Swallowtails... Plural!!!

I got to see a newly emerged black swallowtail on Monday morning! I somehow noticed him right before I got into my car for work, so I stopped to take a moment and admire. His wings were already fairly dry so he must have emerged before the night... but he was resting on the bronze fennel just below this, his former home:

I love the way the chrysalis looks hanging off of the gutter. I can't decide whether it looks more like a bat, all wrapped up for a daytime nap but hanging the wrong way... or some kind of cool masthead for a ship. Either way, it's very fun. (And I'm grateful that someone, FINALLY, has found the bronze fennel!  *grumble*)

Edited to add:  Better yet, he seems to have  spread the word about the fennel!  Check out who I am now happily, unapologetically stalking:

Updates (I hope!) to come...  :)

Need Instant Height In Your Garden? Plant...

... a giraffe.  Isn't he cute?

He seems to be resisting the urge to eat through his surrounds so far, which is good. Must be that hollow belly...

Independence... from My Front Lawn!

I can barely keep my eyes open as I type this, so (for once) my post should be short & sweet.  This weekend, we ended up tearing out the 3ft. strip of grass that remained between my front yard garden and my sidewalk.  (Because, as Steve said in regards to what little grass I had kept there: "Really... why?")  In its place, I planted an entire flat of 'Salsa Burgundy' annual salvia, 2 rather large 'Hameln' pennisetums (to match a third), 2 baby lady's mantle, and various pieces of 'Dragon's Blood' and another similar red-leaf sedum. 

Here are the "after" shots:

Well, "after" the planting, but before the mulching. Steve tore out the majority of the grass while I was ripping out  the rest of the golden marjoram from around the purple ninebark and freeing the two pennisetums that were to be moved.  In place of the marjoram and grasses, I FINALLY planted those 3 'So Sweet' hostas, a 'Black & Blue' salvia, and half a flat of scented snapdragons.

I also repotted a giant sago palm, added some more string trellising for my cukes and spaghetti squash, moved my plumeria to a larger container with a few annuals surrounding it, and assembled my 'Blue Daze' evolvulus, 'Silver Cascade' dusty miller, chartreuse coleus and hot pink celosia into a container planting. Oh, and I fertilized my tomatoes, too--which should be an easy job, except that my Gardening Assistant finds Tomato Tone to be disgustingly appetizing. So any application of Tomato Tone must immediately be followed by a fresh application of mulch to hide the apparently delicious fertilizer!


More pictures of all of the above to follow... but now, it's time for some sleep.  :)

The Secret Perks of Garden Center Workers

For quite a few different reasons, I have been pondering the end of my part-time job at a local garden center. I would miss the additional project money... and yes, I would miss the employee discount... but it may be time to move on to a normal, 1-job life in the not-so-distant future. That got me to thinking about how there are other perks to working at a garden center, and I'm not sure whether other gardeners are aware of them. (Warning: You all might want to go out and get a second, seasonal job after reading this!)

First and foremost, we often get to "rescue" plants... which is code for "taking plants home for free." Sometimes, we do this to see just what a plant will and won't "snap out of" so we know whether it's worth trying to rehab in our "plant hospital" and sell.

Other times we do this as more of a personal challenge. See the dahlias in the photo above? They were throwaways, done blooming and pretty battered from weeks of languishing inside the greenhouse, unpurchased. Weeks (of fresh air, watering, and TLC) later, they have glossy, healthy foliage and new blooms, and are threatening to take over the lemongrass.

When this pot of blue plumbago came in with a shipment of tropicals, it had just one small green leaf at the base of 4 or 5 long, fried brown stems. It looked worse than Charlie Brown's Christmas tree, and even I questioned my sanity at bringing home such a large pot of dead plant... but I couldn't resist the thought of a free plumbago. Fast forward two weeks, and there's so much new green growth that I almost feel like I should bring it back so the store can sell it!

And then there's the plant access.  We find out about all of the sales first (well, depending on which day of the week you happen to be on the schedule) and see what's put into clearance first.  And, yes, we often set aside new or choice plants when they come in. Like the pretty, new-to-me 'Silver Cascade' dusty miller that I picked up this past weekend. Or the only 2 smaller (and thus, cheaper) pots of the variegated 'Bengal Orange' bougainvillea (above) that came in, but went straight to our personal stashes instead of out to the floor.

Last, but not least, most decent garden centers will allow you to return or exchange plants in good condition within a short time of your original purchase... but those rules are a little bit more lenient for us. I have exchanged so many half-flats and 4" fancy annual pots over the years that I've lost count. Sometimes because I find that I have too many of one thing and not enough of another... but often, it's just because I see something come in that I like better. For example, I had originally bought two pots of the 'Rose' portulaca that you see above, but I exchanged one a couple of weeks later when I saw the prettier 'Scarlet' (below) make an appearance.  (And no, they didn't make me show my receipt, either!)

That's probably more than enough dishing for today, so I'll end my little tell-all with this:  Of all of the perks that working part time at a garden center includes... the one I would miss the most is the interaction with other gardeners.  It's FUN for me to meet people like the guy who digs up 8ft palm trees every fall and stores them on sawhorses in his basement, carefully turning them a quarter of a turn every day. (Of course I think he's crazy, but I'm also very glad to know that he exists!)  And I learn useful things, too--I discovered the deliciousness that is sage pesto from a customer, for example.


So there are some secret perks that come with this job--and, yes, there are some pitfalls, too.  But I think that I'll save that list for the next post!  Stay tuned...

And A Numbers-Challenged Foliage Follow-Up

This will be my fifth post in the last 5 days. I'm pretty sure that this is a record for me, and I know that I haven't been as prolific lately as I was, say, 5 years ago when I first started this blog. But we all know that I'm a foliage-first kind of girl, so I definitely can't skip Foliage Follow Up!

My front porch is like the Twilight Zone of foliage right now. On one side of the door, you can see the bizarre coexistence of black elephant ear and variegated monstera. They have grown together such that it appears the elephant ear is wearing a clown's ruffled collar! (So much for making a serious foliage statement there!)

Below that little vignette, a more serious-looking rex begonia stands watch as the monstera slowly unfurls a new leaf. I love how the new leaves look like corkscrew twists!

And, just because I have been so enamored of it lately, I'm going to finish with a few more shots of the front yard:

The photos above all show the same area, which is along the walk leading up to my front steps. Any time I get out of my car, I face this area, so I make it a point to keep things interesting here. (And I aim for interesting backlighting, too.)

I also like it that the taller plants (oakleaf hydrangea, caryopteris, purple ninebark, switchgrass, etc.) keep part of this hidden from the street and public sidewalk. It feels like a little slice of hidden garden, which is very welcome on my busy street!