Wednesday, April 2, 2014

New in the garden



Brazelberries…


Have you heard of this new plant yet?  It is a compact berry plant designed to be grown in a pot.  This Raspberry Shortcake version is thornless, requires very minimal care and produces "a bumper crop" of full-sized, super-sweet raspberries year after year.  It doesn’t get much better than that!  I bought a plant today and will get it into a large container ASAP.


This won’t replace the raspberries we have in the raised bed but I’m anxious to see how it produces what, for me, is the taste of summer.


Hollyhocks…

We have a bird bath near the back patio that sits up against a low stone wall and it will (hopefully) be surrounded by hollyhocks this year.  This area is one that doesn’t drain well when we get our occasional Oregon rain so I wanted to find a perennial that could tolerate that soil.  I can’t wait to see how these will look!

                                                                                                Source: HGTV

Well, that’s exactly what it will look like, minus the benches and the other shrubs and the dark, leafy background.  And that pretty scalloped bird bath.


Dahlias…


For years I’ve been faithful to plant geraniums, usually from tiny starts.  And I LOVE geraniums.  But I decided to go with a perennial in the front yard where I normally have annuals in an effort to curb my flower budget.



Dahlias are one of the most incredibly designed blossoms on earth, don’t you agree?  Just look at those petal formations!!  God is the ultimate artist.  Jeff planted 15 tubers in vibrant shades of pink, orange and red in amongst the currently-blooming tulips.  I also got some ‘dinner plate’ dahlias, which are just stunning in their size and color, to have for cut flowers.  My only worry is the bees… apparently they love the dahlias even more than I do and it’s iffy whether or not I'll be able to get near the plants to deadhead or bring in cut flowers.



RABBIT TRAIL:  Did you know that fear of bees is officially called melissophobia?  At least it has a pretty name.  I have dutifully passed this fear down to my children.  If I'm going to be completely honest, it’s actually an all-emcompassing fear of insects – entomophobia.  I tried so hard to hide my terror from my kids when they were little but completely failed.  Living as we did in the southern California desert meant we had an occasional cockroach.  BIG ones.  I remember like it was yesterday trying to hold in a scream so that I could either spray or whack them but I always ended up squealing like a baby – especially if they flew directly into my face.  I usually had three girls huddled right behind me, matching me shriek for shriek.  I have even been known to try to bribe our youngest into killing one of the monsters.  She would never do it.  She always has been a smart kid.



That’s it for now… until I visit a nursery or garden center and see something new I just must try in our garden.  It’s called horticompulsion.  Or maybe it is herbamania?  Whichever it is, I’ve got it bad.

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