October Haiku

Tree Shadow

A piece of the moon

Slips down the tarnished dark fork.

Quick grass laps it up.

Hello Peg,

This week in Tampa feels like summer all over again. Last weekend, I purchased flats of the 'cool season' plants... dianthus, snaps, pansies (love those faces!) ... and now they are all languishing in the shade on the side of the yard waiting for that 'cool season' to return. A cool front is forecast to come by for the weekend and there is also a rumor spreading amongst the cloud people that we could see some showers on Thursday. I may plant then.

At least it is an authorized 'sprinkler night'.

For anyone who does not garden in Florida, we rely on seasonal climate changes to augment our irrigation. There is a wet season (June-October) and a dry season (The rest of the year.). The appointed gods of water management control when and for how long residents may use home irrigation systems, including in-ground timed systems, hoses, micro-irrigation and just about everything else.

This October, while beautiful and in the mid-80s (until this week), has been extremely dry. So we have to water. On Mondays and/or Thursdays between 6 p.m. and 8 a.m.

I may just try sweet talking the cloud people first.

October Blessings,

Wren

Tulips! and those lovely end of season sales...

Good morning, Wren!

Today is sunny but cold. I sat outside having my coffee and pumpkin bread a little while ago, angling in my chair to have the sun on me! It should warm up soon. I plan to keep planting tulip bulbs today. yes, my box of 300 tulip bulbs arrived this week! It's a selection of Emperor tulips, early tulips that tend to perennialize. The selection includes red, orange, and white Emperors, plus yellow (Purissima), pink (Albert Heijn, pictured left) and pink/white (Flaming Purissima) varieties. The gardens at Emack and Bolio's will get all of the reds, plus some orange and white. Most of the yellows will go to one of my clients in Delmar. I may sneak in a few orange and pink ones in the various beds at Brushwood (Todd and I will be going out there the weekend of my birthday, and the following weekend my friend Krissy and I will go for Samhain). I love that these bulbs can be planted as long as the ground is not frozen; I've planted them as late as December!

Planted about half of the Albert Heijns and Flaming Purissimas yesterday; worked in some peat moss and manure mix to the soil which tends to be heavy clay. I am jealous of the Delmar soil which is loose, sandy loam! I must have already added at least a dozen bags of manure, mushroom compost, and 3 or 4 huge bags of peat moss to my garden since we moved in May. Plus some blood and bone meal to the roses and hydrangeas.

Doncha just love those end of season sales?!? I got a lovely Miss Bateman clematis at Lowe's the other day for half price; I'd been lusting after ordering one online for months. Also ordered a few more bulbs from van Bourgondien: some Delnashaugh daffodils, plus a mix of different yellow daffodils, some Ballerina tulips (a lovely orange lily-flowering tulip, which flowers in May, after the Emperors are done), some blue alliums, some Cote D'Azur lilies (fuschia!) and a few mixed Asiatic lilies. Also some white grape hyacinths, and some Blue Pearl crocuses. I confess: spring flowering bulb season is my favorite season in the garden.

But I am really enjoying my mums! I transplanted a few from my old yard, and ordered a couple from a catalog, and have bought quite a few from the neighborhood greenhouse, Lowe's and Home Depot. I have many colors now! (No, that photo is not from my garden!) Deep burgundy, bronze red, reddish orange, medium orange, golden orange, peachy-salmon, medium lavender, pale lavender, magenta, white, yellow, and a gorgeous rose pink. I love how most of them have girls' names: Fiona, Hannah, Sly Jenna, Beth, Spicy Cheryl, Golden Cheryl (Cheryl gets around, apparently), etc. Some faves I love but do not have yet are Penelope (buff peach) and Victoria (pale pink).

I just went through a bunch of photos taken in my garden this summer and am going to post an album of them on Facebook...but here are some favorites!

Asiatic Lily; I forget what the name is.


Green Man sundial in my herb garden.


Bunny in the yard next door, captured just after that Green Man photo!


A blue columbine; this was taken in early August! It came from the greenhouse and I planted it in August so it bloomed way later than normal.


"Bon Bon" Cosmos: I planted these from seed. Photo taken in early September.


One of MANY bees that covered my cat mint for weeks on end!

October means planting bulbs!

Good morning, Wren! We had two luscious days of rain and the flowers are shaking off their droplets and shining again! I also received the beginning of my spring bulb shipment this week, from Van Engelen and John Scheepers; really they are the same company, but Van Engelen sells in larger wholesale quantities.
So, I have some Twilight crocus bulbs, some Gypsy Queen and Sky Jacket hyacinths:
and some other blue bulbs, like Valeria Finnis muscari, and English bluebells (which are endangered, because of cross hybridizing with Spanish bluebells; the bulbs sold as English bluebells are a close imposter I guess, since it's illegal to dig them up in the wild now).
I must confess, spring flowering bulbs make spring my favorite time in the garden! But of course right now I am loving the mums, asters, zinnias and marigolds: so colorful! Next up: photos of my own gardens...