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| Tie Dye hibiscus... new to the trade this season |
I'm past hoping for rain, I'm past trusting the frequent forecasts that say 'rain chances 100%', I'm giving up on trying to keep the gardens beautiful.... from here on out my energy goes to trying to keep the gardens alive.
Alive means holding a hose over hundreds of trees and shrubs in the gardens... (even the lilacs are drooping) and praying that our well holds up. We are entering three more very hot days... the sun is unbelieveable... I guess it's the UV index that is higher than we generally see... I'd never even considered that until blogger Brooke Kroeger from Creative Country Mom's Garden gave me a call and was discussing it. Even in morning sun my extensive epimedium collection is burning up and the foliage is completely brown. I've been cutting them back and hoping that next spring or even in the cool of fall some dormant buds will bring them back. If not, I will replace them and will be sure to build a shade structure over them... in fact if it ever cools down enough I may well do that sooner than later.
The biggest problem for the most part has been several of this year's plant acquisitions that couldn't handle these uncommon conditions in their first season... does that mean I'll stop buying plants? I said I'm crying 'uncle', not 'I quit'! In fact my plant storage area has at least a couple dozen or more new acquisitions waiting to be planted. Everything from a dozen new ferns in several varieties, to a good sized "Ruby Spice" Clethra just coming into bloom, the lovely new hardy hibiscus which I planted last evening and is pictured above, eight new gallon pots of clematis, rudbeckias, astilbes, a quite large specimen of Picea pungens "Procumbens"... the list goes on. I've also ordered six hybrid Cypripedium for fall planting in a special bed I've yet to build and I'm thinking of planting an exorbitant number of martagon lilies as well. Regarding the conifers that have burned up in the sun and heat; I probably had them planted too close anyway.
And who knows... with several more chances for rain this next week, we might just get lucky... take care, Larry
The very latest hemerocallis to begin blooming in my gardens has a number but no name and was hybridized by a friend. Several of the latest of my hybrids that have yet to bloom have been parented by this plant in hopes of extending my daylily season here at Oak Lawn...
Scheherazade and Pizzazz are just about ready to start fading at the bottom blooms and that will be the end of my lily season this year. The orientals have performed pitifully in this heat and I don't anticipate using them in the future...
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