One thing about buying a plant before it flowers is the unknown. Sometimes a tag is wrong; sometimes a tag provides partial information that leads you to a particular conclusion that turns out to be incorrect. With me and the felicias, it was the latter. As I mentioned here earlier this spring, I bought two or three six-packs of felicia seedlings and planted them around the front garden. As I said at the time, I did it because felicia did so well in the front garden last year and because I loved its cheerful little blooms of sky blue petals surrounding a bright yellow center, like a little sun in a tiny sky. The nursery where I got the single pot of already-blooming felicia last year had six-packs this year, with a tag that identified them as blue-flowering felicias but provided no further information on their identity. I assumed that it was the same one. Oh, how wrong I was! It turns out to be an entirely different species. The felicia I got last year was probably Felicia amelloides and, now that three are finally blooming today instead of their perpetual budded state (all the ones I planted have had several buds for at least a couple weeks), I see that these ones are actually Felicia heterophylla, which I did not realize existed until today. Their blue-on-blue is incredibly striking – one might fairly use the term “breathtaking” – though it is certainly not the effect I’d expected to have, design-wise, from my planting. Right now they are one of the few true unifying things in the front garden, being scattered around it. (My repeated use of silver/blue-green leaved plants is the other biggest unifier at present.)
So far I’ve had no luck taking photos of their buds nor blooms, or I’d add photos here.
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For the first time I can remember, some of my pea plants are yellowy. (The yellowy ones are in a clump, so they’re likely all the same cultivar.) First I thought I’d check Rodale’s book of problem-solving for vegetables, herbs, and fruits (I believe it’s out of print, but I regularly see it in used books stores). Their suggestion was that it was some disease afflicting the plants and that I should immediately destroy them. I don’t know why I was suspicious of this idea, but I was. So I thought I’d check their more current book on vegetable problems, Rodale’s Vegetable Garden Problem Solver (published at the beginning of 2007). This book had more than one idea for possible problems causing yellowing of pea leaves. One of them was that the roots had started to rot. This was much more plausible to me. In the harsh front garden’s conditions, I have been paranoid about them not getting enough water, and will sometimes hand-water the little pea and fava patch with a watering can. Since I mulched them with compost as well, it’s certainly plausible to me that I’ve been overestimating the dryness of the soil and have thus been overwatering them. It’s also plausible to me that the cool conditions and recent downpours in and of themselves have made the pea roots prone to rotting. This book, too, suggested simply pulling up the affected plants. I don’t like to pull something up unless I know it won’t survive or know that its continued presence is going to endanger other plants. Since I’m not even sure yet what’s wrong with them, much less whether it’s fatal, I am adopting a wait-and-see approach for now, and am going to see how cutting down on my watering affects them.
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More photos taken yesterday -
Bearded iris, budded
The leaves going sideways in the above photo are Siberian iris leaves being blown by the wind. This is one of two bearded irises (out of seven) in the garden to have buds so far. Some others in other gardens in the area are blooming now, but it’s just the early ones so far.
The amsonia/bluestar sprouted late and slowly at first, and then shot up abruptly. Now it’s suddenly budded.
I was told that this would likely adapt to the front garden, but nearly as soon as I planted it last year all of its leaves died. I was sure that it had died and was so shocked to see it reappear this spring that when it was still a wee thing I thought maybe it was a self-seeded plant or something I’d forgotten planting or somesuch. I have no idea how on earth it survived.
Fire zinnias
African daisy with pansies
Other African daisy with lavender
Rosemary ‘Arp’ lit by sun
