Hortus Deliciarum

I don’t talk much about my garden, for this being a journal that looks like it should BE about gardening. It’s becoming appallingly clear, however, that I am a compulsive plant-buyer. I can resist clothes (it’s easy when you’re at the top range of even plus-size stores and 95% of other clothing stores don’t sell your size at all), shoes (wide feet, need I say more?), books (I’ve become extremely picky about my reading material and the library is free!), and even cross-stitch supplies. What I can’t resist are plants…

My sister and I went to one of my favorite local nurseries this weekend. She wanted to buy a plant for my mom. I’ve been looking at the same three plants in my office for a couple of months now and “needed” a trailing plant to set on top of my tallest filing cabinet. Of course, I had to have a look around the main greenhouse and was sorely tempted by any number of other plants. I suppose the nice thing about my gardening situation is that I’m stuck with a deck that gets some morning sunshine (one corner gets afternoon sunshine, but that’s it), so I can’t do plants that need full sun. A lot of flowers are therefore out (I pine for dahlias and roses).

I really miss my balcony garden in Manchester. It was south-facing and I could grow just about ANYTHING.

That’s the veggie end (see the lettuce?)

Flower end, in early spring before the real summer show.

So, for a partial-sun to shade garden, what can one do? Primroses, and Sky had a gorgeous selection that they were setting out. I crave plants like other people crave shoes, or clothes, or makeup. Digging in the dirt and seeing something grow may just be the most remarkable thing in the world. Last spring I intentionally bought quite a few insta-bulbs (bulbs started in plastic pots for replanting in larger containers or the ground) because I wanted my spring planters to come out in color again this year and look the way they did last year, when I first planted them, so:

This has succeeded pretty well, except that my primroses are only just starting to come out and the ones in the store are so PRETTY and BIG and COLORFUL whereas all that’s showing in my pots are little poky bulb shoots about half an inch high and some battered primrose foliage. Also, in one pot they died off completely, thanks to last summer’s heat, during which I was in Syracuse and couldn’t water them. As a result, I feel that I NEED to get more beautiful primroses to plant in those planters anyway. Oh, and let’s not forget the window boxes, which have other bulbs planted that won’t even flower until early summer. They look so bleak…MUST get violas and primroses to plant so that they look nice NOW!

Oh, and they had insta-bulbs on sale! TULIPS!!! Really, tulips like full sun, so they may fail miserably, but FLOWERS!! PLANTS!! NEED!! First-world problems, I have them. Still, plants (and planting) make me feel peaceful. If I only had a couple of really nice, bright windows I’d have orchids, and begonias, and and and…

It’s just as well I don’t have a huge, sunny yard or I’d never have any money ever again.