Heavenly Water

At the encouragement of a friend, last year we started collecting rain from a downspout on the pool house to use when watering container plants or anytime we need to water with the can. Originally, we were trying to find a good way to water my pelargoniums without subjecting them to the high sulfur content in our well water. Word from our friend, who is a hybridizer for a large company in California, is that pelargoniums don't like sulfur.

Romie brought an empty 55-gallon barrel home from his work and the next time we got a rain, he directed the downspout right over the top of the barrel. Now, I couldn't figure out how that was going to get enough rain water in there to do enough good. I mean, it takes the clouds a long time to pour down an inch or two of rain into the rain gauge, so how on earth was that barrel going to get full enough, often enough, to provide us with water for our plants?

I didn't take physics in high school or college. Maybe I should have, but I got a lesson in it at age 48 anyway. It happens like this - the rain falls on the roof, runs down the roof into the gutter, and from there it runs through the downspout into the barrel. The bigger the roof, the more water we get.

And it was an amazing thing to behold. If we get an inch of rain, that's enough to fill that barrel almost to the top. I understand how it works now, but I'm still astounded by it. I think it's that little rain gauge that's messing with my brain on this. Maybe it's more amazing that only an inch gets into that little glass tube.

Whatever.

The pelargoniums did do better once we started watering them with rain water --- fewer yellow leaves.

I like the idea of using water directly from the source, too, without it being filtered through our soil and who knows what's in that, deep down. We live in farm country and I'm sure there are all kinds of chemical residues that have made their way into the water table. We have our own well, but we have an extensive filtering system on the water that comes into the house. I actually like the unfiltered water for drinking, but the filtered tastes even better and I feel more comfortable drinking it. It smells better, too.

We hadn't had rain for quite some time until a few days ago, and the rain barrel was getting very low. So low that I could no longer dip my watering can into it for filling. But now it looks like this:

Brown Booger Days

You know what I'm talking about. I know you do. I noticed we were well into BBDs a few weeks ago when I ... well ... you know.

But they should be coming pretty much to an end now because most of the spring chores have been completed. We've been able to get rid of the detritus left by the bulbs that gave us so much joy after a long, cold winter, and the summer flowers are beginning to put on their show. We have time to literally stop and smell the roses, which are also just beginning to bloom. It's time to really enjoy the fruits of our labors, with just maintenance work until fall.

Tall Bearded Iris
'Red at Night'


For the last several weeks, it's been The Purple Show in Max's Garden. We have started calling it that, because Max spends so much time there and 90 per cent of the time when you walk back to that garden, you'll find him sunning himself on the bench or resting in the cool shade under it.

Romie and I both noticed the purpleness at about the same time, but he verbalized it first. Generally, I'm the one that grabs his hand and takes him here or there to show him a new bloom that has me excited.

We do have lots of purple flowers in the garden, but the ones that put it over the top were the irises. Almost all of our irises are purple. I've got a few of other colors, but I'd say three-fourths of them are a shade of purple or blue.

The Purple Parade

Heliotrope arborescens 'Marine'

No ID tag, but I suspect
it's a golden Veronica

Dutch Iris

Tall Bearded Iris 'Blenheim Royal' just opening.

'Flight of Butterflies' Siberian Iris

Ajuga

Allium 'Gladiator'

False Indigo (Baptisia australis)

Creeping Veronica
(Veronica teucrium 'Crater Lake Blue')

Labrador Violet (Viola labradorica)

Columbine

(Aquilegia vulgaris 'Winky Blue & White')

Jacob's Ladder
(Polemonium caeruleum 'Snow & Sapphires')

I don't remember planting this bulb
and I don't know what it is! Scilla, maybe?

Delphinium (Delphinium grandiflorum 'Blue Butterfly')

Mountain Bluet / Perennial Cornflower / Perennial Bachelor's Buttons

(Centaurea montana 'Gold Bullion')

Delphinium 'Magic Fountains Dark Blue/White Bee'

Trailing Verbena

We found this iris in a ditch.

Up close ...

See what I mean? Purple.

One-Year Plant Guarantees

After work last Wednesday, I had plans to go to Lowe's to return a couple of things that I'd purchased there that didn't make it through the winter. Last fall, I bought three of Joe Pye Weed (Eupatorium rugosum 'Chocolate') and one ornamental grass (Carex testacea 'Prairie Fire'), among other things, but these two didn't survive and Lowe's guarantees their perennials, trees, and shrubs for a year from the date of purchase. Walmart, Home Depot, Menard's, and Meijer do this, too.

I think management counts on the human factor for this much like they do with rebates. How many people actually take advantage of them? With each, there are the usual hoops to jump through - original receipt needed and dates to be observed. I feel a little bit uncomfortable walking up to the return desk with a plastic bag full of dead plant material, but that's what you do when there's a guarantee like this.

I've done rebates for most of my adult life, though not as much in recent years. But this dead plant thing is new for me, since I've only been serious about gardening for a few years. The first time I returned something, it was a pink dogwood tree from Walmart and when spring came around last year, the dogwood didn't. I hated that, because it was so pretty when I first got it.

I missed the year limit they have for the guarantee by two days, but I thought I'd try it anyway. I assured them that the dogwood was just as dead two days before and the store manager okayed the refund with no problem. It was only $10, but every little bit adds up.

Today, I was well within the year, since I'd made the purchase last September. It only took a few minutes for them to credit my account. I could have turned around and walked out of the store and gone home, but what kind of plantaholic would I be if I'd done that? Never mind that I'd just returned from a big trip to Cleveland last week, with one day spent shopping in four fabulous garden centers. I just wanted to look........

And because I had store credit at Home Depot and it was a mere block away and on the way home, I wanted to look there, too. And a mile or so further down the road was Henry's Greenhouse, which I'd driven past many times, but had never stopped to see. Might as well do that today. You know ... just to look.

You want to look, too?

Porcupine Grass (Miscanthus sinensis 'Strictus')

This was to replace a clump that didn't make it through the
winter/spring. We had two in this location. One made it, one didn't.
The cement pillars we found two years ago while walking along the creek.
Someone had dumped broken concrete, old bricks and these.
We don't know what their original function was, but we
like what they're doing now.



Crimson Pygmy Barberry (Berberis thunbergii var. atropurpurea)

Also to replace one that died over the winter/spring.
It survived the winter, but the two weeks of freezing weather we had
in April did it in. Another one, planted at the same time
in the same location, did fine.

Euphorbia 'Diamond Frost'

I intended to buy something with color for these little areas just inside
one of the arbors. But in about two weeks, lots of little hot pink
flowers (Oxalis tetraphylla 'Iron Cross') will be blooming among this.
I would never have guessed this was a Euphorbia.
It's only hardy to zone 10. Every garden center I've gone to this spring
has this, and I'd never seen it before now. Must be a hot item this year!

Coreopsis rosea

I got this to add to a small clump that I already had.
I've had problems growing this. It just never does well.
You'd think I'd give it up ...

Rudbeckia 'Irish Eyes'

These will be added to one that I'd received a couple of
weeks ago from Bluestone Perennials.



Dianthus 'Bouquet Pink Magic'

I've never been a huge fan of Dianthus, but there was no way
I could leave the garden center without this charming feathery beauty.




Snowy Woodrush (Luzula nivea 'Lucius')

I've never seen this grass before, but I loved
its fuzzy look. It will grow to a height of two feet.



Flowering Maple (Abutilon sp.)

They aren't a maple at all, but the leaves sort of look
like maple leaves. I have a slight weakness for these.
I've got two smaller ones that I've had for a couple of
years and neither of those look nearly this big or healthy.
This large lovely thing was only $17, and there are
three plants in there.



Sunny approves of the Veronica
(Veronica spicata 'Icicle')