7/22/2007

Some gardening.

Death came for the Mandevilla this week. This is the first time I've lost an established plant in my garden.

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I know they're prone to lethal root rots. Sure enough. It's dead at the crown.

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I liked having a vine here, trellised on the back steps, but for now I planted this Salvia coccinea 'Hummingbird Coral'.

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Pretty, pretty.

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The calla leaves drive me batshit.

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Why won't they point down? They've been doing that for months now and I continue to feel annoyed every time I look over here. These plants are supposed to be content in shade, but this one acts like an abused child who never sees sunlight.

That ray growing at a painful diagonal is Cestrum nocturnum. One of these days, I'm going to cut it back.

I put the Japanese maple in here a few weeks ago when my neighbor cleaned out his yard and realigned the sun/shade axis in my garden. I hope to get some good texture mojo from the combination of Acer palmatum and Bartlettina sordida.

A constant gardening irritation. Non-neatly nesting 1-gallon pots.

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Drives me nuts. I don't buy that many 1-g plants, but I do keep the containers for cuttings and transplants. They should all just nest without me having to nest them. (Do I sound like a crazy person?)

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While I was at the nursery looking for something to replace the dead Mandevilla, I found Symphoricarpus albus for $8.99. I put it here next to the bird bath. It's loaded with flower buds. The snowberries I already had in my garden have teeny, tiny flower buds. This one's going to be in full bloom next week, and I'll have berries this winter for sure!

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Climbing roses in a container...who knows. I have to put something on the retaining wall in back, and I want it to cover the fence a little bit. I figure it's worth a shot. I just moved this container here from another spot and tied down the verticals.

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Novelty cucumbers doing good. I hope they taste good too.

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I'm surprised to find Cerinthe coming up everywhere already. I know it self-sows, but I did not expect to see seedlings in July from plants I took out in May.

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That's just some of them.

Anyone know what this plant is?

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It must have come from seed too. Any ideas?

8 comments:

Annie in Austin said...

Too bad about the mandevilla, but your bird bath garden looks fine, Chuck.

The mystery plant looks like Lambs Quarters to me - wildflower or herb - Chenopodium something or other. What do you think?

Annie at the Transplantable Rose

chuck b. said...

Annie, I think you could be right. I'll take another look at it tomorrow with this in mind. Thank you!

lisa said...

I agree with Annie-lambs quarters comes up in my pots all the time, especially the ones in which horse manure has been added. Too bad about the vine die-off....clematis do a fatal "all-over wilt" sometimes, too.

chuck b. said...

I pulled the chenopodium, although it's apparently nutritious and was popular in Europe 500 years ago before spinach arrived from Persia.
(ref. Pam Peirce, Golden Gate Gardening)

Wren said...

Sorry about your mandevilla, the worst part is it spoils your perfect record. The birdbath garden is just lovely, just a bit wild looking, I really like it. I too fuss with pots, I need to keep some but they never seem to want to go together right. Sometimes I end up getting disgusted and chucking them.

chuck b. said...

Thank you all for the mandevilla sympathy. And thanks, Lisa--now I've got clematis wilt on the brain... How am I going to sleep tonight?

LostRoses said...

I just bought a red mandevilla today that I'm sure I will kill before the summer is over. Sorry to see its death prophecied on your blog!

chuck b. said...

Well, I hope it lives. The mandevilla was an impulse buy. When I saw it, I liked the way the old woody stems had elegantly twined around each other. Besides the fragrant flower, that uncommonly elegant twining must be the Mandevilla's best feature.