So another month begins, the temperature a balmy 95 or 99 or 100 or whatever the hell it reaches today. I mean, it is freaking 92 at 8:30 at night as I write this. That is not acceptable, as my friend Avonell would say. And quite frankly it’s more than a bit irritating. But thankfully it is back down to the 70’s for highs by Monday. Nothing odd about that now is there, Kids?

Well, my last blog talked about the upcoming Garden Writers Association (GWA) annual symposium to be held here in Indianapolis. I’m sure you are all dying to know if I won the Gold in 2011. As a matter of fact, no, I did not. GWA did not award the Gold in my category this year. Both my competition and I had to settle for Silver. As my friend Scarlet once said, “As God as my witness, I’ll never go hungry again”. Now, what does that statement have to do with this blog? Frankly my dear, not a damn thing. It’s just what came into my head and I have to get those things out of my head right away sometimes. Anyways, I’m quite proud of my Silver Award in Electronic Media Writing.

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Filed under: Horticulture

The moderate weather over the last couple weeks has been glorious. Just to get a break from the relentless 90s helped to heal the body and spirit. And the 60s at night? Oh my lands. Too wondrous for words. I think it did the plants as much good as it did me. Of course, I’d liked to have a bit more rain with the cooler temps, but if it had to stay dry I’ll take cooler and dry over hotter and dry. Sometimes you gotta bargain a bit with nature.

I wanted to touch back on a blog I wrote in January, the first one in 2011. In that blog I talked about Hydrangea paniculata Little Lime™.

This was a new cultivar from Proven Winners^® and Spring Meadow that was supposed to be more dwarf than “Limelight.” Well, according to my plant at home, it really is. I put a two or three gallon plant in last fall. As you may remember (it has been awhile), we had a very wet spring. Hydrangea paniculata prefers wet over dry. I also had mulched my garden with rabbit manure. My soil is already pretty good. Despite all those conditions for large growth I am happy to report my Little Lime™ is in full bloom and barely 2 feet tall. But look how wide it is compared to height. Very nice.

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Filed under: Art and Nature Park, Horticulture

Well, fiddle dee-dee. I had an idea for the blog and last night went and forgot to take the pictures I still needed. It was going to be a nice and easy one, relatively speaking. Now I gotta think of a new topic and figure out if I need illustration or music or web links, yada, yada, yada.

I could always talk about the weather.

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Filed under: Horticulture

It is officially summer but we’ve gone from stifling heat to comfortable warmth. It’s so freaking weird. Last winter’s snow and ice cover caused me to bitch constantly. It just would not go away. But now in my garden at home I have multiple non-hardy plants growing luxuriously (and a good thing as I’ve planted almost nothing at this point). Eucomis (pineapple lily), Amorphophallus (voodoo lily?), Nerine bowdenii (Guernsey lily), dahlia (why did I dig any of them), Plumbago “First Love” – all came back, thanks in part at least, to the insulating properties of the white stuff. The oddness continues as the season progresses. My Phlox paniculata “Blue Paradise” is in full bloom, probably two weeks ahead of normal. Normal. What a concept. Anyway. Also blooming at this time is the Monarda didyma – bee balm, which is what I really wanted to talk about. Well, that and the problems with Echinacea but I just didn’t want to research on that right now. So, on with the Monarda.

Monarda is one of those perennials I go back and forth on to some extent – love it, hate it, tolerate it, love it again. Right now I’m loving it. They are also loved by bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds. In addition to the gorgeous flowers, the foliage has a wonderful scent as well, reminiscent of mint yet totally different.

For some time, Monarda was quite the thug in a garden. It was also a powdery mildew slut. Breeding programs have helped on both accounts. The newer dwarf cultivars are less aggressive and no breeder would introduce a plant that was not more resistant to the mildew. Bear in mind that the mildew is constantly evolving so your perfectly clean plant today could be dusty white next year. Also remember weather affects mildew intensity. Good air circulation is helpful in the mildew wars.

Monarda can vary greatly in height, from the new dwarf cultivars staying near one foot tall to the four or five feet tall amazons of the garden. I like the first of the dwarfs, “Petite Delight.”

Mainly because of the color. Hey, color is important.

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Filed under: Art and Nature Park, Horticulture

Despite the rather crappy weather this week, we were most fortunate. Had all that sleet been freezing rain I shudder to think of the damage. Trees would have been falling hell, west, and crooked. Not that the two or so inches of solid ice created when the rain, just regular old rain, followed the sleet is a joy. It’s like the whole place is one giant frozen lake. Only you don’t know if you are going to fall through. It still works as insulation for the perennials which is good during these nights in the single digits and the consistent temperatures well below normal. But I confess to being rather tired of it. So tired.

I went out Thursday afternoon to snap some pictures and try to capture the sparkly beauty of the ice on the plants. Cause dang it, that ice is right pretty on the branches and other plant parts. My skills at capturing it may not be quite as good as nature’s skills at creating it.  This is what I mean by everything iced over.

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Filed under: Horticulture