Gertrude's Flower Garden Weekly Diary

3/30/01 - In the "Weekly diary" of 2/2/01 I mentioned ordering some bulbs and perennials for spring planting. I planted the liatris (about 25 corms) along the south side of the house and along the fence in the Sun bed. The purple spikes should look good against the white wall of the house and provide good background color in the Sun bed. The border dahlias I used to edge the sunny bed in the front of the house--I hope that they won't be so high that they block out plants in back of them. The achillea I planted near the front corner of the house just beyond where the liatris row ended and where I already have some old achillea plants. The asiatic lilies and the astilbe I planted in the Rectangular bed where I presently have both these flowers and they have done well. It is always safer to plant new varieties where you have already had good results with the same or similar plants. I followed the growers planting instructions as to depth and spacing. This summer I will show you pictures of the results.
Besides planting new perennials, this is the time of the year to divide the old ones already in your garden. Last summer, when they were blooming, I marked two large clumps of white phlox. This week, I divided them and planted the ones I dug up in the rock garden where the white is very effective against the green background. I also divided the large clump of pink phlox in front of the new curved fence (there are pictures of this beautiful plant in former "Diaries"), putting the new planting in the same bed nearer the terrace. I already have two good-sized astilbes in the Rectangular bed; I divided these and put the new plantings along the fence of the Sun bed. Dividing perennials at this time of year is not difficult. The new growth is just high enough that you can see what you are doing, and the soil is still "clumpy" so that it won't drop off the roots of the plants you move. Use a sharp spade to cut off as much of the plant as you want, cut around it, and lift out this section. The soil from the new planting place can be used to fill the opening left beside the old plant--I give both "parent and child" a little water. Phlox have deeper roots than astilbe, but they come up easily. The astilbe are shallow rooted and grow out of a solid root structure. I found that I would have had more and larger astilbes if I had cut them from my own plants instead of buying them--Oh, well, I did get some new colors.
As promised last week, this week's picture is of some early daffodils snuggling against the terrace wall. They are not the King Alfreds which will come a bit later and are much larger and more upright, but a very early variety of yellow daffodil that has been in our garden for over half a century. They were given to us by a neighbor (one of the "originals" on our block of whom only myself and one other remain), and, because I did know what variety of daffodil it was, named after them: "Hayden Prolific."

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