Our long national nightmare is over

I started the Monarda/Bergamot/Bee Balm seeds back in January. It has been quite a journey to get to this point, involving the justified deaths of several million aphids. For months I was soaping down the seedlings every day. But eventually two of the plants became vigorous enough to withstand the infestations and became viable plants more than a foot high, and today I planted them next to the house. The first one is the larger of the two, and its recent demands for water were a motivating factor in getting this done. It was wicking up several saucers of water every day and it became easier just to plant it.

The other one isn't quite as big or as thirsty. I put it next to some other plants that we have had since the beginning (2020) that the deer have been chewing on continuously. I finally caged them today.

I put cages around the two Monarda even though they are supposedly deer resistant. The one at the greenhouse has not been touched, but one at the northeast corner of the house was sampled and has not fully recovered. We also have three Monarda in a new landscaping project at the house, and they have not been touched yet and actually have flowers although they are not as tall as the two pictured here. The plan is to throw a fence around them just in case.

So that's right, we have seven Monarda at the two properties. What makes these two in the images special is I started them from seed. I also have two cuttings that aren't dead yet, and one seedling that appeared from somewhere, not sure where. I'm not 100% sure it is a Monarda, but that's my guess at this point based on the shape of the leaves.

Originally I wanted to plant the two hand-raised Monarda next to our shed. But apparently the Amish who packed down the gravel bed for the shed did an excellent job and it was impossible to plant anything in it. It was like digging into concrete.

I also gave the 2025 petunias and geraniums a trim and moved them out to a new expanse of rocks that were part of the landscaping project. If I could go back in time six years, I may have started that area with wood chips rather than rocks, but here we are. The barrel in the background has not been planted yet, but the current plan is to put a Shasta Daisy May in the center and perhaps some alyssum seeded around the edge. Once again, a Shasta Daisy should be deer resistant according to the interweb, but Red Lodge deer have proven that they do not read the interweb and there will be a precautionary two-foot cage around it at least for a while.

In the greenhouse, I have the big pot of seven Supertunia cuttings and three smaller pots with large, vigorous Bubblegum, Priscilla and Really Red cuttings. Maybe some of those will end up in a big pot in the rock garden but I have to figure out the cage situation. Tunias are what you call "deer candy" and protecting them is not optional like it might be with Monarda. This image of Bubblegum in a 10-inch plastic basket is from June 28 and it is bigger now. Unlike the 16-inch coir baskets, I didn't put water crystals or a plastic plate in the basket to retain water, and it is doing just fine. I may have been overthinking the baskets.