Aloe Seedlings, This Year's Plant, Rosa 'Young Lycidas'

The Aloe capitata seedlings are doing okay.  I take them and the Agave seedlings outside for the day and bring them inside at night.  If it's over 75F outside they stay inside so they don't bake.  
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They are sloooowww.  I'll likely put them outside for good once night time temperatures stay above 60F.  They'll be on their own, to live or die.  
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This is an Aloe seedling I found growing under a shrub where I had tossed several seed pods a few years ago.  It's grown faster than my cosseted seedlings.  I have no idea what it is--looks rather blah to me, arborescens or cameronii-ish.  Meh.  
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Here's another.  Being still disticious, this one is slightly more interesting.
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Random seedlings can be fun to find in the garden, but rarely are they anything special.  One random seedling that came up in someone's garden that is something very special is the Salvia 'Wendy's Wish'.  Mine blooms like mad, nonstop, since I planted it last spring.  I and the hummingbirds love it.  
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I don't know if 'Wendy's Wish' was a This Year's Plant a few years ago.  This Year's Plant--"new, must-have introductions!"--I remember one year it was 'Sweet Dreams' Coreopsis.  My 'Sweet Dreams' exceeded all expectations--for a few months.  It bloomed like crazy all spring, summer, and fall.  Then it died, just like that.  I think it happened to a lot of 'Sweet Dreams', and it's no longer a must-have.  It's an expensive annual.  

There are other This Year's Plants which have lived up to wild expectations--Geranium 'Rozanne', of course, comes to mind.  A classic example is 'Stella d'Oro' Hemerocallis, which met a different fate--everyone everywhere planted it, and eventually no one could bear the sight of it any more.

Geranium 'Rozanne' at the feet of a past This Year's Rose, 'William Shakespeare 2000':
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WS2K--the flowers impress, and there are plenty of them:
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This This Year's Plant might be Digiplexis 'Illumination Flame', to which I finally succumbed over the weekend.  My sense is that it will be an expensive annual in this climate, another 'Sweet Dreams', but you never know.  I tried a couple of supposedly perennial Digitalis for this area--neither bloomed, both died.   
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I planted the Digiplexis with 'Wendy's Wish' Salvia--the dullish Magentas seem to agree well enough.  Nearby is another song in the key of magenta, a previous This Year's Rose, 'Young Lycidas' which is--tolerable so far.  
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Nice flower, nice scent, regular repeat, odd growth habit--both mine look like they've been bent over by strong and constant winds, except they haven't.
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My other beef is that the canes are not interested in keeping themselves foliated.  The leaves do not fall from disease--they either just fall, or never appear.
C'mon, grow a pair!
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Can't have everything, can you?  I think that is why 'Rozanne' is such a miracle--once in a while, you can.  Just refrain from planting it everywhere, so it remains miraculous.
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Sweet dreams!
 

Comments

  1. Your Salvia 'Wendy's Wish' is beautiful, where did the seedling come from? Does any of your neighbours have the plant? I often find seedlings between the cracks of the paving stones on my patio area, and sometimes they are worth saving. I have got two large ferns that way – and I am currently nursing what I think is a Rowan sapling which eventually could be a tall tree :-)

    Loved the colour and shape of 'Illumination Flame', just like a rose should look like :-)

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    Replies
    1. Here is the story on 'Wendy's Wish'. It is from Australia. http://www.smgrowers.com/products/plants/plantdisplay.asp?plant_id=3434

      I found a Clematis seedling worth saving--but they are rare. Most of the ones I've gotten are not worth the water.

      Delete
  2. Every once in a while a turn of phrase jumps out at me. Such is your "song in the key of magenta".
    Crazy how plants turn up in spots that suit them and ignore our efforts to dictate terms.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Key of magenta: I don't know where that came from.

      Plants are somewhat cooperative here, if they know what's good for them.

      Delete

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