Now that the heat of April is behind us, we’re taking full advantage of the coolness and rain of May. The weather is a little backwards but we’ll take what we can get when it comes to planting weather. With a few days of rain in the forecast we were really thrilled to have a dry day today and a good crew to start putting in some of our cool-season annuals. We planted tassel flower (Emilia javanica) in what promises to be a stunning combination with annual campion (Viscaria occulata ‘Blue Angel’). We also planted calendula, Salvia claryssa (a diminutive clary sage), some pretty tough looking bee’s friend (Phacelia tanacetifolia), golden feverfew (Tanacetum parthenium ‘Aureum’), Virginia stock (Malcolmia maritima), ornamental kale ‘Sunset’, and honeywort (Cerinthe major var. purpurescens ‘Kiwi Blue’) among other various and sundry things I’ve already forgotten.

In some places we had to elbow a few volunteers out of the way – volunteer reseeders, that is. You might this this sea of teasel seedlings is horrific but I like to think of them as a really excellent weed barrier. Nothing can penetrate that mat but it was quick work to delete a few to make room for a new little border of clary sage. And with any luck that will seed itself around too.

All of the garden’s newest tenants will be happy to have cloudy skies and plenty of rain (fingers crossed) to help them settle in. And now we have more room under the arbor for “hardening off” the next batch of plants to come out of the greenhouse. Tender perennials like Mexican anise hyssop (Agastache spp.), salvias, porterweed (Stachytarpheta spp.), and geraniums (Pelargonium) are next on the list — although all of those might prefer to wait to go out after the rain has stopped. That’s alright because it’s also time to move out some of our container specimen like the camellias, coprosmas, farfugium, and sweet olive (Osmanthus fragrans). The shift is on.

Have you started to plant cool-season annuals yet?

Why is it that a pack full of seedlings is a thrilling thing and a carpet of seedlings in the garden is alarming? I once got in big trouble with a friend for bringing teasel (Dipsacus fullonum) seedlings to a plant swap because when they grow up they do this:

So do a lot of plants. I wonder if some gardeners’ preference for seedlings in packs is a control thing. We know how many we’ve sown and despite it being more time consuming to carefully transplant these guys, we’ve got a grip on them, so to speak. Now, I would definitely qualify as a control freak – I generally prefer to be in the driver’s seat. But when it comes to seeds and seedlings, I’d much rather ride shotgun. It’s so much more relaxing. With self-sowers I never have to worry about timing. They come up when they come up. I don’t have to fret about their care because they’re fine on their own. And I can still take over the wheel by weeding out the ones I don’t want and carefully transplanting any that didn’t fall where they should have. What isn’t awesome about that?

Teasel seedlings are especially easy. Because they’re biennial, we have a whole summer to decide where we want them. We can leave their carpet as an excellent weed barrier, at least until the garden grows up around them, and then allow a select few to winter over wherever we think we might want next year’s towers. And we even have time now to move 2nd year seedlings if their placement isn’t just right. (Because of their tap root, we have to dig deep).

We’ve been doing that a lot with another biennial, forget-me-not (Myosotis sylvatica), and I have big plans for the extra love-in-mist (Nigella damascena) seedlings in the cutting garden. Pretty soon we’ll have self-sowers spread out in the garden enough that they’ll always come up where we want them. All we’ll have to do after that is remove the ones that are “too many”. Easy. (Or is that what some of us don’t like to do? It can be awfully heart-wrenching to compost a healthy plant…)

Speaking of carpets, I can’t let a Daffodil Days post go by without saying how beautiful they still are. Still peaking. And meanwhile the tulips are starting to open and the cherry trees are gorgeous. It keeps getting prettier and prettier. (And I’m not just saying that because I want you to visit.)

Do you find seedling carpets a little bit scary or are you thrilled to see plants come back gangbusters? Can you thin and edit the seedlings without cringing?

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day (hosted by Carol at May Dreams Gardens) is the best excuse I can think of to show off some of my favorite weirdos. I know my cup of tea isn’t to everyone’s taste. For one thing, I tend to gravitate towards anything with nearly invisible green flowers like crazy-cool petal-less Boltonia ‘Nallie’s Lime Dot’ (below). It comes into bloom-ish in early September and is supposed to be about 4′ tall. Ours grew taller and then probably because it was shaded by our new dawn redwood hedge, flopped right over to hang with an aster. It holds up really well in arrangements so I’ll probably vote to move to a sunnier spot in the cutting garden. I also adore little Nicotiana ‘Delaware Indian Sacred’ (right) obviously because it’s green but also because it seeds itself around and is in bloom in one place or another all season long.

And ’tis the season to love the seedheads. They may look gone-by to some but I prefer the black knobs of rudbeckia sans petals. And aren’t teasel and cardoon at any stage wildly wonderful?

There’s probably nothing weirder than Amaranthus ‘Dreadlocks’ full stop.

And every late-summer/fall I rediscover cuphea. (Who doesn’t?) Suddenly though I’m head-over-heels for a cuphea that probably nobody else here has noticed.  Cuphea ‘Ballistic’ is a tiny little plant with mouse faces that ended up tucked under a whole bunch of other stuff (mostly other cupheas) in the kid’s bed. I vow to put them somewhere front and center next year and took a bunch of cuttings yesterday for insurance.

Speaking of taking cuttings, the speed of the season took us by surprise. (How did it get to be mid-September already?!) We usually start taking cuttings in late August/early September but have only now begun in earnest. If the same thing happened to you and those beautiful cut-able tips that emerge in late summer have since grown and flowered, cut your plants back in a few places to encourage new growth and check again in a couple of weeks.

What’s weird or wonderful in your garden right now? When did you start taking cuttings?

I can’t imagine being the kind of person who already knows it all. I spend almost every moment trying to catch up – if I’m not finding something new to know, I’m quizzing myself on what I thought I knew and being schooled again on what I’ve already forgotten. I opened my eyes in the Rock Garden this morning and saw Toad lilies (Tricyrtis hirta) that I don’t ever remember noticing there before. As a matter of fact, I read a post about them recently (can’t remember where … whoever wrote it, please send a comment and I’ll plant a link! -click here and here) and I thought (or maybe even said in a comment?) “I wonder why we don’t we have those? – Gotta put them on the list…” A new (old?) path has opened up in my brain!

And how could I forget Thistle (Onopordum acanthium) – an outstanding biennial - in the Idea Beds? (oops! Gail took one look and said “but it’s not a thistle! – It’s an artichoke.” duh. !) It took a monarch to remind me.

Speaking of biennials (plants which grow leafy the first season then bloom, set seed and die in their second season), I’ve learned a good trick for more-blooms-no-waiting. We appropriated some foxglove (Digitalis purpurea) seedlings to flower in the North Garden and Cutting Garden next year: In July we sowed seeds from the Dry Shade Bed foxglove and dug seedlings from around other mother plants by the Summer House. We grew the babies on in the greenhouse and planted most of them out in the Cutting Garden yesterday. Gail chose Cutting Garden beds with good winter drainage and we’ll move any survivors from there into new locations next spring. We’ll also plant some in the North Garden in a few weeks when we remove and divide some of the Phlox. With any luck we’ll have flowers and new biennial banks to draw from next year.

Diane, one of the Florabundas, is learning something new today too. DJ Garrity, Mt. Rushmore artist in residence, is teaching Diane and a few others how to carve stone. Over the next couple of days Diane will release the person she sees inside her block of marble (Move over Rodin!).

And what did you learn today? (By any chance, have you learned what this vining weed is??)