Flowering News

I have good news in flowers and bad news. The bad news is that the pea blossoms are indeed starting to bloom during our unusual heat wave. Also my zucchini is blooming. That doesn’t sound like bad news, but if you look closely at the photo you will see that the only flower blooming is a female flower. The males don’t look like they will open up for a couple of days. Maybe the heat will speed them up, but it looks unlikely. So this little zucchini will die. So sad. Later in the year I may be quite happy with female blossoms dying, but this is the first.

There is a lot of good news in blossoms. The first pepper flower opened yesterday; the tomatoes are blooming like crazy; the geraniums are blooming; the peonies are just starting to unfurl; the Kousa dogwood is in full bloom; and the dianthus (allwoodii alpinus) are flooding the yard with their scent.

I love the clove like scent of the dianthus. I grew them from seed about 15 years ago. I used to have lots of different sizes, shapes and colors from the seed, but only one plant has survived the years. I’ve since split the plant. Though very slow growing, it makes a fabulous ground cover, slowly creeping along. It blooms at the perfect time in the garden. Right after the lilacs quit blooming and scenting the garden, it takes over the task.

The heat was fierce yesterday and it will just get hotter in the next couple of days. I went out EARLY this morning to garden to avoid the heat. Yes I was up at 6am on a Sunday morning. It was quite pleasant for a short time, and then it started getting hot. I figured the lettuce really needed some relief. I couldn’t find an old sheet, but found some old unbleached muslin and used it to wrap the bean poles (the beans will provide shade once they climb the poles). I also covered the Asian greens with muslin. They certainly don’t like the heat either.

I also had to weed the fruit garden again. I really need to mulch this bed. Two years ago I missed a thistle blooming behind my grapes (grapes have since been replaced with blueberries) and ever since I’m constantly pulling little thistle seedlings. I also swear that I’m pulling up grape seedlings. I don’t remember ever pulling them up before. Maybe instead of mulching I’ll get some clover to grow there. I can transplant some from my lawn easily enough and it will spread well over time. But for now I pull weeds.

I harvested some dill to dry today. I had some that needed thinning out and it was quite a bit. So now I will have plenty of dill weed for the winter.