Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Beds, blooms & books

Some surprises in the garden, in spite of the continued heat, drying winds and lack of rain.  As you may remember I WS'd 2 varieties of hosta 2 years ago (WS Spring 2010) (Bressingham Blue & Sunpower).  All those baby hostas are blooming this year back in the vegetable garden.  They get blasting sun until 2-ish, then all shade.  I've not watered them, but apparently they are established enough to tough it out.  And, no, none of them look like their parents.  The ones in the foreground (half of the bed) are BB's, while the back half are SPs.  But they all look the same, no sign of any parental genes.  (And no, there was no cross-pollination of the original seeds.  The BBs were from my yard and the SPs from my mother's.)  Oh well, they are of medium color and texture.  I'm sure I'll be able to find some nice spot(s) that need filling.

At the privacy fence, I'm stunned by the magnificent display of self-seeded annual delphiniums "Frosty Skies".  I'd grown them for a couple of years (WS'd), but they were never more than short-ish and sparsely bloomed.  I put a handful of WS'd seedlings behind that section of fence last year and just let them go, not even deadheading or cleaning them up in Fall.  Well, just look at all those volunteers busting their britches this year.  The plants are over 5 feet tall, thick-stalked, lush and bloomiferously beautiful.  Not only are they blooming white, pale blue and deep blue, there are PINK blooms.  Now where did THEY come from?  I've never had pink before.  And I can only imagine that "Frosty Skies" meant shades of blue and cloud.  But what a delight to see the pink amongst all that sky stuff.  I'll most definitely grow these again, so much so that I'm going to sprinkle seeds behind another section of fence further toward the center.

As for getting the annuals planted out, I'm still avoiding most of it.  Without rain, I'm sure that most of the seedlings wouldn't have a chance.  But I DID get the front of the privacy fence planted out.  I put in my burgundy cannas to the left of center, my striped green canna just to the right of the center and filled the back of the right with salvia subrotunda.  All these plants are tall Tall TALL and will do well against the fence.

Then I filled in the whole front of the bed with cut'n'come again zinnias for color and bee forage.  There are also a couple of tough little Bolero marigolds right in front of the gazing ball.  And that's it for that bed.  I'm still not ready to commit that bed to perennials.  There's always next year.  And (hopefully) there will be a lot more fence to have to 'deal' with next season.

Finally, back at the new 'butterfly bed', I'm not going to commit much there at all this year either (due to the heat and drought).  But for eye candy I've arranged some plastic terra cotta pots to look at. (Each time I look at them, I imagine different plants in each pot.  The mind eye sees color, while the rest of me likes not having to water. *heh*)  The butterfly bush, though blooming away, has not attracted any butterflies at all.  But, oh gosh, does it smell wonderful.

Temps near 90 right now and sticky humidity.  I just can't handle working in that, so I've been (*GASP*) READING these torrid afternoons in the cool of the house.  Ever since I got that iPad, I've enjoyed downloading electronic library books.  Not only do I like being able to adjust font & size, but it's fun to link out from the text to the dictionary or even Wikipedia.  The best part is that the screen is so bright that I don't have to park myself under a reading lamp anymore.  I read where I want.  And I don't have to even go to the library to check out or return books.  How spoiled am I getting? LOL

With the hot weather and no rain, this may just be the summer that I get to catch up on years of suspended reading.  Thanks, again SS, for this terrific tech toy.  It makes having to stay inside so much anymore not such a bummer.  :-D

10 comments:

  1. I just love volunteers. I had quite a few surprises, myself. It makes up for the failures of things I PLANNED. Heh.

    Those are some gorgeous delph's. Hugs

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    1. I hear you there, girlfriend, especially about the failures. *heh*

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  2. I have been meaning to comment on the beautiful larkspur in your header...I do envy you those. I keep trying but just a have a few here and there. I used to have a large plot of them.

    I have been reading my Kindle all afternoon but that is the norm for me these days. I have a couple of library books to read too. Amazon offered me a good discount on Kindle Fire but I don't think I will take them up on it. I have spent too much money with them recently!

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    1. Glenda, I'll save you some of the larkspur/delph seeds.

      Luckily, I've not succumbed to actually buying books thanks to the libraries. But it sure is nice to have an alternative to inside housework on hot days. :-D

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  3. two year old hostas flower? I thought they might just take longer and so although I have had seeds for some, I have never WS'd them. I may just sow the ones I have from a swap, labelled 'from big daddy' I prefer miniature to medium hostas so this one may be too big for me, but then I could just grow it for the thrill of growing it and then give it away.

    I actually started with my reading for the summer. Too hot to be out yesterday, but it is cooling off for the next couple of days. Most of my reading is done in the summer either in the shade of a tree or inside when it is too hot out to even do that.

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    1. sorry, forgot to sign my comment...Lois

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    2. I remember that the Bressingham blue (now nearly 4' tall and 5' wide) was a small plant when I first plopped it down by the downspout. Maybe these veg bed newbies may achieve size in the future.

      You're so lucky to be getting as much rain as you have. I'm as green as the hostas - with envy. LOL

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  4. Luck you being able to grow delphiniums - they'd just blow over here or be battered by rain.

    Reading your hosta-sowing experiment with interest. I have a couple of lovely 'blue' ones which were gifts (rejects from someone else's garden so quite large) that should flower this year. Will definitely save some seed and see how we get on.

    Wish we could share our weather - you could have some of our cold and I'd take a little of your warmth. Went down to mid-40's overnight last night.

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    1. Yes, please. Send rain, I'm boxing up some heat for you right now. ;-D Yesterday (Wednesday) only got to 72 - what a treat. Back to the 80s from here on in, though. *pant*

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    2. As for the delphs, they are well braced against the privacy fence. There's a dark green wire fence and additional rope. Otherwise they would be flopping all over the place.

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