Sunday, July 1, 2012
Hot and Humid--Summer is here
Wow--just a hot humid week. Nice rains this week too so the garden flowers and weeds are flourishing. A few plants blooming for the first time this week. The first is Liatris. I grow it in the garden and as a pot plant. This is the pot plant.
I've got the best blooming Crocosmia that I've ever had this year. It's almost 30" tall.
The Shasta Daisy's are very tall this year. I've had this plant for over 30 years at four different homes. Every time we moved I'd just dig up a division and put it in a bag in the trunk and plant it at the new garden a week or so later--pretty hardy plant.
Canna's are blooming too. Very little insect damage to the leaves this year.
I planted seeds of Cleome many years ago--they've self seeded every year.
Another plant that has been blooming for over 6 weeks now is Heuchera. I've never had much success with these in the garden but as a pot plant it has merit. This is Silver Scrolls.
This is what Sudden Daphne Death looks like. I thought it looked a little peaked for lack of a better term a month or so ago. It was about 10-12 years old and about three feet tall and in diameter.
How long will it take this recently planted daphne to reach that size? At least 5-6 years.
The rose of the week is Falstaff.
The buckets of cut flowers and an arrangement this week.
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Oh Gene, so sorry to see your Daphne! I love Daphne and it breaks my heart to see such a large one die.
ReplyDeleteThe rest of your garden is going gangbusters!
Do you have any clue to what causes the sudden death of a Daphne odora? I have lost a few (about 8 years old) to the same thing. My first daphne is about the same age as yours and is around 5-6'W and 4' tall -- don't want to lose this prime specimen!
ReplyDeleteRe: the heuchera in a pot -- is it because of the heat and/or hot nights that they don't grow so well in southern VA? I love them for their colorful foliage but have only had one over the years that has thrived.
Thanks for sharing your lovely garden.
bfish, It's a root fungus that kills the plant from the literature that I've read. These plants prefer rocky thin top soil that is well drained. I planted these under large trees so the soil is never wet but it has a lot of pine needle and leaf humus which probably contributes to the fungus. I agree that the climate here must not be what a heuchera needs though I'm not sure where it would thrive. I never remember seeing this plant years ago so think it was more about marketing a new plant to drive up revenue at nurseries. In my garden it spends most of the time looking sort of washed out--I won't shed a tear when the last one goes to the compost bin.
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