I enjoy one of the city maintained parks close to me, near USM. In the Spring, they put in tons of tulips which look absolutely lovely. Once those go by, they pull them out and replace most of the beds with annuals, but the central bed is planted every year with cannas. It’s fun to watch those emerge. The foliage is so interesting (let’s face it, there’s not much native tropical foliage going on around here), and the flowers are so refreshingly different once they bloom.
My one slight problem with the park garden is the sheer numbers of marigolds and pelargoniums inhabiting the rest of the beds. Don’t get me wrong, I like marigolds (hate the geraniums, but there’s a back story to that), but is there possibly a more boring park plant? They’ve got all this vertical interest with the cannas, and they contrast it with marigolds. Sigh.
In other news, finally got the last of my plant sale windfall planted or potted up. I’m happy to say the rattiest of the plants are looking better already, though the two delphiniums may not survive. They just don’t look that happy. But I did get enough plants that should survive that I’m sure I’ll get my money’s worth. I did have to include a picture of one of the liatris which has the most interesting shape to the flower head, probably from being enclosed in a tiny pot until I bought it. I smile every time I see it, but hopefully, next year, it will have enjoyed its new found bed, and not repeated this shape.
I’m also happy to see that the garlic chives are starting to bloom. I confess to liking these better than regular chives, though they reseed much more prolifically, and I’m constantly pulling out little chive seedlings from that entire half of the bed. And this after I got smart last year and thought I’d cut the heads off before they could possibly go to seed (and long before I’d gotten full enjoyment). I did need a plant to give away as a thanks for some plants I got this year. Maybe I should dig a few seedlings and pass them along.
