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

A Few Rock Garden Details

I just have to show you the proof that there were four 'Jewel Baby' iris, and they all bloomed at one time.

This came up last year too. It doesn't belong in the rock garden. I also have a few others that are scattered around in various places. I should try to get them collected into one location where they would look better in a group. This is a 'Pheasant Eye' narcissus, a very old variety. In fact, I'm pretty sure these came from my home in New York.

And, speaking of members of the Narcissus genus, This is one I haven't seen for decades. this is 'Sun Disc.' My records say I planted 5 bulbs in 2002. It's a little unusual in how rounded and flat it is. I'd be happy to see it increase.

The Wall Cress is doing well. This was a survivor from the former rock garden that is thriving.

Finally for today, the Lewisia is starting to bloom, and the Sempervivum 'Black' next to it is still a nice contrast. Both Lewisia survived the winter, but are smaller than when they came from the store. I'm hopeful they will settle in here and grow. It bloomed for a long, long time last year, so perhaps that will happen again this year.

Oddly enough, the variety is 'Elise,' but there are many colors of that same variety. the store had yellow, white, and light pink, as well as this bright pink. I didn't buy another. I have a lot of yellow flowers. If I'm getting pink, it won't be light pink, and I can find more reliable plants in white.

And continuing to speak of the store... There wasn't a single plant I wanted. They are carrying all the same things as in the past. I haven't made the rounds of all the nurseries yet, but I suspect I'll need to order things if I want different things. That gets expensive. So far, I haven't bought a single plant this year. Can you believe it?

But I do need to get busy weeding. The rock garden looks pretty good, but it's going to be out of control soon. In particular, the blue fescue grass is getting seed heads. If I don't want 10 million of those they need to get cut tomorrow! Today was cool and humid with a couple of rain showers.

I continued on my quest to put things away, got back to editing, and some of my other routine projects. It's beginning to look as if some progress is being made. Oh, and I put a different aerator on the kitchen faucet. The one I bought last month was awful. I like the one I just put on. Of course, now we have a leaking toilet. The jobs never end.

See Fresh Color

Fresh Color!

For the past week, I've only been able to take an occasional peek at my gardens. They are looking wonderful (if I do say so myself)!

This is the west end of the front bed. The various hostas have just exploded, and the other foliage plants have brightened up. I won't name all the things today. This is just a day about the color palette.

And this is a different angle on the same space. Not only are there colors, but textures, and you can see more of my broken block walkway I added last year.

This is the East end of the front bed, where I'll still be working to get more plants. This is basically two heuchera, two hosta and an astilbe.

The rock garden is still in full spring color. The blue in the middle is the bronze ajuga. There is too much of it, but it's easy to remove as I get other things to add. And it's such a wonderful blue! And it tolerates the heat come summer.

This line of crabapple trees is at the Methodist Church, but the color is so fantastic, I have to include it.

Well, I worked on more cleanup today, but I had an interview with an outdoor media channel and had to do a little prep for that. They picked up the porta potty. Didn't make as much progress as I'd hoped, but at least I'm working on the things I'm supposed to be doing.

See A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

If I Had a Bell...

... I'd ring it in the morning. Bell choir season finale this morning! "When the Saints Go Marching In." This was really hard, and you might wish we were playing it faster, but hey... we didn't really mess it up, so we are happy!



And because Memorial Day is coming, one patriotic song at the end, "America."



I wasn't as tired as I thought I might be today, but it certainly wasn't a high-energy day. Church, then some grocery shopping. I vowed to try to start putting things away this afternoon. Managed 20 items.

That doesn't sound like much, but the house is totally trashed, and I have to find all the pieces of some group of things and then get them returned to their space. Worked on getting emails cleaned up and answered, you know... all the stuff I've been ignoring for at least a week.

Cathy came by and we talked about things to think about for another time. I possibly have a non-profit group that might sponsor a grant for Confidence Camp. And I'm already cooking up a modified plan for kids.

See Bell Choir- April 2026