Port Potager

Last week I took a much-needed vacation to Palm Springs , California. Since that’s in the warm desert where it never freezes, there were plenty of flowers to enjoy. It was great see so much color when all we have here at home is gray and brown.  Mimosa Bougainvillea Trumpet creeper Cosmos Orchid Jasmine (maybe?)

When I wasn't at the ball fields for the kids' baseball games this past (long) weekend, I finally was able to tackle a project I'd been meaning to get to all spring. The weather decided to cooperate (mostly), and I buckled down got to work on updating the perennial border.  The harsh winter we had wasn't at all kind to some of our perennials. Several plants that normally wouldn't have trouble overwintering died back to just a few scraggly stems, or bit the dust completely. Some casualties included both artemisia, some stonecrop, the carnations, and most of a heucherella (if you're really interested in the evolution of the border, you can scroll through previous posts about it to see just what I'm talking about). This left me with some holes to fill this year, which I did my moving some existing things around and buying some new plants. My hatchback full of plants include a white peony ("Mrs. Edward Harding"), three white salvia (...

It's hot, and the 100-degree high in the garden on Wednesday may have confused our flowers. There are lots of dried-out zinnias and marigolds to be found out there, but I managed to find some good ones anyway this week.  Zinnia and yarrow. Tiegan's birthday present wrapped with zinnia and cosmos. Snapdragons, echinacea (flowers and seed heads), and zinnia. Hosta leaves and zinnias. Rose and hosta leaf.

Another kinda lame Flower Friday , but I am on vacation. Instead of vases of flowers that will definitely be dead by the time we get back, here's what the cutting garden looks like in its current, pre-cut state: Here you can see short marigolds in the front, tall orange cosmos in the back, and some pink zinnias mixed in. This is from another angle: The cosmos are on the right, with zinnias in the middle and black-eyed Susans to the left. Not much going on here in the way of perennials lately, although I do have some echinacea, salvia, and veronica trying to make a go at a second flowering. I hope so — I don't think there will be much left for September and October unless I pick up some new annuals to round out the fall.

Most of the perennials in the cutting beds are past their prime — or in between their first and second flushes of flower. I'm relying a lot on annuals (or snipping from the border out front for those hyrangeas) to make up the difference.   Zinnia, cosmos, and calendula. Echinacea. Hydrangea. Zinnia (in shades of pink that I actually like — not too fuchsia). Marigolds.

Pale pinks and whites are long gone — time for the bright, hot colors of late summer! I'm warming up to most of the pink shades of the zinnias, although I left some purplish-pink ones uncut. Zinnias and black-eyed Susans (a lovely gift from a friend's garden!). Black-eyed Susans and cosmos. Black-eyed Susans, calendula, cosmos, blanketflower, and zinnia. Zinnias and yarrow. Astilbe leaf, snapdragon, zinnia, echinacea, and salvia.