Just now stuck 'Bradley' in the ground, mere moments ago. He's possibly a little too close to the cedar elms, but we'll see what he does. Right now, of course, he only looks like a giant onion with an old, chopped-off six-inch stem coming out the top.
Larry the lemon tree is covered with flowers, the impatiens in the front beds are a blanket of lavender, and all my spuria iris as well as the spurious iris (I inherited at least one mystery iris from the previous homeowners) are huge, green and strappy but show no signs of even considering a flower.
The crape myrtles have all leafed out in the past couple of weeks, as have the cedar elms, Arizona ash (trash) and bur oaks. As for the new daylilies... well, they're not dead yet! And at least one shows new growth. The survivors from last year all look big and fine.
Of note: Absolutely nothing in the main flowerbed is blooming now. The pansies in the pots and the impatiens in the front are blooming their heads off, but I don't have anything colorful going in the perennial bed. A chronological gap to be filled!
Showing posts with label Crapes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Crapes. Show all posts
Sunday, March 30, 2008
Sunday, June 03, 2007
Holding steady amid the rains; pruned roses
Pruned the sickly roses pretty heavily about a month ago (NOT the approved pruning time!) and was rewarded with a flush of healthy new growth. It's been raining heavily for about a month and everybody's lush... now the heat will set in!
Other crapes in the neighborhood are blooming but not ours yet; Mom speculates those in full sun may be warmer, thus starting earlier.
Daylilies have been blooming for at least a week -- the soft peachy one is blooming its head off and just lovely.
Ruellias are green, not blooming; narcissus greens have just started to go brown.
Two potfuls of impatiens on the front porch, planted about a month ago, have been blooming steadily the whole time; ditto two pots of petunias in a sunny corner of the back deck. Really pretty.
Other crapes in the neighborhood are blooming but not ours yet; Mom speculates those in full sun may be warmer, thus starting earlier.
Daylilies have been blooming for at least a week -- the soft peachy one is blooming its head off and just lovely.
Ruellias are green, not blooming; narcissus greens have just started to go brown.
Two potfuls of impatiens on the front porch, planted about a month ago, have been blooming steadily the whole time; ditto two pots of petunias in a sunny corner of the back deck. Really pretty.
Thursday, April 19, 2007
A good month for roses; crapes are green
This is Kordes Perfecta (I thought it was Sonia but I must have gotten the labels swapped) and it is blooming along with most of the other rosebushes. High Hopes and Belinda's Dream are particularly lovely now; McCartney Rose, Apricot Nectar, Don Juan are all blooming; and both "Olly the octopus" (unidentified cherry-red climber) and the dark red mystery rose I believe to be Dr. Huey are covered with flowers. There are buds on the others, including the new Gemini I planted a couple weeks ago.This photo is actually a little yellow-tinged -- the roses are more cream-colored than golden, with the lovely soft pink edge and great form.
I think the cold weather followed by buckets of rain have everyone's roses very happy.
The crape myrtles have been fully leafed out for almost a month now, since about March 23-24. (I.e. about 15 days after I last observed that they looked completely dead.)
Wednesday, December 20, 2006
Narcissus sprouted; crapes dormant
Saw yesterday that my Grand Primo narcissus are back in full force, a vigorous stand of green stalks. Not sure how long they've been up because lately I've either been indoors in the cold, or traveling in the heat.
Weird December weather's taken a toll on the spinach and pansies -- alternating from light, wet freezes to 70s and dry has left them spindly. TV folk are actually forecasting snow for Christmas, so if that comes true it's back in the garage for them!
Trying also to keep several holiday rosemary topiaries healthy. Overwatering has turned some parts black, but I've been good about getting them lots of daylight.
In the past week the baby crapes have dropped all their leaves and in the grand tradition of my family I am completely convinced they are dead.
After two years of experiments (results recorded here) we are ready to commit to bedding plants for the back bed. I'll design a watering system and sketch a plan with the following solid performers: dwarf purple ruellia; rosemary officinalis; Grand Primo.
The plan is to have a few rosebushes along the back (because I love them, not because they do well); then a belt of rosemary for scent, vigor and permanent greenery; then edge the bed with ruellia. Between the lines of rosemary and ruellia I plan to tuck the Grand Primo and whichever bulbs I like to experiment with. That way there will be green most of the year (ruellia is green right now, for example -- I think it croaks in the heat) and it won't look as odd when the bulbs pop up or die back.
Weird December weather's taken a toll on the spinach and pansies -- alternating from light, wet freezes to 70s and dry has left them spindly. TV folk are actually forecasting snow for Christmas, so if that comes true it's back in the garage for them!
Trying also to keep several holiday rosemary topiaries healthy. Overwatering has turned some parts black, but I've been good about getting them lots of daylight.
In the past week the baby crapes have dropped all their leaves and in the grand tradition of my family I am completely convinced they are dead.
After two years of experiments (results recorded here) we are ready to commit to bedding plants for the back bed. I'll design a watering system and sketch a plan with the following solid performers: dwarf purple ruellia; rosemary officinalis; Grand Primo.
The plan is to have a few rosebushes along the back (because I love them, not because they do well); then a belt of rosemary for scent, vigor and permanent greenery; then edge the bed with ruellia. Between the lines of rosemary and ruellia I plan to tuck the Grand Primo and whichever bulbs I like to experiment with. That way there will be green most of the year (ruellia is green right now, for example -- I think it croaks in the heat) and it won't look as odd when the bulbs pop up or die back.
Thursday, July 13, 2006
Wednesday, July 05, 2006
First crape blooms! Ruellias too
I just got a call from Jay informing me the first crape myrtle has bloomed! Gunter is ahead of the pack; Jay noticed on Saturday that he had buds and then we discovered the others (Greta, Droopy and Mickey) did too.
The flower is apparently lavender in appearance and looks nice with our grey brick. All have put on new growth recently in response to lots of rain/watering every couple of days via the Rose Hose. (Instructions said to water them once a week, but we found they were getting extremely droopy -- hence the naming -- so stepped up to every couple of days.)
In sum, we are delighted because we feared we might have killed 'em, and were fairly certain we would not get blooms this year.
The ruellias are covered with purple blooms (I've been watering them a lot too). And the roses all have new growth and buds, apparently disease-free. Saw the first rose from Mr. Lincoln on July 4, appropriately enough!
The flower is apparently lavender in appearance and looks nice with our grey brick. All have put on new growth recently in response to lots of rain/watering every couple of days via the Rose Hose. (Instructions said to water them once a week, but we found they were getting extremely droopy -- hence the naming -- so stepped up to every couple of days.)
In sum, we are delighted because we feared we might have killed 'em, and were fairly certain we would not get blooms this year.
The ruellias are covered with purple blooms (I've been watering them a lot too). And the roses all have new growth and buds, apparently disease-free. Saw the first rose from Mr. Lincoln on July 4, appropriately enough!
Sunday, May 28, 2006
Daylilies blooming; pansies pretty much toast
This makes the daylilies' start time official too: end of May/start of June (first bloom observed yesterday this year). 'Chicago Petticoats' is the only one blooming right now, but others have scapes. All are pretty short even after a full year in the ground, which is nice to my mind because they make a tidy low plant. If I could just remember how long the foliage stays pretty, I might consider popping some daylilies between the crape myrtles in front.
Foliage on the jonquils is starting to die, about the same time as last year.
The pansies in flowerpots out front are miraculously still blooming, which means I have verifiable bloom time from at least December through May (and I planted them pretty late in winter, probably could have started them in September). But, they are looking extremely rough -- very dry, much dead foliage.
A neglect-fueled drought has hit my roses particularly hard. Even the relatively robust climbers now exhibit powdery mildew. Having found a reliable source for copper soap fungicide I'm going to step up to once-a-week spraying and get the watering system in the ground pronto. Last year's notes indicate that they looked awful in late May though 'Brigadoon' down there in the shade looked better (which is exactly the case right now); and then a week or so later they were resurging and Brigadoon looked worse. Will be interesting to see.
Larry has a big crop of lemons that are larger than last year, still green, and not dropping off the boughs. We are pleased.
Our two crape myrtles on the north side of the front (Droopy and Mickey) are consistently wilted -- we have stepped up to watering them every other day or so. Watering system might help there but not necessarily as the two near the driveway (Gunter and Greta) do not need such frequent water.
We have been observing other crape myrtles already in bloom around the area so we think that if we don't kill 'em, we might have an artificially long blooming season there as well.
Foliage on the jonquils is starting to die, about the same time as last year.
The pansies in flowerpots out front are miraculously still blooming, which means I have verifiable bloom time from at least December through May (and I planted them pretty late in winter, probably could have started them in September). But, they are looking extremely rough -- very dry, much dead foliage.
A neglect-fueled drought has hit my roses particularly hard. Even the relatively robust climbers now exhibit powdery mildew. Having found a reliable source for copper soap fungicide I'm going to step up to once-a-week spraying and get the watering system in the ground pronto. Last year's notes indicate that they looked awful in late May though 'Brigadoon' down there in the shade looked better (which is exactly the case right now); and then a week or so later they were resurging and Brigadoon looked worse. Will be interesting to see.
Larry has a big crop of lemons that are larger than last year, still green, and not dropping off the boughs. We are pleased.
Our two crape myrtles on the north side of the front (Droopy and Mickey) are consistently wilted -- we have stepped up to watering them every other day or so. Watering system might help there but not necessarily as the two near the driveway (Gunter and Greta) do not need such frequent water.
We have been observing other crape myrtles already in bloom around the area so we think that if we don't kill 'em, we might have an artificially long blooming season there as well.
Saturday, April 29, 2006
Crapes planted April 25
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