six on Saturday, 10 June 2023

1. One of the brightest plants blooming in the garden right now is the prickly pear cactus (Opuntia). This plant, or its ancestors, traveled according to family legend to Baltimore from Texas when my father was in mobilization training there during WWII. I don’t know how true that story is, but I do know that he served in campaigns in Normandy, Northern France, Ardennes, Rhineland, Central Europe. No international campaign for this cactus, although varieties are widely native around the globe. But the easily propagated predecessors of this particular plant did live in two houses in Baltimore, then eventually moved to Birmingham and on to Highland Lake, Blount County, Alabama. The point of all of this? I associate it with my family—and my June birthday—so, I like it and am pleased to see it survived this past year’s odd Alabama winter. I find that small insects like it as well.

2. A plant that I feared had not survived the December and March prolonged freezes here is the Gardenia Gold Doubloon pictured below. I pruned it back considerably to eliminate the dead wood, fed it with some Miracle-Gro, and left it alone to do what it could. Clearly, it could do quite a bit. Notice that the Oakleaf hydrangea growing next to it has invaded its space with three little runner plants.

3. A few cultivated Monarda or bee balm plants are beginning to flower. The wildflower variety bloomed a couple of weeks ago. These grow much taller, and show off much brighter. Right now, it is the only thing blooming in this boarder plot along the front fence.

4. The next two entries are related by armadillos—or armadillo damage. The oval garden in the center of the driveway in front of the house is the featured photo today, and it is the site of serious armadillo digging. Because some email followers do not go to the website and see that opening photo, I’m going to post it again here.

Much of that central area above is moss, and close-up it looks like the photo below with a few three-inch holes to punctuate the grub hunting. I’ve treated for grubs twice and applied an armadillo deterrent, hoping to stop additional digging. With the current dry weather, however, the moss is just drying up.

5. Next comes another digger-damaged garden. This one is at the top of the garden and planted with Stella D’Oro daylilies, irises, Carolina Lilies, crocosmia, echinacea, false Soloman’s seal, butterfly weed (Asclepias tuberosa), and a starter group of closed-bottle gentian.

Well, the gentian roots you can see unearthed by what I assume to be armadillo claws in the first photo below. I’ve re-planted the four tiny plants and will keep them watered and hope for the best. The second image shows some grub hunting holes among the Carolina Lilies and irises. Needless to say, I’ve treated this bed as well.

6. Changing the mood, for the last of my six, I offer a cheery photo of impatiens and petunias in a colorful pot in front of a small fountain.

A wealth of colorful plants, growing successes, and even a few disappointing garden outcomes and climate misfortunes can be found in the comment links at Garden Ruminations, the site of our host, Jim Stephens. You’ll also find a link there for guidelines for joining in our Six on Saturday sharing. Please visit Jim’s page.

*********

Update the next morning after writing the above: apparently the armadillo repellent did not repel. This is the same space pictured above with some fresh excavation. The closed-bottle gentian, however, remains rooted.