Gaping Holes Must Be Filled!

I had a gaping hole and I had to fill it! That’s my story and I’m sticking to it. Forget the fact that a week ago Thursday I was pulling things out to make room for a few new adoptions – that was then, this is now! Seems that I’d somehow overlook what promises to be a dazzling duo – Clematis heracleifolia and Aralia cordata ‘Sun King – until now! How could I have overlooked something so blatantly obvious? The fabulously chartreuse foliage with the delightful star shaped deep purple flowers! Both with mature heights close to 1m, the Clematis has a somewhat sprawling habit, so should look simply divine cavorting through the equally bold foliage of the Aralia!

One might almost mistake this for a set of false eyelashes! In fact it is the recently disintegrated petals of Deinanthe caerulea, complete with the wonderful lavender grey stamens! I love these moments of serendipity that the camera finds!

  For every fallen flower, there seems to be one to replace it. I can hardly wait for it to bulk up but I have been forewarned that patience is indeed the virtue of choice where this divine woodlander is concerned!

The Roscoea are all preparing to bloom! Zonal Denial enthusiast that I am, I added no less than six species in the past three years, and am happy to report that all have successfully overwintered! Some of the newer cultivars offer striking foliage that has a bruised hue to the reverse of each leaf! So long as it doesn’t distract the eye from the sumptuous orchid shaped blooms! The foliage above belongs to Roscoea purpurea ‘Spice Island,’ while the photo below is of Roscoea purpurea ‘Cinnamon Stick.’ [Or is it the other way around?]

  The recent adoptions are settling in nicely and have all proven not to be camera shy which is an essential quality all new ‘children’ must exhibit from the get go! I’m beginning to think that the older sibs might even be getting a tad green with envy!

    Yes. The reflecting bowl is full of water, but it comes at a hefty price! Our partial watering ban dictates that I can water on odd numbered days and only between the hours of 5-7AM and 7-10PM. Tonight after giving all of the kids a long, refreshing respite from the continuing heat, humidity and drought, I decided I would fill the bowl as well. There is a distant call for rain over the next three days but I am not holding my breath anymore!  I do have to say that more than one neighbor has commented on how lush and green everything in my borders look, but I wonder if they’d like to share my water bill? My insistence upon watering whenever any of the ‘kids’ start to lag is a bone of contention with many a gardening friend, but they all have living, breathing children of their own. They fail to realize that this is the closest [excepting my wonderful niece and nephews that is!] that I will ever come to having children of my own!

For now, the children remain happy and healthy, and as a result, their Father is happy too!