It's been a beautiful (albeit warm) holiday weekend in coastal Alabama.
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| {'Peggy Martin'} |
When I woke up (early) this morning, it was still cool, with just a touch of eerily beautiful fog. As I let the dogs out and stood on the back patio, a cardinal sang his first songs of the day-- one of those rare, perfect moments...
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| {Mrs. Cardinal's abandoned nest in the rose arbor} |
It wasn't long before the last of the fog burned away, the sun giving us just a taste of what it will be like in another couple of months.
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| {'Joseph's Coat'} |
I took the camera out a couple of times over the weekend, trying to get photographic evidence of these fleeting days of spring, before we slip (without warning) into the singed and sweltering summer months...
Luna always jumps up when I pick up the camera, because it usually means I'm going outside. She likes to come along for the walk. I ask Trixie if she wants to come along, too, and she usually does.
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| {green anole} |
I snagged a couple photos of the flowers of the newly passed-along weigela. I also looked up the pronunciation of "weigela", which I then promptly forgot. Let's see... Does it start with a "why" or a "whee"?
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| {weigela} |
It seems to be "why-GEE-la".
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| {weigela} |
I noticed that the semi-shade garden is still a mess. It needs more mulch and more "plumping up". More "filling out". More "plants", if you will. Some of the existing plants will take up more space as they grow, of course, but if I could think of some promising semi-shade perennials (or possibly annuals) to fill in a few spots, that would be good, too. The sandy soil (not to mention the greedy roots of the large loropetalum) is detrimental to the success of many plants that might otherwise be satisfied with the part sun, so I'll continue working on building that with compost and mulch.
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| {semi-shade garden} |
One day last week, I moved the succulents slightly to the south. I don't know how they'll react to the increased sun. They're not in tip-top condition, as it is, though. A change might do them good.
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| {Succulents} |
Otherwise, if they seem to be scorching, I can relocate them yet again.
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| {succulents} |
This unknown clematis is doing its best to outshine the others on the rose arbor.
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| {no-ID clematis} |
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| {Louisiana iris 'Jeri' with wasp} |
The salvia cuttings I mentioned last week seem to be doing ok, so far. (Salvia usually are pretty simple to start from cuttings, it seems. It does help to remove the flowers from the cuttings, though, so I pinched off the flower bud on the cutting to the left, once I noticed it. All that energy that would go to developing the flowers would be better spent on growing roots.)
I'm less confident of the success of some rose cuttings I also took in the past several days, but it was worth a try. There was a piece of 'Peggy Martin' that was growing on the ground, right where it would eventually interfere with the main gate, so I cut that off and got several pieces from it to try rooting. Then, since I was already in rose-rooting mode, I took a few cuttings from the unknown climbing pink rose on the west side of the house. Fingers crossed!
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| {salvia cuttings} |
And to close, here are the latest daylily photos. (Wouldn't want to miss out on those, now, would you?)
