Oh Deer!

My miniature pomegranate is settling in and blooming well--but only on the less sunny side though its tag says that it needs full sun. The tag also says that it’s “deer resistant”. That’s a good thing I’m sure, but if a deer ever leaps up here to my second floor balcony, though technically it’s probably possible, it will be a strange day and I’ll be leaping somewhere else! Fortunately we don’t even have squirrels near us. The last place we lived was overrun with them; they ate my plants down to the nubs. They seemed to especially like purple flowers—my specialty. Though I tried really hard to think of them as cute, I couldn’t any longer. I prayed to be able to appreciate this creation of God’s. And I prayed some more. At last, I focused on their amazing acrobatic ability and praised God for his wonderful creation. But I was reminded of the time, in the movie Fiddler on the Roof, when the village rabbi was asked if there was a blessing for the Russian Tsar. The rabbi responded, “May the Lord bless and keep the Tsar…far away from us!” Ditto the squirrels. However, I’m the one who had to move.

Patiently Seeking

I finally got my magenta impatiens over the weekend for the shadier part of my garden and planted them this morning. For some reason, this year magenta ones have been harder to find with the nearly day-glo red ones and white ones dominating the garden centers. However, I’m finding that locally-owned garden centers are more likely to have what I’m looking for. Even this exotic plant from tropical Zanzibar! Impatiens don’t need much sun; keep them moist and they’ll bloom profusely when nearly everything else has given up for the summer. When I find the right color of coleus, I’ll add it for a colorful combination that lasts. As it turns out, the name impatiens, apparently does come from impatience because their seed pods will spring open with little prompting. http://landscaping.about.com/od/flowerseed/p/impatiens_plant.htm I like to leave a few spent flowers un-deadheaded so that I can have the fun of opening the little spring-loaded seed pods and watch the tiny seeds fly out to their new home in the soil—sometimes I don’t have to buy any new impatiens the following spring! With my last round of planting came a backache and stiff legs that didn’t loosen for two days so this time I brought out my folding art studio chair rather than my kneeling pad. Hopefully, I’ll survive this round better. I spent quite a bit of time gardening outdoors today. The rainy air felt good. The frogs and birds sang their pleasure and the plants basked in the humidity.

Outdated?

More years ago than I can remember, I decided to plant my old, outdated packet of wildflower seeds in an available pot. Maybe they’d come up—maybe not; I had nothing to lose. Surprise! This ferny-leaved white yarrow sprouted and grew. It’s fern-like leaves often stay green right through the winter; it has bloomed a couple of times every spring and summer for probably five or six years. Just when we thought that the cold weather was over, last night’s temperatures were forecast for the 40’s! It was so chilly this morning I had to bundle up in my afghan when I sat in the garden. Another beautiful day is ahead, Lord willing.

Stress Relief

I finally got around to planting my latest garden additions today. I don’t remember the name of the red-leafed plant but fortunately the locally-owned garden center had a sign that said to plant it in the shade—otherwise, I would have put it on the sunnier side and wondered why it didn’t do well. This garden center has begun posting full-color printed signs with name and care instructions for various plants. Not only are they helpful but they look neat (in both senses of the word☺) And the good old cobalt blue lobelia can do reasonably well in part shade or mostly sunny. I feel as though my garden isn’t complete without it. The intensely deep blue flowers cascade over the edges of pots until it gets really hot and then again in the fall. Deadheading the tiny flowers is tedious but when it gets overwhelming you can give them a full haircut. However, once you cut them back, depending upon how hot it is and how far back you cut them, they may or may not come back until fall. I had to buy a six-pack of lobelias in order to get a couple—I wish that retailers would make 2-packs or even 3-packs. The slightly larger individual plants that sell for almost as much as six of them isn’t all that helpful either since they’re harder to fit into small spaces in container gardens. It was a beautiful, sunny morning to do my planting. While I was at it I added some organic nasturtium seeds to my salad pots and hyacinth bean vine seeds (not edible) to a hanging basket. We’ve had so much stress, and activity lately, it felt so good to be outdoors working in the garden then sitting in it, enjoying the fruit of my labor.

Orange-flowered Bush

Prettiest Petunias?

These white-edge fuchsia petunias that have come back for a second round may be the prettiest and healthiest ones I’ve ever grown! The leaves are larger, their cascade is more graceful and they’re blooming profusely. And I haven’t done a thing except water the stumps all winter.

I discovered that they make good cut flowers as well; who would have thought it? I accidentally broke off a branch and joined it with a bouquet I already had; it has lasted several days and is still in good shape.

Just the Thing

When I was a child I thrilled at ads for garden catalogs in the back of my mother’s magazines . I’d carefully tape my nickel or dime to an index card inscribed with my name and address, seal it in an envelope then with anticipation send it on its way to the wonderfully colorful nursery! Day after day the mailbox called to me until finally the catalog arrived! One of the glorious flowers that always caught my attention as I pored over the exciting pages was the clematis. They didn’t grow in our hot climate so I had never seen one in person and didn’t even know how to pronounce the name—until I moved east and often saw them vining on mailboxes—just like in the catalogs.