The Blog Days of Summer

I went to the nursery on Saturday to replace some of the casualties that I sustained from the deck refinishing project. (Before and after pictures will be in a later post). Since it's the beginning of August and really hot, I expected there to be slim pickings but, boy, was I wrong. Sure, it wasn't like the first week in May but I was surprised at how easy it was to find some replacements for the plants that sacrificed themselves so that I could have a beautiful deck.

Here's a flower that I've not grown before. It's Cleome "Linde Armstrong". I'm dying to know who Linde Armstrong is but my Internet research yielded zip. What I do know is that this is a very interesting looking annual. The bronze colored stem is sort of on the woody side so it does lend some upright structure to a mixed planting. The bloom is teeny tiny though. According to the tag, it loves the sun, is rather compact (maximum height is 18" which is considerably shorter than the typical cleome), it blooms until Fall and pruning is not necessary. Well, I'll be reporting back to let readers know if this tag overpromised or if I will be adding it to my annual rotation.

Bookshelf: Container Gardening Books