One of the two exciting flowering standouts of 2007 in my garden are the Cosmos Cosmic Mix seeds that I planted mid-spring. With regular rainfall we saw up until this month, the Cosmos took off in a brilliant display of yellows, orange, and reds. These came from the Park Seed order that arrived late winter which I just threw around the borders of the backyard flower beds. I love the fern-like growth and the semi-double blooms of the Cosmos sulphureus…and this has led to my interest in the Cosmos bipinnatus which sports even “fern-ier” foliage. I intend on ordering a bag of the Psyche White Cosmos at Wildseed Farms for next year. Too bad they aren’t perennials! Note to self: order more red and yellow Cosmos sulphureus. Or even give the Ladybird series a test drive.
Lost and missing posts prompts reorganizing
After the February crash of my server box, I lost many posts written up to this time. I am considering redesigning the site and perhaps move it to a paid hosting solution. We’ll see how it goes. Meanwhile, I hope that the Internet Archive will soon have some copies of this site available for me to recapture some of the lost data.
The hunt for evergreen daylilies
Guess who decided to surprise me and work on the dog run? That’s right, DH grabbed a rake and started prepping the run for the sod arriving this weekend. Pictures forthcoming.
Meanwhile, my hunt for a white evergreen daylily has expanded my ambitions of populating the flowerbeds with greenery. Most catalogs and online stores won’t ship until as early as March for my zone 8 gardens, so I still have time to plan my daylily purchases.
Here is my white daylily research so far:
STANDARD FORMS:
JOAN SENIOR 6″ 25″ EM Reb Ev Dip near white self with lime green throat
GENTLE SHEPHERD 5″ 29″ EM Sev Dip near white self with yellow green throat
WHITE TEMPTATION 5″ 32″ M Sev Dip near white self with green throat
LIGHT THE WAY 6″ 36″ M Reb Sev Dip icy white self with pale green throat
HENRY BAKER 5.5″ 21″ EM Reb Sev Dip near white self with green throat
SAGARMATHA 6″ 27″ VL Reb Sev Dip near white self with olive green throat
WHITE STAG 6″ 18″ M Reb Sev Dip near white self with green throat
WINTER CHILL 6.5″ 34″ ML Reb Sev Dip near white self with chartreuse to green throat
BLIZZARD BAY 6″ 28″ L Reb Sev Tet near white self with green throat
FAITH HOPE CHARITY 6″ 30″ L Reb Ev Dip near white self with small chartreuse throat
ICE PLANET 6.5″ 28″ EM Reb Ev Dip near white with green shadings and green throat
MOONLIT CARESS 5.5″ 26″ ML Sev Tet near white self with green throat
MORMON 8.5″ 20″ EM Reb Ev Dip near white self
SPACECOAST SNOW ANGEL 6.25″ 28″ EM Reb Ev Tet near white self with green throat
TUSCAWILLA TRANQUILITY 5.5″ 21″ EE Reb Sev Dip near white self with lemon lime throat
VANILLA RUFFLES 5″ 20″ ML Ev Dip near white self with green throat
SPIDERS:
ANNIE LEE 9″ 26″ M Dor Dip near white spider self with light green throat
WHITE STRIPE 5″ 25″ M Dor Dip near white spider with green throat
UNUSUALS:
HEAVENLY ANGEL ICE 8″ 36″ ML Reb Dormant Dip white self above green yellow throat
MARGO REED INDEED 7.5″ 28″ ML Reb Sev Dip cream white with pink undertones and small ruffled white edge above chartreuse throat
Flower wishlist
What happens when you window-shop garden catalogs in winter? Your wishlist and shopping carts grow longer by the time spring arrives. Here is my current wishlist of flowers, which covers the gamut of annuals and perennials, seeds and tubers/bulbs. I’m going for some early flashy color this season, which is why annuals made it into my list.
Zinnia elegans Candy Stripe
Zinnia elegans Swizzle Cherry & Ivory
Dianthus chinensis Corona Cherry Magic
Dianthus chinensis Velvet ‘n Lace
Cosmos sulphureus Cosmic Mix
Anemone blanda Blue Star or Blue Shades
Stokesia laevis Blue Danube, Bluestone or Peachies Pick
Caryopteris x clandonensis Dark Knight
Salvia x jamensis Sierra San Antonio
…and a large white-flowered reblooming evergreen daylily, perhaps a spider form.
I am still researching the white daylily as there are many cultivars available. Many online stores have huge selections of white/near-whites…now it’s just a matter of time trying to discover a particular Hemerocallis that will fit all my criteria.
I’m also expanding my blue-and-white garden, as evidenced by the number of blue flowered plants on my wishlist.
Sod me
I’ve been pushing DH for an action plan on our backyard since late last year. The major expenses and problems associated with a grass-less backyard could have been avoided if he had just been a little motivated to spread some grass seed around. Every drop of rain turns the yard into a mudpit, which gets tracked in by some eager pups. It has gotten to the point where the dogs have to use the front yard bathrooms because of the excessive mud tracks left into our light beige carpet. The cleaning bill adds up every year.I also inspected the retaining wall this weekend and I calculate that the earth has shifted at least 2 inches toward our fence. Again, I can fault DH’s slapdash assembly of the wooden wall and foresee future expenses in having to rebuild the wall and our back fence. At this time, it looks like a train-wreck of a wall, running crooked across the back yard. Luckily it isn’t visible to the casual observer, but I can see it collapsing some day. While I’m on this rant, I might as well also mention the fence stain job that has remained incomplete for 2+ years now.
Well, DH surprised me yesterday in purchasing a small amount of bermuda sod from A-1 Grass to lay in the dog run. It’s not enough to cover the entire backyard, but it’s a start. It remains to be seen if he will actually do any prep work on the yard before laying the sod. Heck, I’m skeptical…the soonest I can hope for is that he will lay down sod next year.