Garden Notes

The bad news: our little Flowering Currant tree doing poorly. It started opening its pink blooms a few weeks ago and then stopped. The flowers have withered and some of its tiny green leaves are turning brown. I am so worried and get a sick feeling when I go to examine our little tree. We have been asking around to those who know what the problem could be and what to do. Advice is mixed but one consensus seems to be that the tree is extremely stressed from all our weather changes--when it was first planted we had a cold spell with lots of freezing temperatures. Then we had unseasonably hot weather, then lots of strong wind. One says we should put some liquid fertilizer on it, another says that will stress it more, wait till it leafs out. But what if it's too stressed to leaf out? I really want to help it along, coax it to believe that this really is a good place to grow. Come on, little tree, open up your leaves so you can make food for yourself. You can do it, we love you!

The good news is--is it true, can it be? The Day Breaker Rose has a green shoot! Hooray!! It's been sitting dormant for over a month and I was beginning to give up hope. The directions for planting it said to cover all the branches with dirt and dig down every day to look for new growth and cover it back up if there isn't any. Well, our dirt seems to compact and get really hard so I always felt bad about digging around--it always felt like I was weakening the stems. So I mostly left it and watered and watered. Finally, last night it seemed like it was time to investigate again so I dug down, the green of the baby weeds creating false hope. But then I discovered a different kind of green--bigger and firm. Yay! Now that area is uncovered so it can get some sun.

A note about these Katya pictures: when I'm working in the flower beds outside she always wants to help--dig if I'm digging, pull up plants if I'm pulling weeds. I've discovered the fool-proof,irresistible to all children distraction: water. She adores pouring water from one container to another and becomes utterly absorbed in it (literally). However, this too is a temporary distraction because eventually all the water gets poured away and she comes over to help Mama again.

Surprise! This morning as I was eating breakfast, I looked outside and (gasp!) my poppy was blooming! I planted this last year but it did not bloom at all. This year it had a huge bud that we were looking forward to seeing open. It had been growing steadily but slowly, so I thought it would be several more days if not weeks before it opened. Just yesterday it was still all green with no hint of the color of flower inside. Then this morning! I was so excited I had to run out and take some pictures.