I Thought This Was Lobelia

When a little local nursery that carried a unique selection of perennials closed for good last fall, I picked up a few cheap plants and planted them around the gardens. I am too lazy to label, but I did set markers out so I would know something was planted in the location, preventing me from disturbing the area in the spring.

I was looking forward to the new red lobelia (Lobelia cardinalis) this season. A few plants did not make it through the winter, but the lobelia was alive and growing this spring. I thought it was lobelia. It turned out to be the crazy daisies. This is fine, but it seems the lobelia was one of those other piles of dead material with adjacent stick markers that was lost in the winter.

What was I thinking? The white daisies are next to the white phlox, which is next to the white cleome. Everything else in the bed is colorful.

The Shasta Daisy (Leucanthemum x superbum Crazy Daisy) is about 2 feet tall (60 cm) and blooming quite well for its first year. They have remained upright and growing in a tidy clump with blossoms looking wild and raggedy. The flowers last longer than most others, and I am wondering if deadheading them will produce new blooms for the summer as the care instructions indicate.

The lobelia clump (at least I think it is) was further down the slope and now quite dead, overgrown by the nicotiana flopping over.

For The Record:   • Heavy clay soil with gypsum & organic amendments   • Mostly sun   • Small amount of fertilizer   • No pests or disease Garden Calendar:   • Blooming: pink & orange cosmos, rudbeckia, nicotiana, liatris, cleome, coneflowers, marigold, echinops,     coreopsis, calendula, salvia, hostas, loosestrife   • Harvested: Dill   • Lettuce now bitter