This morning was not a good morning in the garden. I worked hard at pulling out plants from two of the vegetable beds, followed by adding turkey compost and digging over the dry soil. Cutting flowers were growing in there but the stocks were finished and the larkspur were looking puny. Poor, infertile dry soil will do that. I'm trying to get cleaned up for an upcoming garden tour and nature is not helping me; spider mites, aphids and some nasty black shiny beetles leaving their mark on plant leaves. That on top of having taken another tumble at the weekend. I tripped and went headlong into one of the dry creeks landing once again on my right side. In frustration I came in the house and said I was giving up. At this point David made me promise never to have another garden tour and I agreed. Then I left for the day.
Of course I was back in the garden when I came home. I oiled the teak bench, stained the little table in the front courtyard and watered the foxgloves. Then I walked up to the top of the lot to see if the lace cactus were blooming. There on the flat meadow area I saw flowers I had never seen before. There must have been about 8, scattered across the area. It was very easy to identify the flowers as Celestials,
Nemastylis geminiflora. What a little beauty. A member of the iris family and growing along with blue-eyed grasses and blue bonnets the flowers are 2¼" across with thin grass-like leaves. I'm going to head up there tomorrow and mark their position. Then I will try to dig up a couple of the bulbs and plant them in the rock garden. I guess I'm not giving up gardening, this week, after all.
