Peppered With Promise

This year I found no Karma hybrid pepper seeds left over from previous years to plant in the spring. As I usually do, I moved on to try a different variety. My results with Karma, as well as my other pepper varieties are described in a previous post from 2008 [31.08.08]. This year I selected Early Thickset. Descriptions made it sound like a good substitute for my Karma peppers. But wait ... I found a few Karma seeds hiding in the seed tin after the Thickset seeds arrived! I had the chance for a head to head competition. Both peppers germinated in their indoor starter cups. For my pepper-thon, the best seedling of each variety was planted next to the other in the front cottage garden. Both had the same good soil, ample sunlight, water, hot weather, and fertilizer. They grew as side by side companions through the spring and summer, and now the results are in. Karma still rules. Comparison Both plants appeared identical in size, coloring, and leaves, and were not bothered by pests or disease. But there was a difference in the peppers. Early Thickset was not early after all. Both plants set fruit at the same time, and both matured to red at the same time. No advantage to either. The Karma produced only two large peppers, while the Thickset had five in the first summer cycle. The Karma peppers were uniformly large and turned red. The Thickset peppers had one large, four smaller, and turned a rusty reddish-brown. Thickset probably has a better tolerance for our summer heat, and thus could set fruit at higher temperatures. So we get bigger peppers with Karma, more peppers with Thickset. Notice also that Thickset had four internal ribs, while Karma had three. Taste The important test is taste. Both were cut into. Both were juicy and had that fresh bell pepper aroma. Surprisingly, the Early Thickset not only flunked the 'early' test, but the 'thick' test, too. Karma had much thicker walls. Maybe as indicated by the color, the Karma were definitely sweeter tasting. Karma is the winner, since I would rather have fewer fruits per plant if it means I get sweet tasting, juicy, meaty peppers.

Garden Calendar:   • Blooming: pink cosmos, mexican zinnia, rudbeckia, cosmos, zinnia, nicotiana, cleome, sunflowers, marigold   • Harvested: 5 peppers, 1 tomato, 3 cukes, 56 cherry tomatoes

Christmas Present In July

Some of the best plants are those that are gifts. At Christmas, I invite some close friends over for dinner every year. I don't know when it started, but we began exchanging small inexpensive gifts at these dinners. This past year, however, I received a large gift certificate for plants at High Country Gardens from one good friend. Her justification was that I had her as a dinner guest several times during the year.

I spent the winter combing through the catalog and adding up the totals. One of the six plants I elected to order was the kniphofia Wayside Flame. A previous post documents the experience with my first monstrous kniphofia. [26.6.2010] Last fall I moved the big bad boy to a more appropriate location with lots of room to play. I had looked at several other kniphofias that would not take over the front cottage garden, so I appreciated the opportunity to get a smaller replacement sooner rather than later.

High Country Gardens had a few different varieties in their catalog. I settled on my selection after checking an online Kniphofia List from the International Bulb Society. The plants came in spring and were planted. I expected my Wayside Flame to bloom next year, but surprise - a present in July. It sent up one lonely flower stalk this year. Most appreciated.

For The Record:   • Fertile well-drained soil   • Full sun   • Small amount of fertilizer   • No serious pests or disease Garden Calendar:   • Blooming: pink cosmos, mexican zinnia, nicotiana, kniphofia, cleome, zinnia, cosmos, rudbeckia   • Harvested: 1 tomato, 40 cherry tomatoes, 3 cucumbers

July 2011 Flowers In The House

This is a past photo of the Fourth of July 'dinner on the deck' flowers. The liatris represent skyrockets in flight, bursting over the rudbeckia.

Find other garden bloggers' Flowers In The House at the blog Small But Charming.

July 2011 Bloom Day

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day (After)
What's blooming in the garden on the 15th of the month.
Many more blooms are found in the garden now, but these are a few plants that are new to the garden this year. The Echinops was given to me last year and is blooming for the first time this year The marigold is an old heirloom variety that I grew from seed. One rain lily bloomed to date - pink instead of the white I ordered. This is the first white cleome for me.

Find other garden bloggers' bloom days at the blog May Dreams Gardens.

Echinops ritro Globe Thistle		Tagetes patula French Marigold 'Harlequin'
Zephyranthes Rain Lily		Cleome spinosa

Garden Calendar:   • Harvested: 8 cherry tomatoes

Ankle Deep In Poppies

My seed order came in spring with yet another free seed packet of something I didn't order and didn't know where to plant. Upon closer examination, this free seed packet was filled with poppies - how could anyone refuse free poppies? And these were California Poppies (Eschscholzia) to boot. I am not sure which exact species these ankle-high babies belonged to.

I read the seed packet to learn more about the booty of treasure I had been blessed with. OK, now I get it:
Packed for 2010. Sell by 10/31/10.

I threw them outside in full sun, in clay soil, along the platform running down the side garden. They took their sweet time in germinating, and then began filling in the small space with blue-green lacy foliage as I had imagined. They were off to a good start.

After our hot weather hit, they started blooming. Only 9 inches tall at most (20 cm), the plants barely made it up to the raised platform surface. The first blossoms were biggest, then as the weather got hotter, they decreased in size. The mixed colors of red, orange, yellow, and cream on the seed packet turned out to be mostly yellow, with a few cream.

I was a bit disappointed in the limited number of blooms. In fact, the number opened at one time never amounted to more than 20% of the plants. I was hoping for the showy displays in the Dave's Garden photos and on the seed packet. They were, however, planted in Virginia clay, and never thinned out as the seed packet recommended. Who thins out outdoor seedlings?

In researching some facts about my tiny beauties, I found that they are native to North America, but named after Johann Friedrich von Eschscholtz, a German botanist. They are toxic (so they are at home in my 'poison' garden.) Native Americans used Eschscholzia californica to treat lice, and to induce sleep in children. (I hear toxic plants usually do that to children.)

"This species is highly variable (more than 90 infraspecific taxa have been described), not only among different plants and locations but also within individual plants over the course of the growing season, especially in petal size and color."

An interesting feature on the plant is the seed pod. It starts out small inside the flower, then grows into a 3-inch long (7 cm) string bean after the blossom dies. I will try collecting seeds for next year to cultivate more blooms if they are not self-reseeders.

For The Record:   • Heavy clay soil with some peat amendments   • Full sun   • No serious pests or disease Garden Calendar:   • Blooming: pink & orange cosmos, rudbeckia, nicotiana, liatris, cleome, coneflowers, marigold, echinops,     coreopsis, calendula, loosestrife, rose, physostegia, eschscholtzia, daisy   • Harvested: 3 grape tomatoes

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

None-nions

Onions and radishes are two vegetables that I cannot grow well, (except for one year.) School kids can grow radishes, but I can't. Every year I try and every year the result is a row of plants with red roots but no radishes.

This year's onion crop was ready for harvesting this weekend, when the onion tops stopped growing and wilted over. The largest "none-nion" was the size of a quarter (2 cm).

Several years of purchasing onion sets and planting in different conditions around the yard gave the same paltry results. Two years ago I bought some red onion plants at a local high school booster club spring plant sale. I grew in with the front flower garden and produced respectable onions, so I tried planting red onions from seed last year. I bought Red Burgundy, an heirloom onion that is a short day (100 days) variety suitable for southern states. They were planted in the same successful spot, but the largest onion was a ping-pong ball size (3 cm). Most were marbles.

This year, I started the seeds earlier, and planted earlier, thinking the hot weather previously did them in. They matured earlier and were smaller. It was suggested that I try direct sowing onion seeds in the fall, so I will try something new. How do the farmers at the farmers market do it?

I am about to give up on "30-day" radishes, or give seeds to the local school children to grow for me.

For The Record:   • Rich soil amended with humus and peat   • Full sun   • Organic slow-release fertilizer   • No pests or diseases Garden Calendar:   • Blooming: pink cosmos, rudbeckia, small poppy, liatris, cleome, cosmos, geranium, nicotiana, calendula, echinachea,     daylily, salvia, daisy, spiderwort, loosestrife, bachelor buttons   • Harvested: 14 onions, red leaf lettuce, red romain lettuce

Looking Good From Behind

It was June 2010, and my first year as a master gardener-in-training. I received my invitation for seven members' garden tours, and decided to trip on down to a few located nearby. I had considered opening up my own plot to the tour but feared the consequences. One day I pictured myself offering visitors glasses of lemonade, and pretentiously parading around the yard receiving accolades from my fellow gardeners for my accomplishments. On another, I was struggling to hold the interest of bored visitors wondering why they ever dropped in on a first-year gardener to view his mundane work-in-progress collection of plant swap misfits. At the first garden visited, I was welcomed by an apologetic gentleman who explained that he had returned that week from a month long vacation in Florida, after signing up to host a tour several months prior. The property was very pleasant, but filled with numerous potted plants, some semi-neglected and others crying to be planted. Surprisingly, he offered his visitors a free plant from a "needs a home" pile. The ladies visiting at the same time declined. I picked out a small budding unknown daylily (Hemerocallis) that was labeled "red." I was secretly hoping to hear, "take the ladies' allotment, too" but it didn't come. There is a certain pleasure in hoarding - a topic for another day. The daylily bloomed in my front cottage garden as dull and dark maroon with a saturated yellow throat. It had smallish blossoms, about 3-4 inches across (10 cm). I found it unappealing and drowned out by my more colorful characters in the garden, but was too busy (lazy) to move it. This year I have come to appreciate its unique color and contrast. I call it the 'Redskins Lily' in honor of our team's burgundy and gold colors. Since it is now established, there are more blossoms and its bloom time does not coincide with the other clowns. What I find interesting about this flower is that it actually looks great from behind. The yellow throat contrasts nicely with the dark maroon, especially since yellow is more visible from the back of the petals than from the front. Bloom time and context can make a dull dark daylily a winner.

For The Record:   • Well-drained organic soil   • Full sun   • Small amount of fertilizer   • No serious problems Garden Calendar:   • Blooming: pink cosmos, liatris, coneflower, daylily, cosoms, nicotiana, daisy, cleome, marigold, spiderwort,     hostas, rudbeckia   • Harvested: lettuce, dill

June 2011 Bloom Day

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day (After)
What's blooming in the garden on the 15th of the month.

There is so much going on in the gardens, I needed an extra day to document it all, and ended up leaving some things out. The peony poppies are about pooped out while the yellow daylilies are coming on. A maroon daylily was handed out at a master gardener tour last year. Coneflowers are all over - purple, coconut lime, and a sundown series. Cleome is robust. Bachelor buttons are new for me this year and so are the yellow oriental lilies. Get a load of the production on the rudbeckia, nicotiana and cactus!

The Find other garden bloggers' bloom days at the blog May Dreams Gardens.

unknown poppy		unknown daylily
unknown daylily		unknown asiatic lily
Echinacea 'Sundown' Big Sky Series		unknown asiatic lily
Astilbe 'Radius' (Astilbe x arendsii)		Spiderwort (Tradescantia virginiana)
Cactus Opuntia		Echinacea 'Coconut Lime'
Bachelor Button (Centaurea cyanus )		Cleome (Cleome hassleriana )
Rudbeckia hirta		Nicotiana sylvestris

Hydrangea Gratitude

Plants can evoke memories of a personal event or a person. A gift plant is permanent - marking an event or symbolizing thanks long after a gift basket is eaten or a floral arrangement has dried out. I have a few such plants in the yard and will write about others at a later time.

My miniature rose bush [28.5.2011] was one such thank you gift, and the Oak Leaf Hydrangea (Hydrangea quercifolia) was another. This plant was given to me by an artist friend for helping her with a web site of her work. She heard me mention in passing that I was going to eventually get a hydrangea, because other friends previously promised a piece from their yard but never delivered.

The hydrangea came in a medium sized pot with extremely thick stems resembling tree trunks, but was otherwise healthy. It had been cut back severely in the past, probably because it was outgrowing its home. I was afraid the roots were too shackled to pull through the transplant, but it grew and bloomed for the past three years.

The friends that promised a piece of their plant keep warning me of the monsters these can become. I have been carefully watching it and strategically trimming in the fall. It still has more space to grow into.

It is a native to southeastern deciduous U.S. forests, and is at home in my partially shaded back yard. An added bonus from this plant is the ruby red leaves in the fall. The hydrangea is also available in white or light pink blossoms now, and also in double blossoms. The one I received came with no other name on its tag.

The 10-inch long (25 cm) ice cream cone flowers (as a neighbor's child calls them) were more numerous this year, but not as vibrant white. I attribute this to the dry weather. I am recovering from surgery last week and could not tend the gardens for a while. The plant wilted as blooms started. Water saved it, but the flowers still exhibit a brown tinge. I have read that it does not like heavy clay soil, but so far is happy and healthy in my partially-amended Virginia clay.

For The Record:   • Heavy clay soil with mulch and organic amendments   • Partial shade   • No bother from pests or diseases Garden Calendar:   • Blooming: hydrangea, larkspur, geranium, nicotiana, orange daylily, marigold, cleome, coneflower, hosta,      asian lily, salvia, poppy   • Vegetables: tomato and Pepper blooming & setting fruit   • Harvested: 1 onion, lettuce

Not Your Grandma's Hollyhock

I remember visiting my grandmother while younger and seeing hollyhocks growing on the side of the house. Last year I thought these would make a nice vertical statement in my side yard garden. I imagined upright sentinels standing tall against the house and watching over the shorter garden inhabitants.

Most seed catalogs offered us hollyhocks with the double-flowered, powder puff, clown button blossoms. You can tell where I am going with this. I assumed these were the 'new and improved' varieties that other gardeners craved. I wanted the simple hollyhocks of yesteryear.

I settled on Malva in the catalog. After starting seeds, watching them grow and bloom, I included them in a Garden Blogger's Bloom Day post [15.8.2010]. There I lamented the small open petal blooms and held out hope that the following year would bring different results.

It's the following year, and they're back. Canes are not straight and tall, but are growing in a mangled twisted forsythia-like mess. (The photo was taken before they went wild.) The canes and flowers are numerous - not the tall orderly soldiers expected, but haphazard disheveled conscripts. It turns out I don't have hollyhocks - I have mallow or French hollyhocks - Malva sylvestris. Oops.

Stalks are 5 feet tall (1.5 m) if upright, but after starting out upright, most have become arched, bowed, and tortuous as they grew. Aphids love them. Leaf miners lover them. Mites love them. I do not. I am going to cut them down and see if they grow into a bush.

Give me the tall single flowered heirlooms for next year.

For The Record:   • Heavy clay soil   • Hot south-facing full sun along the house   • Mites, leaf miners, and aphids Garden Calendar:   • Blooming:hydrangea, hosta, nicotiana, larkspur, rose, salvia, coneflower, cleome, geranium, daylily

Pipsqueak Rose

My only rose bush is tiny. On New Year's Day, I host an annual open house for neighbors, who usually bring contributions of wine or food. Two years ago, my next door neighbors brought me a miniature rose bush in a small pot. Its name on the tag was "Miniature Rose Bush." Well, they were not gardeners, you can tell.

It grew through winter in its cozy pot at the base of my east-facing french doors. Actually, it did not grow, but it did not die. Having survived the winter, it was placed at the side yard, along stepped platforms [3.09.2009] leading to my new deck. This area was being landscaped, and I needed something to keep the cactus [24.06.2009] company and reduce the runoff down the slope.

Two years and two winters later, it prospers in its sunny dry spot. Last year, it bloomed profusely at times during the summer, interrupted by periods of rest. Flowers are vivid red and fade to a light red-pink after about a week. They have little fragrance, and no real stems for cutting.

I trimmed it back last fall like a good gardener, and this spring it responded by growing into a bushy ball about one foot (30 cm) high. And, it now sports multi-blooms on a single branch. It fits in adjacent to the walking surface where it gets noticed.

For The Record:   • Heavy clay soil with gypsum & organic amendments   • Full sun   • Small amount of fertilizer   • Little disease, but a few aphid outbreaks Garden Calendar:   • Blooming: hydrangea, nicotiana, larkspur, bachelor buttons, coneflower,     rose, hollyhock, phlox, salvia, geranium