Hot & Cool

Last weekend, we got up early to beat the heat and take my coupons to the local greenhouse; the garden had a couple of open spaces that needed filling. My intent was to buy some of their small, brilliantly colored pots but someone else apparently had the same idea first so I looked once again to the flowers and foliage for color. I found something I had never seen before, a fringed, magenta/orange (together as though pooled in watercolor) coneflower! It looks like a Gerbera Daisy but the petals bend down in coneflower style. It was so cool, I couldn’t pass up the Hot Papaya Echinacea! Today, I repotted it to give it room to grow; as a perennial it should be around for a long time. The colors and shape go perfectly with my purple Angel Face Angelonia, red, orange and yellow-green Tropicana Cana and purple-leaved Persian Shield. As for the plain terra cotta pots? I may just pull out my paint brushes and paint them myself. The more color, the merrier.

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.

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.

Out in the Garden Again

Though it was in the 80’s this afternoon, it felt so good to be working outdoors in the garden again! I remembered why I like gardening so much; yes I enjoy watching things grow, seemingly out of nothing but I relish being outdoors surrounded by my plants, plants that I can nurture and arrange to my own design. In my garden, once I complete the necessary tasks, I can sit and just “be”. Today I got too late of a start to transplant my new additions, since transplanting needs to be done in the cooler parts of the day, but I did get all the plants that will be going outdoors, out there. This is a picture of the tight quarters before I arranged them. I did get them in a first round order though and I’ll show you that soon.

Just Getting Used to the World

My avocado plant is much happier indoors where it’s evenly warm though an avocado tree that has seen more than a hundred winters outside the Alamo—many with temperatures in the ‘teens, and ice, at last encounter, still branches broadly. But this young avocado is just getting used to the world.

Its temporary perch crowds and gives only moderate sunlight so I’ll be discovering a better spot soon. I’ll have to watch it closely to keep it from drying out (brown- spotted leaves are the price to pay) or I’ll have to transplant it to a plastic or glazed pot. I’d rather not disturb it unless it’s necessary, so I may be able to hold in some moisture by putting it in a jardinière (Wow, my spell-check recognized the word and automatically added the French accent. A jardinière is a decorative glazed pot in which to place a plainly-potted plant).

The painting in the photo is my mixed media painting, The Kingdom of Light based on Colossians 1:13,14.