What else is in bloom

English daisies. This was the first one, which opened August 3. There are currently four: this one, another pink one with lots more petals of which I botched the photo, and two white ones. This isn't exactly what I was after. I want the ones that make a round mass of petals so you can't see the yellow center at all. However, what I seeded is a mix and there is plenty more that haven't flowered yet, so the right ones could still be out there. And if not, there's always next year.


Asters. Yea verily, asters finally bloomed. I logged the date officially as August 4, but it took a few more days to reach this state of full openness. The strange thing is that I seeded a mix and yet only these bright pink ones are flowering. Oh well... I don't mind them. As much as they've aggravated me in the past, they're good flowers, and they did have my back when the judges came through, so maybe I'll plant them again next year after all.


Convolvuli. I'm still perplexed that only dark blue ones came up when I know I seeded a mix, but oh well. I like the dark blue ones.


Forget-me-not. They're making quite a good show, actually. I'm definitely getting them again next year.


Star of Yelta in the Wall of Insanity. This one is blooming very profusely, whereas the one at the other hand is blooming very little. Yet the difference in sunlight is less than two hours between the two. Then again... two hours is 25% less sun, so maybe it is indeed a question of sunlight. Or, maybe I just got a particularly vigorous one by chance.

Also, poppies are blooming profusely now, but mostly they're outside the railing and we don't see much of each other. There are some nemophilas and California bluebells left, not enough to make a decent photo. The geranium not only never turned blue, but also got trampled by the raven. The new plant hasn't come in the mail yet and I'm not really antsy about it.

Now what?

I noticed something about my convolvulus.


It's growing from the stalk, not from the vine climbing on the stalks. Which means these stalky things I took for four o'clocks are in fact convolvulus (convolvuluses? convolvuli?), and the supplier was right about the "non-climbing habit" after all. But then... what are these vines doing in the Jungle? I didn't plant anything climby in the Jungle, or I thought I didn't. The leaves don't look right for morning glories, and now it has buds on it which are most definitely not morning glories or convolvuli.


Is this another zombie? Did I seed anything climbing in previous years? I remember I had sweet peas, but they never flowered and the leaves aren't right for that. But I don't know any climbing weeds in town either. That might not be to the point, since I did finally discover some black mustards growing in my landlord's garden, but that's not to say mine came from his. Could be the opposite. In fact his are much smaller and haven't flowered yet, but then again, he's had a guy with a weed-whacker go through it once or twice, so maybe they're only growing now because no one has paid any attention to that garden in some time.

Speaking of the black mustard, by the way, the parable of the mustard seed was read at church this Sunday, and it says that mustard is a tiny seed but grows to the size of a tree. Really? Good thing I killed all of mine then. It probably wouldn't grow that big in this climate, but I have enough to do with the trees I planted myself.

Anyway, so I still don't know where the black mustard came from, or for that matter the fleabane, which is much bigger than the ones growing wild in town. And I have no idea what this vine in my Jungle is and where it came from. Judging from the buds on it, it's gonna be another pathetically small flower and I can get rid of it too. But I'd really like to know what all these weeds are doing in my garden and how they get here. Could insects be carrying them? I noticed some of my leaves have been chewed by insects, though not in alarming numbers.

Gardening is such a mysterious thing.

It's a jungle out there

I didn't do individual photos because those plants who have had significant changes already got their own posts. For the rest, mostly they're growing a lot of greenery. The Wall of Insanity, having reached the railing thanks to my bait, is now colonizing it with great gusto. One might even say élan. Some of the vines have already reached the top of the railing. Now let's get some flowers going, m'kay?

The Jungle is junglelicious as always. I killed the Head Zombie, detangled it from the convolvulus and replaced it with a 4' stake. So, the "non-climbing" convolvulus is at the top of the stake already. There is still only one vine of convolvulus blooming in the entire Jungle. The poppies are just hanging there looking lame. The four o'clocks and phacelias have some buds. The globe thistles don't seem to be making progress, having let themselves get shaded by everybody else. I'm gonna buy more next year and figure out a different approach. Other than that, there is still all sorts of stuff growing in there, and we'll know what it is if it ever flowers.

Everybody else is doing fine with not much change from last week, except the rose cuttings. They had so much fun in the fun gel, they partied themselves to death. See what fun will do to you? So, I got new ones yesterday. If those don't work I might have to wait until next year to try again, because the mother plant is running out of suitable growth for cuttings. Assuming I have any idea which growth is suitable for cuttings.

More convolvulus

Better photo than yesterday. Isn't it lovely?

Apparently, convolvulus flowers close at night and reopen in the morning, instead of dying at the end of the day like morning glories. That's nice. I like having them for more than one day.

And the winner is:

The convolvulus. (Yes, it's windy today.)

Notice two things. One, they're remarkably pretty. I hadn't expected that. And two, they're blue! There's a flower after my own heart! What I seeded is a mix, so it could have been anything... but the one that came up is blue. How sweet!

Technically, I know that the convolvulus did not deliberately make blue flowers because I was annoyed and blue is my favourite colour. It's purely random. Nonetheless, it's making me happy.

This is not the only convolvulus vine, so I might get some other colours yet, but I'm thinking I'll cull the non-blue ones and harvest the seeds from the blue ones. Like a Neolithic man.