We had heavy, heavy rain most of the day today. I remain quite surprised at how well all the flowers are holding up, because the rain has been so hard that I expect to look out and see all the flower stalks lying on the ground, but so far, so good.
The hollyhocks are blooming quite well this year — I didn’t get any blossoms from them at all last year, which was their first year. They are doubles, and the flowers are great. So far, we have white ones and deep, dark red ones. The plants themselves are hardly taller than the phlox they are behind. I think that’s because the soil they are in is still so bad. There’s a bit of rust on the lower leaves, but not too bad.
The hydrangea blossom that came out earlier this week is getting bluer as it ages, which is very pretty. There is still only the one bloom, though.
The Jackmanii clematis is blooming on the pergola. It seems early for it to be blooming, but there it is. Okay, in looking back, last year it bloomed on the 7th of August, so one week earlier isn’t that different. The vines have hit the top of the pergola this year, which is great. It’s a three year old plant, and I’d like the pergola to be covered in vines at some point. The grape and the honeysuckle are both doing well this year too, so it shouldn’t be too many years before the roof of the structure is covered. Shade out there would be good. I still have one post open — Frank can’t decide if he wants hops there or not.
Of all seventy blue butterfly delphinium plants that I started under lights two years ago, only one teeny tiny plant has survived, and it is in bloom. The poor thing is just about six inches high, and I’m so happy to see it, but disappointed at the rest of them. They had lots of compost and are supposedly hard to zone four, but I don’t think I’ll try them again. I just love that rich blue color. Sniff.
I said the other day that the stargazers were going to pop any day now, and sure enough, the first one is in bloom today. I noticed it from the kitchen window when the rain was just pouring down, but we went outside during a break in the storm just to catch a picture of it, and ended up staying out there for an hour or so until the rain started again.
We found a whole stash of used pallets in Gilsum coming home last night, and went back in the morning to get them. We found nine of them in good enough shape to grab, and we had two left from the last time, which makes a whole new set of three bins for yet more compost. The six bins we have are all full already, so once we figure out where to put another set of three, we’ll get these going as well. We need all the compost we can get.