No Pictures Today, Folks

Here I go with my Losers.  I have no pictures, because these plants are no longer in my garden.  I had a beautiful watercolor of one of them, but I cannot find it.

My first loser is Hollyhock.  A truly old-fashioned flower - tall spikes with flowers that resemble roses - these flowers made me think of drinking lemonaid  while sitting on a wicker settee on my porch back in 1890.  They were a wonderfully evocative flower for me until they were beset by the inevitable RUST.  Even my internist at the time said "Hollyhock - oh yes, RUST."  Once the rust set in, they were awful (if my memory serves me right).

My second loser is perennial salvia.  Again, a very pretty flower, not unlike my favorite veronica  (only salvia is purple).  Once the flowers are gone, the plant degenerates into a lot of dead-looking stuff.  I suppose if you had a huge border you could tuck it in somewhere and let other plants grow over it - although nobody seems happy when crowded out.  If you really want a purple flower, go for the annual heliotrope.

Coreopsis is a good looking plant, and there are several different varieties with very different foliage - some needle-like (they aren't sharp, just look like needles), such as "moonbeam".  Others look more like daisies.  The problem with these plants is that grasses grow up easily around and through them.  This problem leads to my worst sin in gardening (besides symmetrical balance, not watering hydrangeas when it is really hot out,  an indiscriminate use of herbicides and pesticides, and of course, a willful ignorance of what works and doesn't work in the garden) - where was I?  Oh yes, the specific problem of grasses growing up through plants and the general problem of "confusing the eye".  Coreopsis is a really lovely plant, and it even looks OK after flowering - it has a good shape, it is well behaved (doesn't spread).  But, I have spent hours trying to yank all the grasses out from around these plants - never to succeed - even with people helping me.  Thus, the tragic problem of having a wonderful plant rejected because of its unruly neighbors.  I just cannot tolerate those grasses ruining my pleasure.  I actually get anxious when I see a messy garden - my eye cannot enjoy the flowers because it gets stuck on that part of the garden that it cannot figure out - "what the heck is going on over there?"

Monarda has a very pretty red or pink flower that butterflies love; once the flowers are gone, so are the butterflies, and the plant starts to mildew and look awful.  Plus, it spreads.  Just what everybody wants, spreading mildew.  (This is the plant that I have a watercolor of.  If I ever find it (probably when we move), I will post it.)