Sun King Aralias - Are They Back? April 2025

Last season, I did a number of 'garden edits' - where I improved parts of our beds via selective editing.  In some cases, that meant adding MORE of something.  Or in other cases, it meant replacing hostas with something more appealing.  One of those 'garden edits' was the nook behind the Weeping Cypress tree on the north side of the far backyard.  

I pulled out a bunch of hostas and replaced it with a few things:

A row of Sun King Golden Japanese Spikenard - Aralia cordata.

Some transplanted Summer Beauty Alliums

A row of Dark Side of the Moon Astibles - along with transplanting a few that I already had on-hand.

And, fronted with some groundcover.

My #4 item on my 2025 to-do list is to 'finish the garden edits'.  I mentioned that I was pretty sure a bunch of the stuff I planted back here wasn't going to come back.  It had a hard Summer and I've been thinking that the Sun King Aralias and the Astilbes didn't have enough time to establish themselves.  

But, a closer look out there has me a tiny-bit hopeful.  At the base of last year's growth of the Sun Kings are these purple tips peeking out of the soil.  See below:

At least...I'm *thinking* these are Sun Kings.  The purple color is throwing me off, but since this is the first Spring, I'm not exactly sure what color the initial foliage emerges as - if it isn't the golden yellow of the mature plant.  

At last year's sale, I bought five Sun Kings and three Dark Side of the Moon Astilbes.  Receipt below.  I'll be watching to see if all eight plants come back this year.  That would be a welcome surprise.  I also need to water this area much more than I was doing last season.

This year's sale is coming up in a few days.  I might buy even more Sun Kings.