We have had a lot of rain this spring (May and June) and this weekend was no exception. Today the weather was a wonderful surprise, a welcome contradiction to the earlier forecast. It started out cloudy and cool but cleared up by mid morning. The rest of the day was sunny and warm, +25C ( as apposed to the mere +16C forecast.)
I planted 2 Guillardias (Blanket flowers), both Goblins to replace the 2 Arizona Suns that failed to come up this year. For the last 3 years the Arizona Suns had consistently bloomed well all summer long and had always outperformed the Goblin guillardia hands down. But Goblin outlasted them... I moved Goblin last fall to a new location at the far end of my long perennial bed, as the Campanula cluster bellflower was crowding it out. It almost sprang out of the ground this spring, earlier than ever before although the spot where it was relocated loses the snow quite late in spring. I planted one new Goblin next to that old one and one in the original Guillardia Arizona sun location, at the east side of my big round Angel bed.
After that I planted 2 out of 3 new rudbeckias to replace the ones I had last year (Autumn Colors). The new ones are called Cherry Brandy so we'll see what the blossoms look like in a week or so as they already have big buds on them. Looking forward to that! The 3rd rudbeckia will go into the lower half of my rock garden. At least that is something that I know the deer and the marmots won't eat... But just in case, I will have to remember to spry them with Bobbex tomorrow.
Another new addition is a coreopsis which is a perennial in some climates, but ends up being an annual here as I have never been able to over-winter one. This one is called Jethro Tull for some reason (like the singer). I planted it at the west end of the long perennial bed near the Moss/ stepping stone path. It also has big buds on it and won't be long till it blooms. All these last 6 plants were from Home Depot and were very root bound, but I slit open the roots at the bottom and hopefully they will grow well.
The Cosmos seeds that I had planted came up well and some of them are 8 inches tall already. I planted them out today, too and watered them well. Some are at the top of my rock garden, a few are in the east facing bed at the side of the house, and a few are in the triangle stack stone bed close to the rocket snaps.
I also transplanted my gazanias which I started from seeds and put each little plant into it's own pot. I hope that will encourage them to grow faster. They seem to have come to somewhat of a stand still and they did not have very many roots. Time to step up the Miracle Grow, I guess.
Last of all I weeded the west side of my old stack stone bed. The chickweed is trying to take over as well as a number of other weeds. I also managed to yank out a lot of tall grasses. The self seeded sunflowers in that side of the bed are HUGE already. I think I might dig some of them up and put them in a pot on the deck. many of the rest will have to be transplanted to other flower beds as there are so many coming up. I like sunflowers a lot but I don't want them to create shade for my rose bushes which, by the way, are growing well.
Photos soon. :)
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