Unlike so many areas of the country, our summer here along Southern California's coast hasn't been particularly awful. We haven't had any temperatures over 100F (yet anyway). We haven't been flooded with rain (or had any rain at all for that matter but then that's a normal summer for us). Still, the garden and the gardener are feeling at low ebb. Under normal circumstances, I'd be hand-watering my garden a lot more but, presented with constant reminders of how dire our drought is, I'm doing very little of that. Several of my roses look close to dead but, rather than provide them with emergency water rations, I'm seriously considering whether I should just replace them with succulents. I'm trying not to overreact - there's always a chance we'll get something like "normal" rain this winter - but I don't think I can stand looking at their flowerless stems another year if we don't.
Luckily, even with bare spots and brown foliage seemingly everywhere, there's life in the garden, like the hummingbirds constantly dueling for territory.
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| I think the combatants were Allen's hummingbirds but I'm not positive of that ID |
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| Rest breaks between battles were common but brief and on most occasions, by the time I focused the camera, the little guys back into the fray |
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| Male or female they're always alert to intruders in the vicinity |
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| Their focus in the front garden are Grevilleas 'Peaches & Cream' and 'Superb'. 'Superb' (shown here) is loaded with flowers year-round. |
On the other end of the activity scale, I found bees sleeping in flowers early on one cool, damp morning when the marine layer was thick and persisted until noon.
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| Completely motionless in Zinnia 'Benary's Giant Purple' |
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| This one fell for Zinnia 'Benary's Giant Carmine Rose' |
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| I cut 2 stems of white Amaryllis belladonna for In a Vase on Monday's floral arrangement and discovered this one buried in the center of a flower. As it was bedraggled anyway, I cut the flower and left it and its occupant on the patio table. |
I was a little worried that the bees were dead when I first saw them and felt compelled to gently blow on them to check. Two reacted but one did not; however, within an hour all had flown away. Cute as they were, I'm afraid I like my bees as lively as my hummingbirds.
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| Bees drawn by a recently opened Magnolia grandiflora flower |
All material © 2012-2022 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party
Oh, yes, the dog days of summer. Almost everything looks a bit past it's prime, including the gardener in my case :-) I'm looking forward to mid September, which hopefully will bring cooler, at least in Seattle wetter ones too.
ReplyDeleteExcellent hummer-shots. With year round Grevillea blooms it's no wonder they fight to keep their territory.
chavli
At this time of year, I'm tempted to cut half my plants down to the ground just to be spared their ugliness but I'm trying to hold off that compulsion until October, when we can more reasonably expect cooler temperatures. The prospects for rain this winter aren't great but hope springs eternal.
DeleteThose hummingbirds and pollinators really keep the activity and the hope going, don't they? Beautiful images! We've had a lovely summer here in S. Wisconsin--pleasant temps, just enough rain and sun. I'm trying to savor it, and hope the autumn is just as pleasant. I hope you'll get some needed rain (just enough) in the months ahead.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you enjoyed a good summer and hope that your fall season will be just as pleasant. I know winter isn't your favorite season so, as the saying goes, "make hay while the sun shines" ;)
DeleteNapping bees are always such a fun thing to find. We hit 94 yesterday, evidently we're on track for our hottest August ever...
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry to hear that, Loree :(
DeleteGorgeous photos Kris. The hummingbirds really do have extraordinary beaks! From your photos, it looks like they make up about 1/3 the length of the bird! We don't have hummingbirds where I live (I'm not sure if there are hummers in other parts of Australia). We do have nectar sipping birds though - Eastern spinebills and New Holland honeyeaters frequent our garden daily.
ReplyDeleteYour zinnias look like the perfect 'bee bed'.
You have many spectacular birds in your country, Horticat. My part of the US has very few nearly as colorful - unless you count the flocks of escaped pet parrots but then they're not natives ;) We have 2 species of hummingbirds that are year-round residents here and at least one other migrates through our area annually. The birds are truly tiny and they move fast - I count every photograph I get that's nearly in focus as a win!
DeleteWonderful photos, Kris! It’s been dry in Sweden too, but not anywhere near as dry as SoCal or OR. I’ve seen a lot of bumble bees, which always make me happy! On Monday, I’m going to help my dad harvest the honey from his two hives. It’ll be a first for me, and - I’m sure - very interesting.
ReplyDeleteAnna K
I hope you get some photos of your first-ever honey-harvesting effort, Anna! I may be low of butterflies this year but the bees are still plentiful :)
DeleteMy potted roses got grey water during our worst drought. To me the lemon tree and potted roses are worth watering. The rest survives on rain mostly.
ReplyDeleteUnder recent circumstances, we get so little rain, I'm not sure anything but succulents could survive on it alone.
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