Garden Notes 6/19/14

 Last year's dead hydrangea canes have made some nice mini-teepee poles -

the perfect size for a container. Gotta get SOMEthing good out of all those 

frozen canes!

- The Don Juan rose is BACK!!! Thank goodness I was too lazy to dig up the entire bush and only cut it off! One nice red cane coming up from the heart of the root ball.
- I've been longing for cleome this year - planned it out last fall. A big patch right where some nasty black eyed susans had spread. Have sewn 3 x in various areas from last year's seed. Nothing. Then along a bed edge where I usually spray weed killer - a whole bunch of mid-sized seedlings!  I transplanted them to the spot where I originally wanted to grow them. Felt like the Lord gave me a sweet gift.
- A clicking/knocking sound in a certain area in the long bed, near neighbor's wisteria. What is it???
- The sun flowers are killing it! They might make 'mammoth' status this year.
- Different stem colors for different zinnia seeds - never noticed that before.
- Red coneflower - sigh!  :0)  Wonderful!
- Cut back the r. sage ready-to-flower growth. The similarly trimmed b. e. susans are frantically sprouting new bloom stems with much smaller leaves - interesting conservation of energy on the part of the plant in order to achieve bloom 'on time'.
- Datura is gone gone gone. (Guess I shouldn't have said "thank you"...)
- Very delicate columbine seedlings coming up around the two main plants. Going to try to keep these open to the sun, and see if I can establish some new plants.
- I think the potted blackberry hydrangea has a small side growth that could be separated to make a new plant. Separate them in the fall. How to make the more raspberry color darker blue blackberry again? Try the old rusty nails trick?

We spent a whole day of our vacation hobnobbing with people like this.

They all had alot to say and with such DRAMA!

 It was fascinating - every. single. minute.