I've divided the two clumps of 'Mercury Rising' coreopsis, which were pretty brittle and came apart in many pieces. That could work out really well, if most of them succeed on their own. If nothing else, I think several of the pieces with roots attached should survive the division. I also ended up with many rootless pieces that I just stuck into pots (or directly in the ground). If even a few of those take root, I'll be happy.
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The Confederate rose is this-close to blooming. One day soon!
I'd almost forgotten that it's time to take another month's "survey" photos. Post-processing these was a reminder. Either this weekend or one day next week.
The pinata lavender has grown a lot since this photo from April:
For contrast, below is a photo taken today.
The (cypress vine-spangled) Mexican purple sage is slouching behind the lavender. I think that red salvia next door is a volunteer. It's blocking some day lilies and white spider lilies, but since they're only foliage at this point (and it's so late in the year), I guess I'll let the salvia do as it will for now. In the back, 'Sunshine' ligustrum is a bright spot. It's one of those plants that sneak up on you in size. I'm sure it's growing every year, but you don't tend to think about it until it seems to have suddenly gotten much larger.
Further down the row is one clump of elephant ears. They're shrinking. I think they know something's up. ;o) (Please to be ignoring the flaps of weed barrier that I have yet to bury/fold back/hide.)
Indian blanket is cheerful as ever. (For this photo, I'll need to ask you to please ignore the weeds-- particularly the gripeweed. Maybe I'll pull some weeds tomorrow...)
I was stepping through the blanketflower to get to the black-eyed Susan vine (which I need to get into the habit of calling "clock vine", as it's easier to type). Whenever I remember, I check the vine for ripening seed pods.
I've picked a few of the whole, brown pods, and now I can offer a piece of advice to others new to this plant: If you pick off the whole pod and don't remove the seeds right away, be sure to cover it. It will "explode" as it dries, sending the seed flying. I've had it happen. The next time I found a couple of pods, I put them in a saucer, with another saucer set lightly on top. "Pop!" went the seed pod as the seeds/pod halves hit the ceramic. Today, I forgot that I'd put a few pods in my shirt pocket-- at least, until I heard the tell-tale "pop".
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Double pink Knock Out rose.
Unknown pink shrub rose.
Loropetalum and mina lobata. (And somewhere under all that vine, rose of Sharon.)
The less structured (weedier) part of the flower garden.
I tried to work on the training of the 'Joseph's Coat' rose, earlier this week. It wasn't a complete success. Some new ties were made, but I broke off three little pieces in the process. (I'm trying to root them, but it seems unlikely.) It's not a particularly flexible rose, unfortunately, and those thorns hurt. All I can do is my best! At least the flowers are still pretty, despite my imperfect rose-training.
Donald and I were talking about the bamboo today. One of the newest shoots is taller than he is! (He's 5'10".) Of course, the bulk of it is shorter than that, but we were still impressed. Even more impressive is its increase in girth.
Here it is as of today:
And here it was in mid May:
...And now I'm stunned all over again. It's amazing what a plant can do in just a few months! (And this is just a relatively "slow" bamboo.)
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Funny how something that starts as a very modest project-- ("I think I'll expand this flower bed by three or four feet.") --can snowball into something so much more involved!
I laid out an old water hose to see where the proposed bed expansion might end up, if I took it past the banana shrub. In order to keep a pleasing (and mower-friendly) curve, the new flower bed area gets pretty big...
Then I asked Donald for his input, and somehow we wound up talking about creating a seat/trellis combo (roughly at the near edge of the yellow hose)!
Strange how that happens.
Of course, we could just as easily change our minds back and keep it simple.
