Hemerocallis x ‘Stella de Oro’
After a cold, wet Wednesday, yesterday there remained a chill in the morning air as I took an early saunter around the garden. Water drops clung to leaves and petals in places the sun had yet to reach. It was quiet except for calming notes of birdsong.
In front of the house (which faces east) a couple of plants rescued last year during a neighbor’s border renovation project were catching the early rays. (I think I have identified them correctly.)
Tulbaghia violacea (society garlic)
Hemerocallis x ‘Stella de Oro’
In a border along the south side of the drive ascelpias is making good progress. This area also has lots of echinacea popping through.
Asclepias tuberosa (Butterfly Plant) Readying to Bloom
Asclepias tuberosa (Butterfly Plant)
This spring the southern side path heading toward the back garden has been flourishing with daffodils, irises, baptisia, and clematis. Unfortunately this bed has a terrible infestation of bermuda grass that seems impossible to manage. I hired an organic company to help with it, to dig it up, but dosed with a great deal of mansplaining, their expensive efforts in March have proved to be merely cosmetic.
(I am focused on trying to keep it from getting further into the main garden and in two places have used layers of cardboard and piles of mulch to smother it. This can take two years from what I have read. I think this grass came in a few years ago in some bad mulch at a time I was not able to pay attention to the garden. I am trying to avoid spraying harmful products but frankly it is overwhelming to manage.)
So even as this ginger lily emerges with vigor, the grass continues its rampage on this border.
Hedychium coronarium (Ginger lily)
In the midst of my indecisiveness about this dilemma I came across a white form of rose campion having an identity crisis!
Lychnis coronaria (Rose Campion)
pbmGarden 
Weeds…yuck. I don’t know if you are like us down here on the Gulf, but I weed 365 days a year. Otherwise, your garden is really growing well with lots of blooms. I also plant dense, so I can’t see the weeds.
I wish I could say I were a dedicated gardener and weeded year-round but far from it. I mostly have the weeds under control for now this year, but the grass I’m told is a foot or more deep and impossible to eradicate without digging up the bed or using toxic chemicals.
We must make peace with the weeds…or at least try.
Sorry about your struggles with Bermuda grass. However, I am envious of all your A. tuberosa. I lost much of ours during our recent sewer/driveway work. I added a couple of plants in a new spot and but they didn’t make it through the winter. Now I am looking at a couple of new hardy Geranium and thinking they may just need replacing with butterflyweed. But then, where would I put the Geranium?
Bummer to lose the A. tuberosa. I’ve had a hard time keeping it happy and this is actually growing in a spot I wouldn’t think is ideal for it. Last couple years it started spreading some so I’m excited. I’ve liked seeing your geraniums so hope you can find a happy place for them if you decide to relocate them. I’ve been unsuccessful with them but this winter ordered 3 Geranium ‘Johnson’s Blue’. One seems to have died already but the other two look promising and one is budding.
Lovely rescues! And your other plants are beautiful, too. My Butterflyweed is up but not far along like yours. I hope we’ll both soon have many monarchs in our gardens. 🙂
Looking forward to seeing butterflies here too Beth. I spotted one Monarch at mid-April and a few others around the same time but none lately.
Sounds as if your bermuda grass is more of a nuisance than our couch grass. These days I would stand up to any mansplaining! There is a cultivated version of your pretty lychnis which I have grown from seed and hopefully will return this year – its pink and white cousins are highly valued in my garden. Do you have those too?
The bermuda grass is invasive, with deep roots( a foot or more) that make it difficult to eradicate. There have been a few years recently when I just had to let the garden go and take care of other things, so I didn’t catch it early enough. I think I know couch grass too. Hope it’s not too bad in your garden. I looked up the pink and white lychnis–it is lovely. The one I saw is Lychnis coronaria ‘Angel’s Blush’. Maybe I’ll try to catch seeds for the one I have and scatter them around. There’s a deeper burgundy I like a lot.
The ordinary pink and white versions are really easy to collect seed from and they grow well from seed. I forgot to collect seed from my pink-eyed ones, so I hope they return this year as they can be short-lived. A deeper burgundy one sounds lovely
Hope the pink and white rose campion shows up again for you.
I wish I had your Butterfly weed. The Monarchs are here. I had Torpedo Grass in my garden and pulled most of it out, Not sure how long it took – I will use the Ecomight on that and Bermudagrass.
I never received a free sample and didn’t follow up. Need to buy some.
I tried the new formula and nixed it I guess.. send another email it does work on Bermuda.
Invasive weeds are such a nuisance. I am vigilant about certain ones but they creep in when you aren’t looking! Still, your plants are coping so far and look lovely.
In the last couple years I’ve brought a few weeds under control, but this grass got away from me. I’m always surprised how some plants in the garden bloom right through. Resilience.