Yesterday, in the front garden, I planted the American Alumroot, the Prickly Pear Cactus, the two Small’s Penstemons, and the Sundrops, all mail-ordered from Toadshade. It was sporadically raining when I was planting, and rained a lot more after I finished. I still had more to plant in front (I planted half of the ten plants from Toadshade that are going in front), but I prioritized the ones that are supposed to bloom sooner (though we’ll see if they actually do, since as I’ve said, many plants react to being planted in the unhospitable site by at first marshaling their energy into getting established), and I’ve got so much to plant in back that it’s ridiculous, but I worry less about the back because plants can survive longer in pots in the cooler, shadier back yard and because it’s less traumatizing to plant them into such a situation when it’s warmer out than to plant into the hot, sun-drenched, wind-tossed front garden during summertime.
Today I went to the nursery and, it being around our average last frost day, stocked up on stuff I’d not yet bought this year, all things that did decent or well for me last year: Two Tall Verbena (Verbena bonariensis), two creeping purple-flowering verbena (hybrid cultivar “Lapel Blue”), a six-pack of gazania “Talent Mix”, one Angelonia (Angelonia angustifolia), one Hawaiian Blue Eyes (Evolvulus glomeratus), and one Licorice Plant (Helichrysum petiolare). I also got one plant that is new to my gardening sphere and, as far as I remember (which may be wrong), also new to the nursery, Euphorbia “Diamond Frost”. This afternoon, I planted all of them. I’ve had such amazing germination rates of the seeds I’ve sowed in the front garden that it’s gotten difficult to find spots to plant things! I usually have to transplant seedlings to be able to fit new plants in. Well, there could certainly be worse garden problems!
Here’s more on each of today’s purchases:
- Tall Verbena: I love this airy plant, and bees love it just as much as I do (butterflies have in past gardens, too, and I’m sure they would still if not for that pesky wind). In Europe it is popular to mass it, either in a clump or in a line that’s a break between two other more robust plants (since it’s so incredibly airy, it’s much easier to see through than most tall plants, making it an ideal visual between-plant break). It’s annual here, but perennial in USDA cold zones 7 and up. When it’s happy, it will self-seed around the parent plant and perpetuate itself in the garden in following years.
- Creeping verbena hybrid “Lapel Blue”: This ferny-leaved verbena (much more ferny-leaved than most verbenas) forms more of a mat than most verbenas, and I found it a great softener for the concrete retaining wall. Planted in front of taller, leggy plants, getting dappled sun most of the day, it did excellently, blooming – in purple, not the cultivar name’s alleged blue – non-stop from spring till the end of summer, at which point I decided it looked slightly straggly and cut it back, which resulted in it not blooming for a month (I don’t think I will do that again this year). Two or three planted together will form a mat at least eight inches deep by at least a foot and a half wide. In my experiences so far, most other verbenas like a richer, moister soil than what the front garden provides, and more sunshine than what the back one provides.
- Gazania “Talent Mix”: This mixed-color gazania has got foliage similar to Dusty Miller (Senecio cineraria), which looks wonderful with the bold coloration of gazanias’ flowers. I first became enchanted with this mix at the farmers’ market some years ago, but the farm that sold them stopped coming to markets after 2005, so now I have to buy them from the nursery instead. I find them to be worthy of taking the time to seek them out. (This is a gazania mix that can also be grown from seed.)
- Angelonia: This plant is also known as Summer Snapdragon, because its flowers look similar to snaps’ flowers (and I believe it is a relative) but it has less of a propensity to die in hot and humid weather. (My creeping snapdragons, by the way, lasted all last year, till killed by frost. It even turns out that one of them seems to have survived the winter [we'll see for sure when the sprout blooms], the only time I’ve ever had a snap survive here. If you have sucky soil, a generally sucky site, and/or hot and humid summers, perhaps creeping snaps are your way to having summer-long snaps.) I grew some angelonias last year in the front garden, and found that they did the best being partially shaded by other plants, towards the bottom of the slope so that they got more water than many of their compatriots. The ones I planted later in the season did much worse than the ones that I planted early on.
- Hawaiian Blue Eyes: Last year was my first attempt at growing this morning glory family member. Its flowers are a bright lightish blue with a distinctive white eye, and its fuzzy foliage is also fairly striking. I first planted it in full sun as the tag recommended, and it did not do well at all. I replanted it beside the arch of Aster ericoides prostratus “Snow Flurry” and it recovered and went on to prosper, winding in and out amongst other plants, sometimes giving the impression that other plants were blooming a crystal blue as its flowers poked out from beneath them. It’s another tender perennial that’s generally grown as an annual in cold-winter climes such as mine.
- Licorice Plant: This plant’s commonness in no way diminishes its prettiness, in my opinion. This is a foliage annual, like Dusty Miller or Quicksilver. It has soft silvery-grey leaves and it trails or winds its way here and there. I planted it at the base of the slope in front last year and it thrived by the concrete wall, winding its way rapidly through other plants, twisting and turning this way and that, bringing silver to the bottom of the slope to go with the silvery-leaved fuzzy plants higher up the slope. Yes, generally silver-leaved and fuzzy plants both do better in conditions like the front garden’s than the average plant does, since both silver leaves and fuzz help plants to cope with heat and drought. Besides, silvery fuzzy leaves are just plain fun to touch! Licorice plant is also a host plant for the Painted Lady butterfly here in North America. (The also silvery-leaved and groundcover-behaving – but both native and perennial for me – Pussytoes genus [Antennaria] is host to the Painted Lady’s cousin, the American Lady.) Be careful if you are in a much hotter zone than I am; while licorice plant is well-behaved for me, I have read that it can grow to monstrous proportions when planted in the ground in truly hot zones.
- Euphorbia “Diamond Frost”: I have literally not read one bad comment about this plant – an annual here – so far (I looked it up before buying it when I saw my nursery had started carrying it this year), so I am curious to see how it does in my garden. It’s supposed to bloom non-stop all season and is supposed to laugh at things like drought and heat. So far it’s an airy cloud of tiny white flowers and little green leaves. (It definitely does not look like what I personally picture a euphorbia to be, though I know that Euphorbia is a huge genus.)
