{"id":106117,"date":"2025-04-12T13:32:54","date_gmt":"2025-04-12T17:32:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/?p=106117"},"modified":"2025-04-12T13:32:54","modified_gmt":"2025-04-12T17:32:54","slug":"lunaria-annua-chedglow","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/?p=106117","title":{"rendered":"Lunaria annua ‘Chedglow’"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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In a very mossy, narrow bed against the Oregon house, north-facing, street-facing, this dark-leaved strain of honesty sown from seed was planted out last summer. Germination was quick and robust — I had dozens of seedlings. This spring these biennials in the back garden are spindly with a few leaves; the front garden honesty are tall and lush, an intensely purple sight so early in the season. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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incredibly, the snails and slugs leave honesty alone<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I can only surmise they prefer this sheltered, protected spot against the house. In between bouts of cutting back last season’s growth since we arrived April 5, cool and muddy work, I like to take frequent breaks to check on this little group of honesty that is having its best moment right now. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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August\/September 2024<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

When we left in October 2024, the front garden honesty was making gorgeous, big-leaved carpets, and I’m sure I was thinking “Good luck holding on to those leaves over winter — see you in spring!’ I had no idea what to expect. (I wrote in August 2024: “This display of characterful leaves that’s extended all summer may be a one-off, so I’m hesitant to talk about them because I don’t fully understand what’s going on. They are carpeting the narrow border on the north side of the house.\u00a0Lunaria\u00a0is a biennial, so when these plants bloom next spring this show of leaves will be over. Somehow the timing of when I sowed and planted them resulted in big lush leaves all summer. It’s probably just a fluke that will be impossible to replicate.”)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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April 2024 apparently had flowers too. I can’t remember if I made multiple sowings or the plants aged differently depending on when planted out. Seed was ordered from Jelitto June 2023. Honesty is famous for its translucent seedpods, aka the money plant, which I saved for vases indoors.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Not only did they hold on to those impeccable leaves, the plants grew richer and deeper in color as well as tall and strong over a winter that saw winds rampageous enough to knock down a section of fence. (It seems we are perpetually building and repairing fences.) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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aquilegias grown from seed also flourish here with the honesty. This might be A. oxysepala…or A. atrata. Clumps of chartreuse forest grass were dug from Manzanita’s Wonder Garden, where conditions were deemed too dry for them in summer.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

As far as the garden overall, arriving a week earlier might have been preferable, because the growth on the grasses and perennials is already tall and strong. The camassias are tall and in bud, as are tulips in pots. After much hemming and hawing, I’ve removed the tetrapanax\/rice paper plant. Stunning as those big leaves are, the roots are tunneling through the gravel and colonizing the stock tanks. The giant leaves provide shade where it’s not needed in a very small garden, and overall tetrapanax now scores more as nuisance than asset. (Your calculus may vary.) I’m sure that won’t be the end of this famously ineradicable plant, though, in either the north or south gardens. I’ve shuffled around a couple olearias and the sinopanax, and am happy to report that the Acacia pravissima sailed through winter — though not the Acacia cultriformis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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More fence work today, so Billie will be safe to wander the back garden. While her leg mends from surgery, there will be no romping with the very energetic labradors next-door who bark at Marty through the gap while he makes the repair. Fences make good dog neighbors too!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a very mossy, narrow bed against the Oregon house, north-facing, street-facing, this dark-leaved strain of honesty sown from seed was planted out last summer. Germination was quick and robust — I had dozens of seedlings. This spring these biennials … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[550,5119,36],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paNJ2E-rBz","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106117"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=106117"}],"version-history":[{"count":41,"href":"http:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106117\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":106160,"href":"http:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106117\/revisions\/106160"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=106117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=106117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=106117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}