lily – Page 2 – variegatagal

Late year, young plants…and the wand of precipitation

Rarely do I see more than two blooms on the Valentine dianthus. I’m looking forward to seeing more in spring.

The new dianthus plantings are calling the lily bed home. They will provide a vivid border early next year. Notice the oxalis triangulis and columbine sharing the bed? Both are same year plantings. The oxalis eked by this summer, just liked its purple siblings, giving rise to the occasional flower. The columbine is one of three surviving seedlings: 2 in the lily bed and one in the shade bed. I considered them delicate, but they persevered. Let’s hope the lily bed columbines are both red.

Here lies before you a broken wand. Early this week, we discovered that the hose had expanded, disallowing the detachment of the wand head. The trigger was destroyed by our forceful attempts to remove it. I finally managed to disconnect it peacefully this morning. Now the search begins for a new wand of destiny…

Rise of the summer-heat lovers

The spring show is wrapping up…the last Navona lily wears its white crown in a garden bed that is gathering itself for 100+ degree weather. We had made the mistake of laying out some pots of new impatiens that we purchased at Strong’s Nursery on Saturday only to discover that the sizzling heat had baked the flowers off by Sunday.

The plants that we had positioned in the newly prepped herb garden also suffered from the heat. I fear that the pineapple mint suffered the worst, perhaps irrecoverable. The rest perked back up, especially the ornamental peppers, after liberal watering. We also added a few more plants to the herb garden: 2 Thai basils, one Sweet Basil, another Lime Basil, three types of peppers (Fresno Chili, Bonnie Bell, and one whose name I forget at the moment). I also took two of the lemon thyme cuttings and transplanted it into the bed.

I also planted a recently acquired Mint Julep Calla lily under the shade of the burgeoning Hot Lips salvia sitting in the courtyard flower bed. What was once barely a foot high is now a rounded 3-foot specimen of green. It is currently in between flower displays, but I hope it will perk back up soon.

Lastly I planted the Imperial Dark Blue Plumbago by the fence, sharing the bed with the struggling Nepeta and the newly-budding yarrows. Time will tell if the plumbago can stand the partial shade conditions.

Speaking of shade, the crape myrtles providing most of the cover to our corner flower beds have started blooming. In the front yard is a light pink specimen. The myrtle in the courtyard, nearest the fence door, is a “lavender” or purple variety. The other myrtle hasn’t staged a reveal yet, but I’m betting it is purple as well. This revelation was a lot more pleasant than expected–I was dreading that the myrtles would be of the Pepto-Bismol pink shade. Lucky us!

Fall gardening and bulb orders

Well, despite the hurt it put on my pocketbook, I went ahead and purchased another slew of bulbs for the early-late spring show. My Brent and Becky’s order went through Tuesday afternoon. I should be expecting 100 each of Dwarf Irises and White Thalia Narcissi as well as 50 each of Muscari botryoides ‘Album’ and Allium caeruleum. This order, totalling $120.75, should be arriving Nov 13, according to UPS tracking.

Hubby made me very happy yesterday–he proceeded to apply the garden staples I bought last weekend to the weedmats he laid down around the back flowerbeds. He also began erecting the bent-out-of-shape wire fencing to keep the dogs out of the beds. Now all I have to do is clean up around the areas and cut down any old left-over lily stalks. Sadly, I am still finding uprooted lily bulbs everywhere I look. The upside: I installed some planter rings around 4-6 salvias in the beds.

More poop scoopin’ to do, as well as tidying up the other beds, front and side. Me wonders if DH will get to applying that pre-emergent on the lawn. Stay tuned!!