Why I Oughta...

Yesterday, I posted a photo of a Phlox Cherry Caramel bloom and talked about how that was the first bloom on one of the non-dahlia cut flowers that I have been trying to grow this year.  Today, I'm posting a photo of my second cut-flower (non-dahlia) that has bloomed: a single Didiscus Lacy Blue .  I ordered a rack of plugs of Didiscus from Garden Club (Farmer Bailey ) that arrived earlier than they should have (my mistake, not theirs) and I ended up first potting-them-up into larger pots and then, eventually planting them in the ground.  All eight plants went into the Island Bed in the front yard .  I wasn't sure how attractive they were going to be to the (dang) rabbits, so I encircled them in some chicken wire cages to protect them from being nibbled/gnawed. This post is going up in July, but these photos are from late June - about two weeks ago.   I had my first bloom open up on one of the Didiscus plants.   They're about the size Silver Dol...

Earlier this year, I bought a bunch of cut flower plugs from Garden Club and they arrived earlier than I really needed them .  Lesson learned for next year:  Have them delivered later in the Spring.  Of that set of plugs, eight of them are a new (to me) flower:  Didiscus Lacy Blue .  Of the plugs that arrived, these seemed to do the best with my "up-potting" as all eight have navigated the past two months and have put on some new foliage.   After managing them for weeks, I finally got around to planting them after all the threat of frost was gone.  In the second-to-last-week of May (the same day I put in a bunch of Dahlias), I planted these eight small plants.  They went in the south part of the Island Bed.   I spaced them about a foot apart and protected them with a ring of chicken wire to keep the rabbits away from them - until they can put on some mass.  I planted them in a mix of compost, garden soil and municipal biosolid...

Yesterday, I posted the first "Getting to Know" posts about the set of plugs that I bought from Garden Club this year: Lisianthus Celeb 2 Metallic Blue .  Next up is another blue bloom: Didiscus Lacy Blue .  This one is a direct recommendation from Erin the Impatient Gardener.  She mentioned that she grows these.  So...that's why I added to my cart.  So, what are they? Here is the listing from Floret : There is nothing like this super-productive, dome-shaped beauty. Each graceful disk is made of hundreds of tiny, forget-me-not-blue flowers, and the branching stems are smothered in buds. ‘Lacy Blue’ will flower for months, is slightly scented, and is the perfect size for bouquet work. Well...that sounds perfect, no?  They get 2-3 tall and need just 9" of spacing. Here is a photo from Farmer Bailey showing these growing in tunnels: Source via Farmer Bailey The Farmer Bailey growing guide mentions that they want some afternoon shade, so I think that mea...

This past weekend, I published the 25 items on my 2026 yard and garden to-do task list and included a number of cut-flower-related items.  Growing dahlias.  Supporting dahlias.  Growing more accent plants in the vertical garden.  All were on there.  But, so was another one - number 8: 8. Experiment with other cut flowers.  Plant them in the ground (in the garden beds) and add some variety to my arrangements. New varieties.  That means new (to me).   I'm a foliage gardener.  But, I have had so much fun becoming a flower gardener, too.  I've learned so much about dahlias the past few seasons and have found some flowering perennials that I can use in some cut flower arrangements, too.   But, this year, I wanted to try some new flowers that I can use in my arrangements.  Why?  Because, if you look at them, they're VERY dahlia-heavy .  That's not a bad thing.  But, if you're not changing and learning, you'r...