Tea Root's Journal- Part Two

5 May '09 3:31 pm

Weekend plant and seed purchase report...

The following were purchased over the weekend:

alyssum
dusty miller
crookneck squash
lobelia 'Blue Moon'
sanvitalia 'Golden Aztec'
red creeping thyme
pennyroyal

pkt. of Hungarian breadseed poppy seed

5 May '09 3:43 pm

Do you grow your own Lobelia plants from seed? I have been surprised how easy it is. Sometimes i clump three or four seedlings together when pricking out, cos they can be a little fiddly.

Also, when I was copying and pasting all your posts together into Journal Part One I re-read them all. You are an amazing describer! Have you ever actually written books, or written as a career thing? All your details bring the gardens to life so well, I just wondered. Literary talent as well as gardening!

5 May '09 4:48 pm

Hi, Moosey! Thanks for the compliments on my writing. Years ago I did use to take writing classes through the mail and it was for children's literature, and they did help me to get a children's short story published. Interestingly, I was still living at home at the time and not interested in plants yet. However, the title of the story that got published happens to be titled 'The Promise Plant'. And it's fictional. I didn't enjoy the writing so much then, but I've found gardening and writing to be a combination that seems to bring personal fullfillment. What's better is if it brings enjoyment to other people who read them.

As for the lobelia, I've never tried them from seed, but have always bought them as plant starts. Here's a photo of a variety that I like called 'Blue Moon'.

6 May '09 3:20 pm

After days of light rain, the weather has cleared and following a nap this evening, I walked around the side of the house. Looking up, the moon which is more than half full was framed by wispy clouds. I was standing in the driveway next to the southwest facing bed and bright orange poppy petals were still hanging onto a stem while other petals had spilled over onto the drive and the plant itself. Doves cooed somewhere up ahead. Another thing I took note of is that although the orange of the poppy flowers stand out, the other main color in that bed is purple since both the alliums are in flower and the salvia 'May Night' is packed with blooms right now. In addition to that, one of the poppy seadheads appears to be crowned in velvet purple. The other poppy seedheads are brown except one looks to be purplish brown. The blue and white columbine 'Blue Swan' also play up the purple, I think. The buds on the iris in the corner of that bed as I go down the driveway toward the backyard are white, but they'll open up lavender.

Well, the columbine in the fairy garden is a taller one than the 'Blue Swan' in the southwest facing bed. And it's bud finally opened up into a small yellow flower. In fact, I'd discovered this earlier today and it reminds me of a daffodil bloom actually. Moving on to the main garden I could see that the field beyond it has been recently mowed. In the main garden itself, 'Moonshine' yarrow has white buds that stand out in the waning daylight. And common sage is topped with several buds from the rain we've been having. Meanwhile the rose bush has a light pink flower opening up near the base of the plant which will be single-petaled. This same rose bush gets hips in the fall. Close to my garden is my parents' snowball bush and it's adorned with spherical white blossoms at the moment, and in their garden grows a wildflower called white campion (evening lychnis). Now the small white blooms on this plant appear to glow in the fading daylight and are quite attractive in my opinion, so this is something that I'd want to add to any moon garden in my yard.

Back at the front of my house in the corner after passing the northeast facing bed is the spiderwort. I discovered, too, this evening that its light purple flowers have opened up and they appeared to glow as daytime was creeping away.

7 May '09 8:55 am

Last night I posted about iris in my southwest facing bed having white buds that would open into lavender blooms. I pleasantly found out this morning that I was mistaken. The largest bud has opened up and it is indeed a white flower! It has a yellow throat with markings. Later on my lunch break, I stood in the rain briefly to view the blossom before me which was, of course, covered in raindrops.

8 May '09 3:06 pm

After work, I did a photoshoot of the white iris blossom and another white one had opened up this morning. At the back corner in the northeast facing bed, the yellow iris have opened up some flowers, also. There are at least a couple of small mushrooms in the yard from the recent rains. Later it was a beautiful evening for the sun came out. Right now I can see the full moon outside my window. Here's a photo of the yellow iris.

11 May '09 5:42 am

Rainbow Knockout Rose (Rosa x 'Radcor') is in bloom in the main herb garden.

11 May '09 9:01 am

What a lovely rose - so subtle. MY mothers day was very much indoors. The rain pelted down, and it was cold. Three trips out - one to the supermarket to spend millions of dollars (well, almost), another to feed the hens (who were peeping out from the shelter of their hen house - sometimes birds can be sensible). The third with the dog in descending darkness and coldness - a quick walk down the road. It was cold enough to be snowing.

On my garden walk to the henhouse I saw some little white things - they're mathematical fungi. I thought of you and your attention to detail! Anyway, here's a pic of this fungi, taken last winter. Fungi and phormiums will soon be the only colourful things here. Apart from a few brave pansies, and of course the crabapples...
cheers, M

11 May '09 2:20 pm

I've never heard of mathematical fungi. Thanks for the interesting photo of such a unique specimen. Smile

12 May '09 12:49 pm

Today is the day that I got my seeds sown into the main herb garden. And Dad hooked up my hose so I could run the sprinkler over each half of the garden. The seeds sown are:

borage
Tangerine sunflower
foxglove
yarrow
nasturtium 'Jewel of Africa'
dill
hollyhock 'Nigra'
Hungarian breadseed poppy

Here is what's been transplanted into the main garden from the front porch garden:

tomato 'Roma'
cherry tomato 'Sweet 100'
leek
crookneck squash

Next door, Mom pulled up a lanky looking plant with thin leaves and tiny yellow flowers from their garden. I don't know what it is except that it could be some kind of wildflower. But I liked it and transplanted it by the butterfly house which is next to the pink-blooming rose bush at the corner of the main garden. And remember the evening lichnes that grows in my parents' garden with blooms that open up, of course, in the evening? Well, they let me help myself to some of that and so three of them were dug up with help from Mom and I transplanted them close to the butterfly house, also. One more thing that was replanted is catchfly which I had discovered growing behind the house recently. It's been put into the evergreen bed that's right next to the concrete area of the driveway.

Have I ever mentioned that I have field pea growing at the base of the corkscrew willow? Smile

Tea Root's Journal- Part Two

Tea Root's Journal- Part Two

Literary talent as well as gardening!

Glowing flowers and fading daylight...

Morning whiteness...

Iris and full moon...

Happy Mother's Day

little white things...

Seed sowing day!