I'm Baaaack!

Greetings everyone:

After an absence of nearly five months, it's good to be back on this list.

For those who must know why I left: In late December my wife Pat, a
traveling nurse, and I bundled up and left cold, snowy Iowa for warm, sunny
Yuma, Arizona, where she was offered an assignment.

You may be interested to learn that I took more than 100 gesneriads, mostly
African violets, with us because I didn't want to trust them to the care of
a plantsitter. I thought correctly, for the sitter which I hired (she was
recommended by a garden center I no longer do business with) managed to kill
my other houseplants -- hibiscus, unusual geraniums, ficus, ivy, topiaries.
The only thing she didn't kill were the cacti and succulents, but most of
them were not happy.

Anyway, the gesneriads survived the round trip and the cactus are coming out
of their funk. This summer I will begin replacing some of the lost plants.

Meanwhile, all the rain we've been having along with mild temperatures have
made my shade gardens looking their best ever. The hosta are magnificent,
especially the large-leaved varieties, looking their best ever. Hanging
baskets of shade-loving plants, particularly streptocarpella (hummingbird
favorites), are lush, as are other shade lovers in-ground. I do wish the
rain would stop however; the back yard is beginning to look like Lake
Michigan. It's been raining for three days; the weather forecast is for two
more days of rain.

Some of you may remember me writing about a special garden for miniature
hosta which I created two seasons ago. Well, I started another last fall;
this one is closer to the deck so I can view it without getting my sometimes
lazy duff off the chair. This is a slightly raised bed around a maple tree;
it's about 8 feet long and 4 feet wide. In addition to hosta, it contains
mini astilbe, campanula, daylily and columbine. One dwarf columbine is only
three inches tall and four inches around with blue flowers quite large for a
mini. It's been in bloom two weeks and shows no sign of stopping.

A star in a partial shade garden is a variegated-leaf (green with splotches
of yellow) columbine with deep purple flowers that hang like the blooms of
the wild columbine. This was planted a year ago this spring and has really
taken off this year. I found this plant at a nursery in Lincoln, Nebraska
(the nursery carries quite a few plants that the usual nurseries and garden
centers don't. Wish I would have purchased more) I'll collect the seed.
It'll be interesting to see what develops because this plant is a hybrid.
Unfortunately, I don't recall the name because our local herd of rabbits
enjoys pulling out nametags and scattering them everywhere, some never to be
seen again.

I'm looking forward to renewing acquaintances and making new ones on this
list. Have a good week.

John G. Adney
Marion, Iowa (on the line of zones 4-5)
jgadney@msn.com
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