Baldur

Currently are irises are just opening.
We are seeing the last fading flowers on the bleeding hearts.
The columbines are in their full glory but the primrose are fading fast.
The daffodils are long gone but the earliest of the very old Tudor roses are opening. These open up quite flat having only 5 petals.
Yesterday the first two peony buds opened and immediately needed to be tied to supports.

Baldur

My verbascum is flowering, I'm seeing early buds start on the echinacea.
The spiderwort (tradescantia) has started opening everywhere and has given me a very pale blue one for the first time. I had planted inky dark blue and magenta varieties. Since then as they've spread new colors have appeared. Medium Blue, light blue, pure white came first but now there is a very pale one added to the list.

Baldur

The astilbe has started to send up spikes and I placed 3 water hyacinths in the fishpond for the summer to help keep the water clear.

The cherry, peach and pear trees have set fruit.
Robert risked putting the tomatoes into the ground a bit early, so far so good. Normally up here it's best to keep the plants indoors until May is safely over.
Our prickly pear cacti are covered in new growth and flower buds, I went to the garden center and bought a 6pack of portulacas to plant among them. The cactus flowers are beautiful but do not flower all season. The portulacas will bloom like crazy until the frost hits them.

Baldur

In the older vegetable garden the chives and parsley are flourishing.
We have been harvesting asparagus all month.
The snow peas, bok choi, lettuce and radishes are up. My radishes always give me trouble and they should be easy. They do not like to fatten up, maybe one in 6 will actually turn into something usuable. I do not plant them too close together, the soil seems fine, but alas they do not like me.
I keep planting them anyway.

Baldur

In the annex vegetable bed Robert has already planted 2 hills of cucumbers.
We will add more a little later in the season.
I've been preparing the area by shoveling horse manure around in anticipation of planting the winter squash and pumpkins next week.

Baldur

I'll also put in a little okra next week.
For those of you who hate okra, and many do, consider growing it as an ornamental. The plant looks like a slightly shorter hollyhock with incredible large flowers. Each blossom is a pale butter yellow open cup with a huge burgundy splotch in the center. Very attractive.

Baldur

I've planted nasturtiums everywhere this year.
Usually I put in as lot of cosmos and marigolds but decided to mix things up a bit this year.
The morning glory seeds have sprouted, I'll check on the convulvulus to see their progress this morning.

marg

Query from a listener..

Dear Mr. Baldur..

Re. the 'bread & butter' plant (aka nasturtium).. how do you stop them covering everything in a 2' high blanket (and climbing the fence, covering the back yard, etc.) and get them to flower more ?

Thanks,
Grateful Listener

Baldur

Dear Grateful Listener,

There are different varieties of nasturtium bred for different effects, it certainly sounds like you are dealing with the trailing variety.
In Boston at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum there are nasturtiums dangling from balconies in their atrium that approach 30 feet long.
In general; when buying seeds avoid any varieties that have the word 'Gleam' in their name. Instead look for 'Jewel' or 'Whirlybird' as these are more compact varieties. If you are fortunate enough to find dwarf varieties go with that. 'Dwarf Cherry Rose' is a favorite in the Baldur Gardens.
As for more flowers, nasturtiums will produce luxuriant (10 points for Baldur) foliage and few flowers if the soil is too rich. Plant them in the worst soil you have, and absolutely never fertilize them.

My first bed of nasturtiums was planted in a dead narrow strip of soil between a gravel driveway and a cement terrace, nothing but weeds had ever grown there. They were an amazing sight.

marg

Dear Mr Baldur..

Buy seeds ?? What a novel idea.. can't get rid of the burgeoning (triple score) foliage plants we have now, which are happily growing on a 18" wide strip of buried asbestos & grass bits at the side of a cemented over back yard ... but then, it has rained quite a bit recently.

I REALLY like the idea of a 'whirlybird' nasturtium.. is there something one can do to encourage this sort of joyful, carefree movement ?

Kind regards,
Grateful Listener

Robindcr8l

Dear Baldur,

I just moved into a new-build house this past winter, so am trying to create a beautiful, colorful, low-maintenance garden in the back yard. I live in Idaho, high desert, lots of sun, and little water. I have irrigation water, though, so can water for a fairly low cost. I have an area that gets morning sun only, faces east. I'd like suggestions for perrennials that will bloom at alternating times throughout the summer, so that there's always some color. I have a bleeding heart there right now, and will likely get a hosta. But open to other ideas.

Thanks,
Another grateful listener

marg

..would you like some nasturtiums, robin ?

.. they're really beautiful (when they flower) and although ours don't whirl or do anything else much but grow, the variety of colours you get are amazing !

.. free to a good home ?

Baldur

marg are you somewhere warm enough that they are acting like perennials?

Baldur

Robin, I would suggest you add a few Iris, maybe a yucca and if you have a spot against your house foundation that gets some sun some prickly pear cactus.There are varieties that are quite hardy. I have had great luck with them in New England and it gets damn cold here in the winter. The have large yellow poppylike flowers in June.
Azaleas would be a good choice, these are all relatively hardy.
For midsummer color consider adding a few coleus, the leaves do more than most flowers do.

Robindcr8l

Marg, I must admit I'd never heard of nasturtiums til this forum but I googled them and they look quite pretty. Sounds like they are hardy, too, but Baldur makes it sound like they're annuals. I plant many annuals in my front yard, so that might be a choice for next year if they don't mind the hot sun.

Baldur, I think I'll take your advice on the prickly pear, although I worry it won't get enough sun. The back of my house faces east, so gets the morning sun and maybe a little afternoon sun from the south, but then the house shades the whole yard. I hadn't thought about coleus, but that's a good idea too, although, are they perennials?? Azaleas I have tried in the past and the soil here is just too alkaline. I see some around town and always wonder what those people do to keep them alive because mine have always died. I am also thinking of a butterfly bush back there. They bloom all summer and attract butterflies, bees, and hummingbirds. I had one at my other house and it did fine in the shade. Thanks for the suggestions, oh garden guru!

Dragon

I'm not a garden guru by any means Robin, but I thought I might suggest Clematis (sp?). We're very dry here in Alberta too but they seem to do well here. They're a climbing plant with really lovely flowers I've alway quite liked.

Robindcr8l

Thanks Dragon. We must think alike cuz I just bought one a couple of days ago! I think they are just BEAUTIFUL when they are blooming. I have to put that one in the front yard though, because they like full sun. My backyard is a challenge because it is mostly shade.

Baldur

Clermatis is not a perennial, but cuttings root easily in a glass of water.
I take some cuttings in the fall before the frost gets at the plants and grow them indoors over the winter. As it approaches planting time in the Spring take and root cuttings from these indoor coleus

Baldur

first I made a spelling error so -r.
Secondly I used the wrong word entirely so the spelling error is irrelevant.
I meant to say 'coleus' not 'clematis'
so +o -m +u -ati

Baldur

'All Baldur, All the Time' even early Sunday mornings