Gertrude's Flower Garden Weekly Diary

4/26/02 - Winter, summer, spring: the crazy weather pattern continues. I think that the overly hot period did more harm to the garden than the cold days. Ordinarily, this is the time of year to appreciate the bulbs that we planted in our gardens last year and in previous years. There is no question that the bulbs last planted usually produce the best and largest number of blooms--that's why parks and anyone who can afford it discards last year's bulbs as soon as they have finished blooming. But, even though they bloom less and less as the years go by, I have bulbs blooming in Gertrude's garden that were planted over twenty-five years ago. This year, however, all the bulbs bloomed and dried up in a few days because of the unseasonable heat. Well, nature never guarantees perfection in the weather, and, for whatever reason, the azaleas, dogwood, and lilac, seem more beautiful than ever.
I am making good progress planting my seedlings. Even with some rain in the forecast, I should have everything in the ground by the end of the week. I am working faster than usual, because I will be away early to mid-May. I planted mostly Impatiens ("Busy Lizzies," the British call them) this week: four flats or about 275 plants. Besides the ones planted on the north side of the house that I wrote about last week, I planted on the side and back of the garage, continuing along this bed to the rock garden and planting in front of it. Impatiens need shade or at least only partial sun so that I plant them only in my shady beds. I have been collecting seeds and planting them for so many years that I have probably developed a strain of plants that do well in the soil and weather conditions of Gertude's garden.
Entirely by coincidence, I find that the picture that I selected to show you this week is of the same Rectangular bed that was pictured in the 4/27 "Diary" of a year ago (index102.html).The picture then was of a mixture of white narcissi and red tulips that happily bloomed at the same time and were about the same height. In this year's picture the narcissi are there, but the tulips hadn't opened when I took this photograph. What was there and what I wanted to show you was a new background color for the white of the narcissi. Do you recognize these blue/purple flowers that have taken over this end of the bed? They are, of course, the many "children" of the Money Plant or Honesty (Lunaria) that was given to me by a friend two years ago. This species is annua which is described as "masses of rich, purple flowers transforming into translucent silver mirrors." It flowers in the spring, and is a hardy biennial that is easy to germinate and care for, preferring either full or partial sun and growing about thirty inches tall. Based on my results, your "Money" will really multiply; the only problem appears to be that you need to start plants in a two year period to insure having "Money" every year, since biennials grow from seed the first year and flower and die in the second. I don't see any problem about my "Money" reseeding itself based on this year's results; in fact, it may have to be kept under control or it will take over!

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