I wasn't the only living thing that got fried the weekend of the Garden Bloggers Fling. Although I watered the bed just before I went away to San Francisco, we had some very hot and dry weather here in the Seattle-Tacoma area while I was gone, and one of my shrubs is, I think, toast -- a Hypericum 'Albury Purple.' It's in the bed in front that got emptied of shrubs, perennials and trees last fall, and then got put back in a different spot. It leafed out this spring but the foliage was not very purple, and it seems to me it never really recovered from being moved. Either that, or it's actually diseased.
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| There it is behind the blue oat grass. |
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| These leaves should not look like this. |
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| Crunch! |
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| It's next to a Callistemon. |
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| Also close by is the wonderfully healthy foliage of a dark-leaved ninebark. |
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| Here it is in all its ugly glory from the other side of the bed. |
It might live. It might survive by the skin of its teeth. Who knows, it might even thrive again (but don't say that too loudly.) It strikes me that this is an opportunity. I'm going to replace it. I'll probably pull it out soon cause I can't stand looking at it, but I won't plant anything in its place till closer to fall, when the rains return. Preferably I'll be able to find something interesting and drought-tolerant. Might this be the point where I finally buy a Phormium?
What do you think? Got any suggestions?
