New Avenues for Growth

It’s 108 degrees outside and will likely get hotter. And to think that we had night-time temperatures in the 50’s earlier in the week! That’s the great thing about living in the Southern Piedmont region; June almost always holds a “cold snap” (except in last year’s brutal heat). My “rooster plant” is maturing nicely and is sprouting branches along its “trunk”. The red hibiscus not only survived the cut (pruning) but as hoped, is branching out in new directions. More branches equal more flowers!

Thirst

Today is such a beautiful day! In fact, the weather is perfect; I could stay outdoors all day but I just might fall asleep. The rudbeckias and alternanthera (parrot leaf) are much happier now in their larger containers that hold more water. When I leave plants in the plastic pots they came in they usually don’t fare too well. The mild weather will help them adapt more quickly; though the strong, dry breeze feels really good to me, I’ll probably have to water some of the new plants again this afternoon as it will dry them out more quickly.

Deeper Color

The fertilizer seems to be doing its work with the Angelonias; both are producing more buds and the flowers that have recently opened seem to be deeper purple though nothing else seems to have responded yet.

Elbow Room

My beautiful red-violet dahlia is blooming again. This time I did nip the additional buds on its stem since they were so small. So far, I don’t think the flower that did bloom is any larger than when I left the other buds intact. Will it grow larger yet? Maybe so, maybe not—we’ll just have to wait and see (a favorite line from the curriculum of the ESL class my husband and I taught).

Bad Air Day

With an ozone alert today I couldn’t spend much time gardening but I could bring in some cut flowers for a little bouquet. The purple asters that came in a bouquet I bought at a gourmet grocery had to leave their main stem behind when I changed their water today. Changing flower water daily extends the life of flowers and prevents “bad air” indoors. So to the relocated asters, I added one of my “Becky” rudbeckia flowers, a stem of magenta and white Sweet Williams and some swirling, trailing lettuce flowers. For “greenery” I added some ferny yarrow leaves, leaves from a deep magenta shade plant whose name I didn’t catch and flat-leaved parsley. Oh yes, I cut a peppermint bloom to add to the mix. Using all kinds of things from the garden makes a bouquet more interesting.

Basil My Way

When I couldn’t readily find organic basil plants, I planted my own organic seeds (that I happily came across at a big box store); now they’re up and growing well! I suppose I can move the “garden sculptures” back into their places throughout the garden since the seeds are now no longer potential bird food. I’m not yet seeing any bursts of growth from last week’s fertilizer application. Gardening requires—and builds patience. My computer is acting up so if you don’t see any posts—pray for it to work again. Don’t give up on me, Lord willing, I’ll be back soon.

A Change of Stripes?

The good news is that not all the rudbeckia flowers are half rust-colored but more of the yellow-orange that I prefer! But did the plant change its stripes? Hmm… I poked around a bit and saw two different shapes of leaves. Two plants for the price of one—two different plants? A little further investigation uncovered the tag that said, “Rudbeckia Becky mix”; ah, a seed mixture was sown and two were potted together. I get what I want plus another kind. From disappointment to bonus.

Doing Instead of Dreading

Ah, it feels good to sit down in the garden! I’ve just finally fertilized my balcony garden-instead of dreading it, I did it. Though the fertilizer is organic, it doesn’t smell as bad this time (a mixture of things I don’t even want to read). I didn’t get around to fertilizing the pots in front; I startled a bird—a mutual feeling, when I opened the front door a few minutes ago and discovered to my dismay that it was building a nest in my hanging basket. The purple sweet potato vine and mini sun coleus were already mashed down and suffering from Mr. & Mrs. Bird’s stash of skeletonized leaves. I hated to undo their hard work but dive-bombing us any time we open or close the door or water the plants won’t do. I’m glad I discovered the plan before it was too late. I carefully placed their building materials where they could find them and start again somewhere else. I also did the dreaded red hibiscus pruning today. Hibiscuses bloom mostly on new growth—the stem ends, so I needed to make more ends to make more blooms. It was getting lanky and the one long branch caught the wind the other night and caused the plant to fall over on several other plants. It was time.

The Last Lily?

Today the last pink daylily of two bud-laden stalks is blooming. It hasn’t bloomed in years but at last, the plant has given quite a show! Maybe it’s not over yet! Maybe fertilizer will boost some new bud stalks from its base. Daylilies are blooming all over town, even on the highway medians and hillsides, so why not? We must have some very clean gullies today since last night we got our gullies washed (“a real gully washer” colloquialism for a hard rain)! The rain was preceded by a wide stripe of deep red sunset light on the horizon. We sat in the garden and watched until the color faded but we didn’t start until 9pm! I love long days!

I Did It Again

I’ve long enjoyed the look of black-eyed susans or Rudbeckia mixed with orange, pink and purple flowers so I always add them to my garden. They typically show up in the garden center a little later than most flowers since they’re summer bloomers. In my excitement to bring one home this year, I forgot to note the variety (just as I did with the fuchsia). Hmmm…rudbeckia “Becky”, I’ve had it before; it’s a compact variety—that’s good, I need compact. Oops, when the flowers fully opened I realized that it wasn’t the yellow orange one I favor but one with half rust-colored petals. Oh well. Some newly opening flowers look like they could be solid-colored but then so did the just-opening one that led me astray at the garden center. Can I really know all about the many varieties of each flower before I shop? Maybe if I had a smart phone that could look them up for me on the spot; but I don’t have one and really don’t need one. The gray birds were quite vocal this morning. I didn’t even have to go online for a twitter session. Nice.

Birds & Buds

The clematis bud has fully opened! Some new little branches are emerging from the sides of the vine; hopefully more buds will come with them. A whole section of the garden covered with these large red-violet flowers would be gorgeous! A pair of handsome gray birds has paid a couple visits; I’m not sure what they are. They’re a smooth, solid, gray color and as I recall, have a spot of dark brown on their heads.

Double Pink

Another two pink daylily day! We’re coming to the end of the buds on the two flower stalks. I think next week would be a good time to fertilize or, if I’m in the mood for distributing the smelly stuff—tomorrow. Maybe then the daylily will produce more beautiful blooms. The cool morning seemed to make the birds’ notes brighter.

Free Water

The Lord is so gracious to again give us free plant water—rain! Rain just comes as a free gift “to the just and the unjust” (Matthew 5:45). Today I’m remembering that rain is about more than weather; it’s about provision. Some of my plants got watered but I had to add a good bit of my own “rescued” water, water I’ve rescued from going needlessly down the drain. Maybe I can “rescue” some of the rain on the balcony next time. While in today’s cool and rainy weather it’s less of an issue, last night when I found several bug bites around my ankles I resolved to spray my natural bug spray on my socks when I again venture out into my mini-jungle. This morning, I found the culprit that has “ventilated” my yellow-green sweet potato leaves and was intent upon my orange million bells in the same hanging basket—a black worm with a yellow stripe. Look out below! I sent it flying to a different cafeteria, hopefully in the wild growth. So I “throw like a girl” and landed it in the bush below—I am a girl. I suppose the worm could crawl back up but maybe it will enjoy the bush instead.

Dream Flower?

I dreamed one night that I had planted a beautiful red and purple fuchsia plant in my hanging basket with the fuchsia-colored petunias. Lovely! Of course, I needed to buy one since dreams can show you how things fit together… I was pretty sure that I had seen them at the local garden center and indeed they had a beautiful red and purple fuchsia in full bloom in the front of the group of plants. Not wanting to take their advertising example, I politely chose one further in. For some reason I assumed it was the same, not looking at the label or noticing that it was considerably taller. And that the buds were pink… Maybe the inside part of the flower would be a deeper pink. The day the buds began opening, it was clear that I had a non-cascading, monochromatic, sweet pink fuchsia—not the deep magenta that I had hoped for. Now what? Every time I went out I contemplated its fate; would I find another home for it or plant it in the hanging basket and hope that one day it would grow so tall it would bend down? The stems are pretty stiff so they would likely stay upright. How do I know who would know how to grow a fuchsia? It needed to go in the ground. At last, today was decision day. As I transplanted some other new plants I tried it in one of my long Italian pots. Hmmm…I thought,I have an open space there that’s just the right size and well, it could use something tall. Dug and done. I actually like the pink flowers next to the purple Persian Shield.

Orange Bounty

Today I have bounty of orange hibiscus! Orange flowers are harder to find than the prevalent pink ones so I’m always searching (marigolds don’t’ work well for me since the smell isn’t suited for the close quarters I have in my garden, and they tend to be aphid magnets) but these one-day-wonders are definitely filling the need for floral sunshine!

A Blooming Day!

What a blooming day! I looked out this morning and discovered that the red-violet clematis bloom had begun opening with two orange hibiscus and two pink daylilies joining it for a colorful parade!

Heavy storms are expected this afternoon but I’ve never had problems with wind even up to 85 mph, so I think things will be fine. “Large hail” on our car may be another story but we’ve never had a problem with that before either. I hope today is a beautiful, colorful day for you—wherever you live.