Ornamental onions and a soap box rant about puppy mills

Some onions are pretty enough to plant in the flower bed. Chives for example are very attractive when blooming. I like their tubular, bluish leaves even after bloom is finished. My onion chives have pale lavender blooms and garlic chives bloom in white.

Garlic looks a lot like chives. I planted one garlic bulb about 4 years ago and now have a nice little patch.

Most of my allium flower in mid spring.

Allium Purple Sensation is not edible but it certainly is attractive.

The unusual allium karataviense. The best thing about this allium is the foliage.

A. karataviense are very low to the ground. They aren't particular about soil except that it drain well. In my garden, allium has no pests or disease.

Another Purple Sensation beginning to bloom. PS seeds freely, the seedlings look like grass. It takes at least three years from seed to bloom.





Wednesday morning the Associated press broke a truly heartrending story about the death and suffering of puppies in puppy mills. This topic always disgusts me. Seems that the USDA inspectors who are charged with protecting the welfare of animals in puppy mills haven't been doing their jobs. They've been ignoring violations, waiving fines, allowing repeat offenses, and turning a blind eye to neglect and cruelty. The result has been the death of several hundred puppies in various kennels around the country. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack admits to these charges and promises to make some big changes. Right, isn't that what they always say? We can all be absolutely certain that nothing will change and that these helpless animals will continue to suffer and die.

If you have a little extra time, I would urge you to write to your congressman and demand the Dept. of Agriculture do a better job of protecting companion animals. If you are thinking of getting an animal, please adopt from a rescue organization. Don't buy from a pet shop, breeder or kennel. There are already far too many dogs in need of homes, none of us want to encourage breeding for profit.

I love spring anywhere, but if I could choose I would always greet it in a garden. ~ Ruth Stout

OH, give us pleasure in the flowers today;
And give us not to think so far away
As the uncertain harvest; keep us here
All simply in the springing of the year.
~ Robert Frost

When spring finally arrives in the north, plants explode with blooms. They know how short our season is and they have a lot to accomplish before another long winter sleep.

Allium karataviens is still blooming. It's a little charmer with leaves almost as wide as the plant is tall.

A few tall, gangly alliums Purple Sensation are still blooming but most have passed to the green seed head stage. The strappy allium leaves are already disappearing and will leave their airy skeleton orbs standing above the lower foliage and blooms.

This is garlic. A bulb from the local farmer's market was pushed into the soil at the feet of Rose de rescht and it thrives and increases every year. I've never dug the bulbs or eaten the garlic. It makes a nice ornamental. After it blooms the nepata will move into its space.




More iris in a rainbow of colors.

These yellow and blue blooms crowd each other like two children wanting attention.

Nepata (cat mint) is everywhere. It hides the bare ankles of taller plants and covers the gravel garden. Its blooms are tiny, not significan, but a three foot wide plant smothered in a million blooms is like a blue mist hovering above the ground. This plant definitely has a work ethic and never stops blooming.

The peonies are just opening so there will be peony photos in the next post.



Wildlife Rumors by Miss B



Let me tell you about the wild time we had last weekend. A starling somehow got into our house. I told my photographer, quick get the camera but she was absolutely frantic and wouldn't listen to me. The bird was flying through the house, crashing into windows and landing on picture frames. We cats (myself included) were racing right behind and leaping to grab it. My photographer fetched a big towel and threw it over the bird. Before we cats could pounce she had that bird scooped up and out of our reach. Very disappointing. If my photographer had only done her job and gotten some good action photos for my wildlife column. Not one photo do we have.

Now she keeps mumbling about bad luck and birds in the house. It was bad luck for cats that we didn't catch the bird. House cats don't get a lot of opportunities.

I need a photographer that stays cool under pressure and does her job. Her job isn't catching birds and setting them free outside.

Onions and grape-ade

The delicately beautiful blooms of the iris are deceptive. There are few plants in my garden as tough as the tall bearded iris. The white iris Immortality is the first to bloom. Last year the black iris Superstition bloomed at almost the same time for a wonderful color contrast.

I can count on iris to do their thing every year with no help or coddling from the gardener. In fact they are so self sufficient I force them to endure conditions they shouldn't have to put up with. In some areas of my garden they are rediculously overcrowded. They get no supplemental water even in times of drought nor are they fertilized or fed. They do well in a naturalized area and hold their own against the grasses and tree roots. They are never harmed by late spring freezes but severe rain storms occasionally make the bloom stalks tilt at crazy angles. The downside is a very short bloom time but the spiky foliage alone is not unattractive. Most of my iris have a delicious grape-ade fragrance.

This year allium (a member of the onion family) "Purple Sensation" is blooming at the same time as the Immortality iris. I find these tall purple orbs on the end of a slender stick a little difficult to incorporate with other plants. The color is nice on these alliums but they would look much better at half the height. "Purple Sensation" does reseed and many clumps of grass like young folliage are scattered through my garden. It will probably take these seedlings three or four years to reach maturity and bloom. Purple Sensation blooms for about two weeks but I allow the interesting seed headto remain for months.

(The sun just rising behind the a group of iris and allium.)

Another allium planted in my garden for the first time in the fall of 2008. This is Allium karataviense a very low growing plant for the front of the border. The leaves are interesting and attractive in the early spring. Later three inch oval blooms nestle down low in the leaf cup. I hadn't seen karataviense widely available and reasonably priced until last fall. There is also a wine and pale lavender colored variation that make an interesting addition to the garden. See Tina's "IN THE GARDEN" post for more info and photos on alliums.

Above white blooms and below pale lavender. My plants were purchased as "Ivory Queen" but obviously are not.

After doing some additional research I learned these allium do reseed freely. Since it takes several years for seed to produce a flowering bulb most people will probably want to just purchase mature bulbs and not expect much from seedlings.

Wildlife Rumors by Miss B



This breaking headline just in from our reporter Miss B.

Trouble in the local monarchy. Monday one of the young princess bees, tired of waiting for the Queen to die, gathered her loyal followers and left the hive. The old queen was sorry to see her subjects leave but made no attempt to stop them. This is not the first uprising in this hive. Over more than 20-years many such defections have occurred.



Hundreds of servants gathered round the new queen on a flimsy tree limb while scouts were sent outside the realm to seek a suitable location for a new hive.



Best of luck your majesty as you and your followers under take this perilous journey.
May you find your Camelot.

Long live the Queen.