New Additions from the Sale Table

It's a great time of the year for planting and for scoring some cheap plants from the sale table when garden centers around the country are trying to get rid of that mid-summer merch. Here are some of the newest additions to my garden courtesy of the bargain bins!

Heuchera 'Carnival Watermelon' - sale table for $5 was $13

Sedum 'Dazzleberry' - sale table for $1

Gaura lindheimeri BELLEZA™ Dark Pink - sale table for $1 (got 2 of them)

Heuchera 'Melting Fire' - sale table for $3

Heuchera 'Palace Purple' - sale table for $3

Salvia nemorosa 'Blue Marvel' - sale table for $1

This expands my Heuchera collection from 1 to 4, adds to my succulent rock garden, gives me a little Salvia variety, and is my first venture into Gaura- I know nothing about them!

I hope they have time to root in - we've had a very wet and humid August and now I hope we're turning the corner into a nice early Fall with cool breezes and early nights. I can't believe it's September already! The summer simply flew by, and as you can tell by my lack of posting I've been busy outside (and in the gym). Of course I've been taking photos nonetheless so I'll try to get caught up a little on my sick day today.

Those Effing Rabbits!! Decapitated Dusseldorf Pride

I'm seeing red, I'm steaming right now! I feel powerless against them, and yet I'm forced to slowly watch them devour my garden bit by bit. Every morning I wake up and enjoy a cup of coffee outside in the cool spring air and I inspect my garden, only to find teeth marks and decapitated flowers. I think it's all just the same rabbit. I've said it before and I'll say it again, I blame my neighbors for not planting anything. Nothing! My back yard is a beacon of deliciousness. Can you blame the rabbits? They would be happy to come from all corners of the neighborhood to feast on my tasty variety of offerings - when what is the alternative? Overgrown juniper bushes and crooked solar powered LED lights? I probably sound like a huge garden snob right now but I don't care, I'm a target.

Rabbits decapitated every last flower on my Armeria maritima 'Dusseldorf Pride'

My EverLast^™ Lavender Lace Dianthus 'KLEDG13146' wasn't safe, they systematically stripped every flower from 3 plants side by side, working their way down the row.

Now it's personal, you don't mess with the perfect radial symmetry of my 'Tiny Pearl' lily

Lots of New Additions! Lavender Lace, Frozen Margarita, Tiny Shadow, and Bloomerang

Here are some new additions! I got 4 of these EverLast^™ Lavender Lace Dianthus 'KLEDG13146' as a backup plan when Lowe's was out of Drummond's Pink phlox. I figured I could make a sort of back row to my tiny arborvitae bed, but it looked too crowded so I moved them to the larger back bed and now I'm in love.

Set of three Dianthus 'KLEDG13146' Lavender Lace

I ended up buying some Drummond's Pink phlox on Etsy trying to match the exact color and species. Okay, so Drummond's Pink should be the exact same DNA as the one on sale in Lowe's right? Ummm... someone's playing me because these do not look like the same color at all... so who was mistaken? Maybe it's because they were in a box for 4 days, maybe they will perk up and change color. I guess we'll see! I won't name nursery and bash them. Worst case scenario, they are slightly different and the story makes it onto my garden tour as a fun fact, lol.

Mail order Drummond's Pink phlox looks slightly off but I guess we'll see if it grows in correctly

Update 4/30/16: Sure enough, after being out of the box for several days, the colors actually changed! Hey what do you know, color changing phlox! I'm glad I didn't leave a nasty review on Etsy because these are indeed Drummond's Pink.

Let's see, next up is Hosta 'Frozen Margarita' (who comes up with these names?) It's got white margins similar to Patriot, but it's supposed to be a very shiny leaf. Whenever there is a hosta on the sale table I jump on it, because it turns into multiple divisions and you never have to buy that variety again. $3 for this one, down from $9.

Hosta 'Frozen Margarita' from the sale bin for $3

I also got another Japanese Andromeda 'Passion' from the sale table for $3 (what a deal!) and Chris picked out a lily for his growing lily collection (full price) this one is called Tiny Shadow and it's super interesting looking! Can't wait for it to bloom.

Started losing track of all all these 'tiny' lilies so this is my lily collection map

Ok and here is the grand finale, it's the plant we've all been waiting for, it's a Bloomerang reblooming purple lilac!

I had to be careful not to step on any of my other plants as I carved out a hole in the exact center of my special clearing. My 3 foot by 3 foot space has been waiting for this for over a year!

I dug down a little more than 2 feet and added some pea gravel to the bottom, then a half bag of top soil, then stuck the root ball on top and used an entire 2nd bag of top soil all around the root ball. It ended up a couple inches over the lip of the hole, which was perfect since lilac don't like wet feet. I think it's going to do really well here! I'm really happy with it!

Syringa x 'Penda' on a standard

I triple checked the trunk to make sure it was straight and how I liked it, I just hope it doesn't blow over because we are expecting 3 days of rain and thunderstorms.