Other Years

2010
June 17: There is one plant, but it’s not doing especially well.
July 2: No sign of it now.
 
2009
July 4: Coming along, but one plant is yellow, and did not respond to some iron solution I gave them, along with a sprinkle of sulphur.
August 3: Doing poorly.
November 3: Covered with a thick layer of leaf mulch.
 
2008
May 18: Growing fine. Today I sprinkled sulphur in their bed.
August 13: They never looked like much. They really must be put in cages or staked.
 
2007
May 1: 3 plants of 5 are growing.
June 5: 2 of them show clear signs of iron chlorosis, from which they may be slowly recovering. I sprinkled sulphur around them a couple of weeks ago.
June 16: One is coming into flower. The other 2 are still pale and not so well developed.
24: The newest leaves are not pale. One plant has a tall flower spike.
 

Delphiniums as bought, 2006

2006
April 27:  I bought 3 plants at Ron Paul's, one blue, one pink, one darker.
May 11:  I set one out. Its tag reads Black Knight series, Delphinium x Elatum, Perennial, Deep midnight violet flowers. Blooms in June and possibly again in September. Use for borders, cutting. Stake is necessary. How To Grow: Plant in sun or partial shade 60 cm apart. Grows up to 1.8 m. The other two, I discovered, are of a dwarf variety. I think I will return them.
16:  I returned them and got 2 more Black Knights in exchange. At St. Mary's Garden Centre I also bought an Astolat Pacific Giant, which has has pink flowers with a white bee, and a Galahad Pacific Giant, which has pure white flowers. They grow up to 183 cm. I set them all out.
August 1: Some of the blue-flowered plants flowered. The flower stalks were generally not large and flopped over.
 
2004
February 28:  I ordered some seeds from Thompson and Morgan:  12 seeds of New zealand Hybrids Delphinium @ $4.99.
March 18:  They arrived.
21:  I put all 14 seeds in a little water and in the refrigerator.
22:  I removed them from the water and wrapped them in moist newspaper, and returned them to the fridge.
April 11:  I put them on sterilized starter mix under vermiculite and sand.
24:  2 sprouts!
26:  I moved the now 3 sprouts into soil mix in 9-pak cells.
May 27:  I set them out.   They were doing poorly in the basement, so I put them outside to see if they would do better in the cooler temperatures.   They were small and got battered by the rains so I set them out into stabler soil conditions.
June 23:  They disappeared some time ago.
 
2003
February 15:  I watered last years cells again.
March 10:  No sprouts so I discarded them.
 
2002
February 17: I opened the third package of seeds, and planted the 13 of them in 9 cells, and put them into the refrigerator.   I removed the tub from the fridge, and put it in the basement.
April 1: No sprouts from the tub. I moved the cells to the basement.
May 28: I discarded the cells.
 
2001
January 3: 3 packages of seeds of the New zealand variety, F1 hybrids, arrived today from Thompson and Morgan, US$4.99 each.
May 21: I started 21 seeds today in a plastic tub. They are in the fridge now, on the bottom shelf.
June 9: I moved them from the fridge to the basement.
August 28: The seeds are still in the basement. They never sprouted, so I will try them in the new year.
December 20: I returned the seeds to the refrigerator.
 
2000
Thompson and Morgan were sold out of the seeds I wanted.