Early Summer Progress Report

This is the time of year when gardeners assess the success or failure of individual plants, and even gardens as a whole.  Remember, some plants need a couple of seasons to get established before you can make the call, so don't include them in your evaluation. Also, don't judge a newly established garden if you're getting anxious about the amount of mulch you're seeing in between the plants.  Time will fix that.  Weather also greatly affects the performance of plants, which is why you need a few seasons before you make decisions.

I'll start with my successes:

• Daylilies are just starting to bloom and the foliage is the best I've ever seen here.  The stems are covered with buds.
• Coneflowers in the back garden have finally taken hold where I've been trying to propagate them for years.  They are starting to bloom and it should be a good show.
• Catmint is always a winner in my garden; no complaints about this plant.
• Chinese ground orchids (bletilla) are a new addition.  I ordered 6 bulbs in the spring and the flowers are so pretty.  I hope they multiply and continue to do well.
• Hostas are completely at home in my garden.  I've never met a hosta I couldn't grow here.
• Creeping Jenny has really brought together my dry creek.  It is so lush this year, and the wonderful chartreuse color is stunning against the dark red coral bells.
• Indian Pink just finished blooming.  The combination of a red trumpet with a bright yellow flower is so unusual.  I dug this one up when I was visiting my sister in southern MO a few years ago.
• My boxwoods are excellent performers.  I have so many boxwoods that I've lost count.  I consider them a garden staple.
• Korean Viburnum produced some really great flowers earlier this year and the foliage continues to look great.  I would plant more of these just for the foliage!
• PeeGee Hydrangea looks amazing. It's in the perfect location and I just love it. I want more of these.

These plants are on my watch list to get the boot, or be moved:

• I am shocked that my bearded irises didn't do anything.  I have tons of them, and out of all colors, only one peach and a handful of white ones bloomed.  The white are my favorite, so that was somewhat comforting.
• The superbells I was so excited about in the spring are starting to wane.  Maybe the heat got them.  It is my first season growing them so I will have to give them another chance.
• Royal Purple hydrangea is taking over my raised bed in the back.  In defense of hydrangeas, I think this plant was mis-marked and is really a species hydrangea.  It never blooms purple.  It was supposed to get 4'x4' but it's about 6'x6' and continuing to grow.
• Limelight hydrangea grows really well for everyone else I know.  I think it should be blooming now, but nada.  If it doesn't produce this year, it's going to a new home.  Any takers?
• It's the first spring for my Popcorn Viburnums, so I can't be too harsh.  They will need a couple more seasons of a watchful eye before I kick them out.  I LOVE this shrub in other locations. I couldn't wait to have one (now two) of my own. But a harsh summer last year and my inability to water daily nearly brought them to death.
• My poor Foster Holly has been struggling for a few seasons.  I finally moved it to a sunnier location this spring and I see new growth, although I might have jinxed it by planting it in the former home of the butterfly bush, which bit the dust over the winter.

My latest brainstorm is to create a new garden in a sunny area near the intersection of the driveway and the street.  This will be a home to all of those plants that crave/require more sunshine, like the 5 poor peonies whose stems were stretched out so far toward the light that they were horizontal.  More to come on the status of that project.