FLOWERS & PLANS GONE SIDEWAYS

I had plans today, to make more Mega Blossoms, photograph them, and also fix a certain recipe out-of-doors and blog the recipe. My plans were on track until I realized I needed more glue.

When I started the car, the radio came on, and for the first time in my experience the Emergency Broadcast System was playing something other than a it's-all-right-we're-just-testing-the-equipment announcement. Big storm coming. Get indoors. Stay away from the windows. Expect rain, wind, lightning, and hail the size of quarters. Wowza. I took a look at the sky, decided I had time to make it to the store and back, and headed out, calling Mama on the way, to tell her about the warning.

By the time I had my glue in hand, the wind was whipping the trees around, rain was beginning to pelt and spatter, and small tree limbs were littering the ground. I called Bob, and asked him to help me get all the glass under cover.

That was the end of my Mega building for today, and the demise of any plan to cook outside.

However, I did have my camera out today. The roses had caught my attention. First I took the sort of photo I usually would take:

Apricot Glory

Then the dying blossoms caught my eye. How could something so clearly on the edge of the grave be so lovely, and interesting as well? They were, though.

After the rose arbor came the front yard. I'd been tying up the heavy heads of the peonies. But before I got to them, there was that new and wonderful euphorbia. I think I could fill beds and beds with different euphorbias, there's so much variety! And no flowers, just spectacular leaves, or more specifically, bracts.





Finally, the peonies, a favorite of mine since childhood, when they bloomed between the house and the orchard, just yards from my bedroom window.





Well, maybe those Mega Blossoms will get made tomorrow. As Burns said, "The best laid plans o' mice and men gang aft agley". (You may know that axiom as, "The best laid plans of mice and men oft go astray" but I do enjoy the dialect it was written in.)

By the way, my horoscope for this week explained the term, "quincunx", a term used in astrology to denote "creative tension". The writer said to imagine, for example, an Italian woman and an American man meeting, and feeling a strange affinity and attraction to each other, even though they could barely communicate. It seems, according to this astrologist, that we Capricorns are currently in a state of quincunx with the entire world. Oh, goody.



savesave

AND THEN...MORE GARDEN HOOKY

So yesterday, it seemed like a good idea to get some bark mulch and maybe a few ground cover-type plants. I headed off to RiteAid, saw without even turning in that they didn't have any plants outside, and made a beeline for Garden Fever. (Alarms should have been going off, lights blinking, signs flashing, "DANGER! DANGER!")

I made it out only $44 poorer, after browsing dreamily through cool outdoor aisles, reading tags, lifting pots, lusting (No, that is not too strong a word!) over choices that were too many and too wonderful.

Best new non-plant item: Coco shell mulch! Oh. My. Goodness. It looks like hazel nut shells (filberts), but is more delicate. It cost more than the bark mulch, but the helpful worker I talked to said you use roughly half as much for weed suppression, with the same results, and that it doesn't fade to gray, but keeps its color. Plus, (Are you ready for this?) when it warms in the sun, it smells like chocolate! I'm going back for another bag today. I love this stuff!

I brought everything home, and went to work, actually digging up one of the dahlias I planted Saturday, and replacing it with a new euphorbia, Canyon Gold. (It's the wrong time of year for it to have any real distinguishing characteristics, so no photo. It looks like any other euphorbia right now.)

Then I planted the other newbies, and spread that lovely mulch. Here's the result:

I'm looking forward to next year, when the new plants will have spread out, especially the lemon thyme and other ground covers, and the caryopteris incana, which will stay about as tall as it is now, but get about two feet wide:





Close-up, it looks like this:


Isn't it beautiful?


And those dahlias:


Melody Lisa



Get closer...



Melody Swing



Step into the whorl...


That takes care of one corner of the front yard. There's a huge Matilija Poppy (Romneya coulteri) needing to be cut back:


Eight feet tall, & it looks like it's covered with fried eggs!


and the rest of the yard is just completely out of control. sigh.