Survivors

Rain has not visited our gardens in quite some time.  What water that we have brought to the plants was delivered in a hand held watering can.  Needless to say only a select few  were watered this way.  Neither plant featured here saw any of this water.  Different plants have different methods of surviving a drought.  Our shade providing Sumac trees drop some leaf filled stems every day.  Just how the tree selects who must fall is unknown but every morning new dropped leaves litter the ground.  There is not enough moisture to provide for all so some must go.

This Rose campion flower may define the color called magenta.  The white center is easily seen but the dark colored veins remained unnoticed here until seen in this picture.  Our original source for this plant is lost in memory.  It seems to have always been with us but now survives here strictly on its own.

A striking feature of Rose campion is the color of its foliage.  Some combination of the words grey, white or green are frequently used in written descriptions about this plant.  The combinations of color are stunning and are reason enough to keep this plant.  It chooses where to grow here and seems to prefer the edges of our stone filled paths.  Initially six inch deep trenches were filled with the stone bits sifted out of what would become garden beds.  We planned on the stone paths remaining weed free but that did not happen.  Rain washed rich garden soil into the paths and plant debris rotted down into a black colored compost because of contact with the stones.  Perhaps our richest soil can be found in the area between the planting beds and the paths.  If a plant prefers poorer soil, it can easily grow more toward the center of the path.

Rose campion usually survives our zone 4 winters perhaps because of the extra warmth captured and held by the nearby stones.  With no effort on our part, this plant appears in several different locations.  As can be seen this plant is having a banner year despite the lack of rainfall.

Believe it or not these flowers are descended from Black-eyed Susan seeds that were chemically treated to add to the plain yellow flower color.  Ours were a gift from Elle and she told us that reddish brown colors would fade in time and that new seeds would then be needed.  That was perhaps two decades ago and the stunning colors live on.  Some of these plants do produce solid yellow blossoms but we cut those flowers to prevent them from setting seed.  Our patches continue to appear year after year so some of the plants may be self seeded while others may be perennial.  New plants also appear along the edge of the stone paths.  These are easily moved to areas that need a color boost.

One year many plants displayed solid yellow petals that were lightly marked with brown.  Each petal held two parallel brown rectangles near the center disc.  Every petal in each flower held the pairs of exactly the same sized brown rectangles.  Needless to say the symmetrical order appealed to the math teacher in me.  Sadly this color sport soon disappeared and has yet to return.  The pictured plants remain constant giving us no need to buy new seeds.  These plants may represent the greatest plant gift ever given to us. Thank you Elle.