Sweet Marguerite

Whenever I enter a bookstore that has a magazine section an uncontrollable force pulls me directly to the gardening magazines.  Most of them are alluring enough to take to a nearby chair and flip through.  But I have two favorites that beg to go home with me, Garden Gate and Fine Gardening.  A regular feature I enjoy in Fine Gardening is "Plant This, Not That." It pictures several popular, often used (or over-used) flowers that for one reason or another may fall into disfavor.  And then it pictures a similar plant that the gardener might find is a good substitute.  I'm playing a little bit of that game  in this posting. 

 I have had Coreoposis Grandiflora in my garden for a long time. There is a lot to be said for it.  It is reliable and showy. It re-seeds easily yet can be pulled out just as easily if it become a bit much.  However, I find the shade of gold a bit strong for my liking.  It is also a tedious dead-header.  You can see in the lower left where I need to snip-snip.  In a week this plant could have thirty or forty such has-been knobs. And double, triple, quadruple that for multiple plants.  The plant becomes unsightly and improving its appearance tests my dead-heading patience.  So, what to do? (Because I DO like a smattering of yellow here and there.)

I wanted something that blossomed at the same time, late June, but a little softer in color.  Sister to the rescue!  Last year I admired this flower in her garden and she generously gifted me with two bunches.  The bunny enjoyed one of them to its ultimate destruction, but the other is beginning to flourish.  It is Marguerite Daisy, aka Argyranthemum.  With no offense to Coreopsis, I REALLY LOVE this sweet little blossom.  Isn't it wonderful to find a flower  you really love??  What have you found lately?

Dawn Gets A New Weave

What was I thinking??  I've raised four children, who will all attest to the fact the I gave them too much  oversight.  Too many rules.  Took copious notes at parent teacher conference. Curfews. Job charts.  Thank you notes.  Did I think that my New Dawn Climbing Rose was going to weave itself across the trellis without any help from me?  I, who devoured "The Strong Willed Child" didn't read about how to handle Dawn?  For three years Dawn had been given all the freedom my children had always desired.  And Dawn had gone completely off the rails.  Canes desperate to escape the constraints of Mother Trellis flailed their limbs skyward and sidewards, toward the siding of the house, through the hosta, the wild child with no goals and no self-discipline. (See post and picture for 6/4/14).

It was time for intervention.  And so I finally did what I should have done when I purchased my climbing rose.  I researched.  I learned that horizontal canes will be more productive than vertical canes. For the first time in three years, I followed the instructions for training a climbing rose to the trellis.  Several weeks ago I had drastically trimmed the canes.  By today substantial new growth had occurred allowing me to begin to bend the canes.  Beginning 18-24" from the ground, I bent each cane 45-90 degrees so that it could begin to grow across the trellis in a horizontal direction. I tied each cane to the trelllis at the point where it bent and at the end of the cane.  When the canes reach the other side of the trellis I will train them to go back.  Back and forth, back and forth.  Once the first few canes were tied  into place the others became easier because I could weave them into the tied canes.  I paid with pain. I couldn't wear gloves and still tie proper knots in the strings, so Dawn exacted her revenge with plenty of pokes.

And just like with the children, I believe that somewhere deep inside, this rose wanted rules and a bit of structure.

Columbine

I love columbine season.  Over the winter they are secretly reseeding and planning surprises for the June garden.  

This was my biggest surprise.  I never planted this.  Of this I am certain because it is in the middle of the sun garden and I always plant columbine in part shade.  I have no idea where it came from.  Did it blow it from afar?  Was it a stowaway seed in an unrelated nursery purchase? When it finally bloomed and revealed its beauty to me I was amazed at its size. So incredulous that I had to take my ruler outside.  The blossoms are 4" across.

Can pink be any softer??  I love this one.  Though it is downward facing I think it must be because it likes looking at its companion, a small and prolific multi-petaled columbine whose name I do not know.

As they say in Real Estate, "Location, location, location.  I put my new columbine, "Songbird Cardinal," in front of the deep purple Tradescantia, (the Latin name is so much better than its common name, Spiderwort, isn't it?)

Hands down, this one gets this award for the sweetest columbine in the garden.  A friend (whose gardening friendship goes back 35 years!) gave me the plant last Fall and I had no idea what it would turn out to be. And here she is, one small and delicate blossom.  I hope she is planning surprises for me for next Spring.  Who knows were she will re-appear?

Bad Winter for Roses, Good Day for Gardening Gloves

I've had my knock-out roses for five years and this was the first winter that I feared I had lost all four to the frigid winds from the west. I kept vigil, waiting for the brown to turn green but it wasn't happening.

My favorite and most trusted nursery employee, Stacy-The-Fount-Of-All-Garden-Wisdom said that I was not alone in my loss this  year.  She advised me not to give up and said that because knock-outs are a graft, even though they look completely dead, new growth will eventually emerge at the base.

 And so I proceeded to hack them back to the ground and believe in Stacy.

A little promise.......

 It's coming!  I think I have brought it back to life!

Now it was time to turn my attention to the other rose issue - the New Dawn Climbing Rose.  Ideally, this just begins to bloom at the same time as the Clematis - that was part of my plan for contrasting the deep pink of the Niobe Clemais with the rose's soft pink buds. They were supposed to meet across the trellis and kiss!  Romance in the garden!  I could see some new green growth at the base, but what I really saw every time I walked outside was yards and yards of tangled and dead-looking brown canes. Not romantic at all.  And so I did something impulsive.  Sometimes I jump right in without researching, without googling, often with disastrous results.  But I knew the climbing rose situation couldn't get much worse.

  So, WHACK, THWACK!!!  Oh no, what have I gone and done?  Should I have googled?  Well, too late now.  Time will tell.  I'll keep ya posted!

It was a thorny day and I was grateful for my gardening gloves.

SPRING 
2014  

THUMBS UP, THUMBS DOWN

 The bounce is in my step and I am ready, but Mother Nature has been slow to wake up this sluggish season.  After three weeks of daily inspections, I'm encouraged by some good things I see and disheartened by some losses or changes.  Whenever I have been asked which I'd like first, the good news or the bad news I always go for the bad. Get it over with.  Move on.  And so...

THUMBS DOWN

1.  Out of the 4 dozen or so seeds I planted for Sweet Pea flowers only ONE has germinated!  And it really is too late for a second attempt. I love their colors, their sweet aroma, and they will be missed.

2.  I lost both of my Dianthus Deltoid Zing Rose. They were such bright spots.  It is a very hardy perennial, one I have never lost. Easy replaceable, though, and always reasonably priced.

3.  GOODNESS SNAKES ALIVE!!!!  Some gardeners would put this in the thumbs up column, but not me.

4.  No lupines or flax wintered over, but no surprise there.  I have to accept that in my garden these are annuals, not perennials.

5.  Ticks are back in force - look for more on the subject in a future post.

6.  My favorite purchase last year was a new cultivar of pulmonaria, a pure white blossom spiking above lush  green leaves spotted with white.  Apparently it didn't like me as much as I liked IT.  Gone.

7.  Worst and very worst, my three year old New Dawn Climbing Rose which covered the trellis has no sign of new growth.  Not a single new leaf pushing out. This is  not a tender perennial.  And only two of my five Knock-outs are showing life.  I have had them F-O-R-E-V-E-R.  Is is as if I fertilized my roses with Roundup instead of Epsoma Rose Tone.  I am mystified.  Never has a green thumb felt so brown.  Hope springs eternal, though.

THUMBS UP

1.  I have seen no evidence of bunny destruction.  It's still early, but last year I lost multiple plantings of multiple perennials.  The rabbits were unstoppable.  Could it be the "early and light" application of Deer Defeat that was recommended by the vendors of that product? (As opposed to the late and heavy application last year)

2.  I also have had no evidence of the "Spring Sickness" which has plagued my day lilies  every  year since moving here five  years ago.  (See the May 7, 2011 post)  I'm looking forward to a very good daylily season.

3.  Five out of eight chrysanthemums returned, surpassing any previous record by four!  I will be their Florence Nightingale until they bloom this Fall.

4.  The lilacs are loaded with buds.  Because last year's blossoms were very sparse I invested a lot of time and labor into pruning, cutting out suckers, feeding, etc.  I really like it when an effort is rewarded.

5.  My miniature rose bushes (meant for indoors or outdoors) are thriving!  These are sentimental favorites.  Our son's girlfriend mailed one to us as a thank-you after she "met the family" and joined us on our Adirondack vacation.  It's initial appearance did not offer much promise. It had sweet little pink blossoms that turned brown before they could open. I called the company and they sent me another one right away.  And the same thing happened.  To save them from certain death I cut them back dramatically in August, planted them outside and hoped for the best.  Lookin' good!

6.  The Daffodils were amazing!  They multplied and nodded their lovely heads at me every day.  Many varieties have given me a long season with successive bloom. Again, why?  Is it because I scratched a little bone meal into each old site last Fall?  This could go to my head. I might plant 200 next Fall.

"It is Spring again.  The Earth is like a child that knows poems by heart."

Rainer Maria Rilke