scabiosa – variegatagal

Risks of Ordering Plants Online

My order from Annie’s Annuals finally arrived, nearly a week later than the promised delivery date. I should have known that carriers are still dealing with large backlogs and delayed delivery schedules.

The plants didn’t look too good after unpacking, despite the great packaging. I reported the issue to the vendor and Annie’s was kind enough to offer store credit.

Good news for my tomato starts; 15g grow bags have arrived. I plan to transplant them around the beginning of April, once I have acquired cages and come up with a soil mix recipe.

Tools and Plantings

More IG gardenspo convinced me to purchase a garden fork, e.g. spade fork…which differs from the 3-tined cultivator which is usually handy in tilled soil. I have to say I’m impressed with the spade fork, which is tackling the clay soil I’m digging up to redo the stone bed borders.

Got melons and berries in the ground this week, but there are plenty more plants waiting in the wings. Like the Giga Silver Scabiosa I picked up from North Haven Gardens last week.

Scenes from the March Garden Part 1

Emerging growth, purchases, transplants, and more!

Some views of the front yard beds:

What’s blooming? (Excuse some of the out of focus shots.)

Start of a new project…installing flagstone on the patio side of the house:

First Sinaloa sage blooms

I happened to be giving the gardens their morning drink when I happened to spot these blooms on the sinaloa sage. They were so tiny I nearly missed them hiding behind the oxalis and scabiosa. A nice electric blue…I hope the sages will go on to produce a mass of blues so as to truly catch the eye.

Both of my specimens in the blue garden have really picked up this summer. They are still under 18″ tall and forming lovely well-behaved mounds of bicolored foliage, green with chocolate rims. They get about 4-6 hours of sun in their current spots, protected by yarrows, oxalis and scabiosa. They don’t seem predisposed to woodiness, unlike the greggiis, but I’m not sure if it’s because of their current location or nature.

Enduring the heat 2011

Ten consecutive days of 100+ degree weather in the Dallas area. This is already the third hottest June on record here. It is also taking a toll on the garden. I can’t imagine what our water and electric bill will look like in the coming months.

Still, there are still a few plants still making a show…the scabiosa continue to bloom their heads off. The vinca and lantana truly enjoy this heat. I’m still waiting to see the marigold and salvia tree ring come to life; I’ve been catching sporadic blooms of the Durango marigolds, but have yet to observe the whole ring explode into color. The Dallas Star daylilies in the front beds still have a handful of buds waiting to burst open. And the Emerald Snow loropetalum in the front flower bed has surprised me with a smattering of white fringe flowers.

There were a few losses of course. The ornamental kale have reached the end of their life. I’m amazed they survived this long but they couldn’t take more of this weather, so I pulled them up. An old white dianthus mound gave up the ghost this weekend, which left an empty hole to fill in the lily bed. It also appears I will lose the raspberry salvia greggii in the salvia wall. The tricolor sage cutting appears to have lost the fight (I could try to rescue it by repotting it). And I’m down to the last Seabreeze salvia seedling. Those young plants that need the most protection (i.e. common chives), I’ve put into the ground or in the planters. Very few plants are surviving in pots, like the callas, petunias and sweet potato vines. Even the lobelia which I thought would endure are looking very dried and shriveled.