Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

If you tweet it in all caps, that makes it true!

Oh FFS you might as well trust a 6-year-old with a flamethrower.

Republicans are radicals, not conservatives.

Someone should tell Republicans that violence is the last refuge of the incompetent, or possibly the first.

Second rate reporter says what?

The next time the wall street journal editorial board speaks the truth will be the first.

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

… pundit janitors mopping up after the gop

In short, I come down firmly on all sides of the issue.

Teach a man to fish, and he’ll sit in a boat all day drinking beer.

Sitting here in limbo waiting for the dice to roll

You’re just a puppy masquerading as an old coot.

Every day Vance writes another chapter in the book called “Worst VP Pick Ever”.

Maybe you would prefer that we take Joelle’s side in ALL CAPS?

One of our two political parties is a cult whose leader admires Vladimir Putin.

When do the post office & the dmv weigh in on the wuhan virus?

The rest of the comments were smacking Boebert like she was a piñata.

Marge, god is saying you’re stupid.

Anyone who bans teaching American history has no right to shape America’s future.

It’s a good piece. click on over. but then come back!!

When your entire life is steeped in white supremacy, equality feels like discrimination.

I might just take the rest of the day off and do even more nothing than usual.

Many life forms that would benefit from greater intelligence, sadly, do not have it.

The arc of the moral universe doesn’t bend itself. it’s up to us.

You are here: Home / Garden Chats / Sunday Morning Garden Chat: WaterGirl’s Garden

Sunday Morning Garden Chat: WaterGirl’s Garden

by | 92 Comments

This post is in: 

For reasons known but to Murphy the Trickster God and FYWP, an unfinished draft of this post went up shortly after midnight, which is why the first batch of comments are… nonplussed. Apologies to all, but especially WaterGirl!
===========
 
WaterGirl was kind enough to share a batch of photos from her summer garden:

Top photo: Pansies

Christmas cacti

 
Tropical hibiscus


 
Agapanthus

Tree peony


 
Sundrops

 
Lisianthus


 
Rose of sharon

 
Double impatiens
(There really *is* a pot under there)

 
Cosmos

 
Visitor from my neighbor’s garden

***********

What’s going on in your garden(s), this week?

Reader Interactions

92Comments

  16. 16.

    Dan B

    @sab: Agapanthus / Lily of the Nile, presumably a hardy form like one of the Headbourne Hybrids.  They’re common in California even in parking strips and boulevards.

  19. 19.

    Baud

    an unfinished draft of this post went up shortly after midnight, which is why the first batch of comments are… nonplussed. Apologies to all, but especially WaterGirl

    Thank you. I was confused.
    The flowers are amazing.

  20. 20.

    satby

    Oh, no apologies needed Anne Laurie! You do and have done such great work posting these garden chats for over a decade (maybe more?) and I very much look forward to them, as do others, I’m sure.

  21. 21.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Baud: My first thought was she was in a hurry to get to bed for some reason or other. Then I remembered, this is Anne Laurie.

    @satby: What you said.

    Beautiful flowers WG, your garden must be something else when it is in full bloom.

  27. 27.

    OzarkHillbilly

    ‘How my garden taught me to love winter’: Poppy Okotcha

    The darker half of the year is a time that historically filled me with heavy dread. I loathed and even feared the ending of vibrant life and the boring melancholy that winter seemed to tow around with it. My mind has now been changed, not by the thoughtful persuasion of a human, but by gardens.

    In the few gardens I have tended, while I’ve grown food, herbs and flowers in them, without my noticing they busied away, growing a new relationship with the world in me. There is now a peace that comes with the darkness, almost a relief, and the firm trust that winter makes way for the beauty of spring. The same cosy, calm acceptance that accompanies sleep comes to me as winter creeps in.

    More at the link

  28. 28.

    Kay

    Lovely, WG. I haven’t seen double impatiens in ages. They’re beautiful but seemed to fall out of fashion (as flowers sometimes do).

    As I have mentioned here before, I’m obsessed with Sweet Peas. I found out last year they do better in the Michigan garden than they do in the Ohio garden (cooler and longer spring in MI, I think).

    I’m trying something new this year – growing them cold- where you get the seeds up and then grow the plants on right above freezing – so cold they wilt a little.  I’m also using these – Root Trainers– instead of the newspaper pots I use for everything else.

    Grow healthier plants with stronger roots when you use Haxnicks’ Deep Rootrainers. The Deep Rootrainers implement a grooved-cell design, which directs new roots downwards towards the container’s drainage opening. “Air-pruning” design allows roots to die as they hit the air, promoting optimal root formation through healthy, new growth. The Deep Rootrainers can be easily opened for moisture and root-progress observation, as well as for safe and easy plant removal. Perfect for seed starting and seedling growth, year after year.

  29. 29.

    mrmoshpotato

    For reasons known but to Murphy the Trickster God and FYWP, an unfinished draft of this post went up shortly after midnight, which is why the first batch of comments are… nonplussed. Apologies to all, but especially WaterGirl!

    LOL! 🤣

  31. 31.

    Geminid

    Than you WaterGirl. I especially liked the Rose of Sharon. People don’t grow Rose of Sharon like they used to.

  33. 33.

    Geminid

    @Baud: Crepe Myrtle is now the go-to tree for summer blooming. I see Crepe Myrtles all the time, but I only seem to see Rose of Sharons near old houses in the country.

  35. 35.

    OzarkHillbilly

    @Geminid: When we bought this place there was a Rose of Sharon in the yard. 5 years later it was dead. Not sure if it was something I didn’t do or if it’s time was just up. I haven’t planted a new one as the old location was not ideal for it and have yet to find a new spot.

  36. 36.

    Kay

    @Geminid:

    Like Gladiolus. “Glads”. Fell out of fashion. The only time I see Gladiolus anymore is on Balloon Juice :)

    They’re too hard to use in an arrangement with that big, top heavy spike so I don’t grow them anymore either.

  39. 39.

    Ken

    @frosty: I really liked all the nonplussed comments.

    Nonplussed comments are plusgood.

    (Sorry, I’m reading Sandra Newman’s Julia, a retelling of 1984 from Julia’s point-of-view, and it’s refreshing my Newspeak.)

  41. 41.

    Geminid

    @Narya: I think gladiolus is a big funeral flower. They do not scale well for smaller displays though, and that may be why they have gone out of style.

    My grandmother was named Gladioulus. This was in southern Wisconsin, in the first years of the last century. Her last name was Schneider.

  42. 42.

    stinger

    Amazing! How does WaterGirl find the time, between her full-time job and the equally full-time work she does for BJ, to garden? Who said she gets to have a personal life??

    Great flowers!

  43. 43.

    delphinium

    Beautiful flowers WG! Love that multi-tiered plant stand with all of your Christmas cacti displayed too.

  44. 44.

    beckya57

    @Water Girl: These are lovely.  However, knowing that you live in my hometown, I’m guessing the weather is just a bit colder now??  (I remember the winters there all too vividly.)

  46. 46.

    WaterGirl

    @BeautifulPlumage:  The little figures on the plant stand are just silly little things I have picked up over the years.  A couple of them actually are for Christmas, I believe, but they all stay up year round.

    During the warm months, the cactuses move outside, and then I just have my silly little guys to look at until they come back inside after the first frost.

    It’s clear from this thread that they should all have names.  I will work on that!

  47. 47.

    WaterGirl

    @Dan B: I wish they were hardy!  I have them in pots, which go in the ground in the spring and then hang out in a garage after the first frost.  Repeat in the spring.

    Are there any agapanthus that can live year-round in zone 6?  (They just reclassified us as zone 6, up from zone 5.)

  48. 48.

    J. Arthur Crank

    @Geminid:

     

    Crepe Myrtle is now the go-to tree for summer blooming. I see Crepe Myrtles all the time, but I only seem to see Rose of Sharons near old houses in the country.

    I have four crepe Myrtles in the yard here in San Diego. They have nice blooms, usually starting in May or June. They seem to be relatively common around here.

  49. 49.

    O. Felix Culpa

    Pretty flowers.

    I just added a buncha compost from my effective little electric composter–thanks for the recommendation, TaMara!–to my in-ground vegetable bed. Most of my vegetable gardening is in containers, but I’m trying to coax this one in-ground strip to produce trellised plants like peas, beans, and cucumbers next year. We moved into our new house too late this year to get much planting going, plus the summer’s extended heat wave quashed a lot of plant growth and fruiting. It will be interesting to see how things go next year. Perhaps the triumph of hope over experience, as seems necessary to continue vegetable gardening in Southwestern (perhaps all?) climes.

  51. 51.

    WaterGirl

    @Geminid: With flowers and plants, I have no idea what’s in style, I just plant what I like.

    @Kay:  Double impatiens can be really hard to find here, so I start looking for them really early.  This year, the garden center I shop at the most only got one shipment of them in, but I managed to snag some.

  52. 52.

    Scout211

    WaterGirl, your plants and flowers are gorgeous!  Thank you for sharing them in a garden chat post.  Your yard must be an oasis in the spring and summer.  Very beautiful.

  53. 53.

    WaterGirl

    @Geminid: I desperately waned a crepe myrtle after seeing them all over on a trip to North Carolina a couple of decades ago.  Alas, they are only for zone 6 or higher.

    A couple of years ago I found a few varieties for zone 5, but raven’s comments about them steered me away from them.  As of this year we are zone 6, but I’m not in the mood for a really messy tree.  Plus, I have always loved rose of sharon.

  55. 55.

    WaterGirl

    @beckya57: Oh yeah.  Down to 20, now cold and rainy.  Cold and rainy is the weather I tend to get sick in, but I tell myself that rain in the fall is really good for the plants that are heading into winter.

  56. 56.

    WaterGirl

    @Scout211: Thank you!

    This spring I turned half of my front yard into a garden bed.  I took some videos of the garden so I could document what I have where, and document how the garden looked this first season.

    I have been thinking that when I get time I will put the videos into a form that I can post on Balloon Juice.  So far, no time!  But one of these days I’ll get it done.

    In the meantime, I wanted to get some photos to Anne Laurie – it’s no fun to be running low on photos for a regular feature!

    edit:  and I see that I am talking to myself.  oh well.

  57. 57.

    Scout211

    Is it crepe myrtle or crape myrtle? I have always known it to be crape myrtle, but I’ve seen both used.

    We’ve always had at least one crape myrtle in our yards over the years.  The first home we had came with a hot pink color. The previous owners pruned it back and to a reasonable size and each year the new shoots with the blooms were cut back and then the next year the blooms were only on the new growth.  It was easy to maintain and very showy.

    In our current yard we planted a lavender one and it’s not as pretty or showy so we planted a bright red one near the front fence and it is  really showy every year.  Sweet.

  58. 58.

    WaterGirl

    @Scout211: I just googled.

    Crepe Myrtle” has a long heritage of usage in the South and is still used more often than “Crape Myrtle,” though both spellings are considered correct. If you are ever unsure of which spelling to use, just remember that both are correct, and you can’t go wrong!

  63. 63.

    Scout211

    @WaterGirl: Do you find them to be as messy as Raven does?  (apologies to raven if I am remembering wrong)

    They do eventually drop their petals but I never thought that it was any messier than any other flowering plant or tree. It certainly was easier than raking leaves.

  64. 64.

    Geminid

    @WaterGirl: Crepe Myrtles used to be Southern plants. Between breeding and climate change they’ve made it up to the Middle Atlantic and further. With the way they shed bark they are messy trees, but a dwarf variety might not be too much of a hassle.

  67. 67.

    kalakal

    What lovely pictures.

    I never realised Rose of Sharon came in colours other than yellow, it’s common in the North of England, I had some, but it’s always the big yellow St. John’s Wort/ Jerusalem Star

  68. 68.

    WaterGirl

    @OzarkHillbilly: I always thought it was more faith than hope.

    You plant the bulbs in the fall and you just have to have faith that they will come up 6 months later.  You plant these little seeds and water the dirt, having faith that it will sprout.

    Or buy that little plant, or this tiny little tree, having faith that one day it will grow up.

  69. 69.

    CaseyL

    I’m glad the mystery of the unexplained flower post has been solved and explained. (Though it was rather fun while it lasted.)

    Beautiful flowers, WaterGirl!

  70. 70.

    Eunicecycle

    @Geminid: I remember seeing crepe myrtle in the wild all through Alabama as we drove through the state. It reminded me of seeing wild dogwoods in the north, unexpected splashes of color among the green.

  71. 71.

    StringOnAStick

    @O. Felix Culpa: I put peas and green beans on a trellis system last season and had the best season ever for those veggies, so I’m sold.  I’m still trying to find a cucumber variety that can handle the cool nights but hot days here in central Oregon.

  78. 78.

    Madeleine

    A building down the street from me is fronted by Rose of Sharon, above street level in a planter. The blooms are overhead, all pink and white. I love their arrival in early fall. (I’m in the northwest Bronx—lots of apartment buildings with front gardens.)

  79. 79.

    Geminid

    @kalakal: “Rose of Sharon” is mentioned in the Bible, and several different plants bear the name. There is speculation about what the biblical Rose of Sharon was, but it’s not the small tree we’re talking about here, Hibiscus Syriacus(sp?). This one’s native to China and was brought to Europe in the 16th century. It’s the national flower of Korea.

  80. 80.

    Lyrebird

    Thank you Anne Laurie!

    I saw the post last night, and figured that the back engine had had some sort of glitch, but the photos were so lovely.  I was already in major eye fatigue, but it lifted my evening.

    Didn’t comment because I was dropping already – working late yes on Saturday night – and because @Omnes Omnibus: had already won the Dry Humor category.

    WG I will try to find a live thread to send your praises as a gardener.

  82. 82.

    WaterGirl

    @Scout211: If you have photos from previous years, I would love to see them, and I’ll be Anne Laurie would be happy to have some photos now.

    Then you could submit new ones with the blooms from this coming spring!

  85. 85.

    Lyrebird

    @WaterGirl: Yes, in fact I thought she might be nominating you for one of those blog-specific awards, but then I saw the all-flower content.

    I then assumed that you had provided an abundance of gorgeous flower photos for “all” the upcoming gaps in the Garden Chat schedule and that they had accidentally “all” been exported before Anne Laurie could finish what she was doing.

     

    ETA: they are indeed ALL absolutely gorgeous!  Those holiday cactuses!  Wow!  We have a Thanksgiving cactus that is giving a great show right now.

  86. 86.

    kalakal

    @Geminid:

    Ah hah! that makes sense. That’s the problem with common names as opposed to botanical ‘proper names’. This is another of those American/English things.

    Thank you

    @WaterGirl:  Sadly it appears you’ve learnt that I’ve misinformed you. Seems English Rose of Sharon and American Rose of Sharon are not the same thing, like Blackbirds and Robins

  87. 87.

    Geminid

    @kalakal: I can tell a hawk from a handsaw, and a Hibiscus from a Hypericum. At least, with the help of Wikipedia.

    That big Hypericum sounds like a good plant. A smaller Hypericum was briefly popular around here a decade or so ago. I saw bunches being sold as a groundcover, but the plants must not have worked out because they soon disappeared from local garden centers and never came back.

    The Hypericum is also known as St. John’s Wort, and there is a variety I used to see growing wild when I lived in the Shenandoah Valley. They were scrawny plants 18″ tall, and lived in poor soil like the edges of gravel parking lots and railroad beds. The flower was about 1/2″ in size.

  89. 89.

    kalakal

    @Geminid:

    I can tell a hawk from a handsaw, and a Hibiscus from a Hypericum. At least, with the help of Wikipedia.

    lol!

    Yep, it can get a bit scrawny but  the varieties used in English gardens are anything but, they can be positively Napoleonic in their attitude to surrounding areas. They’re a good looking plant, very free flowering, and the flowers contrast well with the foliage.

    Must say those hibiscus look nice.

  90. 90.

    WaterGirl

    @Lyrebird:

    I then assumed that you had provided an abundance of gorgeous flower photos for “all” the upcoming gaps in the Garden Chat schedule

    You are exactly right about that; that was my thought process, but I told Anne Laurie that she she was free to dole them out in whatever way she wanted.

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