August. Hottest month of the summer. It’s only natural that plants who haven’t had time to harden off succumb to the high temperatures and dry conditions. Among the lost: 1 white plumbago, 1 thai basil, at least 1 ornamental pepper plants, rosemary, spanish lavender, at least 3 salvia greggii, 1 catmint, 1 coneflower, [...]
Last week’s storms brought a flush of color to this week’s garden. Particularly the salvia greggii and the Desperado sage are looking colorful; nearly every specimen along the neighbor wall is in bloom (the whites have started to bud). I am concerned however with a Purple Pastel that has suffered from what looks like [...]
The spring show is wrapping up…the last Navona lily wears its white crown in a garden bed that is gathering itself for 100+ degree weather. We had made the mistake of laying out some pots of new impatiens that we purchased at Strong’s Nursery on Saturday only to discover that the sizzling heat had [...]
The Frostproof Gardenia has demonstrated to be a very sensitive lady. If it weren’t for the intoxicating fragrance perfuming our front doorstep, I would have voted this plant off the frontyard and into a more sheltered spot, perhaps even indoors. What appeared to be transplant shock or overwatering (yellowing leaves) shows evidence of [...]
Failing to compromise on a shrub to place back of the front yard flower beds, I convinced the soon-to-be hubby that Hot Lips would survive the partial shade conditions. He relented and positioned them behind the 2 new Coreopsis (Sunrays?) plants we obtained last week. To fill in the rest of the holes, he [...]