Good morning, and at least the tomatoes are happy. Welcome to Saturday Morning Garden Blogging.
Denver has been having great tomato weather: although highs have topped 90° since July 15, we've stayed out of the high 90s, and overnight lows have been staying in the 60s. Since tomatoes won't pollinate and ripen if it's too cold, but also won't pollinate if it's too hot, for the tomatoes this is Goldilocks weather: just right.
The thunderstorms have been widely-scattered this week: they've occurred somewhere, but here in my little slice of heaven we've seen very little moisture. We did a couple of little blasts, but nothing like the soakers from earlier in the month. So I'll need to go out and do some watering this weekend, so I can pull the goddamned purslane that continues to sprout everywhere.
This week I put in my order for antique fall-planted bulbs at Old House Gardens. I stuck with hyacinths and tulips and passed on daffodils this year — I had a pretty good show of daffodils last spring, but the tulips and hyacinth were lacking.
While I was shopping, I noticed that they have a sampler of jonquils (click above link) that are specifically suited for southern gardens; there's also the Southern Bulb Company, which specializes in rescuing forgotten bulbs which will thrive in the south from abandoned sites. Heck, they even have recommendations of species tulipswhich might be suitable for warmer, wetter climates.
It got me thinking about how lucky we are to have such resources these days, be it finding old and unusual plants and flowers, or researching whether there is a cultivar of a beloved plant from your former home will survive in your new location.
For example, one of my favorite spring flowers from my Oregon youth is daphne — a shrub which is generally all wrong for the Colorado front range. Daphne likes acid soil, moisture, and is too tender for our winters. Now, while I can't grow my favorite daphne odora here, Carol Mackie daphne does quite well.
And then there's Arp rosemary. Before Arp hit the scene, I planted tried for years to keep rosemary alive indoors (nope; not enough sun), or find a microclimate in my yard warm enough for rosemary to over winter. Arp is hardy to zone 6; here in Denver it requires a warm, southern-exposure spot and winter protection while it gets established.
Why, just this year I was able to quickly research whether it is at all feasible to grow in my very small veggie patch the honeydew melons the Mister craved; determine that it is possible with dwarf varieties, then track down seeds and order seeds. And now I have vines loaded with cute little melons sprawling across the garden.
Back in 1992 when we bought Our Old House, our sources of information and plants were limited to whatever we found in local nurseries, what family and friends told us about, and whatever catalogs happened to find their way into our mailbox.
Now, almost 20 years later, friends are available from across the country, and search engines allow us to find the sources of plants, rather than waiting for them to find us.
Isn't it grand?
That's what's happening here. What's going on in you garden?