My Rhapsody Clematis didn't bloom much this spring; and what did bloom were really small flowers. But after babying it all summer with both soil liquid fertilizer and foliar feeding, this month it's making up for lost time! I've got four big blooms as of this morning and there are still half a dozen buds coming on! Couldn't resist taking pictures this morning.
I love this acapella song done by a brother and sister. The whole song is about gardening and awaiting our eternal home and 'Paradise Valley'. Their harmony is beautiful! Have a listen. It's on their YouTube channel. Here's the link to the song. https://www.youtube.com/watch?....
I went out to check on my babies this evening and lo and behold what to my two wandering eyes did appear? No, not eight tiny reindeer silly, it isn't Christmas! But I digress. I saw what looked like a stick sitting on the railing of my patio. Upon closer inspection, it wasn't a stick, but a praying mantis the same color as the wood upon which it was walking! Quickly I called my wife and showed her. She then went and fetched the camera for me. The results are shown below.
All I did was go out to check on my plants and water my Irises. When I came back in I was wringing wet with sweat! Supposed to be in the mid 90s today. Won't be doing any gardening today! Next week should be back down into the low 80s. The three days of rain we had last week looks like all we're going to get for at least the next 10 days! Out comes the hose again. So far it looks like everything is holding up pretty good from the water they did get last week.
Planted a Formosa Azalea this spring and it is growing great! Unfortunately, the branches nearest the bottom of the bush are growing almost horizontally. I thought they would eventually turn up, but they haven't. So today I went to Home Depot and bought three more wire plant stakes. Stuck them in the ground near each major horizontal branch and propped them up as vertically as possible. Plant looks much better now! Looks like an Azalea is supposed to look, and I got the leaves out of the dirt. Hopefully by next year I can remove the stakes and the branches will stand up on their own.
