What to Title This? More Water I Guess

 Yesterday we got another 8/10 of a inch of rain.  That first picture right there is a Dahlia tuber that has had too much to drink.  I sometimes have water problems in this bed.  It is very dense soil and holds a lot of moisture.  I guess I'd better throw in the rest of the bag of Gypsum.  That is a Cafe Au Lait Dahlia.  I have a replacement but I may just pull it and leave a little more space for the others. I really doubt that it will recover at this point.  We are supposed to have "a couple of showers or a thunderstorm" five out of the next seven days.  Ugh.

At least my Pepper plants are enjoying the Iron-Tone being dissolved into their roots and are putting on some darker shades of green in their new growth.

That looks encouraging

Peas are forming pods

Hello Lady Bug
My camera was asking "what are we focusing on here?"

I had already done most of my perennial dividing, moving and replacing this spring.  There weren't really too many perennials to replace this year.  My Butterfly bushes all died back to the the roots and the largest one died completely so I had to replace it with one of my spare volunteers that I had tucked away. Also the Lemon Squeeze Pennisetum that we added to the big river bed last year didn't make it. 

I was sort of surprised because last summer it put on a lot of growth  (below) and was well rooted in.  I had planted two and both of them failed to break dormancy.  At first I gave them some time because having two plants in different spots of the same variety doing the same thing doesn't immediately say "dead" to me.  It may just say "late to awaken" like Karley Rose Pennisetum.  But by Mid-June I am declaring them dead.  Which is too bad because I really liked the grass.

Late Last Summer

The other plants we added are doing awesome.  Especially the Onyx and Pearl Penstemon.  This is an evergreen plant and so far (knock on wood) the deer have shown no interest.

I actually added a bunch of them, both Onyx and Pearl and Husker's Red.  Below there is one of each side by side.  The blooms are alike, but the Onyx and Pearl leaves are a deeper, more consistent color.

Neither one are as black as shown in the catalogs, but they certainly are doing well.  The one shown below has gotten a little beat up by the storms, but the stems just bend and keep on going.  I may put the two nearest the walkway in grow-thru grids next year just to keep them tidy.

A close up of the blooms.
The plant looks blacker in this photo.

Also added was an Instant Karma Elderberry

So anyway... since the ground was saturated I figured today was a good day to dig out those two Lemon Squeeze.  The roots were just fine, not rotted.  I had to cut them out with a Hori Hori knife.  There was no lifting them.   I replaced both with Uptick Creme Coreopsis that I had ordered to put somewhere near the side porch,but so far I hadn't had any big urge to put them where I'd planned to.  I want something yellowish in this spot and I still have one more Coreopsis that I can plant up front if I want.

It's handy to have a few options on hand to fill in spaces as inspiration strikes.  I hope this plant does better in this spot.  If it does, it will look appropriate in the creek bed environment.  If it doesn't... back to the drawing board.