New plants, old plants.

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It’s summer now in Houston, hot and humid and generally miserable – it is 93 in the evening (about 34 C I think ) so you can imagine what it was at noon…! This has meant I have been looking at my container garden and seeing what needed togo and what else I could plant and or rescue…my ten days in Greece didn’t help, but Larry did come water them and the aqua globes worked so most survived…only the strawberries died (but expected that)…the roses were eaten alive by the aphids, but I pruned them and sprayed them and hopefully they’re on their way to recovery!

I decided to try caladiums in the shady part of the stairwell after the orange tuberose begonia died…it never acclimated itself to that spot, and yet couldn’t handle the sun…so it just wilted…I’m hoping these caladiums “Florida sweetheart” will have better luck!

I also couldn’t resist a new geranium! I bought a new scnetd leaved geranium called “Attar of Roses” – the scent is between lemon balm and rose – the flowers are supposed to be lavender, but it hasn’t flowered yet…

I love petunias but have never been able to replicate the bounty and beauty of some white petunias I had three years ago….the deep purple petunias all died and the deep/bright magenta were still flowering but very straggly and burnt…so I decided to remove them and put portulaca “sundial mix” in its place…I love how portulaca’s flowers kind of look like a rose, the variety of colors and best of all, that it doesn’t die in the heat! One little petunia plant survived so I left it among the moss rose….

As I had said earlier in the Spring, I wanted to get some purple coneflower (echinacea) this year…it finally got hot enough to find them in the garden centers, so I bought two little plants of “Bravado” echinacea and one of French Dwarf “Safari Bolero” marigolds and put them in the pot that last year housed the grape tomatoes:

And today I couldn’t help myself – I just HAd to buy this little miniature rose, it has no name, but the color is lovely…orangey-peachy with tinges of rosy red…keeping my fingers crossed it does well!

Of course some plants just haven’t done well…the coleus and spotted plants never quite liked their spot on the shady stairwell – they were plagued by mushrooms and did not grow much…thinking they might need some sun, I put them on a part of the balcony that gets sun but also shade, but it seems they can’t handle the Texas sun…here they are, pretty much on their way out, I think, rip little plants (sigh):

Still looking for some vines and being tempted by bougianvillea…haven’t made up my mind about them yet! LOL

• 13 Jun, 2009
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