Garden Planning for the New Year
Yes, it is getting to be that time again! Soon we will be well out of the final dregs of winter, and I will be able to set about righting the damage that was caused to my poor little garden by last summer's heat wave.
I am only getting a very few new plants this year; last season I ordered far too many, and although they looked wonderful alongside the accumulation of past years for a few weeks, by the time summer got into full swing it quickly became more than I could easily maintain. This time around I'm going to salvage what I can of the old stuff, and add in a small handful of replacements, which will receive my undivided attention. It will be a much more modest arrangement, but hopefully this way I will make it through July & August without all but one or two plants dying on me (the black viola and columbine will not be stopped, and my Blue Girl rose is still hanging in there, but pretty much everything else fried).
So, what is new? A few of these are repeats--of course I must have my annual Datura, and I've had success with the Baby Lilac Shrub in the past, so I'm giving that one another go. Otherwise I'm adding another pink Daylily, 'Strawberry Candy' (not sure if the old ones will come back, but if they do this one will compliment them nicely); a Columbine mix, since you can never have too many of those as far as I'm concerned, and they reseed themselves beautifully; and lastly, and perhaps best of all, a new purple rose, 'Ebb Tide'! This one is supposed to be a deep, rich, berry purple, which will be a nice contrast to the pale lavender of the Blue Girl/Blue Moon rose I have already.
I am only getting a very few new plants this year; last season I ordered far too many, and although they looked wonderful alongside the accumulation of past years for a few weeks, by the time summer got into full swing it quickly became more than I could easily maintain. This time around I'm going to salvage what I can of the old stuff, and add in a small handful of replacements, which will receive my undivided attention. It will be a much more modest arrangement, but hopefully this way I will make it through July & August without all but one or two plants dying on me (the black viola and columbine will not be stopped, and my Blue Girl rose is still hanging in there, but pretty much everything else fried).
So, what is new? A few of these are repeats--of course I must have my annual Datura, and I've had success with the Baby Lilac Shrub in the past, so I'm giving that one another go. Otherwise I'm adding another pink Daylily, 'Strawberry Candy' (not sure if the old ones will come back, but if they do this one will compliment them nicely); a Columbine mix, since you can never have too many of those as far as I'm concerned, and they reseed themselves beautifully; and lastly, and perhaps best of all, a new purple rose, 'Ebb Tide'! This one is supposed to be a deep, rich, berry purple, which will be a nice contrast to the pale lavender of the Blue Girl/Blue Moon rose I have already.