Garden's Got It All: Mystery, Tragedy, Romance, Drama, Laffs & a Little Porn

Okay, this post is only for the few who love to talk gardening, particularly my gardening. Faith, Wendy, Mom, you're all so dear to listen to every detail of my horticultural life over here.

So, here's what's going on:

MYSTERY... Why is my Italian Bugloss not blooming? I got three plants and they're huge, but not blooming?  I'll probably transplant two of them to other areas. This will give my wallflowers (struggling below) a chance to actually bloom next year, when they're supposed to.

MYSTERY... The "red" morning glory. When I bought one last year it had exactly 2 blooms on it. Planted it and it grew huge, cheerfully choking everything in its path, but it only grew leaves - the 2 blooms faded and fell off very quickly. So how...HOW did one of those 2 mangy blooms manage to produce a seed that grew this year?

MYSTERY...  This lovely, soft-leaved salvia is in its fourth year at the side of the house. But last year was the only year it actually bloomed. What gives?

TRAGEDY... The dead ostrich fern fronds. The flattened fronds surrounding these black buggers indicates that a cat may be the culprit. Run, run, stomp, stomp, pee, pee... All in a day's work, Ma'am.

TRIUMPH...  I bought this shamrock-leaved oxalis (or whatever) and got it in my head that if I split its tuberous mass (again whatever) I'd have more plantage. Well. It almost died. But after about 6 weeks it revived and looks great. (Let's hope I have the same success with my transplanted toadshades.)

GLORY... Or should I say Gloryoski!? My morning glories went nuts this year and are still going strong. Plus the fragrant, delectable moonflowers are coming out at night.

ROMANCE... I love love love my new shrubs... Starting with my Oregon grape ... still tiny but has a lot of promise, and I love the leaves that look like holly, but are nice 'n' soft!

Then there's my purple ninebark, which is doing just great! That's circled in green. The two shrubs circled in blue are doll's eyes.

And this is my li'l fothergilla. I hear that it grows slowly, but the autumn colors are supposed to be fab!

DRAMA...  Here's my elderbush, or sambuca. I had to protect it from the bunnies. Wish it luck in making it through the winter. (I really want it to survive because another gardener with a competitive personality saw it and said, "Well, I've tried to grow that twice and it always died over the winter!" Well, I'll show her!)

PATHOS... My Kinnikuck (I don't think that's how it's spelt, but it's time-consuming doing this blog - I can't do everything!) is supposed to be an evergreen groundcover. The bunnies are getting to this, too. Bleah. Have to pull out the chicken wire again.

SURPRISE...  As I told Faith, one of my toad lilies bloomed early! (Sorry for the fuzzy pix.)

... Plus I thought that this white poppy plant had died about 5 seconds after I planted it.  But a few weeks later I found it thriving...  Sure, I had to move Fiona's butt aside to see it, because that's where she was sitting. The rose on the left was a sloppy transplant earlier this year, but it produced a bloom a couple of weeks ago!  Yay!

Speaking of Fiona and her derriere, she has a message for Faith and it goes something like this:

"Thanks for telling that stupid lady about Cat Bibs!"

TRANSITION...  This darned Japanese plum tree is planted too close to the house and side path, it shoots out suckers like crazy and is only good-looking two weeks out of the year when it blossoms. My plan is to saw it down pretty soon and replace it with something I like better. The idea of taking down a tree called for a little soul-searching...  other people's souls, that is, since I don't have one. I finally got a consensus that it's okay to take it down. Of course, on the ONE DAY I choose to photograph it, it looks pretty good...

ARTISTRY...  Here's a piece that I bought. I thought it was a planter, but when I talked to the seller she said No, it isn't. We'll see about that, says I.

Plus I did a little painting myself. Actually, the real painters did the first coat. I saved 200 bucks by putting the second coat on myself. I kind of miss the hillbilly look it had a couple months ago.  That last sentence was a lie.

TEENINESS...  Faith, here are the mini-hostas I've been bragging about. You'll get yours, don't worry, but I may wait until spring to divide them. What do you suggest?

LOUDNESS...  At any rate, Faith, you''ll definitely be getting some seeds from my darker orange cosmos.  The plants I took the seeds from had blooms that were even closer to red than this.  Wendy, do you want some, too?

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On another subject entirely, I bought some commemorative stamps the other day and they are cool. I highly recommend getting commemorative stamps, particularly since it helps you slow up the line at the post office even more! Here's what I got...

This is Latin Jazz... You know it is!

And here's a pane devoted to the Eames guys.  Lovely stuff.

And finally... My submission for the next U.S. first class commemorative stamp...

I mean, I'm talkin' first class.