As the Garden Grows

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It’s a hot one!

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Oh my gosh. I’m just in from being in the garden for about an hour. I went outside to take some photos of flowers that have already been blooming for a week or two. You know how it is, if you don’t get the photos while they are blooming they’re gone! I already missed a few flowers that don’t re-bloom due to my lack of being in the garden much this year.

It is soooooooo hot outside! It’s apparently only 30 Celsius, but as always it’s pretty humid here and when you factor in the humidity it’s 39 c! That’s 102.2 F! I also happen to have a fever, as usual, so I’m sure my body wasn’t handling the heat and humidity as well as it should have.

When I came in I was literally soaked as if I’d been out there in the rain. Yuck. You can bet I hopped into the shower pretty quickly. I still feel overheated though.

I’m so thankful that we have air-conditioning. I know that I’ve said we have a fairly green lifestyle, but when it gets this hot here in the summer I don’t think I can easily give up my air conditioning. Hopefully all the rest of the stuff we do makes up for it.

Anyway, I just wanted to let you know that some more photos will be on their way shortly.

Hey let me ask you a question.

Do you like it when I post facts about the plants I photograph such as their hardiness, bloom times, whether they are drought tolerant and or like shade or sunlight?

I figure it helps those that are just getting started gardening. Plus if you haven’t tried growing a particular plant at least you’d know by reading the information that I post about each plant I photograph if it would do well in your area.






Foxglove – an old favorite

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Foxglove:

foxglove

Well, this isn’t the best photo I’ve ever taken, but it seems that this is one of the only photos that I happen to have of this particular Foxglove plant. Honestly, some where in my gardening notes I have the name of this species written down, but I can’t remember exactly what species it is at the moment.

Foxglove are lovely plants to grow in the garden. Flower stalks can range from eighteen inches to four feet tall. There can be dozens of elongated bell-shaped flowers on each stalk. The color of the flowers can range from white, cream, yellow to pink, rose, peach, purple and almost black.

There are perennial, annual and biennial varieties of Foxglove (Digitalis). The most popular kind are biennial which means that one year they will only have green leaves, and then the second year the plants flower, set seed and die.

If you enjoy growing foxglove and happen to have the biennial variety you should plant seeds or young plants two years in a row in order to have flowering plants each year. One single plant can produce thousands of tiny seeds, which may germinate readily in your garden.

Gardeners, Plant and Nature lovers can join in every Sunday, visit As the Garden Grows for more information.

Annual and Perennial Baby’s breath

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Baby’s Breath – is it an annual or a perennial? Well the answer is that it’s both. There are annual varieties as well as perennials varieties.

If you live in zone 6 or lower and you’d like to grow baby’s breath in a container it’s probably best to grow the annual variety.

The perennial variety of Baby’s breath must have perfect drainage. It’s has deep brittle roots which will make it difficult to grow in anything but a tub if you weren’t planning on growing it in a garden bed. The perennial variety can be counted on to bloom once during the summer, but if it’s a good season it might rebloom once.

Annual baby’s breath on the other hand will bloom over a much longer season.

I must admit that I haven’t had much luck growing either annual or perennial baby’s breath. My other plants always seem to crowd it out. I think I’ll try to look for the perfect spot to grow perhaps a combination of annual and perennial baby’s breath. That way, if I’m finally successful, I’ll have lots of baby’s breath blooms to use in my flower vases. Well if I ever cut fresh flowers, but that’s another story …

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