Monday, May 29, 2017

Notes to Self

Blogging in the actual garden on my phone, which is a first. Here are some notes from the season: We've had mostly a good spring.  After two or three weird and distressingly hot days in April, which meant that my tulips were shot really quickly, it turned cool again, down in the 50s to the low 70s. Lots of rain. The evergreens have made great progress this year. The limber Pines have candles that are like 8 to 10 inches long. There's even a few inches on the slow growing yews, which I want to hurry up and grow so they can make a wonderful green backdrop to my roses.



David Austin's were really stunning this spring. I can't really explain it. I didn't prune, they were the only ones I didn't really get to. And they just exploded.  I had a decent success with my new grow lights this year. Some highlights: lots and lots of thyme, larkspur, poppies, and these marvelous very blue annual salvia.  Delphinium were a bust. I do think I started things too early and they had to wait too long to go in the ground, had a pretty good success rate overall. As far as things that ought to be done, I think perhaps those red drift at the end of the rock garden should be replaced with something else, maybe pink Striatum geranium. While it would mean parting with the butterfly bush, it probably makes sense to replace the butterfly bush with another narrow sweet bay magnolia. The peonies look great this year, but I want some additional colors. Everyone else has a gorgeous mid  pink :)  I want some more Iris Caesars brother. peony Coral Charm. Of course Bascobel rose.