It appears that my babbling has been confined to tree-mails and the forums this year. It has been almost a year since my last blog entry.
I usually love September and October because I have almost as many rose blooms in those two months as I do in April and May, but this year I just want to skip straight to November, when we might get some rain, even if the drought continues. We had severe drought this year, but there was at least some rain last November. Lately, the weather has been hot and windy -- the worst combination possible for a parched garden. It precludes the use of sprinklers and virtually demands the hand-watering of each plant, but there just aren't enough hours in the day to hand-water half an acre of flower beds.
Starting early on my resolutions for the next gardening year, I pledge to stop trying to grow tropical hibiscuses as perennials. I'll buy them and enjoy them as annuals, but it's too much of a chore to bring all of the pots in for the winter and keep them happy all winter until they can be carried outside again. In most cases, they don't even develop enough to bloom before they have to be brought back inside for the winter. My time and energy certainly are worth more than $6, which is the usual price of a large potted hibiscus I can grow as an annual and replace each year.
Here are a few photos I won't add to the database, but they're too nice not to post somewhere.
Two unidentified hydrangeas:
The one on the left is an unidentified Gerbera. I love these because they come back year after year. The one on the right is an unidentified crocus. I suppose it's an autumn crocus, but it comes up in lots of my containers every August. The foliage is misleading because it belongs to an impatiens planted nearby.
Post a new thread about this blog entry:
