FarWest Show - new plants

I went to the FarWest Show in Portland last week. I loved visiting the booths for the growers and especially liked seeing the new plant introductions. This link is to the  FarWest Show New Varieties Showcase. My favorites are the Amber Jubilee Ninebark, Black Pantha Agapanthus, Chocoholic Bugbane, Tuscan Flame Compact Heavenly Bamboo, Peach Sorbet Brazelberries Blueberry, and Handsome Devil Viburnum.

I remember that last year all the buzz was about the Pink Lemonade Blueberry. Unfortunately mine died from lack of water (my fault for planting where no irrigation). I also like all the new colors of coneflowers out now. I picked up several last year, but since I wasn't at the last day of the show I wasn't able to get any this year.

I planted the Tuscan Flame Compact Heavenly Bamboo in my garden last September, and it is looking great.

Scarlet Runner Beans, Alstroemeria, and Hummingbirds

The Scarlet Runner Beans are showy now and attracting hummingbirds. I picked the first beans yesterday, just enough for two servings.

The hummingbirds hardly know where to go, as they have so many choices right now! In addition to the scarlet runner bean flowers, they really like the agapanthus, hardy fuchsias, and alstroemeria.

Speaking of alstroemeria, you 'deadhead' them by taking hold of the stem low enough so that you can pull out the entire stem. This leaves room for new stems to come up, and it stimulates the plant to keep producing. Pull out the weak stems (usually pale color and thin) and those that are not going to produce flowers as well.

Grooming Daylilies

Last week I groomed my daylilies. Most daylily tidying can be done by just pulling out the dried leaves and the stems that have finished blooming. Occasionally I couldn't get all of a finished stem, so just left it for now. Easy - and the plants look much nicer. They continue to produce more blooms when  regularly dead-headed. This photo shows one of my Stella d'Oro daylilies and the area above where I dug out several siberian iris.

I dug out two daylily plants from my perennial bed that were too hard to get to for clean-up, and they were not producing many blooms. They had gotten big and needed dividing, but I decided they were not strong enough performers for my limited-space bed. Then I had room for new plants! I put in a dwarf white bellflower, two dwarf variegated agapanthus, and three small hardy fuchsias.