the pool

Posted on June 22, 2012 by paridevita

The garden is going to be open for a tour tomorrow. I made a list of things to do and promptly lost it. Whatever I do will be the wrong thing, anyway.

There are some obvious things like “leave shed door open so no one will notice you never finished painting”, and less obvious things that I only notice when people are standing right next to it.

I have a pool, or, rather, a “water feature”. It’s a hole in the ground with water in it. I did this all by myself, so you can see the rubber lining, and even the huge wrinkles in the lining where my genius for design failed me. The water level keeps dropping, too.

It used to have a dwarf water lily in it, but the dog, when he was much younger, spent so much time in the pool the water lily lay on it side in two feet of water. The dog lost interest in the pool about the same time I lost interest in water lilies; now I have a corkscrew rush and a variegated iris growing it in. The plants stay in their pots over the winter.

Every so often I put some fish in the pool; they’re happy for a couple of weeks and then they mysteriously disappear.

I have to empty the pool, which has no pump or filter, every few months, when a thick film of scum lies on the surface and evil-looking bubbles rise to the top, but other than that, it’s pretty much maintenance-free, and a real joy to behold.

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four o’clocks at eight o’clock

Posted on June 21, 2012 by paridevita

The Colorado four o’clock, Mirabilis multiflora, blooming in the yard next door, at eight o’clock. This could have been a better picture but the photographer is a notoriously lazy person.

I planted three of these in 2010 and they have been very happy there. By horrible contrast, only one has done as well in my garden, and it’s a much older plant. Why, oh why? Is there no justice in the world?

It can’t be the quality of the help, because both gardens are managed by me, and all I do to the plants is look at them. Maybe I look longer at the ones next door. That must be it. I’ll start standing on the sidewalk in front of my house, looking at my plant, and see what happens.

I’ve tried growing this from seed, with no results, yet shaking the dried stems here and there has resulted in numerous seedlings. Next door, of course; not in my yard.

In Colorado Flora: Western Slope, Weber distinguishes between this species and Mirabilis glandulosa, saying of the latter, “the heavily rose-scented flowers open in early morning”. Why on earth don’t I grow this? Though most taxonomists consider glandulosa to be a subspecies of multiflora, the fact that the flowers open in the morning make this decision slightly suspect. A four o’clock that opens in the morning? Not a species in its own right? That’s just plain weird, if you ask me.

I am trying (that is, hoping it doesn’t die) Mirabilis alipes, which has somewhat larger flowers, white to pink. I have high hopes. At least my neighbor can’t have better plants of this one.

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