Four O'Clocks (Mirabilis jalapa) Mostly Seed Grown. 3 Aug 24.

 Here are the 4:00's in bloom at about 9am.  They don't follow the "bloom at four o'clock" rule.  

These are my reliable favorites.  The yellow ones and magenta ones were my own seed saving.   I bought the seeds for the variegated ones.  Two were overwintered tubers from container plants.  The rest were seed - grown this Spring.  They actually have some shade, overhead and on their west side.

Deer and rabbits don't touch them.  They do need slug bait during wet Spring.  Supposedly, Japanese beetles eat the leaves which have an insecticidal toxin, but I don't know about that.

I water them about every few days.  They have an arborist chip mulch.  

Four O'clock roots usually overwinter fine, in place, here with no special treatment,

Seed-Grown Dwarf Dahlias. 3 Aug 24.

 These dahlias came out very nice.

They handle the hot weather just fine.  Deer and rabbits don't touch them.  The flowers are lovely.

I think I'll dig a couple in the fall, to overwinter the tubers for containers.

The single flowered ones are also beginning to come into bloom.  Bees like them.  There are also white and yellow ones, from the same packet.

I do water them every few days, and they have a arborist chip mulch.

Mini-Rose Update. 3 Aug 24.

 This is the pink rose that I bought on sale at the grocery store.  I tentatively identified it as ¿Light Pink Felicitas Kordana?     I repotted it 13 June.  It's done fine.  It started blooming during the past couple of days.  

This rose hasn't had any problems with weather in the 90s.  I keep it on the East side of the house, close to the house.

Now I've acclimated and given TLC to four different grocery gift mini roses.  Each has done great, and each is very different from the others.   My conclusion is, it's doable and they make nice plants, and re bloom nicely.  I think the main strategy is to repot them as soon as possible, in new, good quality potting soil.  Then TLC and no extreme conditions while they recover.  I used a diluted, balanced, general purpose houseplant fertilizer.

Bearded Iris Bed / Recovery / Rescue. 28 Jul 24.

The first bearded iris rhizomes that I cleaned up and replanted in the new bed, have recovered and are growing nicely.  They look sturdy. The most recent ones are still in a recovery mode after digging them, cleaning and pruning rhizomes, and replanting.

I've had too many years when they started out good, only to have infestations of fungal spot and bacterial rot ruin them in the Spring.  All I can say is "Wait and See".  But I can't help but feel good about the growth on the first group, and that I am going by my own observations and experiences rather than web-lore.

I did give them 1/4 strength balanced fertilizer.  I have to restrain myself, I don't want them to grow too lush.  That will be the only dose.

The geraniums are just sitting at the edges.  Doing very well.  I think I like older types, not the interspecies hybrids (zonal x ivy geranium).  Some of the hybrids are nice, but the leaf growth is so compact they shed water out of the pot, and the flowers are so prolific they cover the entire plant and look almost fake.

In the center, the Eucalyptus are growing nice in containers, as is the lavender.

Garlic Harvest. 28 Jul 24.

 Nice garlic crop this year.  I could have harvested a week or two earlier.

Photo is Ning with Rufus.  Those are Music garlic.  Each year I set some aside to grow the next year.

The German garlic had too delicate wrappers, which came off.   Might be my fault, I had not turned off the irrigation.    Lorz was good but Music has bigger cloves and bulbs.  Lorz is top photo.