Horticulture can be so challenging. Some challenges are very frustrating. Some are quite infuriating. Some of the worst would be likewise if they were not so weirdly silly. Really, plants naturally present certain innate challenges. So do their pathogens. People though, are special. Their behavior is not completely innate. They should know better than to do so much of what they do. So many of their mistakes are so creatively inane. Yet, some of the most egregiously silly are not even mistakes according to their personal perceptions. Goodness, merely attempting to explain these unfortunate events becomes challenging! Realistically, it is not as bad as it seems. I swatted lily of the Nile buds when I was a kid. The neighbor with the ‘machine’ is unaware of the naked ladies, and will remain as such.

1. Lagerstroemia indica, crepe myrtle is susceptible to powdery mildew. These new specimens of a modern cultivar are more resistant than most but apparently not enough.

2. Hydrangea macrophylla, bigleaf hydrangea changes floral color according to soil pH. However, white is always white. We relocated this white specimen to the White Garden.

3. Canna ‘Cleopatra’ is the strangest Canna here, with mixed red and yellow bloom, and mixed green and bronze foliage. Unfortunately, it shared its virus with the other Canna.

4. Agapanthus orientalis, lily of the Nile is a reliably resilient and neat perennial for the edges of walkways, where kids unfortunately enjoy swatting their floral buds with sticks.

5. Agave americana, century plant is so prolific with pups that they are sneaking out the drainage holes! We can them to give them away, but no one wants them. They are nasty!

6. Amaryllis belladonna, naked lady was about to bloom as profusely as it does annually when this was maneuvered into position, back and forth, back and forth, back and forth.

This is the link for Six on Saturday, for anyone else who would like to participate: https://thepropagatorblog.wordpress.com/2017/09/18/six-on-saturday-a-participant-guide/

22 thoughts on “Six on Saturday: A Series Of Unfortunate Events”

  3. Oh Tony, that last photo is a gut punch. I’d be looking for a box of nails, personally. We have so much of that heavy equipment in our area as they ‘renovate’ the Colonial Parkway. Big rigs like that have been mowing down and trampling (formerly) scenic meadows of wildflowers along the York River for months now- including the famed ‘Yorktown Onions.’ Folks who drive those rigs and use those machines must not even see the little beauties they trample so thoughtlessly. Or perhaps, they need the paycheck that comes along with doing what they are told, when and where. Either way, it is a tragedy for those of us who have been waiting for the flowers and the beauty.

    Thank you for the reminders on pruning Hydrangeas in your other post. Ours are the old floppy ones, bent nearly double over now with the weight of their flowers. Cutting them back has been ‘on my list.’ Now you have inspired me to attack them on the next cool morning. Thank you.

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    1. A big abandoned field of daffodils that were formerly grown as a cut flower crop bloomed wildly across a small valley from my Pa’s home in Montara when I was a kid. It had been like that longer than anyone can remember. Eventually, a home was built on a hill right on the other side of the field. One would think that whoever was to live in the home would enjoy the view of the field of wild daffodils. Instead the entire field was killed. It is difficult to kill only a few daffodils, but somehow the entire overgrown field of daffodils was killed before its next spring. I had never observed such complete extermination of vegetation.

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      1. There are no words… That field must have been so beautiful when you were a kid. I am always angry to see extermination of beauty and life, particularly when it is done selfishly and not for some important reason.
        There is a daffodil growing operation like that near us- across the river in Gloucester. They used to sell their cut flowers all over the East Coast and on the street corners in Richmond. Now, they are a major bulb supplier. I don’t know whether they still grow fields of daffodils every year, but they do still grow bulbs for cut flowers and to sell the bulbs. You can visit their shop and see their entire catalog blooming in a field outside their front door. Whatever is in season is out there growing for you to see in person.

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      2. Cut flowers were major crops in the counties around here, particularly San Mateo and Santa Cruz Counties. If you ever saw Harold and Maude, you saw the greenhouses of Rod McClellan in South San Francisco. They grew orchids and many acres of cut foliage. I can remember fields of gladiolus near San Francisco Bay on the outskirts of Fremont and Milpitas. Goodness, there were flowers everywhere, and vast orchards in the Santa Clara Valley.

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      3. That must have been unspeakably beautiful. I saw the movie, but don’t specifically remember the greenhouse scene. It was a very long time ago…
        What happened to the cut flower trade? What a beautiful business to have in your community!

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      4. The San Francisco Bay Area is almost completely urban. The last remnants of orchards that I remember have been gone for years, as well as the flower fields around the Bay and on the Coast. People who live in such urban regions complained about the last agricultural operations until they were all gone.

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      6. My great grandmother, who could remember when San Jose was a small town, was never angry about the destruction. She thought that it was so nice that a million people could enjoy living there. She lived in Sunnyvale as it grew from a population of less than 1,500 to more than 150,000.

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      7. What a generous heart she has. Is she the same grandmother who gave you plants from her garden? Your area must be very special for her to feel so happy about others making their homes there, too.

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      8. My rhubarb came from her garden. My great grandfather gave it to me before I was in kindergarten. They are my paternal-paternal great grandparents. My maternal-maternal great grandmother gave me my Iris pallida shortly after the rhubarb. The Santa Clara Valley was very special to anyone who can remember what it was. It really was idyllic. Now, I can not imagine why more than a million people want to live here. It is just a huge and unremarkable city. The orchards are long gone. If it were not my home, I would not be here.

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      9. Your family did a wonderful job of setting you on the path to a life devoted to horticulture. How wonderful that you had a relationship with your great grandparents on both sides of your family. So many kids today may not even know both of their parents, let alone have a loving extended family to support and encourage them. Roots like that run deep, even when the area has changed. It makes sense that you would grow food crops in your yard such a rich environment where they will thrive. I was able to grow many varieties of apples, peaches, elderberries, vegetables and herbs in my last yard in Virginia Beach. Here, they don’t do nearly so well. You are very fortunate.

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      10. No one actually encouraged an interest in horticulture. I just took interest in their gardens. Their generation was innately more involved with horticulture than later generations.

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  6. Oh noooooo, those poor belladonnas! I’ve recently ordered a big stack of metal scrollwork edging panels for my front garden because it’s uncomfortably close to the driveway and the flowers there have narrowly missed that fate by mere centimeters too many times.

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    1. What is worse is that it is such a prominent position right outside the gate here, on a busy road. That is why the machinery and dumpster are there now. People in the neighborhood expect them to bloom there annually, so to see what is there instead is quite disappointing.

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