Here are the mystery lilies from last year. I found a tag that said that they were called "Ivory Pixies". I love the moonlight color.
Here are my "Plum Crazy" hibiscus. They are doing FABULOUS this year. I'm hoping that they will be as long lived as the hibiscus that the Agriculture department has on campus. I love the huge, ruffly flowers of this one. It is by far my favorite of all the hibiscus that I have tried to grow. I got a little lazy with the plant corral this year, but I still like the way that this looks.
Ah! My beautiful delphiniums! I will always have delphiniums. I find that they are fairly easy for me to grow and they are just so lovely. I have discovered that they are greedy eaters, so you do need to add nutrients to the soil more often than with other plants, but I think that it is well worth it. I also discovered this year that aphids love them. A little sevin dust took care of those pests. Normally I don't like to use pesticides, but squishing them was too hard to do without also damaging the plants.
This is the same berm that was featured in the last post; this picture is just shot from a different side. This berm was a real problem last year because it was lacking in plant material, but this year it is my most scenic area.
And here is my tiny rock garden. It has doubled in size from last year. I still have about three feet on three sides that can be added, so there will be more pictures of the progress this summer.
I love that name, ivory pixies.I only have a few bulbs no lillys.The delphiniums are on my wish list (if i could figure out how to make a side bar list).Your rock garden is progressing,I like seeing works in progress.
ReplyDeleteDelphiniums! Sigh . . . I just can't get them to grow here in NJ. A common complaint, I might add. They don't do well here. Too hot, too rainy. I see Snappy beat me to it commenting on your rock harden. It looks great!
ReplyDeleteSnappy, I want to at least double this rock garden by the end of the summer. I have at about 25 square feet that I can fill in.
ReplyDeleteOldRoses, it gets really hot and humid here normally. in the 80s and 90s with humidity in the 70%-80%s. I'm not sure why they do so well for me. I walk around to look at other gardens all the time and have noticed that there really are no delphiniums. I see people try them every so often, but they are never there the next year. I guess delphiniums just like me. (Well, some of them anyway.)
Love the lilies, I bet they glow at night. I am also one that hasn't had much luck with delphiniums, but it's been many years since I tried them. I think I'll try them again next year, too pretty not to!
ReplyDeleteYour garden is looking great Sylvanna! I wish I could grow nice delphs.
ReplyDeleteLovely! How do you keep track of everything? I'm horrible about planting stuff and then forgetting what it is...
ReplyDeleteCarol, YES! They DO glow at night and I love them for it!
ReplyDeleteSandy (and Carol), delphiniums have not been too tricky for me but there are a few things to remember:
*cage them with something open like a large tomato cage when they are young because the flower stalks fall over easily.
*they like moist, well-drained soil.
*they LOVE to eat, so feed them well.
*if they start looking drained check for aphids.
*and although they love the sun, they do like a little break from it during the day.
Hope that helps.
Ellen, I try to keep all the labels for the plants in a container that I can refer to later. Sometimes in my eagerness to get things planted I lose track of the labels though. This blog has been very good for helping me keep track of things. I can look back on posts and find out not only what something was, but when and where I planted it. And I always know where my blog is!
Sylvana, how has your plum crazy hibiscus fared? My ruby red looks like it's going to die....I didn't think it was such a good idea to fertilize this late in the season, so I haven't ~ not sure what to do? Are there any particular soil requirements that you know of? I want to get more hibiscus, but if they just aren't going to do well I won't kill more!!
ReplyDeletePrimrozie, sorry so late! Like REALLY LATE!!! August was apparently a really busy time for me as I missed a bunch of comments!
ReplyDeleteMy hibiscus is doing fine. It came back HUGE this spring. I have killed a few of them before. They like moist but well drained soil. So I would suggest using lots of organic matter when planting, and watering the heck out of them the first year. Once they are established, you shouldn't really need to water them unless your soil is not high in organic matter. I don't remember ever fertilizing mine, but I plant everything in finished compost, so I don't fertilize hardly anything!
You can fertilize anytime, just know what each of the fertilizer elements does. Low nitrogen content in the fall, since you want to encourage root growth, not leaf growth.