Lunchbreak

I popped over to the garden at lunchtime today to eat my sandwich. Noticed a few new plants looking a bit wilty, so I watered them (mostly the Nicotiana and Scabiosas) and took a few photos.

We have an Arctotis "The Ravers: Unmellow Yellow" at the top. I planted three in the front border and they were a bit sprawly from the start, unlike the nice bushy one on the cactus wall. Still, you can't beat that color with a stick!

Next there is a very plush Verbascum (which one? I went on a Verbascum spree recently and now I don't remember who is who)  which looks like it's about to shoot up a massive flower spike. Hurrah! It means the end of this plant, but what a finale - well worth the loss. And perhaps we wil get some seedlings?

After that we have the orange-yellow rose, name unknown, but, for a rose, fairly well-behaved at Pennsylvania Garden.  In other words, it only requires water, deadheading, defoliation, spraying with chemicals, pruning and so on about once a month... It only gets infested with aphids and blackspot occasionally, and flowers almost all the time to make up for it.

Gah - now that I type all that out I realize what a pain in the butt roses are. And we have three! It's possible that one day I will take a mad fit and remove them... but when I think of that I remember their lovely scented flowers and I stop myself. *sigh*

I also noticed many large Yucca cuttings left in the garden. Channing donated them and John delivered them. Oh, thank you both! They are superb!