Gotta Garden

Tuesday, March 20, 2007

Todays Finds: 03-20-07

Remember my post about the basil? Specifically, the non-blooming basil? I thought I'd show you just how easily it roots. Here are some little clippings sitting in a small vase of water. If you look closely, you can see roots already starting. What could be easier! I've put some of the new variegated one also in a small vase...it's a little behind this one, but coming.




And here are those red tulips open:


I'm still watching that odd daffodil in the Barrett Browning clump. The buds are starting to separate...I hope I don't miss those flowers after all this scrutiny:


I like this picture. This is Jet Fire (Jetfire?). It looks like a good 1-2-3.


I've been posting some pictures of these iris reticulata...they are quite different from the others...look how tall their leaves are...which were up long before they began to bloom. The others tend to bloom first and then put out their foliage, especially the taller leaves.


Of course, there must be more crocus pictures (they'll be gone so soon...)! Here's one that's coming up with these daffodils. I think they are beginning to seed themselves around.


Yesterday we had the purple striped ones closed. Here they are open, looks like a good subject to maybe attempt to draw:



Some of the driveway crocus...on one side, naturally:



And, last, for Carol, my attempt to capture the blue/purple:



******

I went out this morning to just have a look around. Almost two hours later, I was back inside. It's starting! My favorite time of year...where things happen so quickly and change so fast that it takes time to see it all...and more than one round a day.

Today's mission was the daylilies. Most are making an appearance by now. However, the chickweed is so bad that it was necessary to pull chickweed just to see where some were. I mean to get to it. I need to get to it! The good news is that most daylilies look well. The bad news is that somewhere between 6-10 are probably not going to make it. I guess out of over 600, that's not too bad. The ones in peril are all new from last fall, but with daylily rot, it can sometimes be difficult to pinpoint a reason. I really haven't the patience to deal with recovery, if they recover. Some will send out a tiny fan, but it can take years to get a bloom. Last year, I replaced the few I lost or decided I didn't want them any longer.

I'm trying hard to not buy single fans. I think I do have a few coming this spring, however...but much better than last year! It's just that my experience with single fans is that they seem to increase slower. And, if the particular seller has sent a small single fan...well, that's just disappointing.

I also thought about which daylilies will leave. I need the space and my tastes have changed, etc. Some are large clumps which I am dreading digging out. Others are unregistered or just don't seem to be earning their keep. It's probably good I do this culling because down the road lies lots of culling with my seedlings. I'm expecting to see some first year blooms this year from daylily seedlings.

On other fronts, I saw buds (leaves, not flowers) on the tree peony! This makes me feel good because it was doing well last year when I decided to move it...and it sulked terribly after the move. I thought maybe I had lost it (small thing that it is). So, these buds made me happy.

I also discovered that the lantana appears to have made it! Who would have thought it and by rights, it shouldn't have. This particular one, Miss Huff, is thought to be hardier and I have overwintered it twice before. However, this year, it received no mulch and we had a very hard February. You probably remember me moaning about several single digit nights with no snow cover. It had gotten quite large last year... if I had thought it was going to actually make it, I probably would have planted it somewhere else...so I started clipping off dead branches only to discover they were green! Oh my!

Well, while the weather is so nice and because I'll be gone, I'm out to do a little of the endless chickweed removal.

12 comments:

Unknown said...

I've seen the variegated basils... very pretty, but have you tasted them yet? I'm curious as to how the taste compares.

A wildlife gardener said...

Your Spring bulbs are sooooo gorgeous! Great photos of them. I see you have many hemerocallis. I have about ten. they are wonderful plants, with such a beautiful perfume. Did you know that they get their name from two Greek words, hemero callis, meaning beautiful day?

Betty said...

I certianly enjoy my visit to your blogs and your beautiful pictures. My husband grows daylilies and is enamoured with them.

We enjoy gardening and are trying to catch up with weeding flowerbeds.

Betty at Country Charm

Carol Michel said...

I'm also doing some serious chickweed removal, also henbit. Why are these spring weeds named after chickens?

Love the blue flowers and I admire your devotion to the daylilies. I've never been focused enough to have that many varieties of one type of flower. I bet it is just spectacular in the summer-time. You should post a "top 10" for those who'd like a few and just don't know which ones to pick. Or can you stop at 10??

Marc said...

Wow, you have some beautiful flowers. Great photography too!

I am also intrigued by your rooting your basil cuttings. Many people say rooting cuttings is simple, but I've never tried it and it truly amazes me that it even works.

Don't work too hard battling your chickweed! :)

Anita said...

Thanks a lot for your last comments on my blog. Yes, me too I am curious to see the development of my niew garden projects. Well, to be honest, I'll have two projects this spring! On top of the new bed that I posted last week, we will as well start a new rose garden! I just found a wonderfull rose arch last weekend! So the first roses will soon move to our garden!

Guess what; the winter returned to Germany, it snowed overnight and rained all day long! Oh, my poor pansies, they'd better learn swimming now! ;-(((

kate said...

I'll be interested in hearing more about your daylily thinning! I can't imagine over-wintering a lantana... zone 3 isn't conducive to over-wintering most thing though!!

The basil roots incredibly quickly. I am going to try some!

Hope your garden looks wonderful upon your return!

Green thumb said...

Hi Gotta garden!The flowers look beatiful. I especially loved the purple striped crocuses

david santos said...

Hello, gotta!
This work is very, very nice. thank you
have a good weekend

RUTH said...

Some lovely photos. I too have to battle with the dreaded chickweed...good luck! Thanks for the info about rooting Basil in water...I'd never tried it...good to know it works.

Annie in Austin said...

Gotta Garden, I can't imagine 600 daylilies! The winnowing process must be so difficult. Forty-seven was my top number back in 1997 - now I grow only five kinds, one bought here, and four that came with me to Texas.

Your early spring photos are a treat - love the crocus and the Iris reticulata.

Annie at the Transplantable Rose

Gotta Garden said...

Just for you blackswamp_girl, I went and ate a leaf! I like it...pleasantly spicy...but what I really like...it can go on and on (if you don't let frost get it) since they don't bloom. I have had my solid green variety for...ummm...maybe five years?

Hey there wildlife gardener...I am absolutely daylily silly! One of my favorite subjects! I was just out today looking at them!

Hello Misti: Thanks, but don't be...I add each year and over time, you can't help but begin to have "a few" (lol)...or is it that you're still in cold weather land? I'll have to dash over to your blog and see.

Oh, Betty...your husband has such good taste!! As you know, lol!! I'm so glad to see you over here...and I am...sigh...totally overrun with weeds right now...

Lol, Carol...I'm afraid you've hit on it...if I could name 10, maybe I wouldn't have so many!! I think I just have a bit of a collector personality, you know. I don't have a "pretty" garden...it's crammed with all kinds of stuff...but it's always interesting to me and that's what counts. Not to worry, this summer I will have pictures of daylilies, ad nauseum!

Howdy, Marc...well, sometimes you get lucky...lol...not everything obliges by rooting in water, but, thankfully, basil does. Coleus, too...now that I think of it...sigh...I will be forever battling chickweed and now it has the audacity to start blooming...as if I don't already have enough!

Oh Anita...I cannot believe winter did that! Bummer. Well, your plants are so loved that I'm sure they will do fine. Exciting about the roses! I will be happy with mine this spring...and then the Japanese Beetles will come...big sigh. It will be fun to see and hear about yours, though!

Hi Kate: Zone 3!!! I will never allow DH to complain about cold again...lol! Well, no serious thinning will go on this year...I need to give them at least two years of blooms...so, next summer will be the hard stuff...my challenge now is to just find the space to put them all! Do give the basil a try...and thanks!

Hi Green Thumb: Thanks! I think they're fun...I don't know why I haven't seen them in years past...squirrels, maybe??

Hello David: Thank you!

Hey Ruth: Grrrrr...chickweed...I hope your battle is more successful than mine! Yes, give it a try...it's very easy!

Well, Annie, by now you know that I am beyond gone! Did I mention all the seedlings??? I guess daylilies will be coming out of every available spec of soil I can find! Thanks!

Thank you all for taking the time to come over!

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