Blue and Purple

It was damp and cloudy all day. Not enough rain to bother with. I'll probably have to water the rock garden this week.

However, more things are beginning to bloom, and I'l feature blue and purple today.

Remember the iris I planted in the driveway bed two years ago? They came up last year, but weren't established enough to bloom. This year, there are 11 stalks with buds! Two have started to open. Of course their survival will have something to do with the amount of wind we get. I might have to put in some stakes for them. Although I dug random rhizomes to move here, they seem to be all purple.

The other thing in the driveway bed that is starting to bloom is the Meadow Sage, Salvia praetensis. There are cultivars, but I have no idea if this is a particular one.

I want to show you the two ajugas in the same post. This is the Bronza Ajuga, Ajuga reptans. Common name is bugleweed. I don't know if this has a particular variety name, but it might because the leaves are very dark. It was free long ago. Today, I want you to notice that the flowers are approaching purple. This plant is in both my front bed and the rock garden. It fills in very tightly and I have to fight it all the time to keep it in its place, but I love how it looks.

Bonus story: I got this from Matthaei Botanical Garden. No I didn't steal it, although I certainly could have. It was on a freebie table. I worked on the grounds crew a couple of summers in addition to the grad school research I was doing there. One of the jobs I did (because everyone else hated it) was to weed a big flower box full of this that was under one of the entrance signs. You just have to be a little careful, and I didn't mind that. I also got to dig weeds from between paving stones because I didn't mind that either.

If you think they don't look very purple, compare them to the variety 'Variegata,' that I bought maybe 3 years ago. I now have this one at the other end of the front bed. It doesn't spread as aggressively, but it seems to be expanding a little. And it's much more blue.

I worked on a bunch of stuff today, including plant records. Oh, and I ordered another plant. It was reasonably priced, but the shipping was as much as the plant. Hope I like it as much as I think I will.

See Driveway Bed 2025

Little Critters

I've never gotten a picture of one of these butterflies before. This is the American Lady, Vanessa virginiensis. It's on the moss phlox in my rock garden. At the link below there is a Painted Lady, Vanessa cardui, also enjoying the rock garden. The Red Admiral is also a Vanessa, Vanessa atalanta. I just learned that the White Admiral is not in the same genus! Huh. It is in the same family, but not that close a relative. Common names are so problematic!

I'm still fighting the bees- I'd love to have them except not in the house. But I caught one with its pollen baskets full, so that is fun.

And, no pic, but I looked up from my chair this morning to find a squirrel staring in the door at me. I'm glad the door was shut. Last year, a chipmunk kept coming under the flexible screen and running in the house. Not sure I care to have a squirrel doing that!

And I saw my first Monarch butterfly of the year this week, too.

Did the usual stuff, and went shopping, and did errands. Went to four garden centers. I bought one plant. You'll see it soon. Found another one I would like, but they wanted $20 for it. We'll see. I have to think about that.

More weeding, more discovered casualties. C'est la vie.

See A Couple of Critters

Things Change Fast in the Rock Garden

I'm about half way on the first weed-through of the rock garden for this year. Pretty sure there are a few more casualties, but the next round of blooming has begun.

This is the variegated vinca. I rip it out by the bunch and try to keep it trimmed after it blooms because it's so agressive, but I really like the large pinwheeled blue flowers at this time of year, and the light-colored leaves are nice all season.

Also in the category of attractive nuisances is the Bloody Cranesbill. I've railed against this plant a lot in the past, and will continue to do so. But I'm trying to hack it out except for a few places. This is the plant that pretty much covered the entire rock garden before I reclaimed it. It's just starting to bloom.

This is just starting. It's the 'Morning Star Deep Rose' Sea Thrift (Armeria maritima). I bought it off a markdown table last year, badly damaged, but it's looking promising now! Stay tuned.

The donkeytail Euphorbia is just about done, but I thought I'd show you a closeup of its actual tiny flowers. You can see the new growth for next year in the blue-green leaves. Supposedly this spreads easily, but so far, not for me. It's readily available, so if it really doesn't spread, I'll probably buy another.

And I just can't resist showing you the Sempervivum 'Gold Nugget' again. It is still changing. I really like this two-toned phase. The older, smaller one is doing similar things but it doesn't seem to get any bigger, and the colors aren't as vibrant. Perhaps I need to move it a bit. I haven't got to that space in my weeding yet.

Today, I felt fine. Not sure what that little blip was about yesterday. Worked on most of the projects.

Oh, and I ordered a couple of plants today. Half off, but the shipping still makes them expensive.

See Rock Garden Details

Casualties in the Flower Gardens

Not a quality topic, but it sort of goes with the territory of gardening. These three plants which I bought last year seem to be really and truly gone.

Gone is the correct word for this first one. It is apparently also tasty. It was dug up three times last fall by something. Each time I replanted it. And then it totally disappeared. Although I paid a fair amount of money to get this 'Blue Pearl' sedum, I never thought that's actually what I received. See link at end. So, although it's annoying that an expensive one got eaten, I'm not too sad.



The one I'm really sorry about is the 'Deep Red' Rockfoil, Saxifraga x arendii. I think the rock garden was too dry for it. The store had more this spring, but not this color. I might try it again if I can find this one.



The loss of this one isn't a big surprise, but I'm moderately bummed. The Icelandic Poppies did not come back. It turns out that even though they are perennials, they are short-lived at best. I really enjoyed them last year, but I'm not paying money for what are essentially annuals.



I had a terrible time waking up today but managed to keep working on things all morning. After lunch, I realized I didn't feel very well so took a nap. That's really unusual for me. Had one of those strange dreams where I needed to move and just couldn't.

I feel better now. I'm sure I'll be fine tomorrow.

See The Mystery of the Blue Pearl

Third Time's the Charm

You can hardly imagine my joy when I went out to look at the rock garden this morning and discovered this plant blooming.

Of course, I knew it had passed the first test- it had lived through the winter. That had not been true of my previous two tries. I don't understand why- this is a plant that should be very happy in a rock garden with freezing winters. Well, this third plant got with the program.

This is Garden Gnome, or Mt. Atlas Daisy, Anacyclus depressus. It's not really a daisy, other than the fact that it's in the Asteraceae family (with over 32,000 other plants), but the flowers are daisy-like. The leaves are ferny. The variety is 'Silver Kisses.' I don't know what varieties the previous tries were.

The petals are white on the inside, but red on the outside, so when the flower is closed the buds look red.

And just for fun, the flowers close up every night! I am delighted to finally see one bloom.

I got a lot done today, including over an hour of work in the rock garden. I got all those blue fescue trimmed and quite a few spaces weeded.

See Three New Plants