Sunday Best – Morning Glory
Sunday Best – Angel’s Trumpet III
Sunday Best – Dinky Dahlia
Six on Saturday: New Shears
Purchases are very rare in my garden. I acquire just about anything I want from friends and neighbors. However, I really wanted a particular brand and style of pruning shears.
1. Foeniculum vulgare ‘Purpureum’, bronze fennel is one of very few trendy plants in my garden. I dislike fads. It was infested with aphid earlier, but recovered enough to bloom.
2. Canna X generalis, canna is one of very few here that has not yet been featured on Six on Saturday. It is more of a vegetable than an ornamental, but its flowers are pretty also.
3. Canna X generalis ‘Alaska’ canna is a rare white canna, although it is really very pale yellow. I purchase almost nothing for my garden, but I coveted it enough to purchase it.
4. Amaryllis belladonna, naked lady is blooming splendidly, but not quite as abundantly as it did last year. I watch for white flowers so that I can relocate their bulbs after bloom.
5. New shears are the piece de resistance of my Six this week. They are not actually new, since I bought them used on eBay, in order to get the old style. Only their holster is new.
6. Rhody, who is as unimpressed as usual, has been absent from my Six on Saturdays for quite a while. Weekly, this really should be ‘Five and Rhody on Saturday’. Oh, priorities.
Anyone who would like to participate in this meme should peruse this participant guide for Six on Saturday.
Sunday Best – Color Bowl
Sunday Best – Yellow Rose
Six on Saturday: Not Closeups
This is what some of the flowers and foliage that are normally shown in closeup pictures look like within their respective landscapes. The first three landscapes need some work.
1. Citrus X latifolia ‘Bearss’ lime is almost surrounded by neighboring cape honeysuckle, so it is difficult to distinguish in this picture. Cape honeysuckle should be removed soon.
2. Musa acuminata X balbisiana ‘Blue Java’ banana on the left may be ‘Nam Wah’. The other on the right is unidentified. They moved into their landscape before the landscape.
3. Cotinus coggygria ‘Royal Purple’ smokebush is a striking focal point for its somewhat abandoned garden. It draws attention away from the neglect. It gets pollarded in winter.
4. Pelargonium hortorum, zonal geranium looks as good within the White Garden as in closeups. This is at the Mount Hermon Memorial Chapel. Its cypress need straightening.
5. Agapanthus orientalis, lily of the Nile is congregated in a large triangular herd on the side of the main road through Mount Hermon. It is blooming quite well for the summer.
6. Phlox paniculata, garden phlox appeared in this garden a few years ago, and has since become one of the more prominent features here. We have no idea where it came from.
Anyone who would like to participate in this meme should peruse this participant guide for Six on Saturday.
Hydrangea
Old fashioned hydrangea, Hydrangea macrophylla, were somewhat predictable. Those that developed color bloomed pink in alkaline soil or blue in acidic soil. White hydrangea only bloomed white. Nowadays, some cultivars bloom better in pink while others bloom better in blue. Pink cultivars in acidic soil or blue cultivars in alkaline soil may be purple.
Floral form has also evolved significantly. Old fashioned hydrangeas bloom with big and rounded trusses of many small flowers. Such trusses are about four to eight inches wide. Some modern cultivars bloom with flatter or conical trusses. Some produce tiny florets in the center with bigger florets around them. All hydrangeas bloom for summer or autumn.
Big hydrangeas can grow about six feet high and wide. Most modern cultivars are more compact. The deciduous foliage is lush. Individual leaves are about six inches long, with serrate edges. Hydrangea perform better after dormant pruning during winter, to remove older canes. Younger canes that grew during the previous season will be more vigorous. Although bulky, hydrangea blooms are delightful as cut flowers. All parts of hydrangea, though, are toxic.
Sunday Best – White Rose
Six on Saturday: Mixed Bag
These Six on Saturday lack a theme. They are a mixed bag.
1. Watsonia X pillansii ‘Coral and Hardy’ bugle lily is my first ever! Something dug it out last year before bloom, for no apparent reason. You can probably guess where it is from.
2. Canna X generalis ‘Cannova Mango’ canna on the right seems to have produced a red sport on the left. I do not think that another cultivar mixed with it, but I am not certain.
3. Matthiola incana, snapdragon has not been planted here for years because of rust. A few generations of just a few feral plants have grown from seed though. Most are yellow.
4. Osteospermum fruticosum, trailing African daisy might be feral also. Although some were planted nearby, I do not remember that any were planted in its particular location.
5. Phlox paniculata, garden phlox began as feral, since we do not know how the seed got here, but now that it is here, we cultivate it. Almost all of it is white, but one is lavender.
6. Rosa spp., rose is producing some exemplary flowers. I do not know what cultivar this is, but it resembles ‘Seashell’. I suppose its name is unimportant. It is pretty regardless.
Anyone who would like to participate in this meme should peruse this participant guide for Six on Saturday.
Tony Tomeo 