Garden: A Tale of Two Seeds

One night recently (in the middle of the night!), it came to me in a flash of clarity that the plant I need in my front garden bed is Epilobium angustifolium "album" or the white form of fireweed.

My front garden features plants that have (generally) one of three shapes:  dense, mounded plants that come from a tight crown (like Sedum "Autumn Joy", hardy geraniums, Amsonia "Blue Ice" and even some of the grasses and Allium "Summer Beauty"); then there are the tall verticals, my favorite of which is the Digitalis parviflora; and, finally, the weavers, creepers, and ground covers which are supposed to knit it all together and to provide a light and airy counterpoint to the rather solid mounds of foliage.  It is within this group that I have had the most difficulty in choosing the right plants.  I tend to choose annuals for this and, in the past, I've used Ammi magus, Ammi visnaga, Euphorbia "Diamond Frost" and various other things.  While there have been some successes, I have not yet come up with a combination that really hits the target.  

I devoted much time during the winter to solving this dilemma--surfing the internet and paging through seed catalogs.  As a result, I ended up with TONS of seeds--too many seeds, too many varieties, and just too many half-baked ideas.  So I decided to back away from the seed stash and think things through.  I knew that I wanted, maybe, just three varieties of filler plants--one taller, one shorter, and one as an accent.  I already had Nigella "African Bride" in mind as a shorter filler and a really dark purple/black breadseed poppy as an accent plant.  What, then, would be a suitable taller plant with ethereal white flowers--preferably spikes instead of umbels (because I already have a lot of umbels)?  And that's when I decided that I needed the Epilobium 'Album" to complete the picture.  I found seed at Plant World Seeds  and ordered it (two packages plus a third one free with purchase) and in a week or so I had yet another three packages of seeds to add to the collection.  Ironic, isn't it, that my solution to having too many varieties and too much seed was to buy more seeds?!

Tiny, tiny Epilobium seed.

Wow.  Those seeds were really tiny.  I had to use a dampened metal skewer to lift small groups of them into the planting pellets.  I have no idea how many seeds were included in the package, but I struggled to plant-up 20 individual grow pellets.  I sprinkled a second package of seeds into a milk carton "greenhouse" and I put those in a somewhat protected area outside.  And then I waited.  I pretty much ignored the seeds in the milk carton.  But I showered love on the seeds in the grow pellets--I misted them lightly with spring water,  monitored and adjusted the heat of their grow mat, and pushed them around the dining table to make the most of the available sunlight.  

So... I expect that you know how this turns out.  The seeds in the grow pellets sprouted a couple of days before those that were planted in the milk carton, but since then they have struggled and dwindled.  The seeds in the milk carton have thrived.  In each case, five seeds sprouted.  I thought it was a bit weird that the germination rate was that consistent (more than likely a coincidence), but it was also low--I read online somewhere that germination rate is about 1/5-6 and I have to believe that there were more than 25-30 seeds per packet. 

April 19th -- Here is the one of the first sprouts from the planting pellet group.  This was several weeks after planting and it was still so tiny that I had to use the macro lens to photograph it.  I've got my doubts about the paternity of this one--I think a white-flowered form would be pale green in all parts.  At first, I thought the red might be due to sunburn or to some other cultivation issue, but I now suspect that it might be a rogue plant due to open pollination.

Baby Epilobium angustifolium "album" (?) in a grow pellet on April 19th.

Grow pellet group on May 13th.  Only the one red seedling and one tiny green plant remain.

Milk carton group on May 13th.  Five healthy babies.  Time to pot them on, I think.  They grew pretty dramatically during the 2-3 warm days we had recently.

Tiny seeds equals tiny plants--I guess that's just common sense.  But I can't get over how tiny these plants still are eight weeks or so after sowing.  I'd hoped to see flowers this year, but now I just hope that I'll be able to find the plants themselves after planting out! 

The Epilobiums will go in the bare areas towards the bottom right of the photo--
mixing with the lilies.

The wide view shows our grass-renovation effort in progress.  Fingers crossed, the Epilobiums will go in the area to the far left and the Nigella and whatnot will go in amongst the sedums and Pennisetum "Hameln".

Garden: Today's Photo from the Carport Bed

I wonder if this will be the height of the bloom for plants in the Carport Bed?  While this planting will be less floriferous in Summer and Fall than it is at present, I hope it will  continue look nice as the grasses predominate and the Sweet Cicely and "Jolly Bee" geranium come into flower.  Here's a photo taken today from a bee's ankles point of view:

Lots of bee-food in the Carport Bed.

Garden: The Monster on the Other Side of the Street

The die was cast about fifteen years ago when my neighbor Jean decided to forego regular maintenance on her modest, mid-century home.  So it was probably inevitable that, last year, she sold her home to one of those developers who post "Cash for Ugly Houses" signs on telephone poles and bus shelters.  No one knew that she was going to sell her home and, as far as we know, it never went on the market.  As her neighbors, the first sign we had that something was afoot was a 1-800-GOT JUNK truck pulled up out front, closely followed by a team of surveyors who scouted out the property boundary markers.  It was pretty obvious what was going to go down and it was Jean's house.

Jean's house bites the dust.

Fast forward to today, when the new monstrosity goes on the housing market.  I view the new house with more equanimity than most.  Although I feel crowded by it and rue the loss of the view of morning sunrises, it is not looming over my home as it does its immediate neighbors.   But it is painful to look upon it and to reflect on the poor design, the missed opportunities, and the builder's failures to make the most of the architecture and the "landscape".  I could go on and on (and, in fact, I have--to whomever would listen) about the lack of thought that went into the design of the sides of the home, the bilaterally mis-matched windows, the inclusion of the gimpy bathroom windows which completely ruin the appearance of the facade, the poor design of the enclosed roof-top deck, the (to my mind) incorrectly built stoop, the unlivable floor plan, and the complete failure to honor the "paperclip" design motif--but I won't.  Today, I want to focus on the failures of the "landscaping".  It's just so bad.  And the coup de grace is that I overheard the landscaper and the builder in discussions and one said, "Well, it's all going to die anyway, but it looks good now." And the other one said, "And that's what's important, isn't it?!"  Enough said!  Well, maybe not.  Judge for yourself if it looks "good" now.

This is the new house in all its glory.  The planting on the left includes a small maple, a pieris, and a cordyline or dracaena of some sort,  On the right there's a weeping pussy willow planted about six inches from the foundation.  And on the very far right...

Look at the poor azalea that's squeezed into a square foot and a half of soil to the right of the stoop.  Do you see why I think they built the stoop incorrectly?  Wouldn't it make more sense to align the top of the deck with the outside of the wood paneled portion of the facade?  If done that way, the little bit of unclad foundation wouldn't be exposed, the line of the deck would make much more sense in relation to this portion of the facade, and the step would extend all the way to the driveway--thereby negating the need for the odd little bit of mismatched paving and the azalea.  Mistakes were made, in my opinion.

So sad azalea.  Infill patch of random, tumbled pavers.

Along the sidewalk--boxwood, vinca, ajuga, boxwood, vinca, ajuga... (and horse-tail).

Along the driveway--juniper, skimmia?, vinca, ajuga, juniper, skimmia, vinca, ajuga... Don't forget to check out the swale in the Home Depot paver walkway (top of the photo)--that first step's gonna be a doozy when it rains.  And why didn't they think ahead to pour the walkway (and maybe other landscape features) at the same time as they poured the cement driveway?

Potted arrangement of dracaena and Clematis armandii (I think).

SO.  That's the new house.  I'm going to start working (right now) on keeping my opinions to myself.  If past experience serves as a guide, the new residents will have an uphill battle to become part of the neighborhood.  Most neighbors feel as though purchase of a home like this is a public display of moral failings.  And, certainly, it will be hard to respect the design sensibilities of people who can not immediately register the shortcomings of this construction. But not as hard as it has been to ignore the recent, chipper remarks of the real-estate agent who thinks we should all be happy that this new home will raise our property values! And that's debatable because it is cheaper (in every way) than is our home on a per square foot basis.

Garden: Spring Comes First to the Carport Bed

Plants in the "carport bed" are among the first to wake up in Spring.  This is a small bed--about 12'X8', and is located to the right of the entry path and adjacent to the carport.  It faces East and South and receives full sun in the morning and early mid-day (during the Summer) before becoming shaded by the house.  

In some ways, this is my "most complete" garden.  It has an open canopy provided by two multi-stemmed vine maples, understory shrubs (Ribes sanguineum and Fothergilla gardenii), grasses (Chasmanthium latifolium and Hakonechloa macra), perennials (Myrrhis odorata, Geum "Flames of Passion", Salvia lyrata "Purple Volcano", Allium "Summer Beauty"), and ground covers (Ajuga genevensis and Ajuga reptans "Mahogany").  I think it fits with the overall aesthetic that I am trying to build--a sort of casual place (well--I don't know if my control-freak tendencies will ever allow "casual" but, at least, I am striving to avoid "fussy") where moist meadow meets ungroomed hedgerow or woodland edge.  This bed is especially pleasing in early Spring as the Ajuga remains fairly evergreen and robust throughout the Winter and is among the first of my plants to push out new growth.  When I planted this bed, I'd hoped to see the Ajuga and the Geum flowering together--mostly, they do.  Yea!  Here it is today and the bloom will continue to improve over the next month or so. 

As the planting matures, the layering should become more apparent--with trees (up), shrubs filling in underneath and masking the fence a little bit, and grasses and ground covers bringing it all together.

Green and purple ground covers mingle.

Geum "Flames of Passion" gets a close-up.  I wish the flowers were a mustier color--they're a lot brighter than I'd hoped to see.  Still pretty, though, and very welcome in the Spring.

Ajuga genevensis pushes upwards.

Geum with purple background contributed by Salvia lyrata.

The plants included in this bed also look pretty good all season.  The Salvia lyrata blooms early in the year, but the flower stalks are rigid and strong and the bracts bleach to white on the purple stems giving an effect that, while different than the flowers, remains attractive throughout the year.  I do tidy-up the spent stalks of the Ajuga and the Geum, but that's about all the maintenance that is required in this bed.  

In an effort to extend the bloom and to tie this area together with the rest of the front yard garden (across the entry path), I planted a small cutting of "Jolly Bee" hardy geranium last Fall.  I am already second-guessing this decision.  "Jolly Bee" ran rampant last year and almost ate the rest of the garden.  Here, it will easily outpace its neighbors and I think the Ajuga, at least, may resent being covered-up.  But, hey, the Geranium can be cut back as needed.  I'm trying to hold firm to my decision and see how it plays out.  

So, that's the carport bed on this Spring (rather odd Spring) day.  Bye, all!

Garden: Photos Only a Gardener Could Love

Well, hello there, everybody!  I sorta feel like I should knock on wood for writing (or even for thinking) this, but it really feels like Spring has sprung.  We've had a several stretches of unseasonably warm weather during the past couple of weeks and the garden is burgeoning with life.  It's been rainy though, and that's made it a tough decision whether or not to go into the garden.  It is still quite soggy out there.  But new growth is starting to push up among the old so I had to get out there and do some cutting back and cleaning up.  I brought along the camera and snapped a few pictures of things that probably only another gardener will appreciate!

My neighbor's ancient cherry tree is among the first of the neighborhood trees to bloom.  Don't you love how gnarled and moss-covered are its branches?  

My neighbor's cherry.

I worry about this tree because it's been completely defoliated every year by some sort of fungus.  Each time, it seems a bit slower to rebound but it keeps coming back.  I enjoy it in Spring and it makes a nice backdrop for most of the pictures that I take in the front garden.  And the wildlife appreciate it as well--it is home/lookout for a couple of hummingbirds and today the tree was humming with bees.

Cherry blossom close-up.

Moving on....I have a monoculture of Oxalis oregana growing next to the sidewalk on the side of the house. This plant's delicate appearance belies its toughness and its aggressive nature--it is a true survivor!  It thrives in the dry shade under the eves on the north side of my house.  I chose to plant it in a location that is bordered with concrete on three sides.   We'll see what happens on the forth side which is currently occupied by a sword fern and a vigorous tricyrtis.

Oxalis oregana rhizomes erupting from the soil.

Believe me--this small area is absolutely seething with oxalis growth!  Here (below) are the plants which are placed to do battle with the oxalis--Polystichum munitum (Western Sword Fern) and an unknown tricyrtis which might be T. formosana "Gilt Edge".  I think they will be worthy opponents.  

Tricyrtis formosana "Gilt Edge" 

I find it interesting to compare the growth on the T. "Gilt Edge" (if that is, in fact, what it is) with another Tricyrtis growing just across the path.  "Gilt Edge" is much earlier to sprout in Spring.  The other Tricyrtis was supposed to be dwarf--not so much.  It is less upright than "Gilt Edge" but has eagerly colonized just as much territory.  The weird thing, though, is how many more above-ground rhizomes it makes.  Just look at that mess!

Tricyrtis rhizomes.

Close-up of Tricyrtis formosana "Gilt Edge"--so fresh!

I am always a little surprised by the discovery of new growth.  Here, a crown of Darmera peltata peeks (Ha!  I just caught the typo/autocorrect "peaks"--though that also would have been an appropriate choice, don't you think?) through the leaf debris.  Darmera peltata is a big plant with big leaves so the fact that it has a robust crown shouldn't surprise me, but it does--every year.  You might also notice the lumps of snail and slug bait.  Those monsters are going to be REALLY bad this year.  I think the very mild winter encouraged them.  I've seen virtually millions of tiny slugs but today I air-mailed a couple of huge ones into my neighbor's backyard wildlife sanctuary i.e. unkempt acreage.  Yuck!

Darmera peltata makes a robust crown. 

I shared the transient sunlight with a new friend.  Sorry about the blurry image--she wasn't too keen about the paparazzi:

Ladybug!