I tried.
I really did.
I wasn’t going to post yet again today (my sincerest apologies).
But as you can figure out by now, that didn’t happen.
I know, yay it’s Friday, TGIF, woo-hoo weekend. Well before I could join you with that sentiment, I needed to get a few things off my chest (always found that saying odd as I really don’t think I carry things on my chest).
Not to sound too dramatic, but on this morning’s garden walkabout, I found nothing but negatives. It’s as if the plants had a secret meeting and decided to knock me down a few pegs. I imagine it going something like this – “He’s a little too content lately. He needs to remember this isn’t that easy. I want you all to put your worst bud or worst petal forward and make a bad impression.” Well, consider it a success. And to prove it to you, I got photos. Warning – this isn’t pretty but it’s my therapy so I really don’t care how you feel:
Hold on a sec, just puked in my mouth a bit. OK … here goes. This Siberian Iris should be used as an educational tool on when you know your Iris needs to be divided. It’s got that big old open hole in the middle that screams “cut me already you dope”. Well, I will do just that after they bloom and will be sure to document each step along the way.
The Iris are blooming but the foliage is no taller than a foot or so. I think I also made the mistake of leaving all of the spent blooms on the plants all year thinking it would provide some level of winter interest. Well, that was way overrated.
Ain’t she a beauty? The cold snap we had has done just this to all my hydrangeas so we got some pruning to do in order to recover. I am finding this very hy-draining.
Even my precious Eupatorium ‘Chocoloate’ seems affected by the near freezing temps. Seriously, if these do not recover fully I am going to put a beat-down on something. This is one of my faves and it looks phenomenal behind a bunch of white blooming Echinacea ‘Fragrant Angel’.
Knockout roses have none of the problems regular roses do. Oh really … is that so. This crap look good to you? The blooms seem unaffected (so far) but damn I need nice clean foliage too. I see no signs of aphids or any other critters that are causing this damage. I am going to camp out with a flashlight one of these nights and find out who is causing such a ruckus.
Joke for you. How can you tell if someone is a novice gardener? Answer – they plant mint in a raised bed with great soil and then ignore it. I planted one of these 2 years ago and they come back as often as Brett Favre. You can see here it has grown under the raised bed planter and is about to suffocate it to death. Nice job John.
One last one for you. These two shots show Catmint planted along my front bed. They are doing real well and I love them. The problem is the spacing. I originally had 8 of these planted along the front but had them planted way to close together. As if I were solving a riddle, I tried to move as few as possible in order to improve the spacing. Smashing success (sarcastic wink). So now here’s my new thought and need your opinion. For this year at least, I was going to plant annuals between each of these. Will that look too checkerboard like? If you think it will work, which annuals would you suggest?
Well thank you for allowing me the opportunity to visually vent. It is truly like therapy and I feel better already.
Thank you … and stay thirsty my friends.
ONG
Oh my word Dirt Digger. Sorry to see such things happening. Nature eh?….can’t live with it and you can’t live without it….just don’t let it beat you! I’m sure all will be ok…grenade the mint though. As for the catmint, I would just leave it to fill the gaps itself. It should form some bigger clumps as the year progresses. All in all your garden is looking good!
It could be worse, I swear….haha…
Your damage from cold looks worse than here in Southern Maine. Maybe your stuff got too used to the cushy NJ weather. I’m not real happy with my dwarf Acer palmatum ‘Tsuma Gaki’ which got whacked at all the tip growths. Nice when it happens to a major focal point that cost $500!
Interesting to see a Hunterdon County blogger. I used to live in Clinton Township until 1998.
Bob
I posted this on your facebook as well, because I wanted to try to reach you before you break out your felcos…
you’d be surprised how well some plants recover from a cold snap~ even hydrangeas. I suggest not pruning them back if you can bear the ugly sight for a couple weeks. They usually resprout new leaves out of the injured branches’ nodes. good luck! (I used to have a black thumb until I went to college to study horticulture to figure these things out)
1) DON’T prune the hydrangea! It will survive and so will you!
2) Cut back the Eupatorium ‘Chocolate’ and it will be huge and lush by mid-summer.
3) DON’T plant annuals between your nepeta unless you want your yard to resemble an overpriced dentists office or a Paint By Numbers canvas. Just move two of the nepeta closer together! Give them growing room as well as a big whack in early July and they’ll be gorgeous.
4) Your iris could be lacking in either sunlight, moisture, or nutrients. A soil test done by your county extension office will tell you what nutrients its lacking or you could try some an epsom salt(magnesium), Plant Tone, and greensand, ground alfalfa meal combo. The epsom salts wil lhelp the soil release trapped nutrients as will the greensand, which also provides micronutrients. The Plant Tone will help build the soil and the ground alfalfa meal contains a natural plant growth hormone, which builds a healhty plant from the roots up.
Good luck!!
Too bad about the cold snap. They’re no one’s friend. Uncontrolled mint = horror movie.
If you sow some eschscholzia (easier done than said) they’ll contrast nicely while the greyish leaves will complement the nepeta. The buttermilk coloured ones or a pink like Thai Silk would be my choice.
Thank you all for the kind comments. I am not touching the hydrangeas (although it is testing my patience) and I’m going to leave the catmint as is. Today was a much better day so watch out for some wicked positivity soon!
I like the CA poppy idea, but I’m a little biased… As for the roses- please don’t spray them! It looks like caterpillar damage and caterpillars now = butterflies later on. And besides, if you’re going to live with the Hydrangea looking like that you might as well adopt the same with the roses, right? Good luck out there!