Hen and chicks ‘Grey Dawn’
This is why courtrooms should never rely on eyewitness testimony! As you can see, this hen and chicks doesn’t look exactly like what I described in my last post. In reality the edges are what’s a greyish hue, and with mauveish tips, and the center of the rosettes is entirely mauve. It’s lovely. At the bottom corner of the photo you can see the tiny thyme I mentioned in my last post. (At the top is the perennial candytuft.)
Hyssop ‘Blue Fortune’
Cinquefoil ‘Miss Wilmott’ and chives
The chives are a survivor from last year that I forgot to mention in my last post. I especially like how their strong growth (the strongest so far of anything planted in front last year) and shape echoes the shape of the autumn-blooming crocus’ leaves. Perhaps in this photo you can also see why some species of cinquefoil are called “barren strawberry”.
Oriental poppy rosettes (center and front) with sprouting sea lavender (in back – the latter’s new red leaves are sprouting amongst its leftover dead leaves from last year)
I would guess that the poppies that survived are ‘Princess Victoria Louise’ and the one I got at the farmers’ market last year, which was supposed to be ‘Brilliant’ (a common red cultivar) but turned out to be an unknown cultivar flowering in a bright orange color, as those were the two strongest growers last year, but I’m not positive yet. I did not realize until after planting two of them that sea lavenders are apparently uncommon in nurseries due to resenting transplant – like many of my other front garden flowers, they have a long taproot. If your conditions are similar to mine and you can’t find plants, look for seeds; the same source said they should be easy enough to grow from seed.
Since my last post, we got our first thunderstorm of the season. Here it is in progress:
Since then, we’ve had a second one. I wonder how many of the seeds I sowed in the past couple days have simply washed away. Such is gardening. Such is nature.
