From First To Last

Plant and seed catalogs begin appearing in our mailbox earlier every year.  Many winter hours are devoted to reading about new to us plants and dreaming about the coming gardening year.  Orders are written and rewritten building interest in what is to come.  Roots and Rhizomes specializes in choice Daylilies and Siberian Iris and we have established a pleasing collection of both with their help.

Coronation Anthem Siberian Iris was selected for purchase this year.  When our order finally arrived here none of the plants looked alive and the iris was missing.  A second box was delivered yesterday and the picture shows the contents and their condition.  One of the plants appears to be totally dead while the other two may find some life this year but flowers are years away.  If I were younger waiting years for a new flower would be reasonable but the number of seasons left for me is not limitless.

The purpose of the energy drink, included for free with my order, eludes me.  Is it offered as an explanation for the poor quality of the plants or is it intended to ease my pain?  I think it's bouncing around in the box only helped to the damage the plants in transit!  The energy drink went out with today's trash.

Campanula portenschlagiana has a name long enough to be impressive.  It has shown us that it will grow in a crevice in our stone walls.  How this plant finds either anchorage or nutrients in such a location is not understood but it puts on impressive growth each year.  Healthy green foliage sporting violet colored flowers looks great against our walls.  When removed from the shipping box, this year's plant had been reduced to dark slime by too many days in the box.  I was certain that it was dead but I placed it on the wall in partial shade anyhow.  The plant appears to be finding some life which is truly amazing.

Some how the abuse that these plants have been forced to endure has sucked the fun out of obtaining them.  We garden because we enjoy both the challenges and the rewards that come with working the soil.  Commercial distribution of plants should not nearly kill them before they reach their new home.  Working with the plants that already grow here sounds like a more pleasant undertaking.  Roots and Rhizomes managed to kill off more than plants this year.

Dreams of Perfection

Earlier this month these three plant catalogs arrived at our mail box on the same day.  Each is from a favored supplier and each will receive an order from us this year.  Richters is located in Canada and has the most extensive herb seed and plant list ever seen here.  They supply us with three new lemon verbena plants each year.  Additional plants will fill out the order.  McClure and Zimmerman are an excellent source for native rootstocks.  Roots and Rhizomes have an extensive list of day lilies and Siberian iris.  Rough draft orders have been made and revised.  Why we do this is a puzzle of sorts.

Our garden already exceeds our ability to properly care for it.  Despite our full understanding of this reality, we continue to open new planting beds.  Illustrations in the plant catalogs may influence this madness.  Pictures of perfect plants fill the pages of these catalogs.  Those perfect plants represent the goal of every gardener.  In reality what we grow seldom lives in a perfect world.  Late frost, insufficient or excessive rain, pest explosions or disease, intrusions by wild animals or the neighbor's damn cat in some combination challenge our plants' mission to grow and flower.  Persistence drives us to try again.  This year is less than one full month old and our plants are already stressed by unfavorable weather.  Yesterday the temperature climbed above 50 F degrees.  Excessive rains filled the streams with raging muddy water as more topsoil moves toward the ocean.  Perennial plant crowns have been exposed to repeated freeze thaw cycles devoid of any protective snow cover.

Plant catalogs really sell hope for the future.  Hope that this may be the year when the weather is stable and we manage to stay just slightly ahead of the weeds.  For me, time spent with my hands in the soil is curative both spiritually and physically.  Perfect flowers and sweet scents are just a bonus.  Once again we will trade money for plants and start the cycle once more.

Please note this blog is free of ads. We do not receive payment of any kind for anything written here.