Garden Report

Inexplicably, some things that should be rocksolid performers never make it. Examples: Echinacea 'White Swan,' various butterfly bushes (Buddleia) and several Coreopsis.

Some things that should be tetchy do fine. Examples: most of the roses, irises, camellia. The pinks in the back yard have been there 4 years now. In Maman's garden they died out after 3. These (same variety) have not only endured, but spread and are now invading the grass outside the bed. Not that I'm complaining.

Some things are just as fussy as I thought they'd be. The butterfly rose is the most prominent member of this club.

Planted this spring:

1 Eastern Witch Hazel (Hamamelis virginiana), off the end of the driveway.
1 mottled-leaf elderberry (Sambucus nigra 'Pulverulenta') in the back, near Artemis.
1 'Manteau d'Hermine' dwarf mockorange (Philadelphus) in the front, near the butterfly rose.
1 Rosa Mundi (Rosa gallica versicolor) in the front, by the pond
1 Zephirine Drouhin (rose) by front fence (to replace the one I planted last year that died; this one is doing much better)
1 Mrs Wood's Lavender Noisette (rose) by the Iceberg and Gruss an Aachen

4 'Mountain Spring' tomato vines and 4 Sweet 100s
1 yellow and 1 green bell pepper, 1 cayenne and 1 serrano hot
1 Japanese eggplant (Fairytale) and 1 zucchini (Aristocrat)

1 miscellaneous purple Siberian iris (purchased at Homestead as 'iris, assorted') in the front, by the walk
1 'Raspberry Regal' coral bells (Heuchera) by the walk. I should move another coral bell or two to that general area as well.
1 'Cameo Blue and White' dwarf columbine, on the shadier side of the centre bed
1 'Black Magic' perennial pansy (Viola) also on the shadier side of the centre bed
6-pack of 'Peppermint' portulaca in the pot in the centre bed (pale pink with darker pink stripes)

Mail-order nurseries for whom I have warm fuzzies: Forest Farm and The Uncommon Rose

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