Who's Surviving, Who's Thriving, and Who's Still Dead

As we head into the long weekend that marks the unofficial beginning of summer, I thought I'd walk you through the plants and how they're doing.

First, let's talk about the winterberry hollies, both of which appear to be thriving.   Jim Dandy, the male winterberry, is even blooming.

Ideally, he and Red Sprite should bloom at the same time, so that his blossoms can pollinate hers.   (Or, as my friend Mal recently described it, "plant sex.")  Unfortunately, Red Sprite seems to be a little behind schedule.  She's got buds, but they aren't blooming yet.

 

If she doesn't hurry up and bloom, there will be no berries this winter.  That would be sad.

About a month ago, all my hostas in the Jim Dandy pot were approximately the same size.  You can see how Victory has flourished.  It's going to need its own pot very soon.  I've bought the pot, but haven't gotten around to transplanting yet.

The Raspberry Sundae hosta has a couple of leaves that don't look so hot.

Too much watering?  That's my best guess, but if anyone can name that plant malady, let me know.

The New Guinea impatiens and the astilbes (one from my friend Liz, three bought online) are definitely thriving.  Mr. Bowling Ball (the arborvitae), not so much.

Not enough sun???  I'm going to give him a good pruning and see if that helps.

The paprika heuchera went through a rough patch, with most of its initial foliage browning up and dying, but there's been plenty of new growth, and a couple of the new leaves have that nice red coloring that makes "paprika" an appropriate name.

Upright Japanese Yew: surviving.  A little browning around a few needle tips.  The fern is thriving.

 

Serviceberry and hydrangeas: surviving.  There's been no sign that the hydrangeas are thinking about blooming.  Creeping Jenny: thriving.  Happily creeping in all directions.

 

Japanese maple and Blue Mouse Ears hostas: thriving.  The Japanese Maple is very leafy.  Two of the four hostas have buds that will turn into flowers.  Hostas are really known more as foliage plants than as flowering plants, but they do flower.

The darker green Japanese Maple leaves came before the frost this spring; the lighter ones came after.

Guess who's still dead.

But the European ginger and the hens-and-chicks seem to be thriving.

 

The plants from Jenn (hellebore and bleeding heart) are also thriving.  The bleeding heart seems to create new leaves on almost a daily basis!

And finally, a bit of good news: the Forever Purple heucheras have been shipped!  Hooray!

Waiting for Purple

Let's talk about the Forever Purple Heuchera.

 

I ordered two of these plants from Wayside Gardens two months ago, and they still haven't arrived.  In fact, they haven't even shipped.

In retrospect, I should have realized that this was a new plant variety for 2016 and therefore there was no way to know if supply could meet demand.  If customers go crazy over your new cultivar, you can't just run back to the factory and make more.  You have to split your existing plants to propagate new ones, and that takes time.  So somebody has been frantically splitting these suckers to meet demand and then waiting for them to grow, and people who ordered in March, like me, are still waiting.

Meanwhile, Wayside Gardens is still offering the Forever Purple heuchera for sale, with no mention of the two-month backlog - and now they're cheaper than they were when I ordered.  But no, they can't give me the difference between the price I paid and the price they're charging now, because, and I quote, "the plants weren't on sale when you ordered them."  Um, yeah, I know that.  BUT YOU HAVEN'T SENT THEM YET, nor have you charged my credit card, so why must I pay the price from two months ago?

Did I mention that I've never gotten a single email from them about the delay?  I'm not expecting an apology, but I'm miffed that they have not even sent an email notification.  I think in future, I may consider vendors other than Wayside Gardens.

So, do my fine readers have any advice on what I should do?  These are really pretty plants and I'd love to have them in my containers.  However, I can cancel the order at any time before they ship, and order different plants that actually are in stock, not to mention on sale.  For the price of two of these, I can get three other heucheras, in other colors perhaps not quite as pretty as Forever Purple, but pretty enough.  (I could even order them from some other vendor!)  Let me know in the comments what you think.

In which I Belatedly Follow Mary's Advice

Sorry for the hiatus, gardening fans.  There have been things going on - nothing momentous or even particularly interesting, just non-blogging things.

But I wanted to give you a look at the latest garden upgrade.  A couple of years ago, a Facebook friend (my high school friend Mary) suggested that I look for plastic tiles designed to look like wood, on the theory that anything would be more attractive than the concrete slab that is my garden floor.

I filed the idea away under "Things I Might Get Around To Eventually," and this spring, I decided that "eventually" was "now."

I found my tiles of choice at Home Depot.  I thought about wooden tiles, but the wooden tiles are subject to tannin leaching.  What does that mean?  It means that the natural preservatives in the wood (the tannins) can stain the concrete underneath.  And while the concrete is pretty ugly anyway, it doesn't belong to me, it belongs to the building.  So I went for plastic, which will not stain.

Here are my tiles. 

Water can run underneath them, so they don't create a drainage problem.  They snap together like Lego, so it was a pretty simple job to snap them together on the ground. 

Here's the job partially done.

And here is my completed deck.  It's not perfect - the rest of the ugly slab is still there, though I suppose I could cover the rest of it too, for a price.  But it's a start.

Anyway, thanks, Mary, for planting the idea in my brain.  I think it looks reasonably nice, don't you?  Next up: some kind of tiny tool shed so I can finally get the potting soil off the table.

Next time, we'll talk about what's thriving, what's surviving, and what's still dead.