I have a cold. I went to bed early. I should be sleeping by now, but I’m not. Like Ilona, ” I am often simply torn by desires and obligations into divvying up my time and energies. The garden calls, but I cannot answer nearly as much as I would like.” I miss writing here and I miss gardening, and I have been laying in bed alternately writing posts and horticultural to-do lists in my head. Since it’s too dark to garden (and I frankly don’t feel up to it), I’m going to see if writing for a while will relieve my insomnia.
As I mentioned here, I have become enamored with Hydrangea macrophylla ‘Endless Summer.’ I think I have the perfect place for it, only a Rosa virginiana is growing there. Or was. You see, I have been wanting to plant a red-stemmed dogwood shrub in view of the kitchen window, so that in the middle of winter, while washing dishes, we would have something colorful to look at. As I was poring over catalogs, trying to decide exactly which red-stemmed dogwood to plant, a light-bulb suddenly went off in my head. I want a red-stemmed shrub there; I have a red-stemmed shrub here that I want to remove from this location. Of course! Move the plant from location A to location B. Which I did, with a lot of help from my son Lachlan. The only thing that blinded me to this great idea was the fact that it was a rose, and not a dogwood. Of course, if the rose doesn’t take in its new location, it’s back to shopping for a dogwood. And I won’t be getting that hydrangea this year, because I know there are plenty of rose roots left behind, and I plan to be pulling suckers for the rest of this season, and maybe next year, too.
In other news: the daffodils planted in a semicircle came up spotty this year. That is to say, some came up and some didn’t. Not sure why.
The purple-leaved smokebush is showing signs of life, but the buddleia I gambled on is not. Drat. I need a tall (4 to 6 foot) plant with blooms the color of Veronica ‘Sunny Border Blue’ that also blooms at the same time as Hemerocallis ‘Hyperion’ and ‘Lemon Cap.’ Want to nominate a likely candidate?
My Japanese honeysuckle is not showing signs of life either, but if that goes, I already know I want to try a native wisteria there.
The Cornelian cherry finally bloomed this year, and I have to say I was underwhelmed. It was supposed to bloom before the forsythia (not) and floriferous enough to be visible from the house (not). Maybe it just needs more time. I saw a photo of a stunning specimen at Cornell University, which was what inspired me to get one.
Okay, I’m well over the half hour I allotted to myself. Time to attempt sleeping again. I do feel less knotted up for having written.
