Hustling to plant in advance of rain

Last Saturday, a friend and I went plant shopping.  My last post covered that trip.  This one shows where the plants landed.  I'm not always so prompt about getting my new acquisitions in the ground but, as weather forecasts began to show a much higher probability of rain on the horizon, I hustled to get everything planted before it arrived.  With one exception, everything is in place.

My Seaside Gardens purchases are shown here:

A total of 9 plants

Ceanothus griseus horizontalis 'Carmel Creeper' was planted behind a Leucadendron 'Safari Sunset' to cover an area that currently supports little more than weeds (in the form of clover and Erigeron karvinskianus).  The Ceanothus is supposed to grow no taller than a foot while spreading 8-10 feet.

I'm very fond of the "double" Osteospermums, in part because they remain open in low light.  I've got quite a collection of these already but Seaside had 2 varieties I'd never seen before so I scooped up 3 of each to fill in some empty spots while the Echium handiense, Hardenbergia violacea 'Meema', and Phlomis purpurea I planted in that area gain more substance.

This is Osteospermum '4D Pink'

This one, labeled '4D Dark Violet & White', is similar to '4D Pink' but not identical

I bought this Philotheca myoporoides 'Profusion' purely because I loved its growth habit, flowers and scent.  I'd absolutely idea where I was going to put it when I brought it home.  I ending up giving it a spot formerly occupied by a woody Centaurea 'Silver Feather'.  I'd cut the latter back hard and it didn't recover well.  I've already planted another 'Silver Feather', grown from a cutting, nearby.  Hopefully, they'll live in harmony.

If you were paying close attention, you may have noted the I didn't include the Mangave I purchased at Seaside in the above lineup.  That's because I combined it with some of the plants I picked up at Terra Sol Garden Center on the same trip.

This is my Terra Sol haul, all succulents

The 2 Mangave 'Red Wing' from Terra Sol were planted with the Mangave 'Navajo Princess' from Seaside in the middle.  The 3 Echeveria agavoides were planted in between the larger plants.

Two of the 3 Aeonium 'Mardi Gras' already in my garden (shown on the left) had become leggy so I beheaded them and replanted the cuttings with the 3 new 'Mardi Gras' Aeoniums I'd picked up at Terra Sol (as shown on the right).  They're situated next to a Hemerocallis 'Spanish Harlem' to echo the color of the daylily's flowers.

My earlier post mentioned a gift of several California native plants but didn't show them.  All of those shown below have found homes, with the exception of the bladderpod (Peritoma arborea, bottom left).

My friend has been volunteering at a public park in the San Fernando Valley.  They offer their volunteers free native plants as a gift in exchange for their service and she had enough to pass along these to me.

This Dudleya wasn't labeled.  I'm trying to determine if it's D. guadalupensis, D. pulverulenta, D. virens, or something else entirely.  Anyone know?  This is Dudleya lanceolata.  Thanks for the ID, EW!

I planted the 2 Penstemon spectabilis in the back garden in front of my Trichostema 'Midnight Magic', a cultivar of our native woolly blue curls

The 2 hummingbird sages (Salvia spathacea) went into beds on either side of the gravel path that runs through my north side garden.  This one looks tiny next to the whale's tongue and other agaves.

The bladderpod needs full sun and it gets large.  I had one years ago, which up and died on me after approximately a year in the ground so I'm giving more thought to where to place it to provide a greater chance of success.

Whether the rain will actually come is always a question.  Late last week, the chances were put at 25-30%.  On Tuesday, they shot up to 83%.  Last night they were down to 60%, calculated to arrive between midnight and 6am.  That's not ideal as I like to collect the water that pours down our rain chain to supplement what flows off the roof directly into my collection tanks but getting up at 2am to replace a full bucket with an empty one is crazy even by my standards.  As it turned out, we got nothing overnight.  The forecasters are still predicting a chance of rain later this morning.  We shall see...

The view to the northeast doesn't look very promising

However, it looks as though it's raining to the southeast of us

Meanwhile, my buckets are ready to catch anything we might get

All material © 2012-2022 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party