A beautiful giant Allium ‘Gladiator’ blooms in the front yard garden. Too bad the honey bees arrive in a week, ( we bought two hives – the only bees we’ve seen have been bumblebees this year. Normally, the Allium are swinging with bees.
People who know me, often comment that they don’t know how I do everything, and others – those who know me well, really know that mostly, I complain, that I can’t get anything done. Friday, when I drove home from the office, I decided to make a list of everything I wanted to get done – then, Saturday it rained, and then severe thunderstorms blew through near the end of the day, so I unplugged my compter, and dumped the list. Besides, what seems like a way to perhaps get things done on Friday, on Saturday, the list was so long that it loomed over me. Tossing it meant that at least, I knew I would forget most of it by Sunday.
Sunday arrive, and after the severe storms, the day began cloudless and brilliant. So for the heck of it, I decided to list everything I accomplished in the garden in one day.
1. Direct Sown Annuals -seeded in the garden:
Amaranthus -Love Lies Bleeding
Asclepias physocarpa ( Hairy Balls)
Nicotiana glauca
2. Cleaned ( swept and hosed off) the greenhouse walk.
3. I then prepared all 36 of the Dahlia which I started rooting in the greenhouse two weeks ago, and looked-up each name in the original catalog, and prepared new larger lables on wood lathe with the name, bloom size and color. Then the dahlia pots were relocated outside on the newly cleaned greenhouse walk, to be hardened off before planting later in the week.
Dahlias re-labeled and placed outdoors to harden off before being planted in the garden
4. Moved the remaining large tubs of Camelia out of the greenhouse, and placed then in the ephemeral garden.
5. Repotted two Camelia into larger pots
6. Planted the Canna Phaison that I saved from last year and started in the greenhouse a month ago, into the Blue and Gold garden.
7. Planted the last of the Colocasia in the Blue and Gold garden.
8. Removed the last of the seed from the Cyclamen and cleaned them, then freshly sowed them into pots, ready for watering in the fall. these were set in the sand bed, where the sand in just damp enough to keep them from drying out completely.
9. Potted-up the Tuberous Begonias from Blackmore and Langdon, which were started into growth in peat pots in the greenhouse. These 12 and ridiculously expensive Begonias were then potted up into 8 inch clay pots and moved onto a wire bench next to the Primula auricula collection.
10. Potted-up the fiberous Begonias into larger clay pots in the greenhouse.
11. Started vegetable seeds in 4 inch peat pots and placed them in the greenhouse sand bed, to germinate since the outside soil is still lower than 55 degrees.
Pickling Cukes – Pearl
Butternut squash – Waltham Butternut
Zucchini – Golden
Gourds – Ornamental mixed
Okra – North and South Hybrid
12. Repotted into larger tub, a Beaumontia grandiflora ( the easter lily vine). Planted Brugmansia in the Martin house garden.
13. Fixed the zinc rain barrel and set it behind the display of alpine troughs, where I filled it with water, so that I cold have easy access to the rain water which will collect in there for watering the troughs, especially the gentians.
14.Moved the Aspidistras out for the summer, under the magnolia trees.
15. Took cutting from some the the encrusted Saxifraga and planted them in pieces of Tufa rock where others had died. ( June is the best time to take Saxifraga cuttings, more will be done, later).
A lovely tight bun of a silver saxifrage planted and grown on a tufa rock. Cuttings of Saxifraga planted in tufa grow more characteristically than those grown in soil. Also, I have fewer failures.
16. Cleaned the Freesia bulbs since they went dormant, and I needed the pot for some of the Begonias.
17. Photographed some of the cacti which are blooming, as well as the Epyphyllum ( which we’re also moved outdoors to spend their summer hanging in the trees.
Epiphyllum ‘ Vista Sun’ bloomed last night, and filled the greenhouse with its scent. By morning, the blossoms has begun to wilt, but lasted most of the day. One wonders why one grows these plants, they bloom once a year, and the flowers last a day. Since all the buds opened last night, we now have to wait 364 days for another. Hmmm…we are crazy, aren’t we!
18. Planted miniature shrubs in the alpine garden.
19. Moved the large tubs of potted Rosemarinus to the gravel circle with the Martin house. This project involved about a dozed large pots that will spend the summer in the circle, including the citrus, lemons, Murraya, the Tulbagia fragrans whicha re blooming now, the summer growing Nerine species, the Boophane, and the Ozmanthus.
20. Restaked the topiary Rosemary’s, and repotted one into an italian pot.
21. Moved the 6 Banana trees outdoors to acclimate them before planting. ( The fancy bananas were all planted in the bed in front of the greenhouse Friday, along with the canna, calla, and rarer Colocasia varieties that came in the mail from Plant Delights Nursery a month ago. Dahlias will fill in the gaps, later this week.
So all in all, I guess things did get done, Even though it feels as if I have a longer list of “things to do”. I suppose that will never change!.
That Vista Sun is quite glorious and well worth it for the plant geeks of the world. It would be nice if the blooms lasted longer, but I’m not sure how much I would get done with a bloom like that to look at.