THE HOLDING AREA
The time has come to empty out the plant holding area. It’s the end of summer and some of the plants have been hanging on valiantly since the spring, waiting for their turn in the soil. I have watered them, trimmed them and felt extremely guilty about them. In fact, I have done just about everything but plant them.
Why this slovenly gardening behavior? Lots of reasons. The calycanthus, for example, needs a special place, and preparing that place involves moving some deep-rooted plants. The prospect of this work has never been particularly appealing, and the recent spate of hot, sticky weather has made it less so. The new variety of double Shasta daisy is a victim of daisy fatigue, which is a human malady, not a plant ailment. I haven’t even finished cutting back the hundreds of spent single Shastas in the front bed. The thought of encouraging one more Shasta daisy of any kind is anathema to me now. However, the plant came free from one of the big wholesalers and I really should try it out. It might actually have better manners than its single-flowered cousins.
I have an Iceland poppy that was gorgeous when I bought it, but languished in the pot through the many spring and summer rainstorms. I have nursed it back from the brink of death and now it deserves a space in the garden. I just don’t know where that space is yet. A discounted Japanese anemone has a similar story, having gotten thoroughly waterlogged in the deluges. It is hanging on and probably hoping for a permanent home with good drainage.
All the rain should have been a blessing to the water-loving Japanese iris, skulking in a nursery pot by the garage. However, it hasn’t responded happily. It deserves a chance at life, even though it too came at a deep discount.
I love the spicy fragrance of carnations and when I saw a couple of plants on sale for $1.99 each, I couldn’t resist. At the time, I didn’t have the faintest idea where in the garden they would go and I still don’t. I am sure there is a corner for them somewhere, and today I am going to find it. My track record with members of the dianthus family–carnations, garden pinks and sweet William–is pretty bad. Maybe these two survivors will turn things around.
Heuchera is always with us these days, showing up in every garden center, mass merchandiser and nursery from Maine to Hawaii. For the past two years, I have had at least one in my holding area at all times. This year I am trying to convert the patch of straggly grass by the front sidewalk into a shade bed, so whenever I see a heuchera on sale, I buy it. As the result, the cast of heucheras in the holding area has changed since early spring. The last heuchera standing is one that I bought only last week. It has ruffled green leaves that show a bit of red on the undersides, making it look a bit like leaf lettuce. When it goes into the front bed, my neighbors will probably think I am another one of those trendy people growing produce in the front yard. It doesn’t matter; the heuchera will be installed by nightfall.
I’ve never grown veronica before, which is reason enough to start doing so now. The little veronica in the six inch nursery pot is begging for a chance. I may put it near one of my rambunctious stands of thread-leaf coreopsis. The blue and yellow will be a nice contrast, and I am hoping that the veronica will be so grateful to be freed at last from the pot, that it will flourish with no further encouragement from me.
I have to pot up two bargain geraniums and a variegated ivy in an ornamental pot. My geranium-addicted daughter bought them on sale the last time we were at the garden center. Of course, they will have to be over wintered inside in the dining room, along with the eight other potted geraniums of various types and colors that she has brought home over the past two years. Of the many substances to which she could be addicted, geraniums are far and away the most harmless. They brighten up the back porch in the good weather. The dining room may look like a cross between a Victorian conservatory and the Amazon jungle this winter, but it will make the cats feel as if they are outside.
I still have to deal with a pot of cosmos that I planted from last year’s seeds and a healthy dahlia that hasn’t dared to bloom yet because there hasn’t been enough sunshine. I will plop the dahlia into a decorative pot and find a hole for it in the planting scheme–possibly in one of those spots recently vacated by the spent Shasta daisies. I expect great things of this dahlia come fall–as long as we have a few hours of sunshine in the next few weeks. I am sure there is also space somewhere for the cosmos.
Clearly my horticultural reach has exceeded my grasp once again this year. I would resolve to change my ways, but I am pretty well convinced that such a resolution would be futile. Fortunately for the plants, there hasn’t been a year yet in my gardening life when I haven’t gotten everything in the ground. Right now I am especially motivated, because it’s time to put in the fall bulb orders. It’s important to empty the plant holding area before the bulb holding area starts filling up.