A Few Beauties from Renee’s Garden
Last year I was lucky enough to win a gift certificate from Renee’s Garden in their photo contest. It was really great to leaf through the catalog this spring and choose a few lovely things to grow in the garden. I chose mostly seeds for ornamental plants since I had already ordered my vegetable seeds. After planting them early this summer we had a big hailstorm and many washed away, but a few managed to survive. I was so happy to find some of them blooming when we got home from vacation.
Cardinal Climber Vine turned out to be quite a lovely vine. It’s vigorous and it’s tiny reddish pink blooms are like miniature morning glories. I wish they had started blooming earlier because the hummingbirds are supposed to love them, but they will all be migrating very shortly. I must start these indoors next spring to they bloom earlier. I planted them at the base of the gutters on my garage and on the side porch by the kitchen door. I’m hoping they set seed so I can save some to plant next year.
The Double Rose Bon Bon Cosmos are so fabulous, much more showy than the standard ones that spring up in my garden each year. They were a beautiful surprise in the lower new garden are when we returned home from vacation. I’ll be ordering more of these for sure. I won’t bother saving seed because they’ll probably revert back to standard zinnias if I try.
Sadly, I also planted seeds for Gulfwinds, Summer Peaches and Summer Romance Alyssum along with Shirley and Falling in Love Poppies and a few different kinds of larkspur of which all the seeds got washed away. I was really disappointed because I really love alyssum. I did get some marigolds that survived.
The Signet Starfire Marigolds did beautifully in both my new front garden and in one of the raised beds in the back. I must admit I usually am not a fan of marigolds but surprisingly I really love these little marigolds.
When I was getting the link for Renee’s I noticed they’re having a 40% off sale on their “packed for 2011” seeds. I think I’ll have to take a look at the list and choose a few more beauties for my garden next year, probably a few things I’ve never grown before. One of the things I really like about Renee’s Garden is that the packets don’t come with thousands of seeds in them. I like getting just enough for a home gardener like myself. The varieties they sell are tested for small home gardens. No doubt I’ll be sitting down here in the next few days with my seed box and figuring out what beauties I want to order for my garden next summer.
Did you plant any new beauties that you were especially fond of in your garden this year?
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A Little Something Different
A month or so ago, the leeks that I had overwintered in my mom’s garden started to bloom. We thought about pulling them out to make way for something else, but left them for a while because they’re quite beautiful and beneficial.
When they opened up I cut some to put on my table. This year I’ve been trying to keep more fresh things from the garden on the dining room table to enjoy them.
I loved the leek blooms so much I might start planting any extra leeks I have in my front flowerbed just for their beautiful blooms. Of course you can’t really harvest them and use them after blooming because they get woody. I’m happy to sacrifice a few leeks and onions for some beautiful blooms.
Do you ever let any of your leeks or onions bloom?
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Daylilies – ACK
I have a confession – I do not like daylilies – at all. I don’t know why, they just really bring out a strong reaction of dislike when I see them. The funny thing is that I have tons of them in my gardens. They were all here when I moved in. I gave a bunch to my mom, but the ones that stayed have been multiplying and I have even more now than we had in the beginning.
Perhaps it’s the lines of the plants, that they have a tendency to look kind of messy. Maybe it’s the strong bold colors, I’m not a big fan of bright primary colors in the garden. Maybe it’s the shape of the flowers. I really don’t know why it is that I don’t like them. There are a few varieties however, that I don’t mind as much as others. I have a wine colored one that’s not bad and a light buttery yellow one.
I especially do not like the ‘Stella de Oro’ lilies for some reason and there’s a huge patch of them in the garden. They are filling a space and will be replaced with other plants when I have propagated or purchased new plants. Oddly enough I don’t mind the wild tiger lilies, I kind of like them. We have a few in the garden and I want to plant a large patch of them in the ditch in front of the hedge on the new lot.
It’s kind of interesting how flower and plant tastes are varied. We have certain colors, shapes, and textures that we’re drawn to when it comes to our garden. I find that I like white, purple and light yellow flowers in my garden and pretty much anything that provides something delicious for my plate.
Do you have any kind of plant/flower that you have a strong dislike for?
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Sunny Volunteers
There’s not shortage of volunteers in the garden. Every year I have some kind of flower that appears everywhere and it seems each year it’s a different kind. This year I have sunflowers popping up everywhere.
No doubt they’re planted by the birds, squirrels and chipmunks that frequent our bird feeder. Up until this year our lot has been too shady around the bird feeder for these sunflowers to germinate and flower. Since we had those trees cut down they finally have enough sun to bloom.
The funny thing is that I planted a bunch of sunflowers and each seedling was eating by the crows when they emerged. At least I’ll have some sunflowers after all, even if they’re not the fall color mix that I planted.
Do you grow sunflowers in your garden? What’s your most prolific volunteer this year?
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The Everblooming Primrose
This primrose was one of the first plants I planted in the garden, a few months after we moved in over nine years ago. I saw a basket of primroses on clearance at the grocery store, bought them, brought them home, and planted them in the garden. Most of them didn’t make it through the first winter, except for this one. It’s generally the first thing to bloom in the spring, usually while there’s still snow around. It will also bloom again in the fall and the flowers will hang on until the first snowfall. So it’s usually one of the last plants blooming in my garden as well.
This spring I moved it because it was being shaded out by a ‘Limelight’ hydrangea. Ever since it was replanted it’s been blooming – all summer long – which is kind of strange. I hope it isn’t wasting all of it’s energy and will still survive the winter as I’d hate to lose it.
Do you have any plants that have surprised you this year?
