To All The Plants I've Lost

I dedicate this post to all the plants I've loved and lost this year. 

Poncha Pass and Kannah Creek - you cute little buckwheats were so adorable with your yellow pom pom flowers and bright seedheads. You even had glossy foliage that was red in winter. But you both shriveled up and went away. Why did you leave me? We could have been friends for a long time, I thought.

Eriogonum umbellatum 'Kannah Creek'
in better days

Salmonberry - you were just not right for me. It was me, not you. I thought you'd be a bright foliage plant lighting up the dark corner under the aspens. But you started out small and tidy and then got browned out and leggy. You started to look like a raspberry, which you are actually. Sorry.

Rubus spectabilis before the arching canes got going

Cardinal Catchfly - where were you? I waited and waited. You never showed up. 

Silene lanciniata was supposed to look
like this but never appeared

Weihenstephaner Gold sedums - You completely disappeared. Was it something I said? Something I did? Or was it the rabbit that you gave yourself to so willingly? That glutton, I am sure it was him, but you encouraged him, you know.

Sedum kamschaticum could have looked
like this but got annihilated instead

Clematis violacae - I don't think all is lost. You might come back. Will you come back? I'll be good to you.

So this never happened with my Clematis venosa violacae
because it never bloomed. Or grew. I think the roots live.

Blackeyed Susans - pffft. Good riddance. I tried.

Blackeyed Susans were nothing but trouble

Crocosmia George Davidson - You grew so well for me in a pot, but when I planted you out in the garden in good compost in a sunny spot, you staged a walkout. None of you came up. What was that all about?

Crocosmia 'George Davidson' in a pot.
In the ground they were a big bunch of no-shows

Rock rose - I was not good to you, I know that. I moved you, and moved you again, and transplanted you a third time. Maybe a fourth time too, I can't remember. But you were so undecided about where you wanted to live, so appallingly indecisive, and I kept moving you and by the fifth time (was there a fifth time?) I lost you. I understand, but I miss you.

Helianthemum 'Ben Ledi'. So cute, so mistreated

Mojave sage - You got fussy, too fussy. It was too dry for you to set roots, it was too wet for you to grow, it was too sunny and then it was too shady in the afternoons. What exactly did you want from me?

Salvia pachyphylla  - started well, but
after five failed attempts I gave up

Heartbreakers, all of them. Gone mostly, and missed partly, but not forgotten.