I haven't posted in a while, and am still trying to get some decent pictures. Earlier this week I got three of the four hanging baskets up. Two are baskets from Home Depot that I just repotted into my own hanging baskets, a two colored double impatien and some pinky lantanas. Both look really nice. The other basket I made myself and has two lemon yellow million bells (from Ingles) and two purple verbenas (from Country Boys). It is on the far end post and is just a little bit hard to water, but it does look good.I also got a purple fountain grass, which I potted up into one of the bronze Marth Stewart plastic pots. Yesterday at Country Boys we saw a really neat basket with coleus and Blackie sweet potato vine. I had two blackies at home as I was waiting to match the one trailing coleus (not going well so far...) and make the final hanging basket. But, in the meantime, we got this other coleus and I made an upright planter with the new coleus and the sweet potato vine. I can always get more sweet potato vine when I find another trailing colues.
Wednesday morning I had a fairly productive planting day. I planted 5 little coleus along the side of the house where the flag irises are, planted the primrose (??) from Mrs Phillips in front of the mallow, planted the lilies of the valley (also from Mrs Phillips) by the side steps and planted the perilla in the shade bed near two hostas. I also planted a new hosta up against the large tree on the side of the house. Hopefully everything will get enough water and will look good. All the bare root hostas I planted are still looking not so hot. Guacamole does not seem to want to open its leaves and several of stillettos leaves looked kind of fried (too much sun??) so I cut them off. The unknown hosta looks fantasic, as do the hostas in other people's yards. Maybe I shouldn't water mine during the winter?
Two of my coleus pieces seem to be taking root, one in water and the other in a little pot, so I may have some additional colues. I also now have 3 mints for Bobbie. I have discovered I can break off little pieces of my pennyroyal on the edges and they have roots. I am working on rooting some mint julip for my co-workers right now. The Chinese lantern seedlings are living outside full time now, but their stems still seem really weak and are kind of bent over at the soil level. But, other than that, they all seem to be doing okay, though I am not currently seeing a lot of growth. The sweet basil seedlings are also outside pretty much full time trying to get lots of sun. They are just starting to maybe put out a second set of leaves. I am thinking about trying to transplant the marjoram and tarragon seedlings into bigger pots and start moving them outside part time as well. My zinnas have sprouted again and Flo has dumped their pot again. I rescued the seedlings and replanted them and am hoping for the best. Don't know why she dumped the pot as it isn't even in an area she goes.
Yesterday I got some peach colored million bells and moved those into the green pot with the sedge and coral bells. The peach colored pansies are in a small pot now to live out the rest of their lives. I bought some more annuals to replace the pansies in my pots, but the pansies live on, as does the bulb foliage. Right now I am keeping the pansies as they are leggy, but they stick up out and above the bulb foliage that is in no hurry to die. Two things I must do though are totally clean out the pot that got infested with ants and move the dusty miller out of the small brown pot, which it is totally taking over. I did dump out the violas last night as Flo had dumped them earlier and they were looking pretty rough.
Yesterday also saw some work in the vegetable garden. I repotted the eggplant into a 12" pot and put a new Thai pepper in the eggplant's old pot. I also added a chocolate bell peper, which is in a 10" pot. They all went along the side fence, though I might move a hot pepper over by the big herb barrel. So far as of this AM, there were no sprouts in the big whiskey barrel. I kind of thought the basil might be up by now, but I did cover it with a thin layer of soil, so that might have slowed it down a little. I did have two major traumas in the herb department this AM. First looking at my purple basil that is by the whiskey barrel, I saw that the stems looked moldy. Straight out of the pot and into the garbage for that one. Don't know what its issue was, but the plant had already had two stems die and had tried to flower. Then, I looked at my other purple basil and it was starting to flower. I pulled the flowers back and I am going to cut it way back when I get home tonight. But, there is a chance it might up and die down like the other one did. No idea what their problem is. After that, I glanced over at my bronze fennel and there sat a BIG catepillar. I ran and got the scissors and snipped off the piece of fennel it was on and deposited the whole thing in the trash. I tried to identify the catepillar today at work but had no luck. I did get the new shepherd's crook driven in the ground for my Tumbling Tom tomato. The crook bent down more than I was expecting when I hung up Tom, so I hope it holds.
I am hoping that the catepillar does not mark the beginning of a major pest invasion. At least I am checking out my plants each day so I hope I can stay on top of any problems as they develop.
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