This glorious day just delivered a short series of rain squalls, just enough to water in the multitude of new plants and seeds just planted. Behind the rain came a clear and coolish day, enough to add an extra layer to be comfortable. Prior to the rain I spent some quality time with my salad greens, harvesting and experimenting with texture and taste. After many years of planting various blends of lettuce and small head types, it has come down to a few favorites that are relatively resistant to heat and turning bitter. Here is a rundown of varieties I've come to like for various reasons, especially how they look when combined into one big salad.
From left to right: Red Butter (also considered bibb lettuce), Alboreto baby leaf, Lollo (an heirloom loose leaf), and All Star Gourmet. The latter is truly outstanding as it produces various leaf types with an early harvest and great taste.
From left to right: Ruby Red Orach (a spinach substitute), Truchas Romaine (mini heads), and Salanova's Green Incised which is so frizzled, it's beautiful all by itself.
In our climate we have to look at varieties with an early harvest to beat the heat, and all of these do. The Romaine (Truchas) makes mini heads, so it's ready to harvest in as little as 45 days. Spinach that has overwintered is going to flower now, but still tastes good with a nutty flavor. It's feast time for these wonderful salad greens which can be combined with baby carrots, radishes, and nasturtium flowers.
In the flower gardens there have been many surprises, one of which is this orchid that traveled from my old garden in a clump of hakone grass, overwintered in a pot and then produced this wonderful flower.
I bought a handful of varieties from Carol Allen many years ago and lost them all, or so I thought. It would be nice if someone would give me a clue as to which variety it might be. I also bought some Clematis viorna at the Cullowhee Plant Conference and they are in flower. The scope of this species is gigantic with lots of variation. It's an adorable little vine that needs to be more popular.
My wet mini meadow is swelling everyday. My forecast for full bloom is early July. Some native perennials were not happy with the moisture and moved to higher ground, like Monarda bradburiana, which is beautiful right now.
A few others that are looking spectacular are Gillenia trifoliata or Bowman's Root (a native) and Epimedium x 'Pink Champagne', which is still going strong!
Finding time for art projects has been difficult, although I have 5 started and 2 recently delivered. I'll leave that for another day. A rainy day.
