Annual sacrifice

This time of year, when the heat just plain gets to ya and you can't possibly stand to water any more, can be a time of gardening reflection. I tend to get burnt out on watering, struggling to keep things just alive... let alone springtime perfect. But yet I press on toward the goal because I can't stand to watch a plant suffer a slow painful death of summer heat.

I plant several containers in both the front and back with annuals every year. This year on the back patio I went with a "hot/warm" color palette with red wave petunias, copper diascia, & red/orange lotus vine. They have been going strong since April and are starting to get lanky and bloom less. But it is August so we should have many more months of summer-like weather before first or second frost. (Seems crazy to talk about frost in August!) So this weekend, I cut them back hard to get them to reflush; the equivalent of cutting off 12" of damaged hair. It is painful at first, but you know it has to be done to continue the color into the fall and maintain the investment of summer annuals. Now I will also need to pump them full of fertilizer to kick 'em into gear. I will play God and trick them into thinking they haven't procreated to their full potential yet.

I reflected sometimes we need to prune out the dead and crowded parts of ourselves to make way for fresh, new growth.... Sacrifice the scant bits of floral parts we have at the moment for the full promise of solid repeat masses of color later. It does hurt to remove the dead, non-productive parts of ourselves and for a while, during recovery & feeding, we don't look so hot. But it in the end, we are better off for doing it and can face a new and changing season with lush green leaves and upward facing blossoms.