The Last Hodge-podge Flower Row

Tonight after work I went down to the big garden and finished planting my last flower row. All of the other rows were planted the first week of July but this poor one kept getting bumped down in priority. The original plan called for this whole row to be planted with various marigold plants that I started from seed this year. Sadly, by the time I got around to planting this last row, many of my young plants had died. I lost quite a few due to damping off during our rainy week and others simply died of neglect I think. So the ones that are still around are made of tough stuff! I ended up with a really hodge-podge row and ended up buying some row "fillers" at Grey's Garden Center. But at least it's all done now.

One of my successes from seed this year are the "Queen Sophia" marigolds. I had never planted marigolds from seed and found them to be as easy as zinnias to grow. There seems to be a bit of a variance in color pattern. Some of them, like the bloom pictured above, have quite a bit of yellow along with the red.

Others, like this one, are predominantly red. This is how it looks in the catalog picture. Either way I think that they are quite pretty.

Another new-to-me marigold variety that I grew from seed this year is the Gem series. I planted "Red Gem", "Tangerine Gem" & "Lemon Gem". The plants are danity in size and have delicate, feathery foliage. The little guy pictured above is a "Red Gem". It is the first of all of the plants to bloom.

I ended my morning in the garden by planting some nasturtiums. I bought a six-pack of "Lady Bird Cream Purple Spot" as an emergency filler. I ended up not needed it in any of the flower rows so I picked a bare spot of ground and planted them there. They look a little puny right now but I hope that they will start to grow and fill-in quickly.