One Weird Petunia

I mentioned in my previous posting about the
weird things that the plants seem to be doing
this year. Some of you who read some of my postings
know about the beautiful 'Irish Gold' yellow roses

which have bloomed yellow for three years had suddenly
this year turned to the color of my Ebb Tide Roses which
is now in fact more red and not the deep pretty purple
that most of you have.
As pictured below everything is red including the|
once yellow roses on the trellis to the right.

I also showed in another posting the pretty 'Orchid Mist'
double blooming petunia's that I had grown from seed.
They are a fluffy light bloom with just a touch of lavender.

Well while taking a walk around the house checking
out the flowers and looking for some Japanese beetles
to squash I spied a bright pink bloom in one of my
window boxes.



I went to get a closer look because I had never planted
any bright pink petunias. When I got to checking it out
the bright pink petunia was on the same plant as my
Orchid Mist petunia plant.



Not only that but between the bright pink bloom and the
light lavender blooms on the bottom was a striped bloom
of light purple and lavender.It was on the same plant too.
So this weird little petunia plant has three different blooms
coming out on the same plant.
That has never happened to me before!
Of you that have been growing from seeds longer than I,
has this ever happened to your flowers?
I really like the idea of having all those colors on one plant
and it makes me wonder what the weird little plant will
do next. Curiosity got to me so then I had to naturally
go around and check to see what my other seeded petunias
were doing and if it was all of them. I checked them all but
none of the others were blooming three different colors of
blooms.
But one was slightly different. Keeping in mind now that
these are from the same seeds.....



It is the right color of the Orchid Mist but it has single
blooms on it and not the double that it was suppose to
have. This I could figure was a stray seed even if it is
the same color or that it was just not going to put on
double blooms.
The three different blooms on the one plant was an
oddity to me. It sure makes the petunia plant more
interesting to say the least.
If I save some seed from this plant what will
I get plant experts ? All Orchid Mist or three
possible colors of double tulips? ;-)




I also went to a local nursery that was having a 50% off
sale on their perennials. They did not have many left
and most were some that I already had but I did force
myself to bring home only three new ones.
Remembering the advise some of you had given me
on what I could add to the shady garden beds, I got
a Coral Bell heuchera micrantha 'Palace Purple'.
It has wonderful deep burgundy leaves. I also got
an Japanese Anemone ' Party Dress' that will have
pink blooms. The third plant I had to just bring home
was a Columbine 'Aquilegia Alpina' which will have
it looks to be blue blooms. I am hoping they are a
true blue and not purple.
I sometimes get aggravated at plants that are named
blue or red and turn out to be purple or rust.
Like the 'Little Business' daylily's I planted that were
to have red blooms and are rusty orange to my old eyes.




Happy Gardening !

Some Beauty and Ugly In The Garden

I hope everyone is enjoying their long weekend.
Although I know those who work in retail seldom
have holidays off.
It has been a cool and cloudy weekend for the most
part here. We were able to sneak in a cookout yesterday
before the sprinkles started again. We certainly need the
the rain though.



The Elderberry blooms are so pretty down by the
woods. The deer will no doubt have them before long.



The Clustered Purple Bellflowers are just about
through blooming now and will need cut back, but
the wild phlox is into their second bloom now since I
cut them back a few weeks back. The blooms are sparse
now and not as big.

The coneflower in the picture is missing some petals.
My conflowers are not doing so well this year for
some reason. In fact flowers are doing some mighty
strange things around here this year and it is not just
the yellow roses changing to red. I will share the newest
oddity this week in another posting.



Razzmatazz is doing better than the other varieties
of coneflowers that I have. The 'Double Delights'
do not even look like they are going to be double
blooming but look like the regular Magnus coneflowers.






The Astilbe's that I have are finishing up their
blooms now. They were so wonderful this year
and I had a few that had grown to four feet which
has never happened before.



This year my sweetpeas are not even blooming
as well as they generally do. The vines appear
deformed in the middle part, the picture below
does not show the problem very well, but you can
see that it is not blooming like it should.
I love taking pictures of the few blooms
that they do have. The are so fascinating to look at.



The Deer and the Japanese beetles have been into
the Hollyhocks and even the color of the blooms
on it are not as pink and vibrant.



In fact I think it
is down right ugly this year and that is not counting
the chewed holes in the leaves from the beetles.

The new 'Double Delight' rose makes up for
some of the ugly in the beds. I am trying to
keep the beetles away from it.



I am noticing now that as the blooms age they are
starting to change color and turning a rosy red all
over but it is beautiful when the blooms just open up.



There is just a few of the beauties and the ugliness
from this years garden.

Happy Gardening Everyone !