A fresh start!

Things are looking brighter.  This week brought rain!  In all, it amounted to about eight-tenths of an inch but, given the sorry state of our rainy season this year, I consider that a lot.  In addition to giving my garden a deep, uniform soak, something no irrigation system can accomplish, the rain topped off all my water collection tanks.  Then, yesterday, my husband and I got our second vaccine shots and President Biden recommended opening the vaccination process to all adults in the US by May 1st.  Progress!

While waiting out the next two weeks until I'm considered full immunized, I continue to focus on my garden.  I've installed some new plants, most received by mail order or through friends, and completed a variety of maintenance projects.  But I'll start with a happy discovery I made this week.

This tiny plant appeared in one of the small pots I used to sow Majorcan peony (Paeonia cambessedesii) seeds last July.  Was this really a peony seedling, or some stray that had simply planted itself? 

I had to cut back grasses and other plants to uncover my Majorcan peony in the back garden.  The leaves on the seedling and those on the plants looked similar and both have reddish stems.

The photo on the left shows the plant in flower and the one on the right shows the seeds I planted last year

This is another of the pots into which I sowed peony seeds.  As I recall, I planted 3 or 4 seeds in each small pot.  Three seedlings are showing in this one with the middle seedling looking like a smaller version of the one in my first photo.  A number of the other pots are showing infant leaves like the other two seedlings shown here.  I think I actually have Majorcan peony seedlings!

It'll be awhile before I plant out any peony seedlings - that probably won't even happen this year - but there were other plants I was able to get into the ground now.  I direct sowed more seeds, Cosmos, Nigella and Phacelia, in advance of the most recent rainstorm and popped the first dahlia tuber I received by mail into a temporary pot.  I also planted a package of tulips that had been chilling in my refrigerator for the past three months.

In November, one mail order supplier sent me a package of 'Judith Leyster' tulips in lieu of the more climate-appropriate bulbs I'd ordered.  They spent three months in the refrigerator before I planted them in late February.  One plant poked up above ground this week.

Two boxes of mail order plants I received late last week were promptly planted to take advantage of the promised rain.

I received my order from Annie's Annuals and Perennials right on time last Friday afternoon.  Clockwise from the upper left, the order included: Aeonium escobarii, Lavatera trimetris, Sideritis cypria (3), Plectranthus ecklonii and Gilla tricolor (5), and Teucrium betonicum (2).  The upturned flats in the bottom photo are there to protect the Gilla seedlings and seeds I sowed around them.

High Country Gardens sent me a dwarf Lavandula 'Thumbelina Leigh' and Monarda 'Peter's Purple' (3)

I spruced up the two window boxes attached to my lath (shade) house using a few pony packs picked up at my local garden center when I swung by there two weeks ago for planting mix and compost.

I left some of the original plants in place, most notably the small Coprosmas in both boxes, but replaced scruffier plants with dwarf Antirrhinum majus, Leucanthemum paludosum, and Lobularia maritima

Gift plants from blogger friends found homes.

The Billbergia nutans (left, sitting on ground) was sent to me by Anna (Flutter & Hum) after I erroneously identified the Billbergia windii (guarded by the dragon) as B. nutans on Instagram.  The gift plant is already sporting a bud.  Anna included Iris confusa (on the right), which I have great hopes for even though I managed to kill one earlier.  She also sent me a hitchhiking earthworm, which I suspect is much happier in SoCal than it was in then snow-covered Portland, Oregon.

I offered Denise (A Growing Obsession) a few Renga lilies and got a lot more in return, including Aeonium 'Copper Penny', which I split and planted in several locations, several Aloe elgonica cuttings, and 4 strawflower (Xerochyrsum bracteatum) seedlings

I transplanted a couple of succulents too.

I discovered this Agave literally squished between 2 large Agaves in my south side garden.  I'm not sure what it is, although my records suggest it could be the non-variegated form of Agave potatorum.  In any case, it was damaged as a result of rubbing against its larger neighbors.  Here, on the north end of my garden, it has room to breathe and, hopefully, recover.

Back in December, my local docent/Instagrammer friend Kay (@kaeru.niwa) gave me a large Mangave 'Silver Fox' pup when I was bemoaning the bloom stalk on mine.  After months in a pot, it graduated to a bed alongside several of my other Mangaves.

In addition to planting, I finally tackled a variety of pruning and cleanup projects that I'd managed to avoid until now.

Both of my large Leucadendron "Wilson's Wonder' shrubs got a good pruning, losing more than a third of their height 

Senna bicapsularis lost more than half its height.  If it doesn't survive the experience, I'll be sad because it's a host plant for cloudless sulphur butterflies but its placement along the narrow pathway down the back slope was a mistake on my part. 

Both the 'Fuyu' and 'Hachiya' persimmon trees were twiggy messes before I cleaned them up

Nine more of my Pennisetums got haircuts (6 shown here).  I foolishly failed to don gloves before starting on the large 'Rubrum' (left) and cut up the skin on my hands rather badly in the process.

Unhappy with the blue Freesias I received by mistake as part of the "tropical sunset" mix I ordered for an area of my south side garden, I moved all of them (I think) to my back border.  Freesias are easier to move during their first year in the ground before the bulbs proliferate.

I'm ready to welcome spring with open arms now!  I hope you're seeing improvements to the weather, slow as these may be in colder parts of the Northern Hemisphere, and that the promise of spring is calling you.  Best wishes for a wonderful weekend.

All material © 2012-2021 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party