I bought a couple of hard-luck cases at Home Depot in early December: two Mexican heathers, Cuphea hyssopifolia, for a buck apiece. I noticed them primarily for their yellow green foliage at the time, which was striking, though I was unsure if this was a seasonal change or typical coloring. The quart sized bushes were dressed in tiny purple flowers and showed no signs of stopping well into winter. However, as the temperatures plummeted, I saw that they struggled to stay green, and when we finally experienced some snow, I brought them in under the grow lights to defrost. My man is of the opinion that they might survive since he saw evidence of new growth. I’m more inclined to believe that they have reseeded since most of the top growth has all but died off. I am hoping that a good shearing and being indoors will resuscitate these specimens after their heroic efforts to stay bright and cheery in early winter weeks.
Seed starting 2011 part 1 and blues speculation
It snowed today, first snow of 2011. Good thing I broke out the grow lights from the shed earlier this week. I am reusing the Burpee grow system, minus their grow pellets. The man bought me two bags of seed starting soil, which I packed in half of the plastic cells. This morning I got to sow some seeds: 6x Red Rubin Basil, 6x Thai Basil, 6x Jupiter Bell Pepper, 6x Calico Ornamental Pepper, 6x Purple Flash Ornamental Pepper, 2x unnamed Thai Chili, and 4x Pansy seeds which I “borrowed” from the Arboretum trial gardens…I believe the cultivar was Iona Heavenly Blue.
I also planted a rosemary cutting which had a single root after about a week sitting in water. I have another sprig of rosemary and a red dianthus chinensis sitting it water, waiting to see them root. I need to remember to take some cuttings of the verbena and the felicia daisy.
While my attention is on the blue flowers, I must express my affection for the felicia daisy which has bloomed sporadically up to this month. This Cape Town Blue daisy has displayed amazing tolerance for the heat and cold, enduring the summer in a planter, and now mulched int the blue bed. I have tried to capture seeds from it to no avail; so perhaps taking some cuttings may work.
I also have hopes to see the Diana Blueberry dianthus blooms, though I know it won’t come even close to a true blue. Even so, a pale lavender will be a rare sight to see on a dianthus. Speaking of dianthus, these are the only seedlings that I’m aware of that have made it to the garden. The Red Peppermint dianthus seedlings unfortunately perished–to the best of my knowledge–due to heat well before they made it into the ground. I believe the dianthuses in the purple garden were all store-bought this year, and there are some purple, picotees and parfaits that have endured.
As I am browsing my camera pics, I am reminded of the beauty of the annual phlox, however fleeting it was. It seems that growing them from seeds may be too challenging for the home gardener, since I have yet to find any outlets offering them. I believe the 4 specimens that I picked up at Covington’s this last year were of the Phoenix Sky variety, a lovely pale purple star surrounded by white-cream. I’ll keep hunting, though reading suggest that these phloxes are cool-weather annuals.
The angelonia have succumbed finally to the winter cold; the purple variety which seemed a bit sturdier has browned like the whites. It’s amazing how these angelonia have grown so tall and wide from modest specimens. They definitely need more room if we plan on using them again next year.
Lawn and weed woes
The winter lawn looks abominable. Evidence of irregular watering throughout the year shows up in bald patches and weed farms all over the front and back yards. Weed and feed came late this past year, the man laid down the fertilizer in December. I am wishing for the perfect green lawn in 2011…but it looks like we will have to wait till spring to work on this. Meanwhile, everything from henbit, thistle to nettle weeds are growing. Thanks to this weed identifier, I now know the names of the enemy. The Bermuda bible will give us a leg up on the competition as well. Meanwhile I am thinking about investing in spot weed-killers.
Easy plantings for difficult tree rings
The tree ring in the front yard is a terribly challenging spot to grow. Last year I seed the area with Cosmic Red and Yellow Cosmos which somehow managed to find only the sunny spots to root in. The ring therefore ended up with too many bald patches taken up by weeds.
This year I hope to heavily reseed by obtaining good amounts from Stokes. They had larger volumes available of the Yellow and Red varieties. This year, I intend to introduce two different ever-flowering varieties of plant. For a foreground, I’ve chosen annual alyssum…most likely a white-flowered cultivar. To background the cosmos, I determined that the prolific scarlet sage or salvia coccinea would have no trouble adapting to the arid conditions under the tree ring. I already witnessed the rampant prolific nature of the bicolor Coral Nymph sage which nearly overran the purple bed, and I’m certain that a red-flowered coccinea, such as Lady In Red, would suit the barren conditions in the tree ring. My fave wildflower seed distributor also carries this salvia seed in bulk.
New Year’s Eve at the Arboretum
