

Regular plain old Allium flavum (yellow onion) doesn’t have the range of pale, pink, and rusty tones which the subspecies tauricum shows, but I think they’re both equally easy to grow. Mine were planted in February of 2013, the pot went outdoors and the seeds came up that spring. The first flowers showed the year after and other than digging and spreading the clump out a bit two years ago they’ve been plugging along in a full sun spot ever since with no help from me.

Last year’s seedlings blooming for the first time… less diverse, but still nice!

For as easy to grow as they are you would think they could be a pest, but I have yet to see a single seedling come up on its own. They just politely do their thing and all I do is clean up a few dead leaves and flower stems once flowering is finished… they are an evergreen onion, so there’s some foliage all year even after things die down a bit in August.

Keep your eyes open for A. flavum ssp tauricum and grab it if you have the chance. Also if you have the chance, give Cosmos and Cleome a visit to see what Kimberly and other bloggers are featuring this Thursday. Each week she encourages us to focus on a single plant and it’s fun seeing which favorites show up on other gardener’s blogs You’re more than welcome to join, and if you do leave a link on Kimberley’s blog so we can come find you!

Tuesday View: The Tropics 6.28.16

Jun28

Two of my favorite bloggers are bringing back a meme which I’ve always enjoyed. Cathy of Words and Herbs and Kimberley of Cosmos and Cleome both highlight a longer view each Tuesday and we get to see it develop and change as the year passes. I’m no expert on the meme but I think Cathy sticks to a specific viewpoint and time while Kimberly varies the perspective and location depending on what’s going on in the garden. Myself on the other hand am barely capable of getting any post up in a given week, so to keep it simple I’m going to follow Cathy’s lead and go with one view, same bed, same point each week and see if I can handle that. Also since the tropical bed went in last week (about time since it’s already past the solstice and well into summer) I’m going to highlight this bed as my view, and (hopefully) watch as it grows up.

My fingers are crossed that over the next few weeks this bed will become an explosion of color and foliage and maybe bring a taste of the tropics to this end of NE Pennsylvania.

I’ll try to keep this short, since assuming things grow I want to save a little material for future posts, but besides the thrill of actually getting most of the plants in last week I always get a little excited checking this patch each day to see how quickly things progress. All season bloomers which sit as a lump of color and put out the same old flowers each week bore me a little, and even though I can appreciate someone wanting low maintenance, neat color, I want something that sneaks up on you and then overwhelms you, like a horticultural tsunami! Hence the tropical garden, and anything bright and big and leafy is more than welcome.

The papyrus was not happy last year and I suspect it didn’t get nearly as much water as it wanted so instead of planting it in the ground again I placed it in a pot submerged in a second pot full of water. Green water. So far the reviews of this planting have not been 100% favorable.

You can’t really tell from the tiny sprigs, twigs, and tubers, but this year’s theme is orange and purple. That’s not a solid theme, it’s more my mood when I’m out picking up annuals or choosing which dahlias to put here versus in other parts of the garden… or finding a flat of orange zinnias on sale and liking zinnias. So until the oranges fill in, hot pink and purple will have to do for a theme. Besides the annuals, perennials have a way of sneaking in everywhere, and although I pulled a wheelbarrow full of daisies and transplanted dozens of chrysanthemums, there are still a few things such as this knockout rose and purple ‘Caradonna’ salvia which are just too colorful to stand up to. Maybe next year will be the year I follow through on my threats to remove the salvias.

The ultra rare and uncommon ‘Knockout’ rose tastefully complimented with orange zinnias at its feet and scavenged lawn clippings as mulch. This Tuesday view already promises to reek of class each week 🙂

So there you have it. By next week I hope to have a few cannas sprouting and a few more zinnias assaulting your color senses and overall I really hope things don’t end up requiring a rototiller and a fresh start by August.

Think about joining in with the view and if you do leave a link at either Cathy‘s or Kimberley’s blog so we can find you. Not to put words in their mouths but I’m sure both will agree “the more the merrier” and I always enjoy watching another garden grow throughout the season… even if it does turn into a trashy mess of too much color and chaos!

sorta like suburbia

more than you ever wanted to know about my garden

Category Archives: summer bulbs