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Post by whollygoats on May 27, 2022 14:43:00 GMT
Overnight, four new 'first blooms' were added to the iris show.
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Post by whollygoats on May 28, 2022 3:14:17 GMT
Rain again today, but much warmer. I can sit with the screened back door open. And, on the balcony.
The ruby-throated hummingbirds are back in town. I've had several visit the garden. They distinctly prefer the columbine and the weigela. Even over the freebie feeder. I have been closely surveilled by at least one hummer.
I have had a diligent chickadee grooming much of the foliage, presumably for tiny insects. Then, the bickering set of goldfinches showed up to entertain. I think I even saw a dragonfly pass through, but it was small.
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Post by whollygoats on Jun 1, 2022 16:25:47 GMT
Finally, a day to putter in the garden without having to take refuge from a rain squall.
Of course, I made a run to the garden store. I picked up two more aubergine plants and four sweet pepper plants (two each of Sweet Banana and Mini Bells). And, a tomato. I got all in but the tomato over which I am still dithering as to where to place it. I'm thinking at the crossroads, where the rhubarb used to be. Then, after the tomato has gone pips up, I can move in the iris rhizomes I have planned for that spot....
I had my first daylily bloom. A butter yellow specimen. Way early. Most daylilies won't show for another month.
The first variety of iris blooms to have blown, the deep purple selfs, are done. They weren't the first to bloom, but they're first done. Time to start my stem counts. There were six.
Iris are now past peak, but there are a fair number of late bloomers.
Strawberries are blooming.
I have a few early rose blooms but the big bloom is rillyrilly soon. Boy, have I got rosebuds!
The war upon weeds, particularly Stinky Bob, Repens, Geum, and woodbine nightshade, not to mention all the SQRL-planted seedlings and the whirligigs. Repens, Renuculus repens, the fig, or creeping, buttercup, has taken over the space I'd allotted for strawberries in the back garden. Those suckers have gotten huge...they're the kraken of the weed world.
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Post by whollygoats on Jun 2, 2022 0:40:52 GMT
Glorious day, showing off the garden. Roses pending big time.
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Post by Mari on Jun 2, 2022 16:27:27 GMT
My roses are doing great again this year. My strawberries are going wild. Fortunately my youngest helps me eat the produce. I had 3 big bowls in 2 weeks time. Do you have a lot of veggies etc this year WG?
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Post by whollygoats on Jun 2, 2022 22:39:41 GMT
No. I have had asparagus sprouts, but that's it. I don't plant much in the way of foodstuffs. I have strawberries, but they certainly have not produced any berries, yet. The usual timeframe for ripe strawberries starts in early June. I do have rhubarb ready for harvest and I am intent upon making strawberry/rhubarb crumble. I just put in six aubergine starts and four sweet pepper plants. I actually decided to go for a novelty tomato...the pear tomato. It has yet to be planted.
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Post by whollygoats on Jun 3, 2022 0:21:44 GMT
IRIS STEM COUNT - 2022
Deep purple self - 6 'City Lights' - 5 Palladia - 6 'Graphic Arts' - 16 'Rite of Passage' - 2 'Blueberry Bliss' - 2 'Syrian Hills' - 1 + 2 Prussian blue self - 3 + 4 light purple pastel - 7 'Poem of Ecstasy' - 5 'Val de Loire' - 4 'Sudden Impact' - 1 'First Interstate' - 2 'Garden Time' - 1 'Gold Galore' - 2 'Dusky Challenger' - 4 'Rhinelander' - 3 'Pink Attraction' - 1 black self - 1 + 1 red self - 1 'Pirate Ahoy' - 1 'Infrared' - 1 'Starring' - 1 'Immortality' - 1 'Black Suited' - 1 'Double Ringer' - 1 'Lark Ascending' - 4 'Butterlicious' - 1 Blue Siberian - 2 White Chinese - 1 + 10 Pseudocorus - 16
Notable missing varieties are 'Tulip Festival', 'Lenten Prayer'. 'Lady Friend', 'Vibrant' & 'Anything Goes', all of which had their beds disturbed as they were lifted and separated. But then, so was the variety 'Val de Loire', which was rescued from behind the rhubarb tub and moved ten feet to the front corner of the garden shed and produced four stems this year. Huzzah!
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Post by Mari on Jun 3, 2022 14:55:41 GMT
Is the pear tomato called that due to the shape or taste? I'm attempting lettuce and carrots and the sort in the girls' garden, but with the amount of slugs and snails we have there, it's not much of a success so far. I need to buy a bag of small sharp rocks to spread around the borders...
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Post by whollygoats on Jun 3, 2022 15:40:58 GMT
Is the pear tomato called that due to the shape or taste? I'm attempting lettuce and carrots and the sort in the girls' garden, but with the amount of slugs and snails we have there, it's not much of a success so far. I need to buy a bag of small sharp rocks to spread around the borders... Yes, I know. The slug is considered the 'regional mascot' around these parts. You should be able to obtain 'food grade diatomateous earth' at your local garden store. It's diatom skeletons; sharp objects for gastropods. Works okay with ants, too. The pear tomato produces small, yellow, pear-shaped fruit that taste like usual tomatoes. They're good for salads and snacking.
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Post by whollygoats on Jun 3, 2022 18:28:19 GMT
So, the rain is back and I'm sitting at the computer looking at the iris catalog. The next thing I know, I've ordered a buncha rhizomes to be delivered in August-September.
I'm incorrigible.
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Post by whollygoats on Jun 7, 2022 20:29:13 GMT
First delphinia bloom, first fairy rose bloom, first clematis bloom...a big day.
The first daylily continues wax apace, as most of the iris wane, and many are bedraggled by the incessant rain.
The roses are popping. I'm hoping they'll have time enough to open fully enough to avoid bud blast (which is induced by untimely heavy rains).
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Post by whollygoats on Jun 11, 2022 18:29:51 GMT
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Post by whollygoats on Jun 12, 2022 13:44:00 GMT
Well, it looks as though bud blast, a condition where the rosebuds rot on the stem before they can fully open, thanks to the excessive and relentless rains, is making its appearance.
We've had two overnight rainfall records broken in the last week.
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Post by whollygoats on Jun 15, 2022 21:41:39 GMT
A dry day and finally a chance to wander the garden and assess the damage. What remains of the iris seems to be weathering just fine, but the pending first bloom of the roses is besmirched with bud blast. The thing is that the blast is uneven. The blooms of the yellow floribunda, 'Sunspray', weathered quite well, despite being as open as those which have, and are, suffering, like 'Sweet Surrender', 'Double Delight', and 'Pascali'. The blooms on 'Olympiad' were not open enough and are now opening quite nicely. I'll have to prune away nearly half of the first bloom due to the rot of bud blast.
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Post by whollygoats on Jun 20, 2022 2:36:14 GMT
Most of the first rose bloom has been cleared away as rotting bud-blasted unopened blooms. Then, those which has remained viable as closed buds started opening, and we were plunged into several more days of rain. Much more of the first bloom will be sacrificed to bud blast....
**sigh**
Well, at least I don't have aphids.
Yet.
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Post by whollygoats on Jun 21, 2022 17:47:29 GMT
Sweet peas abloom! Ssssmmmmmmmsssss....ahhhhh. The cornus kousa (Korean dogwood) abloom. As seen from the public walkway out front. 'Tis a good year for the kousa.
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Post by whollygoats on Jun 23, 2022 15:35:04 GMT
The loosestrife (Lysimachia punctata) is now fully abloom, while I have spied my first blooms of Peruvian lily (Alstromeria) and Black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta).
The iris are done.
I have still been nipping a few rotting rosebuds left over from the extended damp. I estimate that I lost over 60% of the first bloom of the roses to bud blast. Timing is everything.
Next up: Daylilies. No, wait...the star jasmine. Well, I guess we'll see.
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Post by Mari on Jun 24, 2022 18:07:36 GMT
Oh, that's glorious! I know that tree, but never knew what it was called. I can buy the diatomateous earth you describe at a specialist store, but we have none near. The one we had closeby closed recently. There are lots of places around that sell plants and earth to fill the gap, but it's pretty generic. Most people here get their seedlings from the farmers. It doesn't really matter since I plant it for fun for the kids and not for the produce though. The pear tomato sounds... weirdly normal. I'm sorry your roses got destroyed because of the weather. Mine didn't fare well in the end either, but they gave me 2 glorious weeks. The poppies are doing awesome as do my raspberries. I've got yellow and red ones and they're producing like mad.
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Post by whollygoats on Jun 24, 2022 20:46:20 GMT
I bought my slug bait online because my local garden store couldn't keep it on the shelves, it was so popular. It was delivered to the door. I'm sure the same could be done with diatomaceous earth. Yes, like cherry tomatoes, but yellow and pear-shaped. Weirdly normal is about right. The beauty of rose bushes is that they produce a new bloom about every six weeks throughout the growing season. Deadheading the blasted buds will stimulate the production of the second bloom. Subsequent blooms are never as robust as the first bloom of the season and that is what was lost. I'll get more roses, though. I need to get you pix of the Kenilworth ivy trying to take over the garden shed porch. It's pretty darned cute.
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Post by whollygoats on Jun 24, 2022 20:58:55 GMT
Kenilworth ivy insurrection:
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Post by kingedmund on Jun 24, 2022 21:35:41 GMT
Thank you for sharing as I always enjoy seeing flowers. I gave up my garden when I sold my home to build a new one this year. So no gardening for me right now.
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Post by whollygoats on Jun 25, 2022 1:08:24 GMT
I seems to me that you had asked about this. This was prolly before you changed abodes, of which, I must admit, I was entirely oblivious.
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Post by whollygoats on Jun 26, 2022 21:16:08 GMT
Alstromeria, star jasmine, rudbeckia, oriental lillies, strawberry fruit ripening, and a shipload of daylilies about to pop.
The cornus kousa is still glorious in its bloom this year. So much so that complete strangers hail me when I'm out front, asking what kind of tree it is.
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Post by whollygoats on Jul 4, 2022 4:07:33 GMT
The kousa petals are beginning to fall. The roses no longer look utterly spectacular, but a mite tatty.
The lilies are full out now, though. Alstromeria, along with loose strife, has taken over the eastern front plateau.
It's the week of the big whiff...Roses, particularly Cecile Brunner, and star jasmine, and the sweet peas. I have set my portable garden weeding bench next to the sweet peas. To allow indulgence.
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Post by whollygoats on Jul 6, 2022 3:23:58 GMT
I languished on the balcony this evening, just before sundown, letting the various fragances waft over me. I smelt the petrichor a good twenty minutes before the rain.
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Post by kingedmund on Jul 7, 2022 14:50:09 GMT
That sounds dreamy. Love it.
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Post by whollygoats on Jul 8, 2022 20:55:42 GMT
TRA LA!
Today is noticed that amidst my dying foxglove spires, I have the deep purple blooms (two!) of the Jackamanii clematis. I bought the thing some years back...five...ten? It never bloomed so, just two years back, I went out and purchased another, medium violet, clematis. I now have three clematis planted effectively together. It should be nice if it ever matures to bloom with all three at once.
I am pleased.
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Post by whollygoats on Jul 12, 2022 15:41:00 GMT
TRA LA, again!
I found a new daylily bloom on the eastern front slope, just below the rosa rugosa. It's red and was planted two years back.
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Post by whollygoats on Jul 12, 2022 16:48:29 GMT
Well....In the final days of last month, Asplundh, the contract pruner for the local electrical utility (PGE), came down my street doing 'line clearance' pruning. They left the street trees in front of our homes looking like they'd been mugged and raped. The arboreal aesthetics are very...Ukrainian, at this moment. It outraged me as it usually does, and this year seemed to be particularly brutal. So, I began my usual round of complaints...to the permit issuer (the city parks department) and their bureaucrats (urban forestery), a city commissioner, the utility, the Audubon Society, the non-profit Friends of Trees, and anybody else online who has been willing to listen (which is quite limited, actually).
Anyway, I got a session with the utilities flak-catcher, which was illuminating. We're actually on the same page and, to some extent, their hands are tied by the fact that they are doing exactly as they have been directed by the Public Utility Commission as part of a public safety program. Of course, nobody has bothered to inform the affected public of any of this and it seems that multiple city agencies are squabbling over where the issue of public trees policy should be going. Or, even be at.
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Post by whollygoats on Jul 26, 2022 23:40:30 GMT
The rose of sharon is abloom. And, the rudies are finally opening up.
The sweet peas are past peak, but still producing plenty of odiferous blooms.
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