I finished ripping most of the orange daylilies from a bed full of them and planting new flowers just in time for Hurricane Irene's arrival. It was a two stage process, and it wasn't fun. Those daylilies have the most extensive root systems; I like them even less than I did before I started. Don't get me wrong- I think they're pretty for the few weeks they're in bloom, but this whole bed was filled with only orange daylilies (I had a before photo but I can't seem to find it), and we needed more to look at the rest of the season. I did transplant the orange daylilies into areas with nothing but weeds on the edge of our property.
My first attempt at this project was cut short due to lack of patience, but I persevered the second time, refusing to let the daylilies win. I hope it was worth it. These alone may make me happy enough for the moment to make me think it was.
They are a type of coneflower called Marmalade. I also added some purple Profusion and pale yellow Sunrise coneflower.
You can see that some of the daylilies still remain to the right, which was mostly intentional. There's a lot of remaining cleared space in the middle, which may be filled in when everything else grows, or with another trip to the garden center. Who am I kidding? I'll pick up another plant or two.
In the back there's the tiniest bit of euonymus that may or may not grow, a couple of bee balm transplants that I have just as much faith in, and a new Japanese anemone called Honorine Jobert, which will grow to be about 4'x4' and will look like this when it blooms in the next few weeks.
There's a Russian sage back there, too, and another little Russian sage, hiding behind the tree.
I hope everything is settled in well enough to survive the storm. I'm also worried about the vegetables, of course. This is the trellis I just built for our sprouting snow peas.
That looks like it will stand up to 60 mph winds, right? We will pick as many tomatoes, zucchini, and eggplant as are ready, and hope for the best. I'm dreaming about making these
zucchini fritters just posted on Smitten Kitchen while we're hunkered down, assuming we have electricity.
If you are weathering the storm, lucky enough to have it pass by you, or in a place where the weather is better, I hope it's a good weekend for you. Let's take one last look at those coneflowers.
Love them!
1 comment:
Glad you saved some of the daylilies. Next spring you will be glad too, I predict. Your new plantings sound and look exciting, especially the marmalade - very handsome!
Irene may bring you some new adventures. Some people talk about staking a bucket over seedlings. Perhaps a well staked plastic milk crate would reduce wind a little and protect plants from flying objects. Remove any heavy flowers to reduce wind resistance. That also gives you something to play with when you're bored during the storm. Speaking of which, caution should be advised. The birthrate nine months after a hurricane is often notably high. Have a good weekend, whatever you do!
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