Most of the new additions are seeds. I've sown home-gathered seeds of purple coneflower, river oats, 'Autumn Sun' Rudbeckia, and more.
Then there's the small matter of 50+ daylily seeds... I wasn't planning to "do" daylily seeds, this year. I've been saying that every year since I first started growing daylilies from seed, because it does take a certain amount of care and effort to keep them watered (but not drowning), weeded, etc. until they're big enough to set out in the garden.
But then the spring fever set in, and I started thinking about daylilies again and looking at photos... And I decided that it's a small investment that yields beautiful dividends for years to come. I enjoy watching them grow, and it's such fun to have new daylilies to look forward to! It is well worth the trouble of getting them started.
And so I ended up with 50+ more daylily seeds to plant. (I didn't count the seeds, this year, but I bought them from the same eBay seller as usual, and he always goes over the number stated.) This isn't all of them; not all of them had sprouted quite enough, but most were ready for potting. They are totally random, but that's part of the fun.
This 'Shalimar Red' bignonia (crossvine) is really ready to be planted by the arbor-- later this week, once the weather improves! The flower buds look like little balloons to me...
In this photo, you can see the small, purple beginnings of buds (bottom right) and the more mature, red-violet buds that are nearly ready to open (center).
Venturing away from the pot ghetto and into the garden proper...
I'm getting a little scared by the number of swamp sunflowers poking up in a few parts of the garden. This is where I planted the first clump from Mom's garden. They're really starting to take over, here... I'm not sure how many to leave, but I'm definitely going to have to pull up a lot of these. I don't think I'll bother saving them, because I can't think of anywhere else I want them growing, at the moment.
The purple oxalis continues to be lush. I'm still not sure exactly where this plant wants to live. Sometimes it looks completely content with life; then it withers down to nothing and looks terrible for a while before coming back again. Maybe that's standard for this plant-- periods of dormancy. Or maybe I'm just not consistent enough about giving it what it wants/needs.
The Knock Out roses are blooming. (Here's the red, but the pink and yellow are also flowering.)
The 'Peggy Martin' rose (sometimes known as "the Katrina rose") is flowering prettily, too. Still not covered in bloom, as in so many photos, but not bad. There's quite a bit of leaf-spot, unfortunately, but I tend not to worry about that so much. I think it's just a fact of life in this part of the world-- and if there is a way to fight it, it would probably be more effort than I'm currently willing to expend.
We also had our first flower from the 'Zéphirine Drouhin' rose I planted last year. I didn't manage to get a photo before it fell apart, but maybe I'll be faster next time. I did take the time to sample the fragrance, though, and it had a wonderful perfume-- very recognizably a rose scent. I do hope it will do well and flower more profusely in years to come!
Let's see... What else?
I moved the cannas (a mixture of varieties with green leaves and red or yellow/orange flowers) from their old locations (where I planted them last year) to a few different parts of the garden, making room for other plants.
I don't know much about how cannas grow. Parts of the tubers had already sprouted new shoots, but others had no signs of new growth. Do cannas sprout year after year from the same part of the tuber, or does it grow out from one side and die back/no longer put out shoots on the older part of the tuber? I guess it doesn't really matter, at this point, and I'll learn in time.
One thing I've already learned is that those little buggers grow a lot in one year! They were much harder to dig up than I would've expected. It's probably wise to be sure you want them where you plant them-- as is almost always the case with plants. Too bad I make mistakes/change my mind so often!
