Finally, sun. It’s going to be chilly tonight, in the mid-40s. Still have seedlings to get into the ground, pruning and deadheading to do. A few peonies survived the pounding rain the other night. They opened this morning.
Is this peony ‘Festiva Maxima’? I’ve lost the tag.
It’s going to be a gorgeous holiday weekend.
Iris x louisiana ‘Black Gamecock’ has sat about in the garden for at least two years now, doing little but sending up the occasional leaf. But the absurd amounts of rain we’ve had lately have coaxed it to show off:
If it’s going to look like this, I am willing to forgive quite a lot of laziness.
That’s my laziness, to be honest. Although catalogues will tell you that Louisiana iris will grow in “ordinary garden soil” (we all know about that), they really want boglike conditions. Wet roadside ditches apparently offer the optimal environment. Typically, my garden’s moisture level is not comparable to a roadside ditch (its appearance is another matter entirely). This spring has provided more rain than sun–I have the mosquitoes to prove it–and now this bloom is giving me the motivation I need to give the plant the conditions it wants. Now that I have a better habitat for the plant, I will move it after it finishes blooming.
To my friends in the US, have a magnificent holiday weekend!
Another downpour last night. The blossoms of the peonies and roses have taken a beating and I need to deadhead like mad. Weeds everywhere have grown to a formidable height and seem to multiply like Mogwai. Rain garden looks terrific. Not sure if the rosemary is going to make it in its temporary bed; may need to take cuttings and start some new plants. Rose campion blossoming everywhere, both red and white. Finally got oregano transplanted and ‘Emma Hamilton’ rose potted up with better drainage; Emma isn’t looking too spry but perhaps she will pull through with some healthy doses of worm compost tea. Not that she needs a drink. Backyard smells like heaven from lush honeysuckle on neighbor’s fence. Tiger lily bloomed this morning.
I am always a bit sad when iris season passes. They’re some of my favorite flowers, and as they decline I think, “What is it that I look forward to next?” I become so obsessed with the iris that I simply forget.
Fortunately, all the rain this year combined with relatively mild temperatures has given plenty to remind me:
Transplanted the Arisaema triphyllum (Jack-in-the-pulpit) into the rain garden. I hope the improved conditions will encourage it to forgive me for moving it while it’s in bloom; if I didn’t, I would forget. It prefers wet conditions and its former home could only be described as bone dry. Promptly got a nice solid drink of rain. I imagine I have sacrificed this year’s bloom but I can live with that.
Penstemons blooming today. Overcast, muggy, 84 degrees. Almost 4 inches of rain so far this month. Summer is here, but just for a day or two. Weekend looks promising.
This little fellow, I am pretty sure, is Papilio polyxenes, the Black Swallowtail butterfly larva. k Swallowtail
He’s feasting on rue, Ruta graveolens. I grow lots of it in my garden because it is a favorite food source of these breathtaking insects.
Learn more at ButterfliesandMoths.org.
Woke up in the middle of the night remembering I had planted out seedlings of Echinacea purpurea ‘Magnus’ a few days ago and forgot to water them. This is not a good sign of my mental health. This morning made an emergency nursery bed for seedlings of Belamcanda chinensis, Celosia ‘Crimson Pink,’ what’s left of Echinacea ‘Magnus,’ some Linum perenne (flax), purple bee balm, ‘Mammoth’ dill, Thymus vulgaris, and something else that has lost its label. Assuming, hopefully, that they survive, the bed will be a design disaster. Put white Nicotiana in white garden, fingers crossed. Moved remaining suffering seedlings to the shade and gave them a good water and a low-strength fertilizer. Hope I can get to the rest tomorrow before projected thundershowers.
I knew it would come to this when I planted all those seeds during my winter sowing mania. I love to sow; love having cheap new plants; hate to thin, prick out, and pot up. Must think of better way to do this, because I like the winter sowing technique. Could nursery beds be the answer?
more than you ever wanted to know about my garden
Cultivating a habit of observation.
Cultivating a habit of observation.
Cultivating a habit of observation.
Cultivating a habit of observation.
Food, plants, decor, living comfortably and happily. I teach college 30 weeks a year. The rest of the time, I think about my house.
An occasional blog from a walled country garden in South East Scotland
Siobhan Curious Says: Teachers are People Too
Cultivating a habit of observation.
Cultivating a habit of observation.
Cultivating a habit of observation.
Cultivating a habit of observation.
Cultivating a habit of observation.
Gardening: from a West Coast, urban, organic perspective.
Cultivating a habit of observation.
Is your garden looking a little tired? Do you dream of enjoying your morning coffee or evening glass of wine while looking out on an eye-catching and beautiful display of plants?
