Autumn is Coming

Some of the Spruce trees have a lot of dead branches at the bottom.  The neighbor's oak leaves get caught underneath them every autumn.  Leaf blowing will be a lot easier if those branches are gone, and we have a brush pile going that will be burned this fall.  So time to prune,

Anyone a Wooly Bear expert?  What does all black with an orange undercoat indicate for the coming winter?  I've seen all black ones but never with this unique orange tinge.

Rebloomer Daylilies

 Did I mention that I have to cut back the shabby foliage on my rebloomer daylilies early enough so that when I do cut them back, I don't accidently cut off the new buds?  Well....  this is what I meant.  Come on Rosey, try harder! 

Center is Rosey Returns Daylily (no foliage yet)
Foreground is Happy Returns (nice leaf regrowth)

Maintenance

 I have finally dug out all of the 18 daylilies slated for removal and refilled the empty holes with top soil.  In some cases I have already placed a plant, others will wait until next year.

I want to use at least one division of these Black Eyed Susans.

Mother plant

I last divided them in 2024 and they need it again.

First division from 2024

I am chucking annuals that are not making me happy.  This Gallery Art Deco Dahlia has petered out.

I replaced it with a Masquerade Ornamental Hot Pepper.

I am still working raking out on that bed full of Purslane.  This is round three.

My slicing Cucumbers (Gateway)  are still going strong.

(it was wet and rainy this morning)

One almost got away.

My second grapevine is starting to put out side shoots that look like they will make good cordons.

...so that has been my day.  Sweet Corn for supper again.

Other Annuals and Containers Review

 So how are some of my other annual containers doing?  Pretty well overall.  We have had a cooler summer with an average amount of rain.  The wildfire smoke has blocked some sun, and plants are affected by air quality too.  I have religiously fertilized all of the Petunias and Supertunias once a week with Proven Winners Water Soluble Fertilizer and that really is a necessity for containers. 

The Supertunias are looking great.  If I plant this combination again I will double the number of the Latte color because they are not as vigorous as the Black Cherry or Royal Velvet varieties.

But Supertunias are a great product.  They have a nice mounding habit and they do not need seed pods removed.  The blooms are smaller so they just dry up and go away.

The Dreams Series in the Deck Planters are a really nice plant too.  But they do require deadheading.  Maintaining traditional Petunias are something that I am up to every few years.  Because you can get seeds for the Dream series in several colors, growing them out myself is a possibility for the future.

While the bloom to green stem ratio is not as nice as Supertunias, these plants still have a lot of buds on them.  They just keep expanding.....

The black Sweetunias in this planter are a fail.  They petered out.  As you can see the Licorice Plant and Rediculous Coleus are doing well.  I am going to take cuttings off this coleus soon and that will invigorate it.

I will also take cuttings again from my El Brighto Coleus.  I was almost going to say I was done overwintering Coleus, but it is really nice to have a stock of "extra" annuals on hand and they just perform so well.

I have decided I really like the Blue Tiara Supertunias.

I also have some new annuals tucked in a bare spot here in this bed.  Romence put their annuals on 50% off and free shipping.  That's a good way to try out some plants for a reasonable cost.  And they don't have to throw them out.  Win win. These are the Cobalt Superbena and the Unplugged White Salvia.  Both of these are doing well despite the fact that they are really "seconds" and needed some intensive care to get them up and running. I would like to use them again.  I also got a few of the Persimmon Supertunias.  They were not very vigorous, and I have already pulled them.  I liked the color.  If I could buy them locally I may work them into the plan.  But I will not be going out of my way to get them.

My Vanilla Marigolds and Zinnias are a win.

The Marigolds in all the photos are not covered in blooms because white flowers... even Marigolds... just do not hold up to rain.  They brown very quickly and I have gone around and trimmed them all daily to get rid of the yuck and to encourage the fresh buds to open.  Not having to water every other day is nice, but it does not make for lush annuals.

The Supertunias in the ground under the pear tree are nice.  Once of the Latte plants died.  I think its roots rotted from too much rain which is what the Persimmon plants did too.  Gee we haven't had THAT much rain.  Wimps.

Mid Summer Reset

Very few combination pots make it through the whole season.  Often you can trim them back hard and the plants will put on a lot of new growth.  Some of them you may just be tired of.  I took the two green containers that I had begonias and a dahlia in, got rid of the tired plants and did a reset using the Celosia that I pulled out of the stones.  One container also had the Peachy Keen Superbena in it.  I divided those between the two.  

I usually wait to transplant something until I can see roots coming out of the drain holes, but these were starting to bloom so it was time.  They have really good root systems for Celosia that was ripped up.

I transplanted right before a rainy day and when the rain stopped and the sun came out they were ready to grow.  The Superbena didn't even mind being yanked out and moved mid-season.  I thought this color scheme might look better come fall in place of the red, white and blue planters by the deck.  Those can go somewhere else, and when I move the peppers and pumpkins and corn stalks over there, the red, orange and yellow Celosia may look good too.  If not, there are plenty of spots for them.

Here is a plant that is getting in the spirit of a mid season rejuvenation.  I trimmed a few faded leaves away from this Changeling Heuchera to let the new growth shine through.

The deer have finally decided to taste the pumpkin vines.

She ate 10 leaves but stopped when she got to the prickly stems.

I don't mind much.  I resprayed with repellent and I am glad that I took the time to protect these plants when they were small and more appetizing. 

Late Lunch

 The Sweet Corn is Ready!

Summer Rains

 We have entered a rainy period which is fine.  It cuts down on worry about how the plants are coping with high heat and turns your focus to tidying up every day.  I just cleaned these Petunia planters up yesterday morning.

That's the thing about traditional Petunias.  They don't handle rain well.  The deep purple blooms shed water and seem to hold up the best, especially the first couple of days.

The red ones - not so much.

At least they aren't white, which would be translucent and ultra icky.  No matter.  They need to be dead headed anyway so they don't set seed and quit blooming.  I just have to wait for the plant to dry out a little.  You ought to see my fingers after 10 minutes of Petunia trimming.  Thankfully, Hydrangea flowers don't do that.  

Little Lime Punch Hydrangea (planted 2024)

Little Quick Fire Hydrangea (planted last month)

The thing about rain is that it gives all of the weeds a quick boost.  You will come out in the morning and an area which looked fine yesterday will have all of these happy little weeds.  Below is the pea bed that was mulched.  It won't take long to pull these weeds, especially with moist soil.

Eww!  This pea bed with no mulch is a different story!  Purslane!  The best way to deal with this is to pull the more mature plants at the far end and then rake over it with a garden rake uprooting all of those tiny babies.  I will leave the garden rake right there and every time I walk past I will take 30 seconds to rake it again so that the roots dry up and die.  A nice hot, sunny afternoon would help cook them.

Here is a little update on the grape vines.  The first one is growing like crazy.  It has a really nice growth habit that will easily lend itself to a multiple vertical cordon style.

In the spring, I will prune it as diagramed below.

Right now I am just making sure I tie up the stems that I want to turn into cordons so they are protected and will harden into the form I want.

The second vine has one main leader.

It may require a different form just because it fits this particular vine's growth habit.  Maybe next year's growth will provide what I need for two opposing cordons.   We shall see.  It's kind of fun.