the new garden plan: round two

I had meant to skip last week's "weekly bloom" post, but I had also meant to replace it with something else. And then Life got in the way, as it does — the Spanish Inquisition has started daycare! She spends most of her day not napping, plotting dire recriminations against her cruel parents; I know it — and that got pushed back. As things do.

In any case, I had decided not to bother with a post because this extreme heat and drought have essentially dessicated the garden. No — wait; no "essentially" about it; it simply has. The roses are loving it (but even they are getting somewhat bleached) —


The lovely vermillion-pink colour is visible only close to dusk, when the flowers are closing up; during the day, they open a pale yellow, almost white. I have been deadheading — more or less — and they have kept in bloom; lovely.

The other things though — not so much. The hostas seem to be doing fine, in the deepest shade of the garden (which, even then, is only dappled shade; our tree is little, and doing the best it can). One of the two hellebores seem to be making a stand of it. But everything else — I believe the technically term is 'pfffffft.' — except for the weeds, which are endemic.

So! New plan. Yesterday we had a quiet day — astoundingly — and I went to our neighbourhood garden centre. East of Eliza is literally five minutes away from our house (which can be construed both as a very, very good thing, and a very dangerous one), so I took our little red wagon behind me, spent too long in the secret garden deciding on measures, and then returned, little red wagon laden with goodies, in the space of under an hour.

What is there? The splashiest, the bright purple-pink echinacea, are E. purpura 'PowWow Wild Berry." It's a ridiculous name, I know, but the flowers themselves are adorable. It's a relatively recent cultivar, but I've been seeing them everywhere lately, and I just couldn't resist. There's another coneflower in the wagon, too, a smaller burnt orange one at the back; it had lost its tag, unfortunately, so I don't know the cultivar.

The white ones are shasta daisies. I have a weakness for the daisy form; can you tell? Shasta daisies were not in my original garden plan; I forget why. I think I didn't want to overdose on daisies, and there's something so simple about them. They're almost too sweet, I think. But right now, my actual garden is dead and I need plants, and a daisy is a daisy, so in they go.

The small, low-leafed things are Oriental poppies, white ones. They're past their bloom time, but still throwing out new growth, so I am hoping that I will be able to establish them for next year. I love poppies, particularly Oriental ones — one of the earlier victims of the drought was a purple Oriental — and they were on sale, so I'm willing to take the risk.

And finally, there's a peony in there somewhere. A dark pink one, if the picture is any indication; the tag says, simply "garden peony." They also had some 'Duchesse de Nemours,' which is a very old white from the 1850s, with a beautiful form — it was one of the ones I was considering, in my original garden plan. But it's crazily hot right now, and the sun is searing, and in this light I can't abide a shrub full of big, bright white flowers; it's too glaring. I rejected the 'David' phlox (which I had also considered, back in April) for similar reasons.

I will be moving these into the ground throughout the week. (What with work, and bedtime, and dinner, it's not going to be possible to do everything at once — and we're out of town this weekend.) Wish me luck.