Friday, October 27, 2023

Lots of dirt under the fingernails

I've spent a lot of time in the garden this week.  I no sooner get the dirt scrubbed from my fingernails than I find myself diving into another task, leaving them filthy again.  I occasionally take a moment to put on garden gloves but the finer tasks in the garden, like pulling out weeds with long tap roots, don't always permit bulky gloves even when I put them on.

 

My first priority has been getting new plants in the ground.  I'm not done but I've made progress there.  All three of my purchases from Seaside Gardens have been planted.

From left to right, my Seaside purchases were: Cistus ladanifer 'Blanche', Templetonia retusa, and Arctostaphylos 'Sunset'.  All can get by with low water once established.

Cistus 'Blanche' has pristine white flowers and should reach a mature size of 4-8 feet tall and 4-5 feet wide.  At the higher end of that range, it may be too big for this area in the back garden but I'm going to try to keep it pinched back.

Templetonia retusa (aka coral bush) is an Australian plant that grows to 4-6 feet tall and wide.  Like the Cistus, I've planted this one in the bed that runs from the backyard fountain to the south patio.  You can find a good photo of the plant in flower here.

Hybrid Arctostaphylos 'Sunset' produces pinkish-white flowers and grows 4-5 feet tall and wide.  I've planted it in the front garden on the side adjacent to our garage.


 

I've made headway with my purchases from Terra Sol.

I bought a wider range of plants, albeit in smaller sizes, at Terra Sol

Ptilotus exaltatus 'Joey' and Verbena peruviana 'Pink Bicolor' replaced a fading Rudbeckia in this urn in the area alongside the garage 

The 5 small succulent plants I picked up at Terra Sol all went into this pot.  They include Crassula crassissimus, Echeveria mexicano, Portulaca 'Tricolor Jewel', and Sedum 'Alice Evans'.

I pulled the Dahlia mistakenly sold as 'French Can Can' out of this barrel in the front garden and planted one of 6 plugs of Digitalis 'Dalmatian Peach' here.  The rest will be planted in the raised planting beds of the cutting garden once I've finished clearing them and refreshing the soil.

I pulled some Aeonium 'Kiwi Verde' that had edged this bed in front of the garage because it was repeatedly battered by the gardeners.  The 3 Carex flacca 'Blue Zinger' shown here in pots will replace the succulents after a little fussing with the irrigation set-up.  The Carex grows about one foot tall and 3-4 feet wide and makes do with limited water.  If I like it better than the Festuca glaucus I've tried in the past, I'll hunt down more plants to continue that edging along the the driveway.

 

My recent mail order Annie's purchases got upgraded from their four-inch pots but they haven't made it into the garden yet.

Clockwise from the upper left: California natives Trichostemma 'Midnight Magic' (already flowering), Ribes sanguineum and 2 Heuchera maxima.  I've identified spots for all of them but I need to finish cleaning up those areas before I plant them.


I've also made a good start pulling apart my summer cutting garden to prepare for cool season plants.  Removing the mildewed Cosmos and Zinnias was easy but digging up dahlia tubers and dividing them is a messy, time-consuming, and frustrating process.

I didn't have many flowers to give away but those I did disappeared quickly

Many of the dahlia tubers had grown large and densely packed.  Even after watching a 30-minute video on dividing them I struggled given the size of some of them.  According to the video, to be viable, each tuber division needs and eye, a neck and a body.  Identifying the "eyes" often isn't easy.  I suspect some of the 'La Luna' divisions I took are blind.

Some dahlia tubers separate easily but 'Lavender Ruffles' was a monster.  I didn't divide it last year and simply planted the original clump with very little cleanup and it more than doubled in size.  I had to butcher the clump on the left just to hunt for viable divisions.  I essentially gave up on this one with just 3 prospects.

It broke my heart a little to end up with so few divisions of 'Mikayla Miranda', which was one of my favorites this year.  In her video, Erin Benzakein of Floret Flowers said you may end up throwing away half of each clump you divide but I lost more than that with this one.

I did better with 'Summer's End' but at that point I may have been seeing eyes where there weren't any.  I left one small clump intact too, which may improve my luck.  I notice that some mail order dahlia sellers send single tubers, while others send entire clumps.

 

I've also divided Dahlias 'Catching Fire' and 'Enchantress'.  I haven't decided whether to bother with 'Labyrinth' - the flowers are pretty but my plants did poorly this year.  I've thrown out a few tubers I didn't think were worth saving.  I still have several more to dig up, wash, and divide and, once they're fully dry (but before they wither with the expected kick-up of another round of Santa Ana winds next week), I need to pack them up in vermiculite before tucking them away to rest out their dormant period.

 

There are far fewer flowers in my garden now.

This 'Breakout' Dahlia bloom may be my last.  There are buds on a few of those still in the raised beds but they probably won't open before I throw in the towel this weekend.

A few fall flowers have arrived.  Clockwise from the upper left are: Barleria obtusa (aka bush violet), Iris germanica 'Autumn Circus', what may be the first bud of Protea 'Pink Ice' (although it looks very small and dry), and a burst of yellow from Senna bicapsularis.

 

Best wishes for a calm weekend.


All material © 2012-2023 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party

14 comments:

  1. You're a busy lady! The only garden activities here are cleaning up fallen leaves (this will go on for weeks) and moving the final plants in prep for what could be our first freeze tonight (early!).

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    1. I'm sorry to hear the first freeze is headed your way early, Loree. I'm glad I don't have a lot of pots requiring moves - my back is already protesting this week's workout in the garden.

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  2. You are getting some serious work done. I've mostly been planting bulbs which is still pretty messy. I can't imagine being able to garden without getting dirty. Just finished emptying last summer pots, washing and storing them. Now I have a load of messy clothes and rags that need washing. Wish I could think about planting more, esp. with all the sales. But frost is scheduled most of the coming week.

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    1. Sometimes I wish we had a period of down time in the garden, Linda, but anything over a month would probably drive me crazy ;) I haven't even taken the bulbs I've received out of their box yet...

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  3. I need to watch that video -- I've probably been giving away lots of "blind" tubers. Sometimes the only way to be sure to get the dirt out from under fingernails is to wash your hair...

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    1. Floret now has its own YouTube channel so the video might be there. I signed up for the 3 dahlia videos Erin B offers but I think they have a set shelf-life and I'm not sure they can be forwarded. The 3rd one on dividing dahlias was an expanded version of her original video on the subject.

      Washing one's hair does help but my nails have needed serious work with a nail brush on top of that ;)

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  4. Looks like a powerful SA wind event especially Sunday with humidity < 10%--good you got a lot of plants into the ground--better chance of survival.

    Based on experience with my Proteas, yes that Protea bud is dried up. Better chance for success next year now that it's produced one.

    I never divide my Dahlia clumps, just pull off what feels mushy, check what falls off for "eyes" and save them if they have one. Last year I left all my potted ones in the pots over winter out in the rain and they were fine.

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    1. Santa Ana winds - ugh. Weather Underground shows humidity dropping to around 25% on Sunday here and somewhat lower Monday but it's not showing humidity as low or winds as high as those predicted for your area, at least at present.

      I'm leaving some of the smaller dahlia clumps intact to increase the likelihood of flowering. Erin B (of Floret) claims the size of the dahlia tuber doesn't matter so long as there's an eye or two (along with a neck and a body.

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  5. You have been busy. I had to laugh at "seeing eyes where there aren't any". I keep meaning to order that ribes sanguineum when I order from Annie's. We're on red flag alert here as well, but it doesn't look like we will get winds too bad.

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    1. It's easy to mistake spots of dirt that weren't washed off as the brown freckles and bumps as "eyes" the experts tell you to look for when examining dahlia tubers, Tracy! Especially when the process becomes tedious ;)

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  6. I am in owe at the amount of work you put into your Dahlia collection, I couldn't to it, which is probably why I don't have a cutting garden. So. Much. Work. The Dahlias I grow have to make it through winter and bloom in Summer without any help from me: I only commit to dead-heading :-D
    Your potted arrangement are beautiful, the urn in particular: I suspect Ptilotus exaltatus 'Joey' has something to do with it...
    Chavli

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    1. I saved far fewer dahlia tubers last year and, in most of those cases, I just tidied up the clump and stored it away. This year, in addition to saving most of them, so many of the clumps had gotten humongous that I felt I had to trim them down to size. It did occur to me (several times) that it'd be easier to just buy new tubers ;)

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  7. Good to know all the Dahlia tuber tips (thank you!). Soon I'll be doing that. 'Breakout' is stunning! I really love the potted succulent collection from Terra Sol.

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    1. Best wishes with your dahlia tuber exercise, Beth! It isn't much fun and, if you're dividing them as I did, you have to wait months to determine the success of your efforts. I also have no idea what I'm going to do with all the extra tubers next year!

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