Annual Garden Clean-up

I pursued my annual garden clean-up earlier this week, employing the help of my favorite tree service company on a larger scale this year.  That was partly because of concerns about the possible threats posed by El Nino but also with my own recent physical limitations and the need to remove some very big and very dead plants.  I'll start with the easiest stuff involving the usual pruning activities, beginning with the front garden.

The Agonis flexuosa (aka peppermint willows) and Arbutus 'Marina' (aka strawberry trees) all got pruned.  There are 6 of the former and 4 of the latter scattered throughout the garden.

The Pyrus calleryana (aka ornamental pear tree), shown here next to another peppermint willow, also got its annual trim

Ditto with the tree-sized Leptospermum 'Copper Glow' shrubs

The Magnolia grandiflora also got its annual chop

What's not apparent in this photo featuring more peppermint willows is that those were formerly surrounded by 2 Cercis occidentalis (aka western redbuds).  They came with the garden but I got tired of their suckering behavior.

This is the largest of my 4 Arbutus

The Prunus ilicifolia hedge (aka cherry laurel) was neatened up 

Callistemon 'Cane's Hybrid' was taken down a peg and and thinned out too

This noID Ceanothus received a much needed trim

I've learned that a hard annual pruning of the strawberry trees is necessary to open their canopies and prevent the development of sooty mildew on their leaves

The back slope got a considerable attention, although it may not be evident in these photos.  I had 3 large artichoke plants removed to prevent regrowth; 2 huge Pittosporum 'Silver Sheen' shrubs were severe pruned; and the lemon tree got cleaned up.  The area needs a lot more work but I'll pick that up when I can.

The most painful actions involved two of the larger plant removals, both of which required digging out stumps.  I don't have "before" shots for either so you'll have to take my word that both plants were dead to start with.

My once gorgeous and very large Leucadendron salignum 'Chief' died after 16 years in the garden.  The best thing I can say is that its removal made Leucadendron 'Ebony' (shown in the photo on the left) more visible.  The surrounding succulents also have a better chance to shine.

The noID lime tree that came with the garden also died.  I've no plans to replace it with another citrus tree but I've been considering a crape myrtle (mainly because I've wanted one for a long time).

My husband helped me with two smaller projects we handled without the tree service.

We pruned the Acer palmatum 'Sango Kaku', just now showing some fall color

He pruned the a sad Feijoa sellowiana (aka pineapple guava) down to 3 feet in height in the hope that it'll rebound

Two dying and very heavy stalks of Agave desmettiana 'Variegata' were removed by the tree service.  As I cleared some of the remaining debris left behind late this week, I discovered three more agaves are throwing up bloom stalks following the path of the Agave 'Joe Hoak' I'd discovered a few weeks ago.

This is another shot of 'Joe Hoak', already much bigger

This is Agave capensis, which I got from the Huntington as a very small plant in October 2015

And these are 2 more Agave desmettiana 'Variegata' I planted as pups of my original plant when it bloomed many years ago

At least I can expect these agaves to take their time early next year before they're ready for removal!

Even with all the help I got with garden clean-up this year, I've recognized that I have a LOT more work to do before my garden is more fully presentable.  But I'm going to try to be reasonable with myself about what and how fast I can get those additional jobs done.  It's times like this I rather wish we got a real winter break...

All material © 2012-2026 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party

In a Vase on Monday: Last Call?

I've been anticipating the end of the dahlia season for some time now but my garden has caught me by surprise several times.  In the past week, I've removed about two-thirds of them, discarding many while preparing a few tubers for storage.  I expect to wrap up five more for storage this week.  I'm still wondering if two others may hang on a bit longer if I let them, although I only plan on retaining one of those for use next year.  I hesitate to just pull the remainder up now because there'll be a shortage of material to use in my vases for a time once the dahlias are gone, at least until I get my cool season garden up and running.

I managed two arrangements this week, hurrying to cut what I could late Saturday afternoon in advance of a storm system.  As it turned out, that storm, like the last two, delivered less rain than expected so it hadn't really been necessary to hurry.  The first arrangement was meant to show off my bush violets (Barleria obtusa).  These have been flowering for weeks now; however, although they provide a profusion of small blue flowers, I'd forgotten that they drop those almost as quickly as they produce new ones so they don't make the best cut flowers.  Reinforcements were required.

Dahlia 'Table Dancer' and a noID Zinnia filled in the gaps

The rear view is somewhat messy

The overhead view is better

Clockwise from the upper left, the vase includes: Agonis flexuosa 'Nana', Barleria obtusa, Dahlia 'Mikayla Miranda', D. 'Table Dancer', Hebe 'Grace Kelly' (most of the foliage of which is reverting from variegated to a solid green), and the noID pink Zinnia elegans 

I hadn't planned to put together yet another arrangement featuring 'Break Out' dahlias but they keep on blooming and, this week, I had a couple of other dahlias that complemented them in need of cutting too so I threw them all together for my second arrangement.

The last Dahlia 'Good Day' is accompanying 'Break Out' at the front of the vase

I tucked the last of the 'Omega' dahlias into the back of the arrangement

Overhead view, showing off stems of yellow Senna bicapsularis, which surprised me with its sudden burst of blooms

From the upper left, this arrangement contains: Dahlia 'Break Out', D. 'Omega', D. 'Good Day', Leucadendron 'Wilson's Wonder' (a left over from last week's vase), Tanacetum parthenium 'Aureum' and Zinnia 'Benary's Giant Salmon Rose' (another left over)

My annual tree service is scheduled today.  I have a lot on the docket this year, including several tree and shrub removals so it's going to be busy here.  Once the work is done, I hope I can quickly get started with replanting the bare areas, although that'll require some shopping too.  I also hope that the weather will cooperate between storms!

In the meantime, I'll be checking what the rest of the IAVOM crowd has going on this week.  Check in with Cathy at Rambling in the Garden to see what she and other contributors to this weekly meme have going on.

All material © 2012-2026 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party

Wordless Wednesday: Two tiny surprises

 

All material © 2012-2026 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party

In a Vase on Monday: A dahlia that keeps on giving

My dahlias really are petering out but Dahlia 'Break Out' is a notable exception.  At the start of the season it was the most abundant of my dahlias by far.  I gave away many of the cut blooms because I couldn't use them for my own purposes fast enough.  Eventually, I exhausted the supply, or so I'd thought.  I cut back both plants severely, leaving them in place but not expecting them to rebound.  They did take an extended hiatus but, after a break of six to eight weeks or so, they were back.  One of them has been especially vigorous, producing so many large, heavy flowers that its branches threatened to break during our recent, relatively light, rain.  As it stood, I had to cut them for this week's vase.

Interestingly, the current crop of 'Break Out' Dahlias have more pink in the petals than I recall seeing in most of the previous flowers.  I also included 2 stems of Dahlia 'Honeymoon'.  By my count, that dahlia produced no more than 6 flowers all season.

Back view: Because the rain surprised me with a new flush of Callistemon 'Cane's Hybrid' flowers, I tucked some of those into the arrangement too

Overhead view

Clockwise from the upper left, the vase contains: Callistemom 'Cane's Hybrid', Leucadendron 'Wilson's Wonder', a single stem of the all yellow form of Dahlia 'Break Out', the pinkish form of D. 'Break Out' in considerable numbers, D. 'Honeymoon', Zinnia 'Queeny Lemon Peach' and Z. 'Benary's Giant Salmon Rose'

My cat Meeko "helped" with this week's arrangement.  I managed to take most of my photographs without her intervention but she did weasel in at one point.

She likes to oversee activities in the kitchen area whenever possible

The completed arrangement in place in the front entryway

I've finally begun the process of pulling out the dahlia tubers I don't intend to hold onto to replant next spring.  I currently expect to toss quite a few.  Choices need to be made as I've already submitted advance orders for a dozen varieties to grow next year!  On the definite "keep" list are: 'Break Out', Good Day', 'Labyrinth' and 'Omega'.  Although they weren't top performers this year, I'll probably also keep 'Enchantress', 'Mikayla Miranda', 'Snowball' and 'Table Dancer' (assuming the tubers still look good once I've dug them up).  'Admiral Rawlings', Creme de Cognac', 'Hartennas', 'Honeymoon', 'Karma Caroline', 'Mystery Day' and 'Nicholas' will go.

Check in with Cathy at Rambling in the Garden to see what she and other contributors to IAVOM have to share this week.

All material © 2012-2026 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party

In a Vase on Monday: Higgeldy-piggeldy

Although our temperatures came down a bit late last week, they were still on the toasty end of the spectrum, and they were accompanied by our famous Santa Ana winds, which caused more damage to my garden than the previous rounds of scorching heat had.  The 'Labyrinth' Dahlias I'd been so pleased to see the prior week snapped at its base.  Other plants just withered away, despite my efforts to keep them well hydrated.  But not everything in my cutting garden died.  I was able to cobble together another arrangement this week; however, I wasn't all that pleased with the final result.  Frankly, it looked better at the start when I stuffed the cut flowers into the jar I use when collecting them then it did after I "arranged" them in a proper vase, hence the title of this post.  If you're not familiar with the expression "higgeldy-piggeldy," it's an old term meaning an untidy arrangement.

I probably should've discarded the white dahlias I cut at the outset as they were already looking a little shabby but I couldn't bring to do that as they may be the last I'll get from the plant this season.  Oh well!  I expect they won't hold up long anyway and I can edit the arrangement as the week progresses.  In contrast to dahlias, zinnias have a much longer vase life

For some reason, ants were all over 2 of the 'Snowball' Dahlias, which I did toss out, but I didn't see any on the other 4 of those dahlias I cut.  Some were past their prime, though.

Back view: The 'Oklahoma White' Zinnias are at their peak now.  I may have overused them in this case.

Overhead view

Top row, the vase contains: Dahlia 'Snowball', D. 'Mikayla Miranda' and D. 'Table Dancer'
Middle row: noID pink Zinnia, Z. 'Benary's Giant Wine' and Z. 'Oklahoma White'
Bottom row: Agonis flexuosa 'Nana' and Tanacetum parthenium 'Aureum' 

There still are lots of 'Break Out' and 'Omega' Dahlias that may provide joy in the coming week if the winds stop blowing by Tuesday as the forecast suggests and we get rain midweek.  My fingers are crossed both things happen.  The rain we had earlier amounted to less than a tenth of an inch, while the pending thunderstorms might provide more than half an inch.  Meanwhile, I plan to start pulling out some of the dahlias I don't intend to keep.  Two of those are the 'Admiral Rawlings' Dahlias.  They recently produced a flurry of flowers but their tall, limp stems continually topple over on the plants around them and can't hold up their heads so I don't intend to save those tubers for use next year.

I cut over half a dozen of these dahlias yesterday, leaving their stems short to better support their thin necks.  They're sitting on the kitchen island.

Check in with Cathy at Rambling in the Garden to see what she and other contributors to this meme have IAVOM this week.

The arrangement got pride of place in the front entryway even if it didn't deserve it

All material © 2012-2026 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party

October has its winners and losers

Usually temperatures start to come down in October and, even when we still get some toasty days now and again, we feel a crispness in the air that signals the arrival of fall.  However, this year is different.  It's only the shorter days that have marked the seasonal change as it's been unspeakably hot more often than not.  We got a brief break when Tropical Storm Rachel moved through the area last week but it remained relatively warm even then, and the humidity level rose.  And now we understand that we're likely to see ninety degree temperatures again this weekend.

But as I evaluate the damage the high temperatures have done to my garden during the last two heatwaves, I note that some plants fared surprisingly well despite the heat.  I expected the remaining dahlias to quickly wither and die but many did not.  They deserve a final bow to applause as I expect I'll be pulling them out by next month, if only to clear the way to install cool season bulbs and plants in my cutting garden.

This is Dahlia 'Admiral Rawlings' which, after generally delivering just a couple of flowers at a time, went for broke with a flurry of them this month.  The plant has an ungainly habit of producing especially tall stems that flop over but its blooms are a luscious dark red.

After a 2-month hiatus, 'Break Out' returned with a parade of new flowers.  It was my top performer earlier in the season too.

'Good Day' has been a solid performer for most of the season, regardless of weather conditions.  It was said to develop an orangish tone later in the season and has recently begun to do so.

One of my 2 'Labyrinth' dahlias threw in the towel last month after a very generous showing but this one is still producing a few new flowers

'Mikayla Miranda' has been sparse with its blooms but it continued flowering throughout the heatwaves so it gets a plus for that

'Omega' is a star, which keeps pumping out big beautiful flowers while most of the other dahlias have gradually shrunken in size

'Snowball' is a good overall bloomer, if somewhat slower with its production than I'd like

'Table Dancer' is still generous with its flowers, however they've gotten smaller in size over time.  I haven't fertilized any of of the dahlias during the past 2 months, though, which may be a factor there.

While the zinnias I seeded in June never took off in great numbers, they did eventually make an acceptable showing.

Clockwise from the upper left, the Zinnias include 'Oklahoma White', 'Benary's Giant Salmon Rose', a noID pink variety, and 'Benary's Giant Wine'

Unthwarted by the heat, some new blooms arrived on their usual schedule elsewhere in the garden too.

Barleria obtusa, aka bush violets, are putting on their usual show with their small blue flowers

Clematis terniflora, aka sweet autumn clematis, has been relatively shy with its flowers thus far

When my asters went amok several years ago, I tried to rid my garden of them altogether; however, they've returned since, albeit in small but manageable numbers.  I believe this one is Symphyotrichum x frikartii 'Monch'.  It'll be interesting to see if El Niño causes it to go crazy again next year.

Other plants simply ignored the heat.

Grevilleas 'Peaches & Cream' and 'Superb', both which flower year-round

These 2 daylilies bloom in both late spring and late summer/early fall here.  They are Hemerocallis 'For Pete's Sake' and 'Spanish Harlem'.

Some of the Leucadendrons that imitate flowers are still going strong.  They include Leucadendron 'Blush', 'Summer Red' and 'Safari Sunset'.

 Looking to fill vacancies, I planted several new plants in late September.  Unfortunately, even with close attention to my watering, many succumbed to the recent heatwaves.  Two Salvia 'Mystic Spires' are among the few survivors. 

And then there was this:

I usually welcome blooms of all kinds.  The exception are flowers on agaves, as the blooms inevitably mean their eventual demise.  I'm not looking forward to the loss of the variegated Agave 'Joe Hoak' on the left, a pass-along gift from a blogger friend many years ago, even if that event may still be months away.

I'll close this Bloom Day collection with a collage featuring miscellaneous honorable mentions.

Clockwise from the upper left are: Duranta 'Sapphire Skies', noID Gazania, Helianthus 'Astra Rose', Lantana camara 'Irene', Leonotis leonurus and Tanacetum parthenium 'Aureum'

That's a wrap for my Bloom Day post.  Carol of May Dreams is still hosting her mid-month line-up through the end of this year.  You can find her post here.

All material © 2012-2026 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party