August isn’t usually a month where I’m astonished by an extraordinary event in the garden, but this year I’ve had two such marvels in the first week.
Minor Miracle #1:
We’ve grown and sold Chilopsis linearis to our customers in the Arkansas Valley for quite some time, but I’ve never had the gorgeous, drought tolerant Desert Willow survive here at 6500′ elevation. I’ve complained a lot about its lack of winter hardiness. Last year I planted one in the main garden, in a section with added gravel and sand, telling myself that this was the last time. I assumed it was dead when I saw the scrawny stem this spring, leafless and lifeless, as usual. Luckily, it seems, we’ve been too busy to keep up with maintenance in that garden or I would have removed the plant. This week I found it alive. And not just alive, thriving! I can grow Desert Willow. I know, surviving one winter doesn’t mean everything, but it means something. I’m so happy.
Chilopsis linearis
With any luck, next year I’ll have some flowers on it. Here’s Stan Sheb’s photo of one flowering in Las Vegas!
Minor Miracle #2:
If you’ve been to the nursery in June, you won’t have missed the fabulous Dictamnus albus purpurea (AKA Gas Plant) in bloom. It’s a big showy perennial, and everyone who sees it wants it. The flowers smell good, too, like lemon verbena, and, in fact, it’s related to the lemon tree! It’s super hardy, to Zone 3, and seems to like our alkaline soil just fine. After it blooms it forms very interesting seed heads, and if you read about this plant you’ll get the instruction to leave the seed heads on for all season interest.
I usually do leave the seed heads, but this year, with all the rain, it was a big floppy mess. In late June I chopped it to the ground. Last week I noticed new flower buds forming. This is unheard of, not just in my garden, but in all the research I did on this plant I found “will not reflower after deadheading.” And yet….
