When you decides it’s time to plant, and you’ve figured out exactly where you’re going to do this activity, of course you want to make the right choice! Stands to reason. Not being one with much spare time, and most of that still going into trying to make the stuff from a large roomy house with two attics fit into an LA condo, I’ve wanted to be careful about my new plant choices. Ahem… I should not admit this publicly, but I’ve already made a boo boo. That’s just part of gardening.
The front of our place faces east, and doesn’t get sun past noon. Given that this is southern CA, I still thought that provided enough sun to have some coreopsis — a cheerful yellow flower I’ve enjoyed even in my Washington garden under gloomy skies. Apparently not! Within a week it’s shriveled up. I’ve kept a close watch on this — my first purchase for the new place. Although overgrown flowerbeds have been thinned out and those plants moved around, or we bought the same plant to replace dead ones due to broken sprinkler heads, these were the first new choices. Brother, it’s sad to bomb so soon in the process! The coreopsis is planted with geraniums and delphiniums, which also love sun and seem to be doing fine. So, what’s the problem?
In troubleshooting this, I realize it could have been the plant (maybe not as healthy as I thought), it could be the watering (too much, too little?), soil (freshly purchased), or the amount of sunlight. That’s how it is in gardening… sometimes it’s just trial and error. Hopefully, not too much of this for one particular spot! Considering that I’ll be starting from scratch in the backyard, this is not so encouraging. Is it a case that I so wanted the coreopsis I put it in a place where it can’t do well? I admit that I wanted a burst of yellow blooms to greet visitors at the front door. But regardless of how healthy the plant was, it can’t survive where it doesn’t belong. That’s the number one rule of gardening, and the one that gets broken the most!
