Patches of Thyme

The tiny Kannah Creek buckwheat is blooming nicely for the first time. It's been years, and this little plant has never done much. It's been moved multiple times, but here it is finally settling in.

Nothing like the large shrub it is supposed to be though. Still a tiny thing, with just a dozen pom pom spikes. Will it ever have the size and shape of this --

The circle garden with the white bowl in the center is coming along, but so slowly. Everything around the circle is either new and tiny or several years old and tiny. And the thyme surrounding the bowl is a mess where I took out all the perennials last fall.

It has greened up well, but the empty spots are still bare and there was a lot of brown dieback at the edges. I know it needs some really hot dry weather to get going. It will spread out and fill the holes when summer comes, at least so I hope.

But now it is so patchy and uneven. And the Vermillion cuphea in the bowl is a tiny twig, not yet anything promising to look at. It got stripped by the hail last week, and it needs some hot weather to start growing too. 

It's in the low 50s at night, still cold for this time of year, so the garden hasn't taken off yet. 

I wait.

Limbed Up Privet

One of the most effective things I did in the back yard was to limb up the Chinese privet by the back fence last summer. Kind of on a whim.

It gave it a nice shape, opened up the area below, let me view what was beyond from the vantage of the deck, and it just looks nicer. 

Now there is a tiny Mojave sage transplant settled in below. If I can get it to take, and if it will thrive in this part shade swale between the crabapple and the privet, it will be nice.

The Chinese privet is now almost tree-like, adding some vertical height to the long horizontal fence line.
 

Some pictures of it before I did the chop job last summer -- really, it was a huge bomb of a shrub, just immense and wide spreading, barely topping the fence.

And here it was before we took out the Spanish broom and created the circle garden. Even before the crabapple was planted next to it. A big ball.

Now, limbed up and more elegantly shaped, it is way taller than the fence line.

Limbing this up worked out well.

Hail Storm

Memorial Day started beautifully, with a cool, light breeze and soft sunshine. The view sitting on the deck having my coffee was nice.

But in the afternoon we had a storm come through and it brought hard driving hail.

The hailstones weren't big but the force of them hammering the skylights was deafening and a little scary. It almost seemed like the onslaught would break the skylights.

But it passed pretty quickly and left a coating of white ice cubes on the gardens and patio. The rain gauge measured a quarter inch after it melted.

The Bartzella peony's fragile blooms managed to survive. It is the first year it has bloomed so well. Most plants are okay and the trees are fine, but left a lot of torn twigs and leaves all over the ground.

But other things got tattered. 

The bush clematis that I had just moved to the side of the table at the garage door (and just pruned back) got shredded and looks bad now. And the little strawberry in a pot is half destroyed.

Spring is a tough season!

Memorial Day Weekend

It's finally warming up a bit, what a long cold month May has been. Jeronimo came yesterday to turn on the irrigation and clean up pine cones in front.
 

The redbud still worries me. In 2023 and 2024 it looked good the third week in May, with big glossy leaves. Kind of shaggy looking.

Late May in prior years

This year it seems sparse, the leaves are little and dark, not just the new emerging leaves, but all of them. They are just now starting to get a little bigger, so I am waiting to see. Although it's leafing out, there is just something about it that looks off.

This year

It may have just been the very cold nights we've had all month, and the hail in early May. Each spring has its challenges, but this was a long uninterrupted stretch of very cold nights and not much warmth in the day.

I moved the bush clematis in its turquoise pot from under the juniper -- too crowded there -- and tucked it in next to the table by the garage, where I like it better. The blue picks up the door color. The long drying stems could be arranged to scramble up over the table a bit and that helps it look better. 

Still, the flowers are all dragging on the ground and I will prune it back.

The table had been looking forlorn with just a stiff arrangement of pots on it, nothing to look at. This gives it some visual looseness and fills the space. 

It looks much better seen from the deck, looking down toward that blank wall and door. This make a fuller, greener focal point, with just a bit of blue peeking through.

When the red flowered cardinal penstemon flowers, that will fill the lower front part of the table vignette with some color and form too.

It's not great, though. Still a little staged. I need the yellow petunia to fill out and drape and the little basil plants to rise above the rims of their tall pots.

Moving Tchochtkes Around

After I moved some plants yesterday, I moved garden decor today. 

The birdhouse that sat on a stump in the potting bench curve went on the top shelf of the potting bench. The stump went below next to Major Wheeler honeysuckle and a Gro-Low sumac, flanking the chair I sit in to rest during garden chores. 

I retired the brown urn that had been there, but I like the shape and need to find a place for it.

Where the stump and birdhouse had been, the metal peacock now stands. I like it. He shows up against the flat wall and is seen from the patio.

I tried the peacock in lots of places after I took him off the deck corner. I like tucking him into a space, not featuring it as a sculpture. 

The black and white metal pig has been retired. I'm not sure where to put him now. He made a nice visual with the white and black aspen trunks, but is lost among the emerging garden under the aspens now.

Moving Plants All Around

I didn't like the knockout pink rose where I planted it. It's a very pretty plant, but its sugar pink blooms weren't right for this spot. 

Too English garden looking, even though the circle garden near it is quite structured and a little formal.

The shape is wrong too. I want something to spill down the little swale under the crabapple and the privet, not a big rounded upright shrub smack in between the two.

So, I took it out, put it in the white cement pot where the dead blueberry was, and placed it in the corner by the glider.

It fits the corner better than the big bush clematis and I will smell the delicate fragrance close up. On the patio in the corner its formal look will be better.

In its place I planted a Mojave sage (Plants of the Southwest had it) to settle in that little swale better. Not so upright, still flashy and eye catching but not so pink.A darker color to fit the earthier colors of mulch and stones and stucco wall.

I tried multiple times with Mojave sage and never got the hang of it. Too much sun, not enough water, whatever -- I struggled with several plants, not understanding what it takes to get one started. 

I know once established they want little water, lean soil, no care, a sunny spot. This spot under the privet has no irrigation emitter. And of course when I dug up the little rose, which I had watered deeply every other day, it was bone dry . . . 

And here's the thing: Santa Fe Botanical Garden actually says they want shade in this high elevation environment. Here's what they say:

It grows on dry slopes, in piñon-juniper or pine woodlands, often in decomposed granite, at elevations from 5,000-10,000 ft.

 

It should be planted in nutrient-poor, well-drained soil. It grows best in dry shade or partial shade of trees. It needs only minimal water after it is established. Soil that is too rich or too much water promotes lush growth, but short-lived plants.

So I'll see how Mojave sage does in part shade under the privet. It gets sun in the morning, shade much of the day, then sun again late in the day.

I had to move the bush clematis in its turquoise pot that was in the patio corner by the glider.

It should probably be in more sun for better flowering.

It got too bushy for this corner, the flowers are all down below, and the top of it (the bottom of the stems, actually) is turning brown. It's a plant that should be tucked in with other things somewhere and allowed to scramble over them, hiding some of the stems.

It can actually be used as a spreading ground cover too, unsupported and allowed to flop.

I couldn't move it very far, so it ended up tucked under the juniper by the garage door, which does visually cover the bare stems a bit.

But it's still floppy with the flowers dangling on the ground. I hope in more sun it will fill out more -- after flowering later this spring I'll chop it back.

I tried weaving the long stems and flowers up into the juniper and it worked, but looked a bit silly.

I may have to find another home for this.

Cold Nights

Mid May is passing and our nights are still cold. The heat still comes on every morning. By mid day it's nice enough, cool and sunny, and we can turn the heat off, but nights continue to be in the low 40s.

That's keeping my plants from filling out. So many are still barely emerging or shriveled up from the cold. 

It's getting discouraging. The columbines look good, though, and here are a few things that are looking nice:

The indigo bush clematis is blooming well, but it's all down at ground level, despite using a support ring in the pot to hold it up somewhat. 

Some deep red petunias are nice, and look at this -- Bartzella peony is blooming early this year. It usually puts out its two yellow blooms at Memorial Day. I guess it likes the cold.

The delicate geraniums are blooming. Biokovo makes a pretty carpet under the aspens. Because they've spread in four separate clumps, they are visible and look nice in dappled shade. The Raven mourning widow smoky purple geraniums are not visible at all, I had to get down at ground level and look up close. You can't see them from any distance.

I fertilized all the pots this week, but I'm reluctant to fertilize anything in the ground while plant growth is so curbed. I applied fertilizer to everything on April 22, so it's been a month now.

But it won't help much until growth starts.

I find I have to ignore recommendations about fertilizing since it is for climates with rich soils and lots of moisture, not the alkaline intermountain west. The advice is to limit applications to every 3 or 4 weeks, or just use only compost as a top dressing.

Here I need lots of fertilizer, not just some compost dressing. Even plants that want lean soil, like agastaches and Russian sages and salvias and blanketflowers, look yellow and small unless I give them several shots of fertilizer 2 weeks apart during the season. 

But I do think I need to wait a bit longer. The overnight low next Tuesday is forecast to be 37° but the end of the week gets warmer. By Memorial Day weekend overnight lows will consistently be around 50.

Single White Iris

I fertlized all the containers today. They got washed out with the 3½ inches of rain earlier this month. I also gave the two clematis vines (Jackmanii and Venosa violacae) some fertilizer.

Things look okay, and some things look fine. The newest plantings are still limp, the new things from last year are tiny. The sages emerge very slowly -- the transplanted mealycup sage is barely showing anything above ground.

There's a lone white iris that popped up behind the bench. There should be more later.

The new knockout pink rose, tiny and just planted, is blooming. I'm not sure about the pink, it seems too bright and garish, maybe too feminine for a western garden? When the amsonias behind it fill out in the coming years it might be a nice spring combination in bloom then.

The peacock seems to like his new location tucked in among a columbine and bright Japanese forest grass.

Vermillionaire or Verity

Vermillionaire

I swapped out the David Verity cuphea I had planted in the white bowl centered in the circle garden. 

It got winter zapped with the cold and sleet and rain the first week of May and was struggling a bit.

It would have come back I think, but I didn't want to baby it and I found a nice full Vermillionaire cuphea at Newman's. 

So I put that in instead. 

It's a smaller, lower profile cuphea. It is not as tall or upright, and probably a better choice to fill the bowl. 

Vermillionaire is described as very flowery but lower than David Verity and sprawly. The David Verity I grew in vase shaped containers or an urn was more upright branched, taller, and with a narrow base.

David Verity in different pots, different years

I did love the elegant shape and fresh clean colors of David Verity. Will I like Vermillionaire as well?

Vermillionaire in a small pot inside the urn

I actually tried Vermillionaire once in 2022 in a very small pot inside the brown urn on the front portal, but abandoned it. 

It seemed the wrong shape -- I wanted something to drape down over the urn. And it was in too small a pot, and probably in too much shade.

How will this new attempt at Vermillionaire do in the wide bowl in full sun?

When I took out the struggling David Verity, I put it in the spot in the lower flagstones where the ill fated ironwood saplings never grew. I moved the peacock -- I tucked that into the plants along the fence, where it blends in with a pop of interest rather than being a focal point out in the flagstones.

Mother's Day Columbines

Mother's Day was a perfect day of 72 degrees, blue sky, warm sun and little breeze. 

Most things are recovering from the days of rain and clouds and cold. 

I did as my metal sign among the columbines advised, and relaxed. A sweet message from Greg, a bottle of wine from Hope and Steve, and a fun facetime call with Tom and Z and the grandkids.

Lovely. Nothing over the top, no busy brunch among crowds, just nice acknowledgements and a quiet day.

The columbines really came into their own over Mother's Day and they are cheerful and bright. They survived the cold and wet okay, not as full and splashy as in some years, but nice.

The foliage is clean and fresh, the blooms big and elegant. I'll take that.

While some things are looking better now with nicer weather, a few other plants worry me.

The redbud finished blooming but is struggling to leaf out.

The leaves are tiny, sparse and very dark colored. I think the snow and cold got it at just the wrong time, but hope warmer weather will set it right.

The potted plants all need fertilizer after being washed out, but the soil in the containers is still too wet. 

The petunias are not happy yet. They really need much warmer conditions.

The blueberry is a goner and I moved the pot away from the kitchen door.

The new little David Verity sprig is limp and its few leaves are rusty colored. A few newly planted seedlings look terrible, especially the blue flax and the tiny Black Adder agastache. 

I'll wait to see if they will improve.

Despite these issues,  Mother's Day was a delight in my garden.

Finally, Some Sun

After days and days of steady rain, rolling storms, cold nights and cloudy overcast days, the sun is out now, and the rains have stopped. A brilliant, cool, sunny day today.

But it's too wet to dig in the dirt or plant anything. Some things look fine, but other, smaller new plants look very stressed.

The big 'Arp' rosemary's blooms are just going by now.

The spindly aronia 'Iroquois Beauty' looks fresh and green. It's so tiny, though. The flowers were brief but beautiful.

It is in a lot of shade, so that may be keeping it back. I probably should mass several to get any effect. They are supposed to be 2 to 3 feet tall and just as wide. They have an open-branched look, kind of twiggy, but really, mine should be much fuller and bigger after all these years.

This little Mount Atlas daisy, planted just last year, is looking cute. A little hard to see in the rocks, and it's a ground hugging plant you need to visit close up, but nice.

The flowers close up at night, showing pink undersides, but open in the sunshine.

And a new columbine has shown up under the Japanese maple. It's a combination of the tiny red Little Lanterns and the big elegant yellow Swallowtail columbines, naturally hybridized. 

How sweet.

Spring Failures

Ugh . . . .

Everything looks bad after too much rain but most things will recover. 

The Chocolate Chip bugleweed at the corner of the front portal does not look like it will. 

There is not a sign of greenery or any life at all. One lone tiny blue bloom was sticking up, but now it's gone.

These have struggled, and over the first years I moved them about, finally settling on having them all in a small arc right at this corner. I water and fertilize them. 

They should show something by now, approaching mid May. In prior years they were lovely by this time, although the blooms did not last very long.

But they were eye catching at ground level.

In 2021 and 2023, the first and second weeks of May

Over the years they have spread to form a dense mat, but after blooming briefly the foliage never turns the rich green they were originally. They are sort of just there.

Will it recover?

Is it too much competition under the pine even with irrigation and supplemental hand watering? They get carpeted with dry pine needles.

Is it worth keeping them? I think not. 

I'll take them out, and in my mission to simplify things, I won't plant anything else. Just leave that small corner open, rock covered, and unplanted. 

There is a tiny gaura at the base of the column, and that may be enough.

I'll wait a while to see what comes back if anything, but I am thinking this corner of ajuga has to go. It's never going to have the rich foliage and sparkling flowers it should.

I'll miss it, though.

In past years

And another failure -- the pretty blueberry in the white pot by the kitchen door looks terrible. It is still early spring, but there is no leafing out at all. 

In prior years it flowered in late April and was beautifully leafed out in May and June. It was becoming an elegantly structured, nicely green plant to fit that spot.

It looked nice in summer and even lovely in winter when it turned a frosty mahogany.

I think it is gone this year.

Unbelievable

It kept raining and sleeting all day yesterday and evening. 

This morning there was almost 3 and a half inches of rain in the gauge. Amazing.

I don't think I've ever seen that here from one storm. It's too much now, too much for my plants to deal with. The dry adapted things, which still love a little moisture, don't do well in soaking soggy soil.

And it is cold. The mid 30s at night and no more than mid 40s and overcast during the day today. 

Tomorrow I think the rain will stop, clouds will remain, and the temps will get up to 50.

The rain is so welcome, but it's really too much.

A Rare Occurrence

We got an inch of rain from rolling thunderstorms all yesterday afternoon and overnight. 

Storm cells rolled through over and over. 

It's rare to get this much long soaking rain with thunder and lightning this early in spring, well before monsoon season. 

An inch has soaked everything. Drowned things, actually. 

And the forecast is for more over the next days.

A Few More Plants

I ordered a few more things from High Country Gardens to fill out what is emerging. I got a couple more orange agastache plants to fill the gap next to the single one I transplanted last fall. 

Two blanketflowers, the taller aristata ones to go with the little stand behind the bench.

Also a couple more of the Texas mealycup blue sages to go with the single one I transplanted by the bench.

And a red salvia. The Radio Red plants I put in the ground in the kitchen courtyard are coming up, but the one in the circle garden is barely emerging. They come up late and need heat to get going, but this looks like a struggler.

So I'll try this Vermillion Bluffs Salvia darcyi.

Obedient Plants

In the dining room window garden

I wound up with 10 Physostegia Crystal Peak plants. I dunno how.

Well, I do -- I had several that I dug up and potted from around the birdbath. They struggled, like all the other perennials there, with competition from the thyme. I dug up two tiny ones from the front of the kitchen courtyard and potted those up too. (Those were too near the hot flagstones, too tall for the front of the garden, and not near enough to any emitters).

And then I ordered four more from Bluestone, thinking I'd arrange a whole circle of half a dozen or more in pots at the base of the birdbath. 

Something to break up the circle of thyme, without having to plant in the groundcover carpet. But then I moved the birdbath . . . 

Lovely at first around the birdbath, but they declined.

I've had these pretty plants in all different locations and at times they do well, at other times they struggle. Every one I had in every location looked good at first but declined.

They want, of all things, full sun, slightly acid soil and moist conditions, even though they are sold by High Country Gardens as suitable for here. 

Now, with six plants potted up and four more just bought, I needed to find where to plant them all.

🌱 I kept three in pots and put them under the table by the garage door.

🌱 I planted three in a tight clump together in the kitchen courtyard, but made sure emitters were right there. They are way too close together, but they look better massed. So, a tiny mass of them!

🌱 And I put four spread out a bit in the potting bench curve behind the lambsear, again making sure emitters were close to them.

Locations for 10 Crystal Peak physostegias

I'll see how any of them do. The trick will be to keep them moist enough. They are so pretty, but I really don't want to keep problematic plants in my garden.