Temporarily Overwhelmed

My first plant order arrived yesterday. I excitedly open the box and sifted through the treasures. Goodness gracious, did I really mean to buy TWELVE Siberian Iris? (The answer is “no,” I thought I was buying six.) Uh-oh, this bag of Alstroemeria has no roots in it, only peat moss. And how did they fit so many plants (roots) into such a little box! After the initial excitement wore off, I started to worry: Where am I going to plant it all? My goodness, I’m out of room. Too many plants! What about all the WS seedlings? Where will they all go? Overload! I expressed some of this to Mike, who simply replied “I told you so.”

To calm myself and inject some rationality into my hysteria, I went outside and measured the full sun bed that will take the bulk of the new plants (both purchased and sown). The Magnolia Bed (named after the sweet bay magnolia that started it all) is new. I smothered the grass with layers of newspaper, straw, and leaves only last fall. It holds a few shrubs and perennials, but is mostly bare. I carefully transferred the bed’s outlines, measurements, and current inhabitants to graph paper. Then, I drafted a list of possible tenants (with color and size noted) and began inserting them into the design. This is another hot colored bed (like the Sun Bed), so I want to juxtapose bright colors wherever possible, but temper with a little white. Wouldn’t you know it, I quickly exhausted my plant and seedling selection. I found that not only did I NOT have too many plants, I didn’t have enough! I finished the session by penning a short shopping list of common perennials I’d like to add for their height and color.

So, the evening started with me fretting about too many plants and too little space, and ended with a trip to Home Depot to pick up two Firewitch Dianthus. Isn't it ironic?