Attempting to grow flowers (again)

Attempting to grow flowers (again)

• 4.22.2017

It's gardening season again.

After the near epic failure of my cutting garden last year, it seems silly that I even thought it would be advisable to try again. Maybe next year I'll learn my lesson and just let it be a dirt pit for Ruby May to roll around in.

But alas, no lesson learned. So I opened up my Excel planning doc from last year and began to make some adjustments.  There were a few things that were certain: sunflowers, dusty miller, and white dahlias. I had fallen in love with the combo of white dahlias and dusty miller and could never go back. The rest was up in the air.

Dusty Miller // I'll recommend Dusty Miller to anyone who will listen. Not only is it beautiful but it's also versatile and drought resistant - at least in my experience. We had water restrictions last year and yet these babes did so well. How well? They are growing back again this year. I wasn't sure if they would so I did plant some contingency seedlings but doesn't seem like I'm going to need them. [Floret link]

Dahlias // Even though I would plant just a field of white dahlias, I've actually planned for three varieties. I wasn't on my game enough to get bulbs from Floret so I've picked my varieties from Swan Island Dahlias. I'll be doing: Snowbound, Bridezilla, and Arabian Night.

Sunflowers // I have a bunch of seeds leftover from last year - and my brother gave me some for Christmas this year. A real big variety so it'll be fun to see how they all grow in together.

Cosmos // I've planted two varieties of cosmos of which one was also a gift from a friend. The real variety is called Rose Bon Bon Cosmos but she crossed Rose because her sassy dog is called "Dixie Bon Bon". The other variety I picked up, Double Click Cosmos, from Kennedy's Country Gardens in Scituate.

Love-in-A-Mist // The only reason I'm planting these is because I had a bit of a blank space and figured it was worth a shot. Given how small these seeds are - and how windy the yard can be - I have nearly zero confidence in these but the name was super cute and whatever [Floret link]

Ranunculus // Of several failures from last year, ranunculus were definitely up there. I planted these babes and then NOTHING. So, just like the Love-in-a-mist I have really low expectations. But I just love ranunculus so much that the love won out and I Amazon Prime'd some bulbs. It did seem like I was potentially pretty late in planting these so I did try to jump start them via this method for a few weeks. Also, I bought two yellow ranunculus from Lowe's because I couldn't handle all the bare dirt.

Tuberose the Pearl // I ordered these bulbs from Burpee like two months ago - and they still haven't arrived yet. Bulbs are super confusing and far more intimidating to me than tomatoes. Like why am I behind on my ranunculus, but potential on time for dahlias, but too early for these ones? They are supposed to be a great cut flower and smell amazing.

So we'll see how this all goes. The good news is that in the last day the ranunculus have begun to peek out of the ground. When I was prepping the beds a bit and setting up the lobster bricks, I could see some rogue plants were starting to grow. I have a sneaking suspicion that they might be sunflowers but we'll see. I'm going to let them grow a bit and then replant them in the correct section because I'm the boss, not them.