Plant Evaluations In a Vase on Monday September 26, 2015

Today I am linking with-

Skywatch Friday hosted by Yogi, Sandy, and Sylvia

Orange You Glad It's Friday hosted by Maria

Today's Flowers hosted by Denise

Saturday's Critters hosted by Eileen

Macro Monday 2 hosted by Gemma and Mystical Magical Teacher

In A Vase On Monday hosted by Cathy

Now that it is fall, it is time to evaluate how various plants I grew this year have done and also make decisions about what I want to grow next year.

A small plant I'm really impressed with is Dianthus Barbarini red Sweet Williams.  Usually Sweet Williams I have grown have been around 18" / .5m or more tall, but the Barbarini variety is a very low growing plant, and what is amazing to me is that it sends out a runner or side branch that makes another  nice little clump of a plant to the side.  It also is day length neutral unlike most Sweet Williams so has been blooming pretty much continuously since June 20.  This is actually just 3 plants, the original plant with a cluster of flowers on top of the former clusters-

The camera can't seem to capture the darker tones in the flowers, but pretty anyway-

I would like to start more of them this winter and have them cover a bigger area.

The Ageratums I started bloom continually, but don't make the big heads that I've seen in the nursery-

Ursinia has been long-blooming but is a tiny wispy plant with tiny flowers so doesn't really make enough impact, I want to try direct-sowing to see if it will do better, shown with Browallia, under deer fence-

Salvia 'Lady in Red' took a very long time to bloom but is pretty, I think I would like it better in a pot so I could bring it indoors in winter and keep it for another year-

Tropical milkweed, which is called an annual here, did not bloom the first year but I did have it in pots so could bring it indoors for the winter, and it has bloomed nearly continuously this spring and summer-

I haven't grown sunflowers before, and 'Red Velvet' was not red or velvety, but did get 4-5' / 1.5m tall and blooms a lot.  I read that sunflowers can make hedges at heights of 2' / 600cm  all the way to 12' / 4m so I'm interested in using several next year to try to fill up some areas that tend to get weedy.

Gaillardia 'Tokajer' has been a good bloomer this year, but is rather tall and I was hoping for a low mound of flowers, but Goblin that I also started either didn't bloom or disappeared.  I will try other low varieties for next year.

I took in a couple more chickens from my daughter-in-law who lives in the city, a surprise rooster from her spring chickens, an enormous Dark Brahma with feathered legs and feet, and companion little Red Yokohama joining Cocoa the Blue Maran hen.

Who's the boss?

This is my entry for In a Vase on Monday this week, take hostess Cathy's challenge to find materials in your garden to plonk in a vase, and decorate your house.

This is the last of the pinched vases I made, it is only 4"/ 10cm tall, the flowers are some aged Endless Summer Hydrangea blooms, Japanese Anemones, the wonderful old garden rose Clotilde Soupert yet again, and a Rose of Sharon, Hibiscus syriacus, which is one of the flowers I remember from my South Carolina grandma's garden.  I grew it from a cutting and it is a 10'+ / 3m+  tree now.

I decorated the vase with another of the pendants I made with a broken piece of a Mt. St. Helens ash ball and copper foiling,

With the pendant and moved to a different setting to try different lighting, the Rose of Sharon looks wildly lopsided here-

And with my birthstone, Turquoise-

And for latest garden delicacy, a Delicata squash, delightful to eat and even the skin is edible-

I'm still getting lots of beans, tomatoes, here with a pumpkin and Delicata squash-

In the right back is my 8' tall deer fence enclosing the garden, I had to put plastic sheeting on the outside to keep the deer from eating the bean vines I'm growing on the fence-

 my eggplants are doing the best ever probably thanks to the hot weather, long Japanese eggplant Ping Tung-

Short Japanese eggplant Dewako, both from the Kitazawa Seed Co.-

and the fall greens are growing and great eating.   I'm looking forward to perhaps being able to photograph the next lunar eclipse coming up Sunday evening for the feast of Sukkot.   Hannah

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