Perennial Optimism

 Every year I lose a few perennials, and last year I did away with a whole bunch of Day Lilies and a few Hosta because I was tired of fighting the deer for them.  Most of this happens in our big Dry Creek Bed.  This area is pretty challenging to plant because it is both a hot, dry area and a wet area, depending on the season.   Below is an example of one of the planting spots vacated last year by a Day Lily.  The Day Lilies and grasses push a pretty sizeable root ball up from grade which seems to help them deal with the soggy season.

Because when it rains, some of these holes can really fill up with water!

When I first planted this area, I started with dependable plants like Decorative Grasses, Day Lilies and Hosta. Over the years I have also tried and failed to add some color with Blanket Flowers, Salvia, several varieties of Echinacea and newer Rudbeckias.  I tried some things that don't do well for me anywhere in my garden:  Candy Tuft, Sedums, Plumbago, Coreopsis and Caryopteris. I've planted four or five different varieties of Butterfly Bush.  Only one variety of these does well, but I am tired of replacing them every two or three years with volunteers I have collected up and groomed as under studies.  I tried some things that the deer absolutely obliterated like Irises, Asters and Marshmallows.  I still haven't gotten around to some of the brighter things like Phlox.  Some of the planting spots I have replanted three or four times and failed with every new idea.

Instead of going for colorful flowers I have switched to texture and colored foliage which brought me to shrubs.  Some of these have done well and some haven't.  I've discovered a few new to me plants like Amsonia and Penstemon which, so far, seem unstoppable in difficult locations.  When online perennials get discounted towards the end of each spring, I buy the smaller pots at half price, pot them up in larger pots, and grow them up to a retail size before planting them out.  This year, to fill the holes left by the murdered Daylilies, drowned Butterfly Bushes and finicky Echinaceas, I needed a dozen new Perennials and Shrubs.  I chose all new varieties concentrating on plants that look like they belong along a natural creek bed.  When searching through possibilities, I filtered for Deer Resistant and Wet Site Tolerant.

Physostegia Summer Snow (Obedient Plant)

Lobelia Starship Scarlet (Cardinal Flower)

Cimicifuga Black Negligee (Bugbane)

Aronia Berry Scape (Choke Berry)

Clethra Sugartina Crystalina (Summersweet)

I also got a few more Amsonia, Brunnera, Carex grass and Niagara Falls grass because I know those will work here and what I have is still too small to divide at this point.  I topped off the empty holes with fresh soil and got rid of all of the opportunistic weeds that had tried to take over.  Some of these new perennials were already getting root bound in the pots I put them in last month.  I hope this means they will root in fast and take off.

I love having a fresh new perennial in a tidy planting space.  So much promise.

Unless you were to walk through the creek bed, you really wouldn't have noticed those dozen empty holes.  What survives from year to year looks beautiful in June.  Here are a few shots from the last week.

Early Morning Sunshine

The Layered Look

Hosta corner in the dry shade of the Black Maple

Penstemon Onyx And Pearls (Beardtongue)

So now the vegetable garden is in, all of my annuals have been planted, and now all of the new perennials have been placed out in the dry creek bed.  I think I am, at last, done planting for the year.

A Plan Comes Together

Here is my successful planting plan along the brick walk between the two Dahlia beds.  Last year I tried to do this and it didn't turn out the way I had hoped.  To the left are all of the Dahlias that are in the copper, bronze, peach color family and I seeded and grew out the white Marigolds and Apricot Profusion Zinnias to border them.  On the right is the Dahlia bed with the pink, burgundy, purple color scheme.  I chose the Double Hot Cherry Profusion Zinnias to alternate with the white Marigolds.  Today is the first day when enough color is showing on both sides for me to see my vision.

It will still be another five or six weeks before the Dahlias begin to show their color.  I can't wait!

Cool Weather

 This growing season has been a challenge because of cool weather, especially at night.  Today's forecast high is 59F (15C) and that will be brief.  Tonight's low will be 48F (9C) and there are several things in the garden now that do NOT like to be velow 55F.   It is very overcast.  We got a wonderful drenching rain yesterday evening which was much appreciated, and now the rest of the week will be cool but mostly sunny.  

I still have my sweet potato vines covered because of the night time temperatures.  The first batch planted in May, gave it up pretty quickly.  I didn't cover those because I was being stubborn.  Their leaves dropped off pretty quick, despite being hardened to the sun, but the stems remained green and I thought maybe they were rooting in under the soil.  But then one night a racoon climbed the fence and rummaged through the entire grow bag.  I only found two of the five stems and they were not so good looking.  After that the electric fence went on.  I replanted (always save backups!) and covered them and they are doing well.

Looking a little pale and shivery this morning, but putting out new leaves.

Another do over was the sweet corn.  I had great germination from the replant so I must have gotten the seeds too deep the first time.  I planted the second batch with a marked dibber so I got them exactly 1.5" deep.

Third replant of the day:  the grape vine.  My Dad told me that he tried growing grapes and they "died back then came back up and the grapes were awful".  Yup, his must have come up from root stock also.  This one is safely growing above the graft.

My first Dahlia bloom of the season.  This is a border height (2 foot) Dahlia which reach mature height and bloom much earlier.  I need more of these for annuals.  A few years ago I planted Pablo in front of the house but all of the tubers had leafy gall so I tossed them.  I had planted Geraniums in that area several years in a row so the leafy gall was probably in that soil.  Next year I'll try Pablo again in a different area.  Border Dahlias are a pretty efficient way of getting annual color and not spending a fortune year after year.

Border Dahlia Art Deco

Marigold Cuttings

 Late last summer when I took the Coleus Cuttings, I tried a few Marigold cuttings as an experiment.  I didn't grow them on, I just learned how to get them rooted and stored the info away.  This year, I took cuttings from the Marigolds I was not planting front and center.  It benefitted the plants, causing them to branch out more, and it gave me some extra plants.  I took a dozen, and treated them pretty harshly. Had I brought them indoors under grow lights, they would probably have all done well, but I just put them under a dome and stuck them in the cold frame.  

Out of the twelve, I got five good plants all from the Star Spangled variety, and none from the Vanilla Cream.  

When they began to show roots at the drain holes of the cells, about two weeks, I potted them up into 3.5" pots and gave them another week to get settled.

They were quite happy, even beginning to bloom.

That's a nice, compact, free plant and it didn't take up any space under the grow lights.

Now that I've begun cutting back the foliage from the Daffodils, there are a lot of areas that could use a little color.  This edge beside the apple tree is one where I have often thought I could use some annuals.

Besides the Marigold cuttings, I alternated some extra Binky Dahlias that I also had going in pots.  The Dahlia plants will be about the same size as the Marigolds.  I'll let you know how they turn out.... if the deer don't eat them.  That is a path the deer use several times a week.

Binky

Strawberry Jam

 This is why we work so hard. The most perfect bowl of strawberries I have ever picked.  No slug damage.  None rotting in the soil.  None stolen by chipmunks or pecked at by birds.  And its not easy.  There is trimming and weeding and fertilizing and watering and outsmarting pests.

There is nothing better than fresh Strawberry freezer Jam.  This is my second batch this week.  I would like to make three and it looks like that won't be any trouble at all.  Last year the plants were too young and I only got one batch, had none to share and I ran out back in February.  I've been eating honey on my toast since then.

This makes the hard work worth while.

The Annual Struggle

 It seems to me that each year I struggle to decide what annual plants I am going to put together for my planters.  I always grow Marigolds, Dahlias and some Celosia and either Zinnias or Snapdragons from seed.  These plants I tuck here and there around the garden and landscape, filling in blank spots and adding color in areas where the perennials are more subtle.  But when it comes to the five or six combination planters, I try to come up with something new, and I want to use plants that will grow well together.  I get tired of the same old Geraniums and Begonias that are tried and true and predictable.  Petunias are another dependable "go to" annual.  The old fashioned kind require regular deadheading.  Several nurseries stock the newer, easier to care for Supertunias but the colors available are always unpredictable from one year to the next.

This year I planned to go with a patriotic theme in honor of the Semiquincentennial.  I figured that it wouldn't be too difficult to find nice red and blue Petunias.  Some people like to point out that blue Petunias are really purple, but how blue do you need them to be to get your point across?  If you really want true blue, there is always Lobelia.   I don't mind dead heading a couple of planters of Petunias, but I refuse to plant old fashioned white Petunias.  Rain ruins their appearance immediately.   I actually picked up a couple fo packs of them at the greenhouse and carried them around for a few minutes, but the dried up flowers on them were brown and yucky and I just couldn't do it.  So I used Euphorbia for my white.  For the two planters that flank our deck steps I went with the Dreams series from Ball.  They were very affordable at $2 a four pack and they are looking beautiful.

For the fire pit planters, I splurged on Supertunias, using the Decadent Patriotic recipe but substituting Black Cherry Supertunias instead of Pomegranate Calibrachoa.  I had to mail order these to be sure to get what I wanted and the plants were quite small and bedraggled when they arrived but they are finally hitting their stride.

When I was at the fancy schmancy greenhouse two weeks ago, looking for odds and ends, I came across about a dozen trays of “black” Petunias (actually deep red or purple) called Black Satin Sweetunias.  They were stunning.  When I laid eyes on them I said "Wow" out loud.  I couldn’t get them out of my head. It was obvious that no one else had seen their potential because there were a lot of them sitting there with seemingly none purchased.  I suppose that it can be a bit of a challenge to figure out how to use black flowers.... After several days of thinking that I really needed them in my life somehow, I suddenly saw a spot where I could use them.  And I had the perfect container.

I wanted to pair them with silver (either Helichrysum or Dichondra) and a splash of bright red to bring the burgundy tones out and downplay their blackness. As I was collecting up options to pair them with, I also accumulated several greenhouse employees who asked “are you going to plant those together? That’s GORGEOUS!” And I agree, it is a stunner. I placed this planter in a spot where the background is afternoon shade and it really stands out. I can’t wait to see what it looks like in another week. If I do this again next year I may substitute a white Salvia (which has silver stems over silvery sage leaves) for the center instead of the Rediculous Coleus that I chose this year.  See - I need inspiration when it comes to putting together annuals.  I don't want the same old thing over and over.

Here is a promotional photo of this variety which captures their true color better than my phone does. They look like black velvet.

The Proven Winners recipe of the year for 2026 is "Pixie Powder".  I have had my eye on it for a couple of years.  I believed that the east side of the garden shed would be shady enough for it but I'm not sure it really is.  This wall gets about four and a half hours of morning sun then full shade.  The Impatiens have not been happy about the night time temperatures in the 40s.  I started covering them each evening with a heavy frost cloth and they still haven't been too happy, but we are finally getting night time temps in the fifties so they have stopped shivering and turning blue.  I am trying giving this a little water each morning and the Impatiens have been opening up better.  They sure are full of buds.  So far - underwhelming.

In keeping with the orange/pink theme along this wall, I bought some Peachy Keen Superbena plants to put at the foot of an extra Dahlia.  I used a trellis that will support the Dahlia which will get four to five feet tall.

A couple of years ago I was trying to get the hard to find Bloomquist Pumpkin Dahlia.  I fibally bought a tuber last year and I also ordered a pair of cuttings from a different grower.  The grower had cutting crop failure and said that they would try to ship this spring instead.  I completely forgot about it but the cuttings showed up back in early May and were really nice.  I have another one out in the landscape.

Bloomqist Pumpkin

Also along the lines of shipping issues.  I was shipped half a dozen Blue Tiara Supertunias instead of the Blue Velvet for the Decadence recipe.  I felt they were too purple to use in those planters, but I've planted them in a row, alternating with my extra Vanilla Cream Marigolds.  These are the plants that the racoons dug up.  Twice.  But they are determined little plants and I think they will end up looking really nice.  Since the company refunded my cost, these are free plants.

So that is the gist of my annual struggle this year.  I have a few other annual plantings that I will reveal later when the plants start to look really nice.  Sometimes it takes awhile.

Early June Update

Just some snapshots to record progress this year.  The peas look lush and full and the leaf lettuce at their feet has filled in well.

Pea Plantings 1 and 2

Pea Plantings 3 and 4 as well as lettuce

The first planting from April 1st is finally blooming.

The cole crops look good.

A couple of the broccolis and cabbages are forming heads.

Tomatoes, Onions, Basil

Pole Beans

I have a tray of Durango Marigolds ready to plant beside the pole beans now that I am done covering them.  They are hardened off and are going to have to deal with hot weather this week as a transition.

Durango Marigolds

I planted out the cucumbers that were ready.  Two picklers and two slicers.  The later sown plants will be ready on a few days.

It is amazing how fast things pick up when given room to grow.  The zucchini plants have tripled in size in three days.

The direct sown cantaloupes are sluggish, but now they have a row on sunflowers down the middle to set a good example.  Because the sunflowers were a little leggy I gave them some wind deflection.

The Vanilla Cream Marigolds and Apricot Profusion Zinnias are beginning to show some nice color along the Dahlia bed.  All of the Dahlias are up although I did have to take one out and put it in a pot in the cold frame to get it going.  It was a Bloomquist Jean which did awesome the first year but lagged way behind and never flowered last year.  I will have to remember to give it a head start next year.

After I get the rest of the Cucumbers and the Durango Marigolds transplanted, everything will be in the ground and I will be in the Weed Water and Wait stage.