At the dawn of this Labor Day Weekend, is seems a good a time as any to assess the Fruits of my Labors – or lack thereof – in the garden. It is time to see which plants will get renewed contracts, and which will be optioned out to the compost heap. Whose tiki torch will be snuffed out, who will be denied their red rose offering, or (fill in your preferred reality show analogy here).
The Front Runners:
Lemon Queen
“Lemon Queen” – Annual Sunflowers – BIG success, if rather late in coming. They were so successful in fact, that their leaves – about the same width as a Labrador puppy tip to tail- probably hogged all the sun and nutrients from the tomatoes and peppers. In retrospect, this was not a good plan. It’s kind of like only feeding one child in your family so he can grow really huge, or paying A-rod $27 million-plus to be your star hitter when you should be strengthening your base.
Helenium
Helenium autumnale ‘Moorheim Beauty’ – These red-and-yellow stalwarts kept the blooms coming all summer. The individual blooms are smallish but colorful and have a charming shagginess about them, like they’re wearing floppy party hats.
Helioctron sempervivens (Blue Oat Grass) – Never has a bad day, and offers a dusty blue to contrast with most foliage and flowers in your garden.
Molina grass
(Another grass, Molinia caerulea ‘Strahlenquelle’ (Fountain Spray Moor Grass), which I described last winter as “flat as an unwashed toupee”, has finally gotten big enough to bloom. It’s airy screen effect is very nice, but I wish it looked good in winter.)
Blue Oat grass fronting purple Salvia ‘Caradonna’. Yellow achillea is on the far right.
Salvia nemerosa ‘Caradonna’ and Achillea millefolium ‘Terra Cotta’ (ornamental salvia and yarrow cultivars, respectively) – These two bloomed for months, asking only occasional deadheading.
Sedum ‘Autumn Joy’ – looks good in all its changing colors – from palest rose to russet.
Sedum telephium ‘Autumn Joy’ – Like Lite-FM, its overwhelming popularity derives from its affable predictability. It blends with everything, offers an incredible length of visual interest, and has indomitable vigor.
‘Chocolate Cherry’ tomato – I’ve only got to taste a few, but they were unforgettable little bombs of flavor. (‘Early Cascade” has produced more, but the flavor hasn’t been impressive.)
Voted Off the Island Bed
Calendula “Buttermilk Baby” - Should be called “Cousin It”. I bought these as starters without a picture, from the mouthwatering description of the “pale lemon-cream” color alone. Little did I know that instead of the usual daisy-shaped flowers, I would get spiny ones that turn into scraggly haystacks almost instantly. Arggh – the plant tag says “Reseeds”!
Slow Performer
Sea Holly just after planting last season
Eryngium x planum ‘Sapphire Blue’ (sea holly cultivar) – Oh, the dazzling periwinkle of the stem! The fascinatingly weird spiked-collared flower! That’s what drove me to the checkout line at the nursery. Now after a YEAR already, each plant has three buds on one scrawny stalk that stays colored for one day (which I must have missed). And if you cut the stem assuming you’ll have a long-lasting cut flower, you’ll have a hollow browned husk to stare at the rest of the season. It will not sprout new leaves or flowers. That’s all, folks.
Transferred
Salix integra “Haruko Nishiki” (Dappled Willow) – This shrubby willow with pink and white variegated leaves, is often seen pruned as a lollipop standard. Mine was a clearance purchase whose delicate leaves turned as crispy as Pringle potato chips after a couple of dry spells back in June. I should have known better than to plant it in a southern-facing sandy bed. Willows love water so much they have been known to travel hundreds of yards underground to get it. So I moved the skeleton behind the shade of Bluto the orange dahlia on the eastern side of the house, a much cooler exposure. I think it’s coming back, a little.
