Week 27, Year 3: Red, White and Blue

 

In honor of the Fourth of July, I'm spotlighting some patriotic members of my garden: Nicotiana and Scaevola.

The Red - Nicotiana. With its star shaped petals and fragrant evening smell, Nicotiana would appear to be a jasmine family member. Instead, it is one of seventy members of the nicotine family, which includes traditional tobacco (yes, the same stuff that goes into cigarettes). Hence, Nicotiana's more common name, flowering tobacco.

While you can't smoke this stuff, you can grow it. A native of Brazil, Nicotiana was apparently introduced to gardeners in England in the 1820s. Today, it has become a popular annual all over the world and comes in a variety of colors. Nicotiana are shade tolerant, which makes them a great filler to any shade loving container, though part sun seems to be their preference. Sticking to the Independence Day theme, Nicotiana is a presidential favorite, spreading the grounds of Monticello and other Virginian estates. The perfect patriot -- my varietal is red hybrid, which is less fragrant than the white variety, but vivid in color.

White and Blue - Scaevola. A double dipper, this proud American shines in white with royal blue trimmed edges. The fan-shaped flowers appear to have been folded or cut in half, explaining their generic Latin name, which translates to "left-handed."

According to Wikipedia, several legends have sprung up around the reason for this unique shape. One legend claims the flowers were torn in half by a woman after a fight with her lover. In their anger, the Gods turned all of the flowers into half flowers, separating the two lovers who were forced to live out their days searching for another whole flower.

 

Scaevola actually have tropical origins, coming from Australia and Hawai'i. So, they are drought and heat tolerant. My patriotic hybrid is called the Scaevola Diamond. It is playing a filler role in one of my combo pots, growing downward.

  

I've also planted a "blue" variety that has deep purple (blue) flowers with yellow centers in a window box.  This version grows vertically and is often called an Australian Fan-Flower.

 

Week 13 - Year 1: Emergency Succession Planning

My garden is under siege, and we are not winning. Unfortunately, it looks like the trip inside may have invited a few nasty pests to wreak havoc on our plants. Early this week, I noticed small white dots on the bidens and calibrachoa in the middle container, and on the champanula. Plus, there were green dots on the nicotiana. I did some internet research and did not come up with much on the white dots, but figured the green dots were the most dreaded of all garden pests - aphids.

I'm still not sure what the white dots were, but various home remedies all failed, and I had to say good bye to the victims. I tried two solutions. The first was a combination of water, liquid dish soap and baking soda in a spray bottle. The second substituted vegetable oil for baking soda. The idea is to spray the leaves to get the buggers to slide off and not come back. It was definitely too late to get rid of the white guys. The aphids seemed to respond to the vegetable oil, but I'm still not sure if the battle has been won and it looks like they may be attacking the browallia.

Unfortunately, I had to trash the bidens, coral calibrachoa and champanula. I tossed the dirt in all of their containers too and scrubbed the containers down to try to get rid of the bugs. I also bought some organic insecticide to try to wage my own war on the invaders to prevent further contamination. We will see how that works out. So far, it's bugs 3, Me .5 (nicotiana are still hanging in there).

So, we had some openings in our garden and it was time for some succession planning. It is a bit early to be thinking fall, but I figure there is not enough summer left to plant any thing but hardy fall winners. So, here are the successors:

Replacing the bidens & calibrochoa in window box #2: Hardy mums & lemonade lantana.

Replacing the champanula - Sunflower hybrid.

New addition - Z_____ (I know it starts with a z, but I can't remember anything else!).

These guys have the funniest new buds. They hold everything in until they are ready to open, so they look like little pouches.