Greetings and salutations, everyone; yes, once again it is I, your popular host, Mani the purebred border collie, here today for yet another post. You may remember me from such posts as “The Disappointments”, among so many, many others.
Here I am in a characteristically pathetic pose.
I suppose I could look more pathetic, but I’m not sure how that would be possible.
There are firecrackers. A lot of them.
I got some Rescue Remedy.
The guy I live with has explained to me just how inconsiderate people can be. I like most of my neighbors, but there are a few whom I don’t like at all. Not even slightly. I’d like to chomp them, but the guy I live with said we don’t do things like that.
He’s also explained to me that life can be full of disappointments. If you look at the post I mentioned above, you’ll see what I mean.
But in this case, it’s because the weather forecast called for a seventy percent chance of rain today, and we got none. A couple of sprinkles was all. Lots of heavy sighs around here.
Every time they’ve forecasted rain here, nothing has happened.
It hasn’t rained here since the first of June.
You can see from the picture below that it looked like it might rain, but it didn’t. (That’s a lonely Eremurus olgae in flower.)
The guy I live with said that very dry weather and firecrackers do not mix.
I’ll show some more garden pictures now. These are plants that have done well here without any irrigation and ten inches (twenty-five centimeters) of rain and snow a year, if even that.
This is Helianthus pumilus, which is native here.
And of course the sagebrush, Artemisia tridentata, which does well on even less precipitation.
Maybe more Melica ciliata than we really need in the garden, too.
Ratibida columnifera. And the “red” form in the picture after this one.
Sphaeralcea fendleri, just starting to flower.
Salvia greggii. Some of these are new plants which have been watered in. The salvia will flower in May and June, but won’t flower in autumn (its common name in “autumn sage”), unless it rains, like it does in its native habitat. Although it won’t die from drought.
A happy bee on Amorpha canescens. The guy I live with finally smelled these flowers after having them in the garden for over a quarter of a century, since it was covered with bees and bumblebees, and said they smelled “lemony”.
Cylindropuntia kleiniae × imbricata starting to flower.
And finally, the “gumbo lily” or evening primrose, though it’s not a primrose, Oenothera caespitosa. This also smells “lemony” at night.
Now back to the other stuff.
The guy I live with said it’s been a disappointing year for seed-sowing, too. In general, anyway. I know he doesn’t care hugely about this, but still, he paid for the seeds, and so when nothing happens, it’s a bit frustrating.
He got some vegetable seeds, and they did come up, but grew so slowly he said probably nothing would bear fruit. Tomatoes, some Thai eggplants, and chili peppers. Of course some of these can be grown indoors, watching for whitefly in the winter.
Then there were the amsonias. Native dryland species, not the ones from eastern North America. These are mostly really easy to germinate, but then most of the seedlings die for no apparent reason.
There are some amsonias in the seed frames out in back, too. Some amsonia species just come up and some need a cold treatment and so the latter spent the winter in this frame.
You can see that there are a lot of pots with no seedlings in them. The guy I live with said this was okay; maybe they’ll germinate next year. That happens a lot.
The pot at upper left with all the greenery trying to burst through the hardware cloth is filled with Oenothera caespitosa seedlings.
(The guy I live with went to one of the big box stores looking for hardware cloth, and the person there didn’t know what he was talking about. So the guy I live with took the person over to where the rabbit fencing was, and there was some hardware cloth, and he showed them what it was. It’s that screen-looking thing in the picture above.)
The buffalo gourds, Cucurbita foetidissima, were a bit tricky to germinate, but then there were a lot of seedlings, most of which died. A few lived, and were doing well, but all of a sudden they dried up.
This plant, which is native here and to a lot of the Great Plains to the east, makes a huge underground root. Claude Barr called it a “spectacular trailing vine”, and the guy I live with said that was true. A plant growing here died some years ago, for unknown reasons, so he tried to grow it from seed, and when the seedlings’ leaves dried, disappointment set in again.
But then look what happened. This is a pretty blurry picture but you can still see what’s going on.
You can also see the formation of the gigantic root.
Another thing that almost became a huge disappointment when the seedlings dried out and all the leaves withered, but then a lot of watering brought them back to life, were the acacias.
These are seedlings of Vachellia constricta, which used to be known as Acacia constricta. You can see that they’re forming thorns.
So not everything is totally terrible. I guess that’s our message for today.
But we really could use some rain.
Until next time, then.
the miserable gardener 
That is unfortunate about the seed sowing, but at least it is not as disappointing or distressing as the topics of the former article.
I think it’s the main reason why the guy I live with doesn’t get majorly upset when things don’t work out.
i have experienced much the same, not only have we been promised ‘heavy rain’ and ‘thunderstorms’ which in reality was a light scattering of rain that lasted all of 30 seconds but also over half of my seeds did not grow, seems a few people have had problems with seeds this year, i now look at the weather report with distrust we are promised rain all day today yet all i see is sunshine, and pray that next year i have better luck with seeds, thank you for sharing, wishing you a more successful future, with no firecrackers!
Thaks; it’s not likely I’ll be spared from firecrackers. The holiday is this coming weekend.
The guy I live with usually leaves pots in the seed frame for at least two years. There’s one flat that’s already been outside for two years and so I guess those will be tossed later on.
Deerest Mani mee iss with you inn spirit ’bout THE F….reekin Firewerkss!! Idiotss here are shootin them off aftur 11 Pee Em an innto wee hourss of mornin. Mee has been a basket case an so iss BellaSita Mum! Sum of these firewerkss sound like gun shotss!!!
Wee both need Rescue Remedy! Wee FURRY sorry you had to hang out inn yore Fort an heer such racket!
An mee wuud scratch those firewerkss idiotss uud fore all of us…..butt wee not alloud to!
As fore guy’ss seedss wee hope they due row at sum point.
An wee LOVE yore Sagebrush alot! An THE Colummifera flowerss are beeuteefull….
Wee been told fore 2 days BI rain stromss comin; not a DROP has fallen
Wee think wee mite bee inn Collyrado an just not know it, mew mew mew…
Pleese try an reelax….Tween Cantnada Day July 1st an Inndependance Day July 4th wee are all inn fore alot of NOISE!
~~~~head rubss~~~~BellaDharma~~~~ an {{huggiess}} BellaSita Mum
The fireworks are pretty bad here. And totally illegal.
I’m not as frightened by fireworks as some of the purebred border collies who lived here before me were, but except for Chess, they didn’t have forts to be safe in.
SAME HERE MANI an Guy!!! Iss so scarey an agravatin!!! Thanx Sky Cat/Dog fore yore fort! Mee Fort iss on THE bed inn mee cervical pillow mee getss inn it like a sleepin bag an mee feelss safe!
I too have experienced a lot of seeding disappointment this year. I ordered several packages of native seeds as well as seeds from a rock gardening group. Had them all planted and set out for the prescribed cold period, waited impatiently and so disappointed when only a very few germinated. Did get some Oxytropis, some grasses and some Castileja which is exciting. Always some successes and disappointments. All of my canine friends have been bothered by loud bangs too. I hope you aren’t too stressed.
The guy I live with says some people have success with castilleja by gently rubbing the seed in the palm of the hand. The seed has a coating which makes it difficult for water to enter. But he didn’t get any germination when he tried several species some years ago, and he’s now given up.
Same with things like oxytropis and astragalus, but he says the way to do that is to nick and soak the seed when it gets warmer outside. The seed will germinate in a couple of days, and when good roots have formed, within about a week, they can be planted directly into the garden.
I know, because I’ve watched all this.
And that’s how he got the acacias to grow.
Today is okay, but I think I’ll need Rescue Remedy this weekend.
Most of my seeds, which are just for common things, failed also. I also planted some in a pot so they’d be safe, and something came along and neatly ate the tops off of each one so I have nothing.
Rescue Remedy, huh? The girls don’t care about fireworks, but I have my daughter’s 15 1/2 year old dog who is very afraid. Last time she was here on the 4th she punched a hole in my kitchen floor trying to dig a safe hole. This time she is deaf, but I may get some of that stuff anyway. Hope they go easy on you, the idiots. I was hoping the gas prices would mean they couldn’t buy fireworks.
The guy I live with says he doesn’t know why some many seed-sowing were failures. Maybe it was the way the planets were aligned, or something.
Rescue Remedy is a homeopathic medice. The guy I live with says he doesn’t know if it really works, but at least he feels better giving me a couple of drops. Some of the purebred border collies who lived here before me would lick it out of his hand.
They make a special formula for pets, which I’m. I say that because they make a formula for people, too.
It’s at the local health food store along with the other Bach Flower Remedies.
Fireworks are legal here (bought at the legal fireworks places only of course), bought and used only between June 23 and July 6. I heard my first loud on last night.
I’m growing Little Douglas Sunflowers, which must be related to yours, but native to OR. A lot of things with “Douglas” in the name seem to be! Like “Lewis” and “Clark” too.
I must say, you seldom look comfortable having your picture taken! My late not-purebred Border collie, Boo, would pose whenever I pointed the camera or phone at him. Now Mickey, my not-purebred Border collie (see a pattern here?), just spoils the shots by moving around.
Here’s to the noises being less than expected, and of short duration when they come.