The last order was made through Bluestone Perennials.  I’ve had good luck with their plants before:

Geranium “Rozanne”

Geranium “Patricia”

Geranium “Brookside”

Anemone “Honorine Jobert”

Phlox “Laura”

Salvia “Crystal Blue”

 

For some more unusual plants, I turned to Annie’s Annuals:

Kniphofia thompsonii

Calceolaria “Kentish Hero”

Eriogonum “Red Buckwheat”

Euphorbia characias  “Dwarf”

With any luck, these will eat up a lot of space and add some texture and color interest.

It became pretty obvious as I was planting the seedlings I started myself last year that I wouldn’t have nearly enough plant material to cover all the parking strip, especially since I lost quite a few plants over the winter.  I had planned to add some other perennials, anyway, so I went ahead and ordered some this week.

I ordered from several places–including Gilbert H. Wild:

 Peony “Big Ben”

Peony “Coral Charm”

Peony “General MacMahon”

Peony “Krinkled White”

Peony “Sorbet”

Peony “White Dream”

Grass “Apache Rose Switch Grass”

Daylily “Going Bananas”

Daylily “Primal Scream”

Daylily “Tigereye”

Ice Plant “Fire Spinner”

 

 

 

 

I took an extra day off work this weekend and I’ve got a long list of chores, both garden and non-garden, to finish before Monday.

Seed starting is in full swing.  I’ve transplanted about 36 blue pimpernels (Anagallis monellii).  These are destined for patio pots, garden fill-in, and plant sales.

Note:  Image is on Annie’s Annuals website–they are an amazing nursery with lots of awesome and interesting plants.  They sell individual plants of annuals, but many of them can be grown on their own, which is what I do!

I also have about 50 Dianthus “Super Parfait Raspberry” seedlings that I’ve potted on.  I’ve grown these for patio pots, garden fill-in, and plant sales.

Note:  Image is on HPS website.  The seeds I got from this firm have given me almost 100% germination.

I also transplanted about 8 Eccremocarpus scaber seedlings.  I’m going to grow these in window boxes and up some trellises, with one in the greenhouse to keep permanently.

The photo is from Dobie’s website, a seed house in the UK.

Today, I transplanted about 50 monkeyflowers (Mimulus Magic Blotch Hybrids).  I’ve always loved this plant family, so couldn’t resist this fun cultivar.  Some of them are tiny, but they appear to be strong growers, so I’m hopeful most of them will grow to bloom in patio pots, the garden, and for plant sales (if they grow fast enough).

The photo is from HPS, who sell these pelleted seeds.  There were 250 pellets in the packet, so I’m giving a bunch of seeds away!

I also potted about 50 Salvia Lighthouse Purple seedlings today.  As with the other plants I listed, these will fill gaps in the garden, patio pots, and hopefully, help fundraising efforts at plant sales.

The photo is from Pinetree’s website, where I bought these seeds.  They look to be vigorous seedlings!  

There were about 14 seedlings from Chiltern’s Hardy Geranium mix.  I started these indoors under lights and they germinated and grew very quickly.  I’m hoping there were one or two Geranium psilostemon seeds in there.  These seedlings are destined for the Parking Strip garden.

The photo on Chiltern’s website.

After transplanting into soil that was amended with organic plant food and watered with fish poo water from Leon, I noticed the pots were forming fungus all over the top of the soil.  To combat this, I sprinkled perlite all over the tops of every cell.  I’m hoping this will do the trick.

Previously, I transplanted the Osteospermum, Delphiniums, Chard, Alyssum and Bachelor’s buttons.  I moved them to the cold frame, and tiny slugs decimated many of them, but the Osteospermum “Akila White with Purple Eye” transplants were okay still, so I moved them back to the greenhouse and helped one tiny slug to migrate elsewhere when I saw it crossing the top of one of the pots with an enlarged stomach full of Osteospermum!

Photo from Pinetree, where I ordered these seeds.

I planted sweet pea seeds from brother Tim this week, too, and today planted all the seeds I had been stratifying in the refrigerator, including three packets of Meconopsis betonicifolia and a packet of Digitalis obscura, which I hope to germinate in the greenhouse.  These will get planted out in the parking strip garden this fall if any of them sprout and grow big enough.

Indoors, I planted more seeds, including Salvia viridis “Pink Sundae”, Lettuce “Flashy Trout Back”, cucumber “Diva”, Agastache foeniculum, Petunia “Dreams Mix”, Marigold “Bambino” and Oregano “Kirigami”.

Tomorrow, I’ll plant more seeds in the greenhouse and the veggie beds.  Stay tuned for an update.  I’ll work on getting some good flower photos in the greenhouse and garden, too.

 

I did some gardening this weekend, including planting about 50 more plants in the parking strip garden, transplanting some seedlings, and reorganizing the greenhouse a bit.    And I was so glad that I dove deeper into the greenhouse because I found one of my myriad Clivia seedlings was blooming.

This stunner is a six- or seven-year-old seedling that is blooming for the first time.  The scape was up under the shelves, and I almost didn’t see it in the overstuffed greenhouse.  I’m so glad I did, though.  I’m thrilled to finally be reaping the rewards of patience in growing some Clivia cultivars from seed, as I’m getting some cool, gorgeous flowers.

Another view…this is a “Quail x WL Nakamura” cross.

Slightly different view.

And another view.  Lots of flowers for a first-time bloomer.

Another first-time bloomer, this is a “Salmon x TL Peach” cross.  It is so light, it is almost white, with just a few splotches of pink and yellow petal stripes and throat.

More views–you can see the other buds coming along.

Here is a second-time bloomer, but the first flower is deformed, with only three petals.  The color is great, though, a very light apricot yellow.

The Pleione formosana bulbs are blooming in the greenhouse now.  I love these Himalayan crocus flowers.

Antoher view.

And another.  this pot had six flowers this year.  I have a bunch of baby pseudobulbs starting now that should bloom in a year or two.

The Masdevallias continue to put on a show.

There are three plants here in 4″ pots, each with several flowers open at once.

One of the prettiest things in the greenhouse is this dying geranium leaf.  I’m not sure why it turned such bright colors!

Out in the Doug fir bed, the Anemone blanda has a few more flowers than last week.

This Hellebore hybrid in the Doug fir bed continues to look good, at least from a distance.

Closer up, you can see the dark spots on some of the flowers that showed up this year.

An even closer view.

Here is the Hellebore that brother Tim gave me 20+ years ago.  It has a graceful habit, but you have to get pretty low to see what the flowers look like inside.

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The spots inside are worth kneeling down.

 

I’m decorating the front patio area with potted spring bulbs as they start to flower.  The hyacinths are all blooming this week, so I’ve added a bunch to the show.

Cheerful pansies in a bright blue pot.

The Camellia near the orchard garden is opening flowers in the warm sun this week.  This is about the size of most of the flowers.

But somehow, there is also a giant flower on the plant–this one is like three buds opened as one flower–it is huge!

Another flower in the sunlight.

 

We had a perfect day for planting in Seattle, so I set about getting some of the perennial seedlings I started last year into the parking strip memorial garden on the south side of the house.  It was difficult, slow work, but I’m hopeful in a couple of months it will pay off in a boisterous, bloom-filled garden.

The challenge of planting is that there is an 8″ mulch of wood chips over the entire parking strip, so that has to be scraped away from the landscape cloth.  Then, I cut Xs in the cloth and use a trowel to create planting holes.  Hardpan is only a few inches down, so it is a tough slog trying to get holes big enough even for 4″ pot-sized starter plants.  My strategy was to dig wider holes that needed, put Epic Starter Mix in each hole, along with some half-composted fir needles.  Then, I turn the plants out of their pots and pull their roots out into a flatter disk, then push them into the holes and add some soil on top and pull the landscape cloth back towards the plant.  For the more robust plants, I’m confident this treatment will work out.  But for the more delicate ones, I’m not so sure…I guess we’ll know soon enough.

So far, I’ve planted some of the following:  Columbine, chaenorhinum, sedum, Kenilworth ivy, catmint, geranium, asters and Agastache.  I will keep working on the garden tomorrow to get all of the plants I have so far into the ground.

There isn’t a lot to see yet, but I got about a 6′ length of parking strip planted today.

Below are some other things of note in the garden on St. Patrick’s Day.

A little pansy in a patio pot recovering from an unpredictable winter.

A tiny dianthus flower braving the March coolness.

Most of the primroses are pretty sad looking, but this blue one is a bit more chipper.

Pots of little narcissus.  These are adding a bit of cheer to the front patio.

Close up.

My plum tree is full of flowers–a much bigger bloom than it has ever had.  I didn’t see any pollinators, but we should get a big crop of plums, anyway.  I just need to figure out how to protect them from the critters!

Close up of the plum bloom bounty.

The honey berry couple that I’ve got growing in the orchard garden has done very little in the three years I’ve owned them.  But this year, even though they are still pretty small, they are blooming.  I’ll be surprised if any berries appear, but you never know.

Weedy Daphne showing off what makes it such a weed:  very prolific blooms and berries!

That late winter blast we had a few weeks ago with snow and temps in the 20s zapped my camellia buds.  They are brown and dead.  A few good ones remain, but none of the flowers are open yet.

Anemone blanda in the Doug fir bed.

Hellebore in the Doug fir bed.

Fritillaria imperialis lutea maxima is somehow happy in the dry mostly shady Doug fir bed.  It is slowly forming a clump.  Three stalks are up this year, and two of them have flowers.

Here is a happy surprise.  The foxgloves I planted in the Doug fir bed last year did almost nothing and I assumed they had composted themselves, but instead, they came back really strong this year.  These are Foxy, which is a really dwarf seed strain.

Masdevallia blooms adding some glamor and interest to the greenhouse.

A slightly different view.  I love the way the flowers look head-on and from the side.  There is so much movement in the shape!

More orchid blooms.

A closer view showing some of the rich designs on each bloom.

Another orchid in the greenhouse…the first Pleione formosana flower has opened.

Another view.

This pot has six flowers coming on.  I need to figure out the proper way to divide/separate out the older pseudobulbs, as there are many that are not blooming that are blooming size.  I will tackle this once blooming is over.

Wow!  Look at all the flowers this Lewisia is attempting to share!  I’ve had no luck with these at all in the greenhouse, so if this one does open all these flowers I will consider it a victory.

Not a great photo, but this is the first honey locust seedling from the seeds I planted probably back in January.  I expected these to be up a long time ago.

Nasturtium already blooming in the greenhouse.

For St. Patrick’s Day, my purple shamrock is rocking the greenhouse shelf.

This Corydalis is blooming in a pot on the back patio.  It is a bit less showy than last year, but still exquisite.