Friday Miscellany

Is Friday becoming my day to scoop up the tidbits of the past week and press them into a coherent ball, a snowball of garden and plant observations? It seems that way.

First up: pruning. This 'Lady in Red' hydrangea which I've shown you recently has gotten so large! It's 18" (45cm) or more taller than its twin that was planted in the front of the house. Is it because it gets less light here, being half-shaded by the deck?

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Whatever the reason, it blocks so much light and creates a wall of foliage -- too much! So I decided to prune it back hard. Lots of new growth emerging though...

...but I didn't let that deter me.

I was going to cut it all the way to the ground but 1) that scares me a bit and 2) it's more work.

What, you don't knock over furniture when you prune? (okay, yes, it was knocked over before I started, but it would have been on the ground at the end even if it wasn't at the start!)

I think I'll be much happier with this for a season or two. Of course I pruned off all of the flower buds (it blooms on old wood), but the foliage of this one is so nice I don't really care. Besides, the one in the front garden will bloom.



Moving on to something I saw on Market St. in downtown St. Louis:

Really beautiful blooms! Is this a crabapple? I'm really bad with flowering fruit tree IDs, but I think that's what it must be. Can anybody correct me and identify the cultivar?

So pretty!



Lastly, a question.

I planted all of my bulbs late last year, partially because it was so mild that I didn't feel pressure to get them into the ground. Lots of alliums, some tulips. You can see them all in this post.

There were too many to get into the ground at the time -- I just hadn't planned well enough to know where to put them all. So some just went into tubs, where I could delay permanent planting until the spring. I did put several into the ground already, some in places that I didn't remember until they emerged:

The question is: when should I transplant the ones in the tubs into the ground? Should I do it now (or as soon as possible) or should I wait until after they've flowered? Maybe it doesn't really matter, as alliums are so tough. (That's what I'm hoping)

I just remembered that I put some bulbs into individual pots. Where did those go? I wonder if the squirrels or raccoons got them?


Have a great weekend! We've got a freeze coming tonight, so I'm thinking I need to take a bunch of photos today just in case...

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