So it begins

After the beautiful weather the last two days, it was a pretty morning, but, as the day wore on, it clouded over and cooled off. The weather site I looked at indicated it could actually reach freezing tonight although right now, at a little past 9:00 p.m., it's still nearly 60 degrees.

Today I prepared an application packet for a job and drove it to downtown Bellingham to drop it off. I predict, on the basis of past experience, it will bear no fruit whatsoever, but I have to try. Since it's dreary to work on and special-deliver an application for a job you probably will hear nothing further about, I promised myself the treat of stopping at Bakerview Nursery on my way home.

Over the years, I have developed traditions of where I buy which flowers. At Bakerview, I buy double impatiens -- primarily because that's the only place I find them. Flowers have fads; they seem to go in and out of fashion. Some years ago, I could find double impatiens starters anywhere. Now I can only find impatiens. Even at Bakerview, they don't have much selection of the double version, and no starters. I had to buy a big hanging pot with far-developed plants in it. I will split them up between the two 1/2-barrels by my pond, where I traditionally plant double impatiens in the center with creeping jenny growing over the edges.

I also occasionally buy lavender at Bakerview. A lot of local nurseries have only lavender varieties I don't like as well, like Spanish. I like to get English or French lavender. Today I found hidcote, which I hope will be pretty. I don't have to buy lavender every year; it often overwinters for a year or two. What I have in pots from last year was already not at its best last summer and looks pretty dead right now, so I am going to throw them away and plant new plants.

(Every year I look for the lavendula dentata, which has the most beautiful scent, at Hi Hoe Nursery. It never overwinters; I have to buy it every year.)

Most years I buy some zonal geraniums for my folks' deck at the Lynden Christian Schools plant sale after attending the fundraiser pancake breakfast, but this year I was out of town that weekend. Usually, I pick out some hot pink or salmon colors, but today I bought two traditional red (or at least it seems traditional around Lynden) geraniums and one white, which I will put in a window-box type of planter that will sit on the rail of the upstairs deck. I use bacopa to trail out of the pot, but did not find any at Bakerview so I stopped at Ace Hardware on the way home. They did not have any white bacopa, which I would have preferred, so I bought a light blue variety. Last year the LCS plant sale had no white bacopa either, so perhaps that too is going out of style.

I used to try to use lobelia as a trailing flower, but it always died on me. Bacopa seems to be hardier.

I decided to replace the rosemary in my herb basket, so bought a starter. The rosemary currently in the pot is living, but it is overgrown and has long leafless stems before getting to the leaves. Not attractive. Because I have a hard time just dumping a living plant, I will probably transplant the old one to the west side of the house, by my kitchen window. Maybe it will scent the evening zephyr. The last two years I planted lavendula dentata there, but I think I'll grow that on the deck this year.

Finally, I bought four strawberry starts (two varieties) and a hanging basket to put them in. I am going to make a hanging basket of strawberries for the upstairs deck and hope it produces fruit for my dad to enjoy. He loves berries. Last year, at the end of the season, I saw a hanging pot of strawberry at the Gardens at Padden Creek. I thought that was ingenious, as all summer I had been cutting off the runners they kept throwing out. In a hanging basket, the runners could just hang. I'm not sure if I'll put all four in the hanging pot or have more pots.

Oh, and I also bought a calla lily. I like to put a calla lily surrounded by begonias in one corner of my deck. Several years, the calla lily bloomed over and over, and the last two years it died. I am trying again. If it does thrive, it's so pretty.

Since it was late in the afternoon and getting cool (with a bit of wind) when I got home, and since there was a chance of frost, I left all the plants in my car in the garage. I cracked the car windows, so they would get cool air, but even if it manages to touch 32 degrees outside in the small hours, I don't think it will freeze inside the garage.

This Sunday is Mother's Day, the day after which frost danger is supposed to be over around here.