I have some nasal drainage with a teeny tiny cough yesterday and today. I’m slugging it some today, too.
I’ve been keeping an eye on my Monarch patch every day. Today there are at least 30 caterpillars munching. I decided to do some pruning in the meditation garden where we will be working for the next few weeks. I saw that I had never removed the old dead blossoms from the peony out there.
Well, what do you know? There on a dead maple leaf stem was a Monarch caterpillar hanging on for dear life. He wouldn’t last long with the work we will be doing soon. So I found our portable butterfly shelter and brought him over to it with a milkweed stem, in case he had gotten there by mistake. He is still running around inside all over eat. Not eating, so I think he will go into J formation sometime today.
Once I had it all zipped up, I found another teeny tiny caterpillar on the floor of it, so used a twig and moved him over to the leaves. He’s munching away. Hopefully, both of these will have successful pupation.
I am out of ‘slugville’.
Our hidcote lavender is not doing well. I don’t know if it’s too much water or too little. One of the two spots is not sunny enough. Our Little Missy boxwoods are doing great so I am digging up the lavenders & moving them to my new raised beds (better dirt, more sun). We are heading over the mountain to the nursery where we bought the lilac - they have Little Missys.
I am a glutton for punishment it seems. I have to plant the 5 RoS bushes, a rose bush, a 3 gallon lilac, 2 new Little Missys after we buy them & transplant the 2 Hidcotes. Whew!
PS - they have 1 gallon & 3 gallon sizes of the boxwoods. I am going for 1 gallon unless they look awful. The lavenders were 1 gallon so I shouldn’t have to dig much of a new hole.
Nursery trip report:
There were 6 1-gallon Little Missy boxwoods & all looked good. We picked the 2 best per our opinion.
In addition to the boxwoods, we looked at plants that will tolerate virtually total shade & are deer resistant so we also brought home four Lenten Roses. Mom had never heard of them & while I had, I’ve never grown them before. This is the one we got ... North Star Ruby Heart:
https://www.terranovanurseries.com/product/helleborus-north-star-ruby-heart/
Super showy winter time flowers. Semi-double flowers covered in ruby dots and freckles. Heavy flowering with minmal effort. Easy in containers or the garden. Rewarding and long lived. Bred for reliable tissue culture production planning. Plant in spring for flowering the following winter.
USDA Hardiness Zone(s): 4-9
Size (HT/W/FL HT): 13″ / 17″ / 17″
Exposure: Full Sun, Part Shade, Full Shade
Bloom Time(s): January, February, March
*****
I hope ours will Bloom this winter.
After all the holes I have to dig (12 1-gallon, 1 3-gallon), I may never walk upright again! I’ll space them out over the next week. I am VERY picky about how I dig holes/plant shrubs & flowers & so far, most everything has survived & thrived.