A PERFECT PLANT

Once in a while a plant grows in its most perfect form. This Skullcap, Scutellaria wrightii, seeded in between the paving in my sunken garden. It is now 3 years old and I know I will be heartbroken when it passes away. It isn't easy to find plants that behave so well and don't grow to enormous proportions. The pink, more common, skullcap is also a fairly orderly grower, although it has a tendency to lose its shape because of setting down roots along the stem and forming new plants. This is in itself an asset, but the purple skullcap forms a neat mound. I would say it is almost impossible to find in local garden centers and it is a mystery why because it self seeds freely in the poorest of conditions. My original plant came from the Wildflower Center's sale. 

This is going to be very interesting when I sow the seeds of this poppy next year. Will they breed true, I wonder? Clearly a mutation of the common pink poppy which I have growing in my garden. The larger poppy has no frills and no white marking. It was rather small, having grown under some rather testing conditions in a crowded pot. but I will be saving the seeds to see what happens next year.

This first ripe tomato is a first for this garden. April! It is a cherry and they do mature earlier but even so. It was hiding under an enormous parsley plant which I removed today. I staggered out of the garden under its enormous weight and dumped it on the septic field. Maybe the deer will enjoy it.

This early flowering is really worrying me. The Copper canyon daisy, Tagetes lemmoni, is a fall bloomer! Last year it didn't flower until November and this year April! I think these plants are worried they aren't going to get any rain at all this year so they had better get busy. Of course they were wrong. It is raining right this minute and a pretty good downpour. I love this plant. A native perennial, which is cut back down to the ground every year, it is deer proof with aromatic foliage and the most delightful flowers in the fall.