Warm weather is bringing out the first zinnias and cosmos. Every one in the Society garden was raised from seed, and if they are seeded in in mid-June, they are ready to bring new color and bloom starting in August, when so many perennials are finished.
Here is Zinnia “Profusion Bi-color, which I saw for the first time last fall in The Heritage Gardens on Cape Cod. It is a small plant that makes a good edger. Unfortunately a metallic gray beetle that is not Japanese has been chewing on it. Of course pesticides are out of the question, and any beetle seen is picked off and stepped on.
I do not care for petunias , but I cannot resist new versions of the old time ruffled double ones. They are as elegant as a 1950s evening gown.
Scaevola has been around for years, but I never planted it till this year, and I am impressed. Handsome, tough, and a good bedding plant.
This April I planted the seeds of “Asian Garden” celosia under lights. I kept them warm , and when the weather was mild enough took them outside to the sun. For two months they sulked at two inches, and only in July when the right weather came, did they decide it was time to grow. I think most celosias are deformed and hideous, but in the south I grew Celosia “Pink Flamingo”, which grew as tall as I am. Here is a photo of it in a garden in Green Hills, a suburb of Nashville in October 2017.
And here is its smaller cousin, “Asian Garden”, which should grow to three feet.
In the South the spike celosias come back from seed. If they reseed here, with our cool Junes, I do not think they would germinate in time to bloom before frost.
In the next few days I expect that “Peach Butterflies”, a Karchesky canna hybridized in Pennsylvania , will be in bloom. I will post pictures immediately.
Gardening On Granite 