Peonies and Lace

Peony 'Karl Rosenfeld'

 Ooh it’s almost time for Peony season.  Hope these beauties get a chance to shine before the spring rains demolish their bountiful blooms.  This particular variety is not fragrant but I have a couple of ‘Sandra Bernhardts’ that have a very pleasant scent.  Their in full bud as well.  It shouldn’t be too much longer now. 

Queen Anne's Lace

Hey remember those seeds that Les @ A Tidewater Gardener shared with me and Janet (The Queen of Seaford) when we went to visit him last summer at  Smithfield Gardens?  Well I guess my last minute scattering this past fall was successful.  In fact maybe a bit too successful, I have them popping up everywhere, lol.  That’s okay, I’m removing the ones I don’t want and keeping a few of the larger specimens. For example this one is about 3-3 1/2 foot tall. 

P.S.   I stopped by the Learning Garden plant sale this morning and chatted with Janet for a few minutes. I picked up a few goodies while I was there and thankfully my youngest son was along to help carry them.    I’ll post a picture of my new stuff soon.

This and That

Toadlily 'Purple Beauty'

This is one of my newest additions this year to the garden.  I’ve had another cultivar for years but I don’t know the name of it anymore.  You can see a picture of it in a previous post here.  Don’t you love the fuzzy buds? 

Seedhead of Butterfly Weed

When I was strolling through the garden this morning I noticed this strange looking seedhead on the Butterfly Weed.  This plant is one I definitely want to encourage to thrive.  It’s been difficult to get one established in the past, but I think I finally got the right location.

Yorktown Onion

One plant I’m thrilled to see finally emerging is the Yorktown Onion or Allium ampeloprasum.   You can read more about this non-native here.  I planted a dormant clump of it earlier this year and figured it was dead when nothing sprouted by summer.  Looks like I’ll have something to look forward to next year.

Seeds and Seedlings

Last year I had such a hard time finding seed for fall planting that I decided I better pick my seeds up now while the stock was plentiful.  And they are actually marking everything down 60-70% in the stores so they can get rid of it.  Here are some of the things I plan on sowing late summer for a autumn harvest.  I got  ‘Black Seeded Simpson’ Lettuce, a blend of Looseleaf Lettuces, ‘Cherry Belle’ Radishes, Mesculin Spicy Mix, and ‘Baby’s Leaf’ Spinach.  

I couldn’t resist these two interesting colors of Nasturiums either.  The colors remind me of Peaches and Chocolate…yum!  I’m thinking of putting these in some hanging containers and I better do that soon.

Now for the seedlings portion of this post.  Ta Da! My purple Hyacinth Bean has quickly sprouted under the new trellises that I mounted last week in the New Garden.  All that rain this weekend must of kicked these annual climbers into gear.  Hope they quickly wind their way up the supports. 

Vertical Growing Space

At one time these 4 ft trellises supported my Clematis ‘Niobe’ in the Rose Bed.   When I moved ‘Niobe’ to the front foundation bed they were assigned to the Veggie Garden.  However after considering how short they were for squash, beans and cukes they were replaced with 6 ft composite ones.  So they were homeless again and I’m a big believer in reusing things in the garden. Last December I received quite a few annual seed vines in the mail during my seed swap with other bloggers.  But I was running out of vertical growing space so it was time to repurpose these again.  They were a bit short so I decided to mount them on the fence at the back of the New Garden bed instead of sticking them into the ground.  My Mom gave me the idea of using cup hooks.  Thanks Mom! 

 

And I have the perfect seeds to grow here.  This garden is shades of purple and yellow so the Hyacinth Bean seeds that Brenda @ View From the Pines sent me will be a great addition. I love how she printed a photo of the vine on this envelope, isn’t that clever?  I’ve never grown this particular climber so it will be fun to watch it scurry up the newly placed supports.  Plus it will disguise a large chunk of that plain wooden privacy fence.  You can never have too much vertical growing space in the garden in my opinion. 

Indoor sowing update

Cosmo 'Psyche White'

As you can see in the photo above the Cosmos bipinnatus seedlings are doing well.  They now have their first true leaves.   On the other hand the seedlings from the Angelonia are just emerging and are so teeny-tiny that trying to photograph them was impossible.  While I was distracted with family stuff they did suffer a minor dry spell when I forgot fill the reservoir tank so that the wicking mat could keep them moist.  Hopefully they will recover from this slight neglect soon. 

Yellow Bell Pepper

I planted 4 types of peppers from the seed Darla at Family and Flowers sent me this past December during our seed swap.  Strangely though the only emerging seedlings so far are from the Yellow Bell Peppers.  I’m going to wait a bit longer and if the others don’t emerge I’ll just plant more seed.  So far it has been fairly painless but I still prefer direct sowing.