A few days ago I did a dry run to local gardening market which just opened for the season and bought a small kale and small beet plant start just to get a jump on things. They were dry and root bound so I made a little spot in the raised bed and planted. To my surprise the soil was frosty and partially frozen but so far they are still alive. We are in a warm-up pattern and I planted kale, spinach, beets and lettuce yesterday. Fresh greens will be nice.
And, divided a few perennials to fill in more space in my xeric area. I'm relatively new to perennials and have learned that "perennial" has a variable meaning depending on the plant and conditions. I really like some of the native penstemons which take a year to get established, go gang busters for a couple of years and then fizzle out. Sunset Hyssops are another favorite. The butterflies, bees, and hummingbirds love them and they have that odor like root beer. They seem to go four or five years and some are declining. I may try to grow some new from seed this year. Last year I divided a couple of Little Bluestem into eight plants and this will be the first year when they will flourish. They are a nice native grass space filler. I like to keep the xeric area as low maintenance as possible.
Roger, agreed about “perennials.”
I’m decades in as an ornamental gardener and many of those old standby flowering perennials give up the ghost after 3-4 years.
I am not even buying new lily varieties at the moment because too many of them are petering out on me. I don’t know what’s causing it but I suspect I have soil born diseases. The Asiatic lilies are not surviving with the exception of one or two cultivars. The Oriental-trumpets, which have always been problematic in surviving, continue to show variations in longerivty amount cultivars.Some live forever even in depleted soil. Others burst into huge amazing plants in year one and two and decline in year three.but then there are iris that multiply and multiply and multiply. And granted with Iris cultivars very widely and how strong they are and I do lose around 10%, but the ones that stay stay forever. They would run me out of house and home if I let them I have to give them away constantly and in the end just compost many of them.
I like peonies because they’re well behaved and they don’t peter out.
I’m just randomly naming perennials here, but there are so many other flowering ones that just dont last.
Bleeding heart here in Piedmont Maryland don't last for me. Penstemon either. My steady growers are daffodils, iris, peonies, lavender ( do have to replace a couple each year), cranesbill, Johnson's Blue geranium, coneflower, garden phlox ( although I am seeing some decline after MANY years), hostas that survive the deer nibblers. Annuals I love from seed or bought plants are zinnia, larkspur, sweet peas, cosmos. If everything I have planted over the last 45 years had grown and thrived...I'd be living in a jungle of flowers.
In the eastern area of Colorado there is a National Grassland that is dotted with homesteads that most likely were abandoned around the dust bowl. Some springs when there is good rain the prairie flowers are especially nice and I've made a few tours in late May/early June for birds and wild flowers. I distinctly recall one of these old farmsteads with yellow blooming Iris around the broken down farm house. One could guess these went untended for decades, but may have had other care. The wild variety I've called blue flag are common in some of the wetter mountain areas. I have what I assume are blue flag in my yard that are low maintenance and have been around for at least 15 years and probably longer. In dry years the flowers are rather unimpressive, but survive.
Bearded iris are a desert plant so they would like your region.
The abandoned farmsteads in Iowa had old peonies, probably iris although I didn’t pay attention, but I remember they also had the holy Grail for me which is —perennial orange poppies.
Those old perennial poppies that are impossible to get started. Lord have I tried many times. No luck. Nope they don’t like it. They aint going to grow for me!
I know of one such plant within half a mile of my house and I visit it every spring. I’m always fearful that someone over there, it’s a commercial parking lot, is going to dig it up or Roundup it or something nefarious.
I love native wildflowers, and have well established (5+yrs) of bloodroot, dutchman's britches, bishop's hat, wood poppy, solomon's seal, spring beauties, and of course violets - purple, white, mixed. I have a small patch of yellow violets that is s l o w l y expanding. a couple trilliums are making small clumps, and there's a jack in the pulpit that simply will NOT reproduce itself. (I don't actually know how they reproduce, need to look into that.) Most of my hostas are 8-10 yrs old, several really need dividing. I have some iris, peonies, and daylillies, but most of my yard is shade, so that's limiting. I have a nicely expanding collection of hellebores also. I really appreciate plants that thrive on lack of attention, lol.
I collected seeds last fall and now have a sunroom full of baby penstemons, bee plants, flax, hyssops, baptisas and an odd assortment of other new to me plants that are native or naturalized to this region. My biggest triumph is that I got a few desert 4 clock seeds to germinate. Everyone on my street has edge to edge lawn so I will be a rebel and put them out front in my soon to be "prairie" space. It is hard to justify all this effort if we end up moving but it brings a great deal of satisfaction just watching plants do their thing.
Germinating seeds can be tricky. I don’t have the patience for it, I let DH do it when I have things that must be germinated or else I just toss them in the ground.
I had to look up the desert Four’o clock Because I like regular annual 4 o’clock’s. That’s a pretty plant so I’m sure it will look nice.
Oh lucky you with the fresh asparagus. Perfection cooked and chilled and served with hollandaise sauce.
I had them grilled the other day as a side with the fish and chips. That was surprisingly good, too.
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