Birthday perennials

Mom came through again with the $1 per year survival award and once again I pedalled out to Greenhaven Garden Centre to make the most of it.  This year's picks are, clockwise from the left:

Carpet Bugle (Ajuga reptans 'Burgundy Glow') - forms a spreading carpet of leaves dappled in green, cream and smoky pink.  Taller spikes of blue flowers appear in spring.  ~jeeperscreepers.info

Peachleaf Bellflower (Campanula persicifolia blue form) - a low mound of leaves, bearing tall stems of large, bright-blue bells during summer.  ~perennials.com

Kinnikinnik (Arctostahpylos uva-ursi) - low growing, native, evergreen perennial with a spreading habit.  Glossy dark green foliage is highlighted by small pinkish flowers in late spring.  ~Northern Classics

Purple Labrador Violet (Viola labradorica) - a charming violet for shady places.  Forms a low tuft of purple-tinged leaves, with small mauve-purple violets in spring and fall.  ~jeeperscreepers.info

Evening Primrose (Oenothera missouriensis) - a profuse blooming plant.  The red-spotted flower buds open on summer afternoons to yellow cup-shaped flowers.  ~Northern Classics

Purple Rockcress (Aubrieta deltoidea 'Purple Gem') - a compact plant with grey-green spoon shaped leaves.  Deep purple blooms appear in spring and again in late summer.  ~Northern Classics

Red Wonder Pussy-Toes (Antennaria dioica 'Rotes Wunder') - forms a flat carpet of tiny silver-grey leaves, with taller stems of fuzzy cherry-red flowers in late spring,  ~rockstarplants.com

Alpine Wall Cress (Arabis ferdinandi-coburgi 'Old Gold') - forms a very low carpet of rounded waxy-looking green-and-gold streaked leaves.  Small white flowers in spring are a bonus.  ~rockstarplants.com

Left to right from Carpet Bugle:

Wineleaf Cinquefoil (Potentilla tridentata ' Nuuk') - Selected in Greenland, this is a tough little evergreen creeper.  Small white buttercup-shaped flowers appear in late spring and early summer.  Foliage turns wine-red in the colder months.  ~jeeperscreepers.com

Woolly Speedwell (Veronica pectinata) - a low dense carpet of grey-green foliage studded with deep blue, or occasionally lavendar, saucer shaped flowers.  ~jeeperscreepers.com

All ten have found new homes in the front yard.  The most notable development has been this stunning blossom on the evening primrose.



































Adding these new specimens to the garden, I could not deny that the colour tendency leans heavily toward the pink-purple-blue range.  This week I wandered the aisles of a garden centre, on the lookout for more yellow-orange hues and discovered they are in short supply for this climate zone.  Blanketflower, yellow coneflower, stonecrop, and now evening primrose (though that is the coldest yellow I have ever seen) make their contribution, but they are greatly outnumbered.  Warm colours should be the priority next time.

As for the 2012 group, results have varied.

creeping lamium, aka dead nettle, is spreading to fill its nook and generated a few pink blossoms in the spring

single painted daisy - the victim of a weeding accident (I thought the thing next to it was the single-painted daisy),
I have been coddling this one with daily watering.  It will be cool if it comes back bigger and better next year.

alpine strawberry - looks great; too bad about the berries (it's hard to tell when a white strawberry is ripe,
and I found too many that were inhabited by creatures)

rock soapwort - quite showy at its peak in spring; not so enthusiastic about summer

variegated periwinkle - had a rough summer 2012 and finally found a shady place around the cotoneaster hedge

fern-leaf bleedingheart - I'm sure this is where I left it last fall

creeping jenny - doing a great cover-up job around hops-on-a-bike;
 too bad it has to live with wilted daffodil leaves

stella d'oro daylily - two blooms so far this summer, but a little lost in its surroundings

moss phlox - holding its own in the rock garden, with pink blossoms this spring