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.