September 20, 2004

pruning and planting

Last week, my package from White Flower Farm arrived. Friday, I got my package from Paradise Garden. So, today, I managed to work in the garden while I was doing my only-when-it-gets-painfully-slow computer maintenance. You know, pruning the spyware while while weeding.

magellanica.jpgWhile running one optimizer program, I planted FUSCHIA 'Magellanica', which is supposed to get six feet high though I doubt if it will here since zone 6, which is our zone, looks like the cold end of what it can take. It got good reviews at Paradise Garden, and I love red flowers and is a perennial, so I ordered it. The plant looks really healthy and was a lot bigger than you get from most of the mail order plant places. It looks like it might even survive. I just have to remember to mulch it well during winter.

930693.jpgAround that, I planted some spider lily bulbs. This is what the catalog says about lycoris radiata: "Spider Lilies sport gorgeous bright red flowers adorned with long, curling filaments (the source of the "spider" moniker). The flowers can be seen from great distances in the garden and last practically forever in a vase. Spider lilies prefer partial shade, especially in hot climates, and well-drained soil. They thrive in Zone 6 if planted in a protected location and mulched heavily in fall. Heirloom, 1750." So I'll much these too when I mulch the fuschia. I got them from White Flower Farm.

The registry was optimized, so it was time to search for all the unnecessary files like the crap ~whatever.doc files Microsoft leaves about (MS has yet to create a tidy program) and all the crap in the browser caches and various other junk grosso.jpgfiles. The program I use takes a while. So I planted Lavandula i. 'Grosso' in a sunny spot. I love planting lavender because the smell always makes whatever mood I'm in better. Maybe there's something to that aromatherapy stuff, I don't know. Another very healthy looking plant from Paradise. I have so-so luck with lavender here. Sometimes it grows just fine outside -- I had one plant that lasted three years until this winter's brutal cold did it in. Mostly they don't survive unless I bring them in. The description: "Desired for its very fragrant flower spikes. Great as a cut flower in arrangements. Comparatively large shrub-like perennial with blue-green foliage and large, fat, purple flower spikes. Excellent for drying. Midseason with repeat bloom. 24-30 inches tall with taller bloom spikes."

Crap files cleaned off the computer. Next up, turn off indexing -- I was surprised at how long that took. I didn't see any point it letting it hog up resources on my XP Pro system since searching is so damned slow now an extra five minutes doesn't make much difference. While waiting for that to run, I planted Sisyrinchium bermudianum, aka blue-eyed grass.bermudianum.jpg The catalog says, "Blue star-like flowers adorn the compact iris-like foliage. A long blooming and all around excellent perennial." They just look so pretty I couldn't resist them.

What I really want to get, and I hope I can in the spring, is crocosmia. I saw some at a local nursery for the first time and have been regretting even since that I didn't just buy a couple of pots of them when I saw them. They're just not for sale after July, I guess. I did order a couple of peonies and some stokesia from Paradise. I would've ordered even more, but I can't afford either the time or the money just now. My wish list there is quite long. I tried to order some freesia bulbs for forcing from Brent and Becky's bulbs, but their shopping cart is broken (again). Oops, just tried it again -- seems to be working now. So off I go ... (my computer is all nice and tidy and scrubbed of everything bad and I even defragged it). Check out Spyware-Guide -- great resource!

Oh, one more thing. This is an image from Punditman.com, and it makes me laugh every since time I look at it. Just something so satisfying about what it expresses. It's in a popup because the file is quite large (444 KB). View image (Note to those who want to use this picture: do not link to this image, just take it and use your own bandwidth to display it. If I find out you're linking to it, I'll replace it with something nasty.)

Posted by Lee at September 20, 2004 12:46 AM | TrackBack
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