Another busy work week, with little time spent in the garden.

I knew that I had a busy week ahead when I stopped by Big Bloomers Flower Farm on my way home from a trip last weekend. That did not stop me from buying 3 cardboard flats full of perennials, plus a few annuals that were on sale.  I have planted exactly one flat’s worth.

That’s okay, because nothing has died yet and I think this weekend I’ll make good progress on a new garden bed I’m starting. No name for it yet, but it will run along my neighbor’s fence, between the fence and the back of the rain garden. In my mind it looks fantastic.

The crinums are blooming, probably because of all the rain. I don’t remember them ever blooming this early. I cut back the rose campion to keep it from dropping seed everywhere–I have enough of it–and planted nicotiana and portulaca from Big Bloomers.The Monarda I acquired from a gardening friend earlier this year has bloomed, and instead of red, it’s wine-colored. It’s beautiful, but because of its color, it’s in the wrong place. I think it will look excellent in the blue slope, though, so that’s where I’m moving it. And in the process, I found some lily bulbs that haven’t ever done anything. I dug those up and am potting them, little scale chips and all, into a flat to see if I can propagate them.

Hemerocallis ‘Chicago Royal’ and ‘Ferris Wheel’ have recovered from the deer visit a week ago. I haven’t been able to apply the Plantskydd, though, because it needs 24 hours to be rainproof and we haven’t had a guarantee of 24 hours without rain since the visit. I’m too stingy with the stuff to risk it. All things in time, I suppose.