The Early Summer Garden....

[mdehners]

Well, the Temps have FINALLY dropped. 3 weeks with Heat Indexes over 100F is hard on people and plants. The only ones that seemed happy about it were the cats;>!
Those Temps wiped out the Sweet Peas, Bachelor Buttons and the Sweet Sultan plants. Was a bit surprised about the latter though. The various hybrid Coreopsis' are going like gangbusters. I've not been a big fan of them but then again, I'm not a big fan of the color Yellow. These new hybrids are various creams with Red centers though in one case a soon as the Temps went over 90F they lost the Red centers.
While only one of the White Basket Flowers survived to Bloom, that one is stunning and I'll definitely plant more next year. The Green centered White Echinacea I brought with me from Florida definitely likes the change and has tripled both size and number of blossoms. The biggest "Save" this Summer so far was the recovering of an Astrantia that looked more like what you'd find at a Dollar Store instead of a well respected nursery. Thought it was dead honestly but it sprouted 2 little plantlets so I'm hopeful. Because of this I'm cautiously optimistic abut a Persicaria I ordered that looks almost a bad. It looks like you'd expect something Dormant you'd get in March.
Another disappointment is that one of the Hardy Geraniums I ordered started blooming and it's not the same plant. Maybe a seedling because the leaves and the base colour of the blossom are close but all the stripes are absent. Maybe it's something that will show up as the plant matures but if so usually a vendor mentions this. Still, it's pretty and I have PLENTY of partial Shade areas, esp since our landlords(my Brother and his wife;>) just bought the wooded lot across the street. I have a hardwood lot to play with. If only there were more deer trails I can take my Walker on;>!
Cheers,
Pat

Comments

Well ...

[ysabetwordsmith]

Here we had a heat wave and drought in late spring and early summer. I got some mulberries, but the black raspberries and most of the blackberries shriveled up. :( I had to water the domesticated sunflowers and everything else. The sunchokes, however, are native prairie plants are grew like mad. I love hardy plants!

Now it's somewhat cooler and wetter.

Re: Well ...

[mdehners]

There's a guy on YouTube(John Lord's Secret Garden) who says if a plant can't survive without Watering....you planted the wrong plant. But he's in Ireland;>!
I figure that I'll need to Water very seldom next yr since all the plants planted are drought tolerant. As it is, they need weekly Watering if we get no Rain. The windowboxes and raised beds however usully need it twice weekly.
Cheers,
Pat(who just finished Watering as a front strts moving in;>!)

Re: Well ...

[ysabetwordsmith]

There is some validity to that, in terms of preferring native species over exotics. But natives can't always do everything we want. I buy other things with attention to how much I think I can manage watering. However, even natives need extra support until well established.

I don't really approve of people growing lawn grass or water-intensive vegetables in arid zones. Fudging things a little is usually fine, especially if you landscape to conserve water (e.g. mulch, swales, guilds).