THE day to visit the garden center

The day started wet again - it is raining or rather showering since 3 days. That is not enough for birds to keep clean :) some of them need extra shower - God knows where have they been and what were they doing.

This one at first was walking around the pond...

Then saw some possibilities to walk on the water. Look, we keep the water level lower than usual, because otherwise all freshly growing plants would be eaten by grass carp, that is living in our pond. They are monstrous eaters which is called in different sources as "they have the ability to control a wide variety of aquatic plant species". I didn't know that while buying it in the garden center 3 years ago - they are freely sold. Last year I learned that it is advised 1 fish for 1000m2 of water :)) that's amazing - isn't it?

Plants in my pond didn't grow properly last year - or rather they were eaten faster then were able to grow - which resulted in problems with pH balance. So I started to search for more information and I found out that majority of states in the US presently prohibit the fish. I dont know if mine is diploid or triploid (fertile), but I know they need much more food, than my pond can grow. Also they don't have proper conditions for development as well. So in coming days we will clean the pond, which is very dirty as there was no pH balance. While cleaning, we will remove the fishes. There is a lake close to us - it will be its future home.

Jay decided that conditions are comfortable enough to have shower...

Would you tell seeing this picture, that it is a jay having shower? The process took 2-3 minutes. It was such a joy to watch it - amount of feathers tripled, I guess - I never saw such fluffy jay before :)

While some of us are having pleasures, the others are having a hard time... look at this poor rhododendron. I planted most of them 3 years ago and most are not doing too well. I have neutral soil in my garden, so the place for acid lovers was prepared specially with acidic soil, acidic peat etc. Every year I added some MgSO4 to keep proper pH, which for them is between 5 to 6. Lower is also not good, cos they can not absorb the nutrients from the soil below 5 pH.

I even gave them emergency showers with fertiliser, but situation did not improve. My main mistake was - as I understand it now - to not check pH regularly and react in time.

Which I did today. Look what is the result. 6,5 pH is definately not proper. In some other cases it is just below 7 pH. No wonder they look half dead. Fighting soil pH is an endless process, but I will give one more try and one more chance my rhodos.

I made search in the net and there is an advice to use sulphur or FeSO4 (Canadian Rhododendrons and Azalea Society). This made me to remember that a friend of mine is using sulphur, so it should be available in the garden center. Let's go then! Maybe they will have also FeSO4?

This is the garden center that I visit most often - it used to be on the way. Now is more 'off' my ways, but for special needs I go there - cos usually they have what I want.

Of course I could not resist to walk around and have a look at everything they have... some plants are so sweet...

... and space in the garden is limited...

...some plants caught my special attention...

Like this Columbine grouped in large amount...

...or this "Blue-white" lavandula... although I prefer traditional the very basic type Lavandula angustifolia, this one was very tempting...

or this Pelargonium x domesticum called here English Pelargonium....

...or this lovely and absolutely adorable bog rosemary (Andromeda polifolia). Sigh. Another acid loving plant...

...such a beauty....

But looking at the pictures in the net, I have a question: does it look so nice only at the garden center - just freshly grown in super comfortable conditions? cos those on the other pictures in the net look kind of thin and poorely flowering...

On the way back, I decided to make a walk around. Visit in the garden center and close look at so many plants and so many new flowers made me feeling close to nature, so walking around and observing what is going on at this season felt very natural, even if it was very wet. Especially that I was little melancholic - gardener at garden center told me, that sulphur for my rhodos is too radical in his opinion, FeSO4 is not available and they never had it at sale. He adviced me ammonium sulfate as most efficient and mulching with sawdust (fine particles of wood).

This season is so reach in flowers - on the ground and on the trees...

My favourite tree lately Prunus cerasifera - here at least 12 years old. You can see the difference in look, when it is bare at the feets and when there is some planting on the bottom. In this case it looks very lovely with Berberis thunbergii Erecta - in the link there is Polish website, cos I couldn't find any English language website with nice picture. Maybe there is something wrong with name?

Here it is great example of usage of climbing Hydrangea petiolaris - its strong body looks fascinating. Interesting idea to prune it and keep it as shrub and the entrance door.

At the end of the walk I was rewarded and greeted by squirrel, that crossed my way :) for luck?

Right after coming home, I applied ammonum sulfate - will check the pH tomorrow.