Wash, Rinse, Repeat

After those weeks of no rain in early May, I was wondering if we would ever break the cycle. Now, we've entered a new loop. The humidity from the previous day's rainfall forms new storm clouds which dump more rain the next day. As temperatures rise into the low 90s later this week, the chance of rain increases every day. There's no real end in sight with the next 5 days showing at least 20% chance, with 40% being the norm. Yesterday, another 1/2" of rain fell. Storms predicted this afternoon. The high will reach the mid 80s. It's 72 degrees, clear, and muggy.

My only blooming hydrangea seems happy. It's planted on the North side of the house and receives no direct sunlight.



Fragrant lilies purchased after Easter last year are blooming.



A new variety of cosmos is blooming. I'll be saving and scattering seeds to fill in the blank spots all summer.



Pink bee balm by the street is blooming. Carla's red bee balm, dug from my yard, is just starting to open. Mine is waiting.



The recent rains have sent the brugmansia into overdrive. All three returning yellow/orange plants from last year are about 2' tall. The leaves are getting large, just like last year.



There's a dehumidifier in the basement. I've got it running on a three hour cycle. The water is drying, slowly. Today, I'll be picking up the vinyl tile for the kitchen. I just finished some work for my former boss, giving me a little extra spending money. The white paint is sitting out waiting for me to get home from work this evening. I've already masked the edges of the small room off the kitchen. The plan is to have that much finished by the weekend.

More new growth.

On the front slope, the daffodils are stealing the show.



A few interesting ones have popped up in the past few days. This one has three blooms on each stalk. There are 4 of them that I found. The centers are ringed with orange.



More hostas are emerging.



The Aucuba cutting I made last year is almost a foot tall now. It's really shot up in the past week.



A hydrangea in the corner with heuchera. I've never seen the hydrangea bloom. It's a mophead variety.



Columbine. It was labeled "purple". This one was wintersown December 2008.



Ginger lilies. I moved them a month or more ago as soon as I saw new growth. They need more sun than I had given them. I hope for many fragrant blooms this year.



It's 54 degrees. The high today should again reach into the mid 80s. There's a chance of afternoon thunderstorms around 3pm.

Signs of Spring.

When I wake up to below freezing temperatures, I get discouraged. A couple cups of coffee and a bundled stroll through the yard gives me hope. Yesterday's snow is gone, even from the shady spots in the yard. It's coming, but Mother Nature is taking her own sweet time. We're a month behind last year.

Some of the 200 daffodils on the front slope are finally poking through the soil.



Ditch lilies at the end of the driveway are showing promise.



Hyacinths are budding, finally.



An Endless Summer hydrangea on the north side of the house has been in the shade all winter. Still, it shows promise too.



The birds have stripped the neighbor's holly tree. Two weeks ago it was covered with bright red berries and bright red birds.



There won't be any baths this morning. The stream in the gully is the scene of constant chatter.



It's 40 degrees. Weather.com says we should reach the mid 50s today. By Monday, we'll see daytime highs in the 60s, for at least a week. Only three more nights of freezing weather is forecast for the next 10 days. Come on spring. Bring it on. Everyone's ready.

Looks like we made it....

There you are, lookin' just the same as you did, last time I touched you.

Cuttings struck and planted in 2009.

Mophead hydrangea



Oak leaf hydrangea



Snowball viburnum



Vitex "Shoal Creek"



Red Pussywillow



6th St Fig



Boxwood euonymus



Others that look like they made it: Elaeagnus x ebbengei, variegated weigela, forsythia, lots of gardenias, redtwig dogwood, white pussywillow, and brugmansias.

Not everything was as fortunate. There should have been a vitex cutting here.



I'm not being naive. Winter is not over yet, but the coldest weather should be well behind us now. It's going to be a beautiful weekend.

Fall is coming.

Last year I had one pineapple sage plant. I took cuttings and rooted them throughout the winter. By spring, I had 15. Ten plants survived to be transplanted into the bed I made at the end of the driveway. They've bloomed sporadically all summer, but the real show is just starting. In a few more weeks, they'll be covered with red flowers that draw hummingbirds like moths to a flame.



I was planning to make this a post about Hilda. She's an older lady that works at the store with me. She brings me things from time to time. I've given her brug cuttings, rooted hibiscus plants, and several other odds and ends. This past week she brought me upright elephant ears. I don't know the name, but Wendy's has some in their drive-thru bed. At least that's what she told me. I don't eat at Wendy's that often. She also brought me two voodoo lily bulbs earlier in the year. They're doing fine in a small pot at the end of the driveway. She gave me the cuttings for my 10 hydrangea plants. Still doing well, they need to be planted soon.



I really miss my morning coffee in the yard. Think I'll take my second cup out to the front steps this morning.



It's 66 degrees and sunny. We got a little rain last night, but barely enough to measure in the rain gauge. At the store, it rain for about 15 minutes, a hard steady downpour. Two miles away here at the house, not even half that. More rain in the forecast Sunday through Tuesday. Hope it comes. High today should reach into the upper 80s. We'll start cooling off later in the week. I couldn't live at AmLo farms where they've been in the triple digits for weeks. Or in AZ with Daisy where it was 113 a couple days ago.

Overall, it's been a pleasant summer. Our highest temperature was 97. We've only had a week or two where we were in the upper 90s. If we had gotten a little more rain, I would have been happier. But I have no control over that.

Unrelated, I've given up on Kongmansia. The first cuttings I received last winter died from a spider mite infestation. The one I purchased in April has been treated several times and still has spider mites. The foliage is dying. New growth turns brown in a matter of days. I will not see blooms on this plant this year. If it bothers to come back from the root next spring, good on it. If not, oh well. I'm done trying to force things to grow in my yard that need that much attention and chemicals. Other brugs do well with little to no extra care.

Propagation results.

On June 14, I stuck gardenia and rose cuttings from Jim @ The Gaudy Garden. Unfortunately, I lost all 6 of the rose cuttings to fungus. I also lost a couple of the gardenias, which is surprising since they normally root incredibly easy. These are the old gardenias. The mother plant was over 6' tall and wide. Shortly after, I also stuck cuttings of eleangus and several other plants including my snowball viburnum.

This is what they looked like this morning. I've been ignoring them. As Nell says, labeling them ensures failure.



Pyracantha - I lost several, but two rooted.



A gardenia cutting.



Snowball viburnum - all three rooted.



I potted them into gallon sized pots using a fast draining cow manure compost. Broken bags, half price.



On July 2, I potted up the hydrangeas that I rooted in my homemade cloning machine. They're ready to be potted up again and should be planted out in early September. I'll move them to 1 gallon nursery pots this afternoon. They'll get the same cow manure compost as the others. It'll give me nice growth, without the likelihood of burning the tender roots using chemical fertilizers.



Here's the variegated hydrangea I rooted without really trying. I wish all plants were this easy.



And a variegated sedum I got from a customer at the store. I took another clump of her sedum in exchange for some low growing bamboo.



Then I spent an hour cutting up more of the fallen oak tree. Most of the branches you see are more than 16" in diameter. My dad will be coming up in a few weeks with a larger chainsaw. He's considering bringing the small tractor to pull the limbs out of the woods and into the yard. If he does, I'll get him to till the gully area where I want to plant a garden next year.





I promised Cat I would show her how to take cuttings of passionvine. I haven't forgotten. I've got a list of things I plan to make more of. I'll do that this afternoon. There will be pictures.

A New Shade Bed

Several weeks ago I sprayed an area that gets only a couple hours of morning sun. I use RoundUp only where Bermuda and Centipede grasses are growing.



This morning, I tilled the area to a depth of about 6", it was as deep as I could go. The soil here is compacted clay with a 1" layer of yesteryear's decomposed leaves.



I went over to the neighbor's leaf pile again and got a truck load of rotting leaves. I spread them out about 12" deep and watered well. More rain this week should pack them down and the worms will be moving in soon. Hydrangeas, hosta, and lobelia "Queen Victoria" will be planted here in the coming weeks. I may even move a couple of spirea. I spied a variegated sport on a plant across the street. I'd like to try to root it too.



Here's how the backyard looks now.



The rose bed at the top of the hill will need leaves and cardboard eventually.



I also cleared out an area of periwinkle around the dogwood stumps in the backyard. I hope next year they'll have rotted enough to remove them. I want to build a raised bed along the back of my tomato patch for beans, corn, cucumbers, and squash. The tomatoes will probably stay in the same spot again. I've had good luck with them here two years running.



For stump removal, I use Spectracide's product shown below. It introduces enzymes into the stump and invites all kinds of critters to devour the remaining wood. A few stumps in the perennial bed are completely gone after only a year.



Weed wacked and mowed close, I sprayed RoundUp again to kill the wintercreeper and other vines.



Not bad for 3 hours of work on a cool summer's morning. The humidity is climbing again. It's 77 and sunny.

New stuff

Cleome. The seeds were collected from pink and white Sparkler series.



A white salvia? I have three of these plants. Cannot remember planting them. That's not unusual.



Coreopsis "Full Moon" is filling in nicely around the garden.



My first pumpkin bloom. It's a male. No female blossoms in sight.



Watermelon



Brugmansia. The one and only plant with blooms or buds.



Recently sown cucumbers, squash, and nasturtiums are up. Beans too.



The potager is a mess. No rain is slowing everything.



Recently potted cuttings. Hydrangeas, figs, forsythia.



A familiar sight, the water sprinkler in the perennial bed. I bought a manual timer yesterday. I can set it to water for 1 minute or 120 and anywhere in between.