My Half Acre of Paradise

I just learned something new this week. It turns out petunias aren’t true annuals — they’re really tender perennials that die when they freeze. So, I can overwinter them in the basement and plant them out again next spring. And they grow well from cuttings. So, I plan to make some cuttings from my pink wave petunia that’s in the ground and then keep the little plants alive in the basement this winter. They’ll be sharing space with geranium cuttings, too, so I guess the south windows of the basement will be pretty full of greenery this winter!

This little masked bandit had been eating my cats’ food in the garage lately. I had a hunch it was a raccoon since the water dish would be really dirty, and I know raccoons like to wash their hands in water when they eat. My neighbor has this live trap, and it worked like a charm. My neighbor kills them because they often damage his vegetable garden and are a bit of a threat to his cat and dog. Some can be vicious, but this one was actually quiet and scared. I felt a little bad for him when I took the trap over to my neighbor’s house so he could “take care of him” later that day. My wife says next time I should take it up the canyon and let it go by the river. Maybe I will, if there is a next time.

I read about this vine today, and it turns out to be one that I saw at the Denver Botanic Garden while traveling for work last week. I liked it. Didn’t know it was only an annual, but it might be worth a try on my backyard arbor. That is, if it can compete with the Swedish aspen roots in that area. It’s called Lab-lab vine or Hyacinth bean vine. Latin name is Dolichos lablab.

Another fast annual vine to consider is Scarlet Runner Bean. Or maybe I should even grow regular green beans on the arbor. Hadn’t thought about that before.

I’ve been laboring under the delusion that I was growing a Rocky Mountain Maple from seed I collected up American Fork Canyon. Well, I now think this is probably just a lousy Box Elder tree. It’s awfully similar to the small Box Elder I was growing in a pot until someone at GardenWeb identified it for me. Darn it! This isn’t what I wanted! When I was trying to sprout these seeds, I had the little pots outside. A Box Elder seed must have just fallen into the pot. What a bummer.

Last Saturday, I trimmed my Pink Simplicity rose hedge to a uniform four feet or maybe slightly less. They had been quite unruly, because I didn’t prune them at all this spring while I was trying to figure out what was causing them to abort their first wave of flowerbuds. They look nice and neat, but this ended up cutting off all the flowers. We made a large rose bouquet with the best blooms that were cut off and put it in the kitchen in a vase.

I need to give this hedge a lot of fertilizer right away so it will develop more flowerbuds before the season gets too late. I just heard on the radio today that the ski resorts are counting down now — 90 days until the usual opening day. Ouch! I’m not ready for winter yet!

I’ve had some success with cutting-grown Missouri Evening Primroses (Oenothera missouriensis, also called Ozark Sundrops). I made some cuttings last summer and planted the new clones out this spring. These do not seem to be invasive like their Mexican cousins, so I’m liking them a lot.

Here’s an example of the annual Geraniums I planted this year. Unfortunately, most of these are getting smothered by nearby tall flowers flopping on them. That’s my curse — I always seem to plant things that are too tall! I’m going to try to be better about this as I redesign my flowerbeds this fall and next spring.

I really enjoy my Hibiscus shrubs. These go by several names, including Hibiscus syriacus, Rose of Sharon, or Hibiscus Rose. I have three single-flowered ones and five double-flowered. They all start flowering some time in June, I think, and they keep going quite well through September. The photo at left is from last year in September, and these shrubs are flowering like this right now as well. I thought this might be Hibiscus syriacus ‘Aphrodite’ or ‘Minerva’ but those are supposed to be sterile hybrids, and these do produce seed pods.

I also have five double-flowered specimens — one has a darker flower than the other four (they’re supposed to make a little hedge, but the nursery made a mistake, and one doesn’t fit in):

These double ones seem to bloom thicker for a longer period than the singles, and I think it’s because the double ones I have are sterile. I’ve never seen a seed pod on them. That allows them to spend more energy on new flowers, since they’re not producing seed. I believe the darker one is the ‘Lucy’ variety but I’m not sure what the lighter one is.

Last month, I planted some things in containers on my backyard deck. I was a little late getting to these, since half of summer was already gone, but I was just in time for the big extended family water party in our backyard.

These photos were taken on July 24th, about a week after planting them. So, now it’s been about three more weeks since the photos, and they are filling out a bit. The one on the left shows a Hibiscus moscheutos ‘Blue River’ in the middle, with some New Guinea Impatiens planted around it. This site is a bit of a challenge, because it gets some hot sun in the morning but has shade the rest of the day. The New Guinea Impatiens should be a good pick, since they’re flexible about more sun than regular Impatiens, although I am disappointed that they’re not flowering very well. I don’t know if the Hibiscus will flower this year, since it’s a new plant grown from seed this spring. When it does, it will have huge white flowers.

The other photo shows some tall Coleus in the middle, with regular pink Impatiens all around it. These aren’t actually planted in that box — I just have them in the pots they came in with some dried moss packed around them. It’s working OK, and the Impatiens are starting to flower more profusely lately.

Here are some of the plants that have been looking good in my yard this time of year:

So, starting from the top left, we have:

• A big clump of annual Rudbeckia, one of my favorite annuals
• Dianthus ‘Brilliancy’ which I grew from seed this year
• A wave petunia that I waited too long to put in the flowerbed, so it’s struggling to grow in the heat
• An Asiatic hybrid lily, ‘Sugar Jewel’ the bulbs for which I planted late this spring; I also had some ‘Stargazer’ Oriental lily bulbs, but none of them grew

• My favorite perennial, Lavatera tauricensis — it just keeps blooming all season, even when creating seeds
• A small cluster of roses on my Ruby Meidiland hedge by my front walkway; these aren’t in full bloom anymore, but they were really colorful around the first of July
• My ‘Pink Simplicity’ roses, which have bloomed pretty well this summer after I started giving extra water and Miracle Gro once a week
• And finally, my row of Blue Oat Grass leading up the hill to the patio from the lower yard

I posted the following on GardenWeb’s Rocky Mountain Forum:

I’ve NEVER had a problem with mites like I do now. Is it caused by this unusually hot, dry summer we’ve had? Maybe my trees have had more water stress in this weather, making them more susceptible?

Here’s what’s happening:

Starting in June, I got spider mites really bad on my Granny Smith apple and somewhat less on my Jonathan apple. I’ve been spraying every couple weeks with malathion to prevent codling moth and other pests, but I don’t know if it’s working very well for the mites. I know soap can help, but I’d think malathion would be more effective, don’t you?. Any more serious chemicals I should try?

I also have an Arctic blue willow shrub suffering from mites, and since it’s not a food plant, I could use a systemic insecticide on that one.

Also, one of my young (3-yr old) cherry trees has been hit by mites, too. Not as bad as the one apple, but suffering moderate damage. Then, it suddenly got yellow leaves and dropped a lot of them. It didn’t look like iron chlorosis — I thought maybe it was too dry, so I soaked it with a hose (it only gets drip irrigation from one of those star-pattern sprayer things, and it doesn’t cover the whole root zone). Anyway, then it dropped more leaves, making me wonder if it was actually too wet rather than too dry (after a couple rainstorms last week, it dropped more leaves). Now, it’s growing a new crop of leaves on some of the branch tips. Anyone know how much water cherry trees need? I’m pretty sure I’ve stressed it with inadequate water, which made the mites attack more. I really need to keep this tree alive!