Gertrude's Flower Garden Weekly Diary
9/10/99 - It seems that not everyone is unhappy with Hedera helix, which I "bad-mouthed" in last week's "Weekly Diary." A reader in Ohio e-mails me to say: "I have had good luck with ivy, but I must have an unusual non-climbing variety. I have it growing on the west side of the house under the flowering quince. It does not climb the house or the bushes and it helps to mulch the ground holding in moisture and keeping out weeds. During the summer I trim edges about 3 or 4 times to keep it out of the grass, but other than that it has been great to us." The difference in our experiences seems to be both in the variety of ivy, and in this gardener's careful control of it: "I keep it trimmed from going into two of the neighbors' yards."
In past "Diaries" I have mentioned that our garden has more shade than is desirable for many flowers. This results in some plants growing quite tall as they try to get their share of sunshine. I have found, therefore, that it is a good idea when this occurs to cut back plants. Gardeners hate to do this since it often means cutting the blooms from their flowers, but the end result is not only flower-beds of a more satisfactory height, but also more blooms on your flowers. Spider Flowers (Cleome Hasslerana), for example, branch out with many more flower heads when they are trimmed. You will get the same results when you trim Hyssop (Hyssopus officinalis), which, like Spider Flowers are tall-growing plants to begin with.
This week's picture is another photograph of the small circle bed in the front of our house. I used a picture of these flowers and wrote a description of them in my "Weekly Diary" for 23 July, but this present photo was taken with my new camers, and I think that if you compare the two photographs you will see a great difference. In the first place, besides the greater clarity and better colors, the most important difference is that I was able to get a much closer picture so that you can see the shape of the individual flowers. Like all of our flower-beds, this one is greatly affected by sun and shade. It is shaded in the morning, and the afternoon sun comes from the south/southwest; consequently, both the Star and the Profusion (pink) zinnias push to the side of the bed towards the sun, leaving the other part of the bed not as full. I try to accommodate for this by planting closer on one side and further away on the other, but never get it quite right.
9/17/99 - Gertrude's Flower Garden Weekly Diary
9/3/99 - Gertrude's Flower Garden Weekly Diary
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