A bouquet greeted me this morning.
Methinks he was trying to bribe me to sleep in. It was a cold day today, the coldest yet this season. Winter is coming.
Scenes before a cold front
Another day, another eggplant flower. The fruit is looking pretty good, despite some skin damage.
Purple pastel salvia greggii behind a red salvia greggii cutting in bloom.
In the same bed, you can see the hack job I performed on the Oertel’s Rose yarrow, which was once three times its current size. That doesn’t stop it from budding and blooming. But the smaller footprint allowed some room for the irises; here, Mariposa Skies is putting out new foliage. A neighboring iris, Immortality, also displays new leaves.
In the lily bed, the white mums are aging gracefully into blush pink senescence. Now, if I hadn’t stuck markers where those strap leaves were emerging, I’d have forgotten the spider lily bulbs I planted in the bed sometime back in June of this year.
The tree ring out front is still non-stop a-bloomin’! Of course, it’s looking somewhat bedraggled these days–apparently, a hare or a family of them has been using it for daytime cover. So it looks well-trampled in some parts. I can’t bring myself to yank out all the marigolds and salvia. It’s always fascinating to watch how long they will keep blooming their heads off.
I also managed to catch a lone loropetalum bloom. And a nice arrangement of Hot Lips salvia triplets.
Here is something I haven’t observed; fall foliage color on the potted lantana. Is this normal?
And the rest of today’s photos: caladiums, vincas, potato vines, Thai basil, miscellaneous herbs. And let’s not forget the many rose buds on the Midnight Blue.
Introducing new flower bed protection
Unsightly weeds, pests, and uninvited guests beware: I’m hiring a ninja to protect my garden.
That’s right, a ninja.
And not just any ninja, but a RED ninja.
See how he blends easily in with the red flower bed? Natural camouflage.
This is just one of many photos that I browsed through at A Lego A Day. I realize it’s not strictly gardening-related, but I was entertained by the remarkable and funny photos. Please give it a visit and enjoy !
October Yardworks
I got a new t-shirt, seeds and digging gloves at North Haven Gardens yesterday.
Today’s yard projects consisted of: planting coreopsis, Thalia narcissus bulbs (I found only one from my last planting of daffodils), Snow-n-Summer Asiatic jasmine, garlic cloves, and larkspur seeds. I trimmed back the bicolor salvia in the blue bed before adding another bag of soil to level the bed.
While the man went to work on mulching the blue bed, I got to work cleaning my pruning tools. Naval Jelly worked wonders on these rusty shears. I made sure to spray them down with BP50 lubricant before covering them up and bagging them.
Had a little time after drilling holes into pots to smell the roses.
Salvia transplants and cuttings
Early in the year, I gifted my friend Kathy with some salvia cuttings and transplants. She lives in a rental home in Lewisville, whose lawn and yard is mostly tended by very friendly and considerate neighbors. She swears she has a brown thumb, but I was quite certain that she couldn’t kill these plants. Her front yard is a steep grade (nearly 45 degrees) from the street to her front door, and she swears anything she tries to plant in it gets washed down and away.
I provided her with two red salvia greggii cuttings, 2 Hot Lips salvia cuttings, and 2 sets of Coral Nymph salvia coccinea seedlings that volunteered from my own garden. We planted them into a bed just in time as the onset of the summer heat. Her yard gets the benefit of some high shade during the early morning and afternoon. She refused to mulch because, again, she was concerned that it would all wash out of the bed down the slope toward the house. She watered deeply during the drought, but I’m certain her watering schedule was infrequent. During the summer heat wave, I visited once a month; she lost one of the greggiis, but the rest survived.
On Friday afternoon, I visited her house to tend to her pups while she was out of town and beheld this:
The remaining plants I gave her were in bloom. The Coral Nymphs appear to have multiplied (crazy reseeders that they are); the Hot Lips were a solid red, but I was sure it would revert to the bicolor blooms sooner or later. Next spring, I expect them to grow 2x to 3x their size.
Salvias thrive on neglect–which makes them perfect plants for xeriscaping and forgetful gardeners. The occasional rain perks them back up again and guarantees a flush of blooms every time. I love these plants!