Lovely themes, Char!
I have often fantasized about the themed beds that I would have, if I ever had the right property to do such a thing. I would keep the doubles in one bed (at one time, I had a bed of mostly doubles here). "Double or Nothing" is a wonderful name for such a bed.
Interesting discussion about
zones. I recall, many years ago, having arguments with a certain mail-order nursery wrt certain plants that I wanted. They were convinced that I was doomed to fail with these plants, since I live in Zone 9, and the plants were only rated to Zone 8. (Apart from not wanting a disappointed customer, I suspect they may also not have wanted to have issues with refunds or replacing plants.) I had to argue them into sending me the plants I wanted (I forget what they were... they may have included some daffodils); I may have (I can't remember) had to agree not to blame them if the plants failed - which, of course, they didn't. (At that time, that (East Coast) nursery had not yet come to the realization that Zone 9 in the arid West is a different thing entirely from Zone 9 in the humid South.)
I'm afraid that the only offering I have for today is
zombie.
Let me explain.
Last year I had several spring volunteer seedlings, all or most (I can't remember which) of them in certain form factor 4-5" black pots (recycled from online nursery orders). From spring through fall I watched one or another of these seedlings die (drought, rot, what have you), and kept notes as to which ones were still alive.
The pots (both live and "dead") lay out on the ground in my side yard until January (other things to do, no place yet to put the live ones once potted up), when I was able to get around to them. I had all of the "live" ones in one place so I took care of those, then went back later (by then, in was mid-February) and started cleaning up several pots of "dead" things (not just those seedlings).
One of those special pots had been tipped on its side; there were two labels on the ground nearby. One label indicated one of the spring volunteers (which was on my "dead" list), the other indicated a cross between a dormant and a Sev-Dor seedling of mine.
When I picked up the pot to go empty out the dirt, there, in the bottom (half the dirt was missing) was an emerging green shoot - which was not a weed, but clearly a daylily!
Uhhmmmm....
Maybe this was something that went into dormancy REALLY early
, and stayed that way until mid-February, or it was a
zombie. *need fear icon here*
I put the seedling with the rest of the spring volunteers... you may be sure that I am keeping a close watch on it, though!
