This year I added a few new flowers to my garden. Truthfully, maybe I added more than I can tackle in one post. We’ll take a look at three of them now. Thankfully, these three have all been happy successes: each one a little drama before my eyes.
Anenomes
Every fall I browse catalogs for fall-planted bulbs. I’ve had a middling success with these characters thus far. For instance, my tulips have steadily declined since their first year (they need more chill hours than Zone 8a provides) and my grape muscari never showed face. On the other hand, the narcissus and ranaculus have done beautifully.
Two Falls ago, I noticed the glowing descriptions of anenomes and noted that they reportedly thrive in my zone. This past fall, I decided to take the challenge and plant some. I ordered a pack of all white anenomes. I think the specific name was Mt Everest and planted them in my front garden.
Fairly early in the Spring, late February or early March, the corms began to send up beautiful fern-like fronds. They provided a lovely foliage to the landscape but nothing else for a few more weeks. And then I noticed a stem or two bent over with a ball-like bud on end. Soon those stems opened and bloomed.
My first discovery is that the flowers were Not all-white. There must have been a mailing mistake, but, happy fault it was. With joy I watched frilly white, blue/, purple and scarlet anenomes unfurl in my garden. They were so lovely! Individual blooms lasted several days in the garden or in a vase. The plants bloomed from the first of April through mid-May. Truthfully, I have a few stragglers even now.
The foliage has begun to yellow and die back as other spring bulbs do. My biggest question is whether the plants will come back next year. We’ll see!
False Snapdragon
I actually don’t have much to say about this flower. It’s small and sweet. I began them from seed scattered on the ground in mid-February. Frost took out some of my seedlings so I couldn’t tell whether any false snapdragons had survived or if those were only weeds huddled together in the garden.
For a while, I had only a forest of weed-like stems, but as soon as the first blooms opened, I knew we had success. Yes, Georgia has a simpler, light purple flower similar to these but without so many flowers per stalk or in such brilliant and various colors.
I’ve read that these plants will continue to flower through the summer if I deadhead them. We’ll see if that’s Georgia-true or somewhere-more-mild-true.
The Long-Awaited Spring Star
I have wanted to grow larkspur since I was a child. Stores sell larkspur seed in Georgia, and I remember at least a couple springs when I began my childhood garden in great hope. Larkspur always had a place… But it never took it. My seeds never grew and I despaired of success.
It wasn’t until I read a book by Georgia gardener, Erica Glasener, that I again took hope. She said that growing larkspur was easy; and, not only that, but that the plants would readily reseed themselves for years!! So, following her instructions, I sowed larkspur seed in my garden in the late Fall. I think I only raked the soil a bit in preparation and then scattered the seed atop.
Since I had no idea what a larkspur seeding would look like, I was careful not to weed out any slightly unfamiliar plant. Soon enough I could discern several small seedlings which I decided were larkspur. They grew slowly throughout the winter, finally gaining a little more height in April.
Eagerly, I awaited the first blossoms. Finally, on May 3rd they began to open. I love them! I have several shades of purple and pink. They look like delphinium which does not do well in Georgia zone 8a. I’ve had a hard time getting a panoramic shot of the larkspur since they are relatively tall and don’t have a good solid backdrop. I’ve included one distant shot and several close-ups to give you a sense of what they look like.
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