My World Is Blue

It is that time of the year when most of the spring blooms are finished and the summer perennials have not yet come on. In recent years, I tried to collect some plants for the cottage garden that can fill in this period with some interest and activity. This spring, these plants are blooming, but I see an accident. All the plants are blue or purple. Oops.

This is the result of never coordinating plant colors, other than to keep pink things (which I don't have a lot of) away from yellow things. This combination makes me nauseous.

Filling in two rear yard beds, the ajuga is blooming. These were planted as a shady ground cover last year, so their spring blooming is a welcome surprise - much taller than I expected. Leaves are green, but turn a dark maroon in the summer.

The side yard has a new blue iris, blue muscari, along with some late-late show pink tulips. I waited two years for this particular iris to bloom. The pink tulips are leftovers from last year, and looking good considering that they are repeat bloomers.

The front has blue 'May Night' salvia and magenta drumstick alliums. The salvia and allium could do a better job of coordinating their colors. Blue and magenta are too close to each other. I wish foliage on the alliums would last until after they bloom, instead of dying off as they start to bloom. This allium is supposedly 'Persian Blue,' but their color says the nursery lied.

Garden Calendar:   • Blooming: azaleas, Clarence iris, ajuga, salvia, allium, macrorrhizum geranium, muscari

First New Plant 2008

There is a dead time in the garden between the time tulips and daffodils bloom and the annuals and perennials start. To that end, some new arrivals to the garden were planted last fall to see if there could be some activity in that dead time. The first to start blooming were the alliums. Persian Blue alliums were ordered from Breck's Bulbs, but those are not what are currently blooming. The alliums received are shorter, and are not blue. Breck's promised to ship the correct ones this fall for next year. There is still a lag time after the spring bulbs finished and now when the alliums are blooming.

Another interesting bit: last winter was especially mild, and several mature orange calendula plants overwintered and are now in full bloom. The seeds from last year's plants are sprouting as usual, but it will be another 2-3 weeks before these are large enough to produce flowers.

Its Growing Conditions:   • Moderate drained soil   • Full sun   • Bone meal fertilzer in fall Garden Calendar:   • Blooming: allium, calendula, perennial geranium   • Starting bloom: iris & dutch iris