azalea – Page 3 – variegatagal

October Bed Works

My shopping spree carried over into Sunday, but I didn’t spend as much time as I did Saturday. After all, plants don’t plant themselves (at least, not very often in my own garden).

I did head out to Lowes and Home Depot again, looking for bargains. I ended up with 4 pots, a 9 pack of ornamental kale, and a bag of tulip bulbs, Happy Generation. I know, I know…I just can’t resist those bulbs. And where did I end up putting them? In the front yard bed. That gets a fair amount of water, on and off season. Ah well, I will content myself with tulips being annual…but I’m hoping for a decent show next spring.

So it ended up being sore work Sunday afternoon. Fifty pansies, 36 violas, 30 giant grape hyacinths (Bellevalia pycnantha according to my American Meadows order), 18 tulip bulbs, 6 fall crocuses (Wild Saffron), 9 mixed ornamental kale all found a home. I relocated the 2 Stella de Oro daylilies in the front door landing strip, along with 2 struggling Silver Dust dusty millers. I also tore out the 2 Confetti lantanas flanking the Autumn Monarch azalea (which happens to be blooming quite profusely at the moment) and took cuttings in hopes of overwintering them. Did I mention one of those Confettis had a root as long as I was tall–we’re talking at least 5 feet long! Last, but not least, I also relocated the Seabreeze salvia into the front flower bed.

Next, I spent the rest of the afternoon re-potting pepper plants and hostas. I managed to dig up the struggling remains of the Wide Brim hostas from the shade bed. They were unsuccessful in the bed due to the constant slug onslaught and too much sun exposure. I also got my Francee hosta roots transplanted into their own pots. The Gold Standard and the Minuteman hostas also moved into larger homes. In addition, nine pepper plants also received new homes; unfortunately I’m at a loss at identifying them at the moment. I think the doubled up pepper plants are the Thai chilis. I should have the Jupiter bells, banana peppers, and Fresno peppers surviving from the July starts.

Back and backsides are sore…it comes out of hunching over on uncomfortable bags of sand, while carefully replanting things. I’m still sore just thinking of it. But I have some basil to take indoors with me during the winter time: Pesto Perpetuo, lime basil and classic Genovese basil.

Hey, at least I’m in the spirit of autumn now. I’m referring to the pumpkin display decorating my front porch.

Why is it I can’t seem to successfully photograph the Moonglow salvia greggii’s true yellow color blooms?

Wishlist plant of the day: tricyrtis “Imperial Banner”.

October plantings

Picked up some more soil and cedar mulch, and 4 mums (red and white). Got the camellia, azalea, abelia, irises and mums planted, as well as dividing the Hyperion daylily and transplanting a white salvia greggii to the salvia wall. I even repotted some ornamental peppers, and transplanted a nandina. All in all, a busy yet productive day. Next time, I have a 50 count flat of Matrix pansies to plant.

October weekend work

Apparently, I am allergic to Texas. Bermudagrass and most of the native trees in Texas makes me break out. It used to be just itchy eyes and uncontrollable sneezing…but these days I’m dealing with the rashes and hives. My face looks like a giant bee sting. Must…resist…scratching.

Of course, it doesn’t help that I’m puttering around in the garden. For the past few days, I’ve been weeding, clearing more debris, and dumping out pots of soil to level the herb garden. The man also did some mowing, kicking up some of that dreaded bermudagrass into the air. On Sunday, I started in earnest taming the jungle. I pulled out more weeds in the front door bed, pushed back on the yarrow in the blue bed, removed the dead gardenia, plucked out a dead salvia, hard pruned the basils and did some tidying. The man, for his part, removed the overgrown stand of boxwoods that lined the path to the doorway. I ended up raking a mound of leaves and trash that had no doubt been trapped by the boxwood hedge for months, if not, years. To finish, my man removed the dead JM and emptied the dirt into the sidewalk bed.

Motivated by the sight of vacancies in the front yard, I had to do some shopping. At Strong’s, I picked up an Autumn Embers Encore azalea to replace the dead one in the front yard bed. I also drove to North Haven Gardens to pick up some shrubs and groundcover. Of course, plans don’t always turn out the way you want them…I ended up with a whole lot more than I set out for. I also dropped by Home Depot to pick up 6 bags of cedar mulch and 4 bags of top soil. I couldn’t resist picking up another aster however.

I’ll be providing more details on the newcomers in a future post. But for now, I’ve ingested a Benadryl-equivalent to tame the swelling and the congestion, the side effect being an early bed time.

Weed weeder weedest!

All week I’ve been tidying up in the garden. Weeding here (cleaning out the gravel strip), pulling dead or dying plants out elsewhere (dead rosemary, salvia, dianthus, herb garden). I’ve pruned back on a few plants (such as the gaura) and transplanted a few (ginger mint into the cinderblock wall). I’ve observed some unusual sights, like the brown-burnt asters in the blue bed that are still blooming, the flowering Mexican heather in the purple bed, and the Autumn Monarch azalea that put out a few more flowers this week. I am in awe of the salvia/marigold tree ring in the front yard, though I have also noticed a ton of ant condos springing up everywhere lately. Time to get out the ant killer!

‘Tis the time to be fertilizing and weed-killin’. I hope to have some funds to invest in a good pre-emergent and lawn food this weekend. With the summer drawing to a close, and the weather amenable, it’s easy to get out in the yard to do some work. I spent this morning killing some crabgrass in the courtyard. But of course, I saw some more patches in the front yard.

I also turned out the last of the bathroom tenants. The pepper plants are getting some quality sun time on the patio. I hope to transfer them into bigger pots and get a chance at some fruit before the winter frost. And speaking of fruit, what about some eggplant? Should I sink my Chinese eggplant into the herb garden bed, or bring it indoors over the winter? It keeps flowering but not producing any fruit. It seems to prefer more room to spread its roots.

This is also the time to ponder the fall-winter flower display, not to mention purchase the spring flower bulbs. I’m writing up a list!

Perhaps on this list, we’ll be adding a new Japanese maple. My JM unfortunately has been confirmed dead. And I discovered some alien fungus residing in the pot. Scawy!

Summer blooms 2011

We saw a spate of cool weather days breaking up our summer heatwave. It gave us time to assess the damage from the drought and noted with interest the tough plants such as the vinca, cosmos, and marigolds that withstood the severe weather. Plus, we discover a surprise bloom from an unexpected 3-season flowering shrub–Encore azalea Autumn Monarch.