It’s Summer perennial time!

...and our nursery has never had more perennials than we have now.

Last night we got some rain then the front escaped with a high following, showing off its characteristic awesome sunset that we get after each storm passes by. I just had to go out and take a picture. Too bad my phone can’t take a wide angle photo. Maybe it can, I just don’t know how to do it.

The rain we got last night came in two downpours with each one getting things wet but not penetrating the rock hard concrete-like soil.

Do not think for one nano-second that any of the rain we got makes one difference in the sad state of the hydrology in Connecticut now- it doesn’t.

​And... if you have planted anything this spring or last fall, you need to water by hand... with a hose.

One woman bought a butterfly bush that began to die within a day or so. When asked, “yes,” she is watering daily. When pressed on her watering technique, she said her irrigation was watering it.

“No, it’s probably not enough,” I told her. The pot the plant came in is 12” deep, and an irrigation system designed for lawns just gets things wet visually. I told her to water with a hose instead.

Another lady said her trees arrived just in time for the rain. She got her trees three days ago, and it rained last night. I informed her about proper watering (and how rain does not count), and I hope these examples serve as a gentle reminder to everyone to get that water down into that root system if you wish for plant success during this trying time.

More pictures of my 32 year old deer-proof amsonia hubrectii on my way in to work this morning. The flowers just dropped off revealing the softest foliage that exists anywhere in my world of plants. The gentlest breeze sways the plant like seaweed on the ocean floor. Watching a plant like this as the year toils forth is a therapeutic and reliable gauge of the season’s progress through the months, and it’s sad to see amsonia melt in November into dead stalks (don’t worry! They’ll be back in May!).