Making the Best of What’s Left

I was recently away for over three weeks to be by my dad’s hospital bedside and then say goodbye. It was a very difficult time but there were good things as well, like being with family I hadn’t seen in a long time. While I was away, my husband did as well as a non-gardener could—probably saturating the plants. However, when he joined me at my family home for a week, the garden had to fend for itself. That was sad but I really needed him to be with me; he was grieving as well. The culmination of a week without water in outlandishly hot days caused a lot of death in my garden. More death was hard to come home to but I cut away the dead stuff—three bags-full and found that a lot of life remained. My garden would normally be burgeoning this time of year but though it’s diminished there are still signs of hope. I had to strip all the leaves from one plant but I could tell it was still alive; now tiny new leaves are poking out up and down the stems.

The Persian Shield and one of the Parrot Leaf plants didn’t fare well at all but I was pleased to find replacement plants at a greatly reduced price at the local garden center. A big box garden center had fuchsia and white-trimmed petunias and a large pot of trailing purple verbena. Though the petunias and verbenas each looked like one large plant in their large pots, I found that they were instead, several smaller plants intertwined, which worked better for planting them in the decimated hanging baskets. I spent most of yesterday moving pots around and sweeping dead plant leaves; it looked like autumn there were so many. The physical exertion distracted me from my grieving and might even help keep me healthy. But I was sore. Now I have more space and comfort to sit in the garden and write to you.

I had been planning to paint my pots in bright hues of red violet, blue violet, yellow orange and yellow green. I think I’ll do that soon—more color is a good thing; it soothes my soul. Stay tuned.

Filled

Even after I added the colorful “designer” coleus to my hanging basket, it still had gaps. I wanted more petunias but they’ve been hard to find this time of the summer since they get too leggy to sell. I was pleased to find a small pot of fragrant deep purple petunias at a big box garden center (yes, I like to “shop local” but the workers at the chains are local too). I turns out that they’re “mounding” petunias so they’ll keep the middle ground filled. I’m pleased. I’m glad I got them transplanted before the rain poured. We and our thirsty ground thank you Lord!

Color-full

Though my petunias surprised me with a comeback this spring, there was still a gap between them and the yellow-green sweet potato vine; I like full and flowing hanging baskets and this one wasn’t there yet. I added a magenta Superbells petunia but that didn’t do it; it even stopped blooming shortly after I brought it home. I looked around the local greenhouse last Saturday for some beautiful full flower to complete my composition—coupons “in hand”. What I found was this cool “designer” coleus with feathery leaves in bright fuchsia edged with yellow-green. I want some branches to trail but I’m pinching back others to make it fuller. Another plus of this “designer” coleus is that it can take full sun as well as shade. These types can be expensive so I was glad to have my coupons!

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.

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.

Hothouse Varieties

Another potentially record-breaking high is forecast for today, and still no air conditioning. I know that some people don’t have air conditioning at all but often their dwellings are built for better air flow or they have a cool basement.

I moved the bougainvillea hanging basket outdoors in order to access the fan; it seems happy enough. Unless the night temperatures drop again—they’re currently in the 50’s, I plan to leave it out there until next winter. Bougainvilleas can be pruned in the spring so I hope to do that soon, making way for more blooms.

Meanwhile, the other plants seem to be enjoying the “hothouse” indoors with daytime temperatures in the low 80’s and nights in the 70’s or perhaps 60’s. These temperatures fit very well with the care guidelines for tropical plants. There’s often an upside to life’s inconveniences. And hopefully this inner heat will be temporary.

My computer is working better now. I’m thankful it’s not like the early ones that had to be kept extremely cool!

Multiplication

My airplane plant a.k.a. spider plant has been very productive in the warm months; it was time to let some of its babies grow on their own. I gathered up my empty plastic pots, washed them in hot soapy water and filled them with potting soil. Then I snipped off plantlets that most needed the nourishment of soil—and that fit the pots. I’ve been saving shallow clear plastic containers for saucers; buying them would be about 69 cents apiece! These new little plants will make good Christmas presents.


Though I potted ten or eleven plantlets, the daughter plant (daughter of my original plant) has plenty more in various stages of growth—a couple dozen.

Another New Thing

At the farmer’s market my attention was caught as I overheard a plant vendor telling a couple about a plant with bronze-colored leaves. It would eventually cascade, she said—two good reasons to grow it in my hanging basket. When she added that it would produce magenta blooms, I was sold. “Of course, it has to be really, really hot for it to bloom.” This summer was really, really hot—no blooms. But it did cascade and have bronze leaves. That was good but since my space is at a premium, I’m unlikely to grow these small trailers again; I didn’t catch its name.As I’ve often said, it’s good to try new things but there’s not enough room to keep all of them forever.

Varying Levels

When Hurricane Irene headed for the East Coast of the U.S. last weekend, I had to take my hanging baskets and wind chimes down. It was really just a precaution since we only had a bit of bluster; the forecasters said that the winds would gust up to forty mph. However, we’ve had as much as eighty mph since we’ve lived in this home with no problem—that’s not to say that others didn’t have problems with their trees or that it wasn’t scary, but that my garden and home were fine.

Though very crowded around my feet, without the hanging elements, the garden looked barren above—like a big gaping hole. I realized again how important it is to me to have a garden that surrounds me on various levels. I’ve never been satisfied with a flowerbed with ankle or knee-high plants that I peer down at. In art classes, we artists are always told, that we need to vary the view in our paintings in order to keep the eye interested, “Never make any two things (or lines), even if they are like things, exactly the same.”

My husband and I bought the wind chimes at a Renaissance Festival in 1979; they’ve held up remarkably well all these years. Still, I decided to restring the pipes before rehanging them; they’re strung with monofilament. I’m glad that I learned to tie knots in Girl Scouts and that my troop leader wouldn’t put up with “granny knots”!

Monofilament is a wonderful product; I use it a lot to hang things. It’s inexpensive, strong and nearly invisible.