Eye of the Tigridia

It makes no sense—I will willingly spend hours deadheading and weeding and performing other routine garden tasks, but I tend to draw the line at growing plants that need to be lifted in the fall. I like dahlias, but won't grow them because I don't want to dig them up and store them over the winter. So when my husband ordered some summer-blooming bulbs from Brent and Becky's Bulbs, I was skeptical. I didn't want to fuss with them. But then I saw my first Tigridia pavonia 'Canariensis'. And I fell in love.

Tigridia has iris-like foliage, but much brighter green. And like iris, the stalks rise up over the leaves and form multiple buds that tend to open in succession. Like daylilies, each flower does not last very long, but oh, what a flower! Even in searing heat, the three large outer petals of 'Canariensis' are a bright butter yellow that shimmer even at a distance. And up close, the smaller mottled interior petals provide an intriguing contrast. Our Tigridia started blooming about two weeks ago, and it's starting to wind down now, but what a show it has been!

Tigridia is only hardy in USDA zones 8, 9, and 10, so I'm either going to have to lift them this autumn, or just treat them like annuals and buy more each year. My husband did put one or two of the bulbs in a pot as an experiment to see if that made it easier to both enjoy them in the summer and store them in the winter. But the ones in the pot have yet to bloom, so I'm thinking that might not be the way to go. But grow them again I must!

Pal Joey

My husband has a penchant for unusual plants. When we compare notes about the new things we'd like to grow each year, I seldom recognize half of the ones he has chosen. So when he picked Ptilotus exaltatus 'Joey', he was being true to form...or so I thought.

Ptilotus (or Pink Mulla Mulla, or lamb's tail— not to be confused with lamb's ear) is a native to Australia, so it tolerates full sun and drought. It has silvery conical flowers with hot pink tips that are supposed to bloom for months at a time. The ten seeds we started germinated well, and the little plants have been happy enough in the border. I couldn't say exactly when they started blooming, since Joeys don't really have buds, but rather develop their flowers over time. But we'll say it's been about a month now.

When friends visited the yard, we were always sure to point out our exotic little specimen, our botanical adventure, our plunder from down under.

And then the other night as we went out to dinner, we walked past these huge planters filled with petunias and...Joeys! I had never seen them before, and now they were everywhere, the latest "it" plant in container gardening! And to add insult to injury, the ones in the planters were twice the size of ours!

Fortunately, my husband's reputation for cultivating the unusual was exonerated when our garden designers admitted that they had never before seen the Mukdenia that he bought for the cottage garden. So our yard still has a little mystique, even if it's not from the Joeys.

Starlight, Not So Bright

Several weeks ago, my fellow garden blogger Lona at A Hocking Hill's Garden noted that the Zinnia 'Zahara Starlight Rose' that she got from Stokes didn't look much like the photo in the catalog—it was missing the rose markings promised in the plant's name and catalog pictures. I, too, had been attracted to this new variety, but got my seeds from Park Seed, and had the same problem! In the catalog, they look like this...

In the garden, not so much...

In addition to lacking the rose markings, they're also missing the double rows of petals that I had found appealing.

Don't get me wrong, I still think they're pretty enough. They just weren't what I expected. I guess (gardening) life really is like a box of chocolates...you never know what you're gonna get!

Daylily Delights

Several weeks ago, when the daylilies had just started sending up scapes, I went out in the yard to discover that a deer had nipped off more than half of them! I was devastated, but in spite of that damage, this was still a great year for daylilies, and I got pictures of specimens that I hadn't had a chance to photograph last year. (The only one I still have no picture of is King's Cloak—I got to see one or two flowers that weren't eaten, but didn't happen to have my camera with me when they were blooming.)

Anyway, three of the Oakes daylilies whose images I hadn't captured before include Miss Amelia...

...Pardon Me (which is the last of our Oakes daylilies to bloom, and a deeper red than this picture suggests)...

...and Carefree Peach. (I'm not 100% certain that this is Carefree Peach—it might be either Miss Tinkerbell or Pink Playmate. I was bad about labeling them when I planted them. But I'm fairly confident that it's Carefree Peach.)

Another three that were from our daylily-growing friends are Siloam Prissy...

...Ury Winniford...

...and the latest addition to the family, Sunday Gloves. (She's much nicer-looking than this photo suggests—we got her after she had just about finished blooming, so I captured what I could.)

When we ordered some plants from Paradise Garden, they threw in a couple Dublin Elaine daylilies, which look pretty in the catalog. We'll just have to see how they look in the yard next year!

From Bermuda Triangle to Fertile Crescent

An alternate name for this post could be "Christmas in July", because that's what today feels like. We engaged the services of Garden Room Design to fix up the corner of the yard that we have called the Bermuda Triangle because so often the plants we put there are never heard from again. One of the three Heuchera 'Peach Flambe' bit the dust there, as did two of the three hellebores ('London Fog' and 'Hot Flash'), all three of the Tiarella 'Jeepers Creepers', the Tricyrtis 'Sinonome'—I can't even remember how many plants have gone there to die!

Just a few weeks ago, the only plants still surviving in the Bermuda Triangle were the two remaining 'Peach Flambes', a Brunnera 'Jack Frost' and Helleborus x hybridus 'Mellow Yellow Strain' that were just barely hanging on, and the Philadelphus (mock orange) that we transplanted from the front. Oh, and some weeds and straggly Rudbeckia that we wanted to get rid of.

After today, we now have to call this part of our yard the Fertile Crescent, because it looks so lush and gorgeous!

We kept everything we had (except for the weeds and Rudbeckia), but some of the plants were moved around a little, and we got a boatload of new ones! There's the Euphorbia polychroma 'Bonfire', which should have yellow flowers next spring...

...the Amsonia hubrechtii 'Arkansas Blue Star', which has feathery foliage and bouquets of star-shaped blue flowers in spring...

...the Weigela florida 'Fine Wine', which has burgundy leaves and bright pink trumpet-shaped flowers in spring...

...three Astilbe chinensis 'Pumila', whose pink plumes are just getting ready to bloom...

...and a Lonicera x brownii 'Dropmore Scarlet', which is blooming now.

The Fertile Crescent has dappled shade, so our designer, Monica, included two types of ferns. We have eight Dryopteris 'Brilliance' (Autumn Fern) along the fence, which should provide nice color in the fall...

...and three Athyrium n. 'Pictum' (Japanese Painted Fern), whose leaves have a multi-colored appearance.

Monica also included a couple hostas in the plan. (Hopefully, the deer will leave them alone!) The golden-leafed Hosta 'Autumn Moon' really pops in the shade...

...and Hosta 'Sagae' is a variety that we've grown and loved in the past.

Monica gave us a third Heuchera 'Peach Flambe' (which looks a little more purple than peach, but that just might be new growth)...

...as well as several Heuchera v. 'Caramel', with "reversible" leaves that are caramel/green on top and pink/purple underneath. How charming!

She even indulged my desire for Heuchera 'Snow Angel', which has variegated green and white leaves with long-lasting hot pink flowers in the spring.

Even though we lost one Tricyrtis 'Sinonome' in this area before, how could we resist trying it again? It's orchid-like flowers are so lovely in the fall!

And although I'm not normally a fan of grasses, Monica and her business partner, Betsy, so heartily endorsed Hakonechloa m. 'Aureola' (Golden Japanese Forest Grass) that I decided to give it a try.

Monica also gave our existing hellebore a couple companions in Helleborus o. 'Royal Heritage', which should bloom in late winter/early spring.

We also have several Ceratostigma pumbaginoides (hardy plumbago), which have pretty blue flowers right now (although they had faded a bit by the time I took this picture)....

...as well as some glossy-leaved ginger from Betsy's own garden.

The temperatures have been in the 90s lately, so we're going to be watering these new babies like crazy for the next couple weeks to help them get established. And hopefully these plants will grow so vigorously that they'll be the last ones we ever have to put in that corner of the yard!