Similarities and Differences

Lamium

It's been fun to see the same flowers I had in Boulder blooming on this property: Lamium, Columbine, Lupine, Bleeding Heart, Vinca (with even more excessive abundance), Ajuga and Iris. The Peonies are about to burst while the Coral Bells and Hosta are still in leaf form.

Wild Onions

They all have the same quality that made me choose them in Colorado: Deer don't eat them. Of course, this property is much larger, so it needs a lot more flowers and shrubs for the deer to not eat. Linda, the previous owner, gave me a list of 214 plant species (including trees) that are growing here. So most of what I see is new and different. Although, the wild onion that grows everywhere reminds me of the garlic that grew wild in the open space behind several of our gardens on Snowberry Court.

I'd like to post a picture of the tiny blue Iris that has popped up outside my office window and compare it with a photo I have of the tiny blue Iris that bloomed in my Boulder garden. But it's been raining for several days and promises to rain through the week. I learned that New Jersey gets almost 42 inches of rain a year. Colorado gets 15.3 inches.

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It'll be fun to ditch my zeriscape gardening mentality and learn how to grow Rhododendrons. I once tried to grow an Azalea bush in a spot that got over watered by a neighbor's sprinklers. It didn't stand a chance in the alkaline soil. So that's another big difference: pH levels. Linda left behind a big bag of limestone they used to lower the acid levels. I guess I'll ditch the Miracid fertilizer along with the zeriscaping.