This gardening year presented its new challenges, like any other- both welcome surprises and not so welcome. I'll start with the good...
My encore azalea, autumn royalty, bloomed all year! It sits in 1/2 sun and has wet feet. I gave it a little azalea fertilizer and it went wild. It's still blooming now, but was practically in full flush in the dog days of summer. This is an outstanding performer in my zone 7b garden in the humidity of the south.
Juliet tomatoes did outstanding for me this year. You have to be careful not to pick them too early though. They need to have at least 2 days of being fully red on the vine to sweeten.
Prairie sun rudbeckia planted from seed a few years ago had a mass of blooms this year. In late summer they developed powdery mildew and burnt to a gray crisp. I'm not sure if they'll come back next year for me, or not. If not, I'll be buying more seed. They are worth it for the pop of color.
Come again iris In a deep bluish purple color did just as promised. It's blooming now and has on and off throughout the summer with little to no water on a hill. I'll need to find the variety for you. The yellow and creamsicle colors didn't bloom as well.
There was a first in my garden this year. I created a new variety of coneflower! Or maybe i should say the birds did it for me last year. Double delight coneflower and white swan coneFlower were sitting on a slope next to each other. This year I had many come up from seed. Some reverted to the old fashioned prairie splendor standard coneflower. Some came up as the puffy pink double delight, and some crossed to become a white puffy double delight. They look a lot like the "Meringue" variety. But since I didn't buy it, it's my own version... My own cross... My own variety!!! I was so proud, I called my mama. My favorite variety is still my Merlot coneflower. They are so disease resistant and watching the gold finches on them this year was sweet.
Heaven on earth rose did as well as always. I've learned to put sevn dust on them early in the bloom season to keep bud worms from destroying the first flush. I have little guilt this early in the year because the bees and butterflies aren't out yet. I also learned to save my bayer 3 in 1 until after the first flush. It saves me a bunch of money and roses don't really need help until after their first flush anyway. If you've never used this product for roses, get some now!!! It's a miracle.
Also I've gotten some raised beds for veggies until I can get my clay amended. Exciting!
And now for the bad........
Where to start? So many issues... My rhodo 2 years old died on the side of the house. I think the hose sprang a leak and it got wet feet. These guys are so finicky. Two from my wedding died as well, no matter how I amended the soil with great drainage and a mound.
My favorite guara pooped out on me- geyser white. Now I can't find the replacements and I don't want to settle on another variety. :(. I guess it just got old after 2 years of blooming all spring and summer.
I had a tiny black beetle that destroyed all my coneflower blooms this year. I never found out what it was, which drives crazy. My best guess is a flea beetle, but I never saw them jump. They were tough little buggers for being so small. They would sit where the petals met the eye and chomp off the petals leaving just the stem. I didn't have a single coneflower that was fit for a cut flower this year. Horrific! Spray didn't work well and I had to go to the dust to thwart them. Next year I'm expecting even worse. They didn't arrive until the rudbeckia showed up... I wonder if they attract them like eggplant
I had total zinnia failure this year. I miss my cut flowers. I wont let this happen again.
My soil keeps failing my vegetables. I've always been more of a flower gardener, but with the outrageous price for anything without preservatives or spray on flavor at the store, I've decided to make room for food.
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