This Week
This week has been a blast of heat. Several days over a hundred. I just
don't know why, but little old Ooltewah runs from 4 to 6 degrees above the
surrounding areas. I have thought it could be because we are located just at
the foot of a small mountain but really have no scientific clue. At nine this
morning it is already too hot for comfort or welfare.
I have planted my first two containers of hosta seeds. Opened three pods
that had already sprouted. This makes for a very long growing season since it
will be next April before they can go outside. Having read all of the post
about collecting seed for storage, I found no help on what to do with seed
that have roots when taken from the pod. Feel it would be crazy to freeze
these. I have two interesting looking sets of pods this year. One scape is
from a dark seedling that is streaked with white. Its pods are black with
bright red streaks. The other is from a yellow streaked seedling that has a
red flower scape. Its pods are bright green with red streaks. This is a
third generation or F 3 of the original. I remember that the pods on the F 2
were red with dark brown almost black streaks. The pods on the original were
mostly red. The original had the most beautiful scape but that is about all
I can brag on. Hope to someday get back to that with a really nice leaf.
Does anyone know if the pollen parents influences the color of the pods. I
just realized that I had always assumed that they didn't.
The more that I work with reds in hostas the more I am convinced that heat is
a great factor. The hotter our weather the more the reds fade. This spring
I had a great plant with red from the base of the petiole to the tip of the
leaf. As the heat increased the red receded. This seems to be normal at
least around here. At this time I am more sold on colored scapes than on
colored petioles. As the plant grows it covers he petioles anyway. Orchid
scapes with orchid flowers on a blue plant is fantastic. Red scapes against
white foliage looks tropical. Black scapes against yellow is definitely
interesting as are many other combinations.
As I looked my plants over this morning I have been pleased to discover some
that look as good as they did in early June. Lakeside Roy El is especially
great at this time. Considering our heat and drought and since it was up
early enough to pollinate in May I feel that is rather good. Just from
observation it seems that the yellow plants in general are beginning to loose
some of the brightness. I do have two though that seem to improve in color
each day. The blues have not been blue in so long that if I did not know
better I would say the garden had none.
Last summer was so dry that we lost our grass. This spring it was a relief
to have weeds in the yard so there would be something to mow and a little
green would show. From the way things look now the weeds also may be missing
next spring. We have not mowed in weeks. Most of the weeds are gone and a
brown looking moss is beginning to show under trees. Just hope the moss will
turn green when the rain finally comes.
Enough for now,
Mary
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