Wide Shots - July 2025

This isn't my favorite time of the year to post the quarterly wide shots of my garden.  With no rain likely until October or November, it looks drier with every passing day and warmer temperatures put a strain on the plants even when I run the irrigation system twice a week.  This year, my summer garden is also full of holes.  Many of these are due to our removal of selected plants in the interest of improving the "defensible space" around our home in the event of wildfires.  I've introduced less flammable plants in some areas but not all, and then even the areas I've replanted will require time to fill in.  I've also begun removing plants that have overcrowded their neighbors and have cut back others that'd grown twiggy.  I'll probably add more groundcovers in September/October when temperatures cool and the chance of rain isn't as far off but, for now, some areas will remain empty.

I'll start with the back garden.

View from the back door, looking in the direction of the Port of Los Angeles.  If you peer closely at the the fountain, you'll note that there's a wire cloche sitting on its top tier.  The raccoons recently rediscovered the seashells there and "distributed" them in and around the fountain.  They could easily knock over the cloche but they haven't bothered to do that yet.

Looking north from the main patio.  I still miss the tree-sized Leucadendron 'Pisa' and the huge Acacia cognata 'Cousin Itt' that previously occupied the bed on the left but I've partially replanted it with small plants, including Abelia 'Kaleidoscope', Chrysocephalum 'Desert Flame', Petunia 'Bee's Knees', and various Hippeastrum bulbs.

View from the north end of the back garden looking south.  You can now see the back patio, formerly obscured by the Leucadendron and the Acacia.

View from the back patio looking south.  Lilium 'Friso' is blooming and there are buds on the remaining stalk of Lilium 'Pretty Woman'.  If you have eagle eyes, you might spot the yellow Lilium 'Conca d' Or' in the background in the bed on the right.

View from the south end of the back garden looking north.  The blue and white Agapanthus visible in the distance are already getting shaggy in the heat.

I pointed the camera in the same direction here but, trying to cut out my husband on the patio while taking it, I somehow ended up with a more detailed view of the foreground and a closer look at the canyon area in the distance well beyond our garden

Turning to face west brings us to my south-side garden.

I removed the Agave 'Blue Glow' bloom stalk pushing into the Metrosideros 'Springfire' on the left after I took this photo but the chore of removing the plant itself still remains.  It has pups popping out its sides and it'll be interesting if any of those can be saved in the process.  On the right, Leucospermum 'High Gold' still has flowers while most of the Leucospermums elsewhere in the garden are done for the year.

View looking south from the small patio.  We're in the process of addressing overcrowding among the agaves in the succulent bed on the left (as described in my last post).  Meanwhile, the smokebush (Cotinus coggygria 'Royal Purple') on the right is looking particularly exuberant this year.

South-side garden looking east in the direction of the harbor.  The peppermint willow (Agonis flexuosa) in the background is scheduled for pruning this fall but its shade is currently appreciated.

I usually dip down the dirt path leading to the lower level of the front garden from this point but my husband took over the area a few weeks ago when he embarked on renovating the lath (shade) house he built for me as a Christmas present in 2018.  I'd requested a few minor repairs but my husband isn't known for doing anything halfway.  He finished the job on Wednesday so I'm planning to clean up and move its potted plants back next week.

This photo, looking downward from the front garden's main level was taken earlier this week after my husband installed a new, sturdier roof but before he completed his final improvements

Moving on to the main level of the front garden, starting on the south end:

This is the view from the south end of the front garden looking north.  The area on the foreground on the right was replanted after I had an Acacia 'Cousin Itt' and a Salvia lanceolata removed for fire safety reasons.  Two other 'Cousin Itt' Acacias remain in place on the left side of the flagstone path.

View looking south from the midway of the flagstone path.  Leucadendron 'Wilson's Wonder' on the left is overwhelming the space (again).  I cut it back about 2 months ago.

Photo taken from the driveway looking east toward the front of the house.  The 2 tree-like 'Copper Glow' Leptospermums on either side of the path to the front door are just starting to flower.

View from the front door looking southwest.  The 3 Epiphyllums on the right side of the bench under the Magnolia tree are there temporarily awaiting their return to the lath house.

Main bed on the south side of the front garden

The narrow path leading from the driveway to the front garden's lower level (occupied by the lath house)

The bed on the north side of the path leading to the front door.  Yes, the rectangular 'Sunset Gold' Coleonema is still there.  Replacing it hasn't yet risen to the top of my to-do list.

View on the northwest side for the front garden, adjacent to the garage.  I haven't pulled any of the larger self-seeded sweet pea shrubs (Polygala myrtifolia) and probably won't until I find plants to replace some of them later this fall.

The succulent bed next to the garage is slowly filling out

This is a view of the same succulent bed from a different angle

And this photo points east looking back at the house from the path we use to tote out our garbage and recycle bins each week.  The Xylosma hedge on the right lines the street with breaks for the driveway and the garbage path.

My cutting garden sits on the other side of the garage.

Nineteen of the 20 dahlia tubers I sprouted for my personal use are planted in the cutting garden, along with zinnias grown from seed.  I've pinched back all but one of the dahlias and installed cages to support the taller plants.  I've yet to find a dahlia bud but I think the plants are getting closer.

My dry garden sits on the other (northeast) side of the wood fence.  It appears we're going to leave the fence in place for the time being as an opportunity to piggyback a replacement using a neighbor's contractor has been delayed.

I plan to move a Phormium 'Apricot Queen' buried behind other plants in the background (not visible in this shot) next to the fence in the foreground on the left.  I'll plant the Agave 'Mateo' currently in the pot in the rear, roughly where it currently sits.  I'm not sure what I'm going to do with the very prickly Agave geminiflora in the square pot yet.

A concrete block stairway lies at the end of the gravel path shown in the prior photo, leading down to the bottom of the slope.  The area isn't looking its best.  Time permitting, I hope to put in some work down there during what passes for winter here.

I've given the back slope minimal support this year and it deserves better.  However, summer isn't the time to make any major adjustments there.  Among other things, I need to have my dearly departed Ceaonthus arboreus removed this fall. 

I'll end this post with a shot of the the street-side succulent bed.

This photo offers another look at the renovated lath house behind the succulent bed, awaiting the return of its pots 

That's it for July's overview.  I'll be back with another in October, when I hope fall planting will be well underway.  Best wishes for a pleasant weekend.

All material © 2012-2025 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party

I've got a problem with overcrowding (and a gopher)

The large succulent bed on the south side of the house receives more compliments than any other part of my garden.  The maturity of the plants there could be part of the reason for that but, with maturity, many of those succulents no longer just rub elbows - they're overcrowding one another.  I've recognized the issue and made adjustments now and then; however, an incident starting with a gopher is now forcing me to get more serious about it.

Here's how the gopher touched off other observations:

The hole shown here at the edge of a flagstone looks much larger than it is.  When I initially saw it, I thought it was the result of pulling up a clump of alyssum (Lobularia maritima).  Closer examination showed it was a gopher hole.  Gophers are described as bigger than a mouse but smaller than a rat and they're known for eating plant roots.

I didn't find any gopher mounds or evidence of plant damage nearby at first.  However, several feet away I noticed a mass of Erigeron karvinskianus (aka Santa Barbara daisy) 3 feet tall and wide covering the plants below them.  As I pulled it up, stems of Hesperaloe parviflora 'Coral Glow' came with it.

I don't have a "before" shot of the plant, one in a group of 3, but it's been thinned by about half its original size.  The prior photo of the debris was only a fraction of what I removed.

This is a closeup of the Hesperaloe's pretty flower

Once I'd cleared the mass of Erigeron that had covered the blue chalk sticks (Senecio serpens) and most of an Agave americana 'Mediopicta Alba' next to the Hesperaloe, I realized that an Agave 'Blue Flame' was intruding on the smaller agave.

At least 2 of the 6 'Blue Flame' rosettes shown here need to go.  One rosette's leaning against the Agave 'Mediopicta Alba' and a second is pushing against the Dasylirion longissima.

That sight prompted me to check on the other clump of Agave 'Blue Flame' in the same bed.  We'd removed one huge rosette there a couple of years ago but, since then, the others have grown larger and proliferated.

There are also 6 rosettes here, sandwiched between another 'Mediopicta Alba' Agave and several 'Blue Glow' Agaves  

The 'Mediopicta Alba' Agaves themselves are also prone to pupping.  Many of those pups end up feet away from the parent plant but some cuddle beneath it.  However, in contrast to 'Blue Flame', they're smaller and easier to pull in both situations.

'Blue Flame' parents and pups stick together and are very hard to remove.  I couldn't reach the trunk of either of the 2 in front in this view but I made a stab (or rather a lot of stabs) at cutting into the smaller one,  I had limited success.  I think better tools, like an electric saw, will be required.

I've requested assistance from my husband in removing at least some, possibly all, the 'Blue Flame' agaves in this particular clump.  As my husband is still preoccupied with "adjustments" to my lath (shade) house and our temperatures are expected to climb until Saturday, we've delayed that effort for awhile.  I'm committed, though.  While 'Blue Flame' is a good-looking plant, it's a bully.  It grows too big, too fast, and it's a prolific pupper.  It demands more space than I have to offer and I already have it growing elsewhere.

Those aren't the only removals pending either.

The Agave 'Blue Glow' that bloomed in 2023 produced 2 more flower stalks in late 2024, both of which have bloomed.  I've already cut down one stalk as it was impeding on the dirt path the gardeners and I both use regularly.  The second is leaning into Metrosideros collina 'Springfire'.  It and the rest of the plant need to come out soon, although I'm dreading that chore.  'Blue Glow' stabs back!

The south-side succulent bed may look very different next year but, in a garden, change is inevitable.  I'll close this post on a more positive note with two beauty shots of plants in the same area.

I was worried that I'd pruned Vitex trifolia (aka simpleleaf chastetree) too hard but it's bounded back to its beautiful self

Crassula pubescens ssp radicans looks great in flower sitting atop the wall along this path

All material © 2012-2025 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party

In a Vase on Monday: Not what I planned

I've been participating in the weekly "In a Vase on Monday" meme long enough that, by Sunday morning, I usually have something in mind to fill my vase(s).  Although I did cut a stem of a 'Pretty Woman' lily as planned for my first arrangement, that's where the direction I'd envisioned shifted.  I'd thought I was going to put together another blue and white arrangement but two stems of perky fuchsias sent me elsewhere.

The first stalk of Lilium 'Pretty Woman' has been in bloom for over a month but I waited to cut it until the last 4 flowers had opened.  I hadn't thought of leaning into the pink touches at the base of each flower until I noticed that Fuchsia 'Windchimes Upright White' had 2 long stems just begging to be cut.

Back view: There's not a lot of pink in my garden at the moment so I took advantage of abundant blooms of Daucus carota 'Dara' and the pinky variegated foliage of Leucadendron 'Jester'

Overhead view: On this occasion I removed all the pollen on the lily's anthers to prevent stains to the bright white petals

Clockwise from the upper left: noID white Agapanthus, Daucus carota 'Dara', Fuchsia 'Windchimes Upright White', Leucadendron 'Jester', and Orienpet Lilium 'Pretty Woman'

As the Leonotis leonurus (lion's tail) recently swung into bloom in response to steadily warming temperatures, I'd planned to go all in with orange flowers for my second arrangement but I dumped that plan when the first two zinnia flowers opened in my cutting garden.  I'd never gotten around to pinching my zinnia seedlings and I couldn't bring myself to do that once they'd formed fat buds; however, these initial blooms encouraged me to get on with it.  I wasn't sure what use I could make of two zinnias but I challenged myself to try.  I'm relatively pleased with the result.

The zinnias didn't even match but they were both reddish

Back view: The seedpods of Cercis occidentalis (aka western redbud) made this arrangement in my view.  The 2 trees I inherited with the garden have never borne as many seedpods as they have this year and I should probably cut them all off soon to discourage self-propagation.

Overhead view

Clockwise from the upper left: Cercis occidentalis, (more) Daucus carota 'Dara', Leucadendron 'Jubilee Crown', L. 'Safari Sunset', Zinnia elegans 'Benary's Giant Wine', and Z. e. 'Queeny Red Lime'

I ended up with a third arrangement (also unplanned) as I cut several foxglove stems to flesh out the first arrangement but then decided they were more distracting then helpful.  I threw them into a small vase with a couple of leftovers from prior arrangements.

The heat hasn't been kind to the Digitalis purpurea in the container on my back patio so cutting all the stems was a good decision in any case.  The Leucanthemum (Shasta daisy) was a leftover from one of last week's arrangements and the Leucadendron 'Jester' stem is 3 weeks old.

It's been in the low-to-mid 80sF (28C) here for the last several days and it looks as though we can expect more of the same in the coming week.  The inland valleys will be about ten degrees hotter so we're lucky.  Meanwhile California's San Luis Obispo County is now battling the Madre Fire, which has burned over 80,000 acres since Wednesday with only thirty percent containment, already dramatically eclipsing the Eaton (14,021 acres) and Palisades (23,448 acres) Fires back in January.  At least the new fire is burning in a largely uninhabited forest area.  No cause has been identified yet but it certainly looks like we're facing another bad year in terms of wildfires.  You'd have thought people would keep that in mind when it came to the Independence Day celebrations last week but, while illegal firework displays were moderate leading up to the holiday, July 4th was as untamed as ever.

For more IAVOM creations, visit Cathy at Rambling in the Garden.

All material © 2012-2025 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party

Late June blooms too pretty to ignore

Quite a number of new blooms made an appearance in my garden in late June.  As temperatures rise, it's possible that many of these won't make it to mid-July's Bloom Day so I'm showing them off today.  We can think of them as floral fireworks, which are much better than the explosive kind, especially in areas facing a high fire risk like mine.  A number of the flowers shown below meet the red, white, and blue theme set for Independence Day too, although not all.

I planted this noID Achillea millefolium in 2 areas sometime last year.  I neglected to record their purchase so I'm unsure where I got them or the name of the cultivar.  I've never had much luck with the ferny green Achilleas but this one seems to be adjusting to my dry garden.

I planted Catananche caerulea (aka cupid's dart) 10 years ago in another area.  It's reappeared at regular intervals there, although I haven't seen it this year; however, this one popped up under my Ginkgo tree.

I planted a total of 3 Eryngium planum 'Blue Glitter', purchased by mail order from Annie's Annuals & Perennials between 2022 and 2023.  They haven't bloomed reliably but one made an appearance this year.  

I planted a mix of dwarf Gladiolis nanus bulbs earlier this year, thinking they were all coordinating shades of pink like those shown in the top row but then the yellow-orange variety on the lower right showed up.  An online search identified it as 'Las Vegas'.  The pale yellow gladiola on the lower left appeared as a complete surprise in a entirely different area all by itself.

These 2 daylilies (Hemerocallis) made very brief appearances in late June.  The one on the left is 'Apollodorus' and the one on the right is 'Space Coast Behavior Pattern'.

The Orienpet lilies, hybrids of oriental and trumpet lilies (also called tree lilies), continue to slow roll it through the summer season.  This one is Lilium 'Friso' (aka 'Silk Road').

Lilium 'Pretty Woman' may be the best of the bunch, although it's not as prolific as 'Orange Planet', which is now done for the season.  A second 'Pretty Woman' stalk also has buds.  The third stalk is currently bud-less but at least the bulb hasn't been consumed by a gopher.

Lilium 'Zelmira' is new this year.  Three other lilies have yet to bloom.

The flowers of Magnolia grandiflora (aka southern magnolia) have been coming on fast and furious but they're falling apart almost as quickly.  On the positive side, the bees love the flowers.

The wispy flowers of Pelargonium schizopetalum grow from surprisingly large tubers.  I divided them last year and planted them in 2 different areas of the garden.  Only the one in the sunnier location has bloomed so far.

The Matilija poppies (Romneya coulteri, aka California tree poppies) started blooming on our back slope when I wasn't paying attention.  The stems are ridiculously tall this year, feet above my head, and nearly choking in weeds.  This isn't something one should plant without careful consideration as it takes a lot of space and it's nearly impossible to get rid of.  (I've tried.)

Salvia 'Pozo Blue' is a hybrid of S. clevelandii and S. leucophylla.  It was nearly eclipsed by the more vigorous S. canariensis next to it until I cut that plant back.

I recently bought myself a new plant that isn't a succulent.  I generally avoid planting anything other than succulents during the summer months but I couldn't help myself in this case.

This is Cuphea 'Sweet Talk Lavender Splash'.  It's supposed to be drought tolerant once established like my other Cupheas but I've planted it in a particularly dry area and have to be careful to water it regularly by hand until it gets settled.

Best wishes for a happy 4th however you may be celebrating the holiday!

All material © 2012-2025 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party