I’ve had some computer problems in the past week, but they have been solved now, so I will do a post with photos soon (my camera has over a week’s worth of shots on it at present). It had been rainy and stormy here, pouring for much of Sunday (the 15th) and raining, misting, pouring, and storming here in spurts Monday during the day and night (the 16th). Since then it’s been sporadically cloudy and sometimes looked like it was going to storm or rain, but hasn’t really done much. We’d been low on rain and the rain helped a lot of things, much budding or blooming now. It also seems to have saved the ironweed (Vernonia, I forget for sure which species, but I think it might be New York ironweed, Vernonia noveboracensis; I planted it this year beside the Maximillian sunflower (Helianthus maximilianii), figuring I’d let two late-season-blooming heavy spreaders duke it out amongst themselves); before the rains, it was drooping most of the time, needing supplemental water nearly every time I checked on it. Since the rains, it hasn’t needed any.
Last Thursday (the 12th) I planted the 12 zinnia ‘Oklahoma Mix’ and the two rudbeckia ‘Indian Summer’ that I’d gotten at the farmers’ market the day before. The next day I planted the 6 Salvia farinacea ‘Victoria Blue’ (mealy cup sage), the 6 rudbeckia ‘Toto’, and several other things. Tuesday (the 17th) I sowed the nasturtium seeds (at last) as well as the remaining zinnia seeds and the seeds of Pentapetes phoenicea, which is referred to on the seed packet (from Monticello) simply as ‘Pentapetes’ but which is more charmingly called ‘Midday Flower’ on some of the websites that discuss it. It isn’t the greatest plant to try to grow in a climate like mine and I’m sowing it late (I tried to decide whether it was best given a long growing season or best sown after the soil has warmed up; I decided on the latter, seeing as how the okra had barely grown at all since it sprouted two or three weeks ago), so we’ll see if anything comes of it.
For the nasturtiums, I sowed a mix of trailing/climbing ones and mounding/dwarf ones, as I usually do. Amongst them were ‘Milkmaid’, ‘Empress of India’, ‘Cherry Rose’, ‘Black Velvet’, ‘Golden King’, ‘Vesuvius’, ‘Cherries Jubilee’, ‘Moonlight’, ‘Copper Sunset’, and some mixes. For the zinnias, I complemented the ones I’d already sown with a further range of heights, colors, and bloom types. I sowed some unusual-in-modern-American-gardens ones such as Small-Flowered Zinnia (Zinnia pauciflora), ‘Chippendale’, ‘Old Mexico’, ‘Purple Prince’, Zinnia tenuiflora ‘Red Spider’, and a few types of Zinnia peruviana – a mix of the plain old species and strains of just-red and just-yellow. I mostly sowed zinnia seeds from Select Seeds and Monticello in this round. Earlier I’d mostly sowed zinnia seeds from Renee’s Garden Seeds and local seed racks. I really love zinnias; they’re so cheerful, and many are beloved by pollinators, plus the seed heads are eaten by birds.
On Wednesday morning (the 18th), I planted some more stuff, including finally planting the winter savory and the plain sage and a lavender I’d forgotten I hadn’t planted, ‘Kew Red’ (tender here; I grew it last year too), named for the Kew gardens in the UK. I have long had a fascination with lavenders in general, but most especially with Spanish lavender (Lavendula stoechas penduculata), which is just not ever hardy here. ‘Kew Red’ is a Spanish lavender that blooms in a rich fuchsia color with lighter pinkish bracts topping the flowerheads. The other Spanish lavender I’m growing this year is one I’ve not grown before, ‘Purple Bees’, which is hardier than most Spanish lavenders but still not hardy here (estimated hardiness is generally USDA zone 7). ‘Purple Bees’ is already blooming which is unusual for a Spanish lavender here. It’s so pretty I can’t even describe it. Spanish lavender blooms are so enchanting to me, with the lavendery stick blooms topped with the enchanting bracts, as if the flowers are wearing little funky hats.
I’d gotten a couple more Swan River daisies (Brachyscome iberidifolia; one lavender, one white) since the lavender one I’d already planted was so fanatically swarmed by tiny pollinators, and I planted those as well, and also a tender plant I’ve never grown before (and haven’t noticed being at the nursery prior to this year), scoparia ‘Illumina Powder Blue’. It had looked so unassuming before, a mound of ferny foliage, and then when I was recently at the nursery, the mound was suddenly covered in starry pewtery blue blooms, and I stopped and did a double-take, and ended up carrying it home with the Swan River daisies. I watered the scoparia right after I planted it, but it hasn’t needed a drop of water since (same with the winter savory). The ‘Victoria Blue’ salvias/mealy cup sages also stopped needing supplemental water shortly after being planted.
At the farmers’ market that day, I got a six-pack of rudbeckia ‘Indian Summer’ (the previous week they’d had individual pots of larger plants instead of six-packs) and two peat pots of cardinal climber (Ipomoea sloteri), and planted the rudbeckias around the front bed and one of the cardinal climbers at the foot of a sunflower so it could scramble up it. Rudbeckias take so much watering and care early in their planting; sometimes I forget just how much. I’ve been watering them 2-4 times a day, and checking on them more often even than before ever since some of the ‘Toto’ seem to have not survived planting. I first got rudbeckia ‘Indian Summer’ not realizing it was a gloriosa-type rudbeckia (huge blooms, up to six inches) and so when I saw they had more, I snapped up a pack.
I’ve also been moving things around. Some of the gazanias had gotten more shaded since I first planted them, so I moved them. I moved the tender euphorbia ‘Diamond Frost’ as it had also become overwhelmed by nearby plants growing taller. I also moved a couple of the saddest ‘Toto’ plants (though maybe too late to save them). Plus more I can’t remember. I’ve been working on this post for at least a couple days, so I think I’d best stop here and just post it.
