Almost Wordless Wednesday: Go Blue!

The blues have it!

Barleria obtusa, aka bush violet

Barleria obtusa closeup

Another bush violet flowering exuberantly

Eustoma grandiflorum, aka lisianthus, making a comeback

Many of our neighbors are going for the blues too.

Ipomoea, aka morning glory

Plumbago here, there, and everywhere (except my garden)

It's lovely to see blue flowers in my garden at this time of year, as well as in my neighbors' gardens.  Are those the only blues of interest at the moment?  Not at all!  With three games already clinched, the Los Angeles Dodgers could win the World Series in Game 4, set to start as I file this post for publication tomorrow morning - or that could take another game or two.  And next Tuesday is Election Day in the US - a blue wave would be wonderful to see but I'll settle for a win when all the votes are counted.  I'm registered as an independent but I'm acting blue all the way down the ballot this year.

All material © 2012-2024 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party

In a Vase on Monday: Last call for dahlias?

I spent a good portion of the weekend working in my garden, focusing half my time on taking apart the cutting garden on the northwest side of the house.  I've dug up thirteen of the fifteen dahlia tubers in the raised planters.  The two remaining dahlias and the zinnias will come out this week so I can prepare the planters for the seeds, bulbs, and plugs I grow there during our cool season (late fall through early spring).  There are four other dahlias in containers elsewhere but I can take my time about pulling them out.  I still need to prepare the tubers I plan to store in the garage during their dormant period but I can give myself a little time before tackling that chore too.

I'd hoped to have 'Mikayla Miranda' Dahlias to end the season but they withered away too soon.  I took advantage of a single bloom of Dahlia 'Vancouver', embellishing it with zinnias and other plant material. 

'Vancouver' was a bit beyond its prime but I elected to use it anyway

Back view: I used two of the same varieties of zinnias I used in last week's second arrangement.  I've been using floral food in my arrangements regularly now and last week's arrangement still looks good, only slightly faded.

Top view

Clockwise from the upper left: noID Alternanthera, Leptospermum 'Copper Glow', Hypoestes phyllostachya, Dahlia 'Vancouver', Zinnia elegans 'Benary's Giant Wine', noID Zinnia, Z.e. 'Zinfandel Lilac', and Cuphea 'Starfire Pink'

I had three more blooms from my late-blooming Dahlia 'Belle of Barmera' this week.  The plant is growing in a barrel and I'll keep it there for awhile to see if I can get additional flowers, hence the question mark in this post's title.  One Dahlia 'Catching Fire', also in a barrel, currently has a single bloom but its foliage is developing mildew and I don't see a single bud so the likelihood of further flowers there is low.

The 'Belle of Barmera' Dahlias are out of proportion with the other flowers in this arrangement but I went with them anyway as it's possible I won't see any more this year.  The heavy flowers up front actually fell over after a few hours in the vase, forcing me to cut the stems shorter and photograph them again.

Back view

Top view

Clockwise from the upper left: Agonis flexuosa 'Nana', Tanacetum parthenium, Rudbeckia hirta 'Sahara', Dahlia 'Belle of Barmera', Zinnia elegans 'Benary's Giant Coral', Z. e. 'Golden Hour', and Z. e. 'Zinfandel Peach'

I dug up the very tall 'Summer's End' Dahlia on Friday and threw the last presentable blooms into the small vase I had on the kitchen island, along with the last 'La Luna' Dahlia, which I couldn't bring myself to put out on the street for neighbors with the other surviving flowers.

Dahlia 'Summer's End' was as prolific this year as it was last year but I can't say the same for 'La Luna'

Although I'm not sorry to put summer's hot, dry weather behind us, I always feel a little sad when I clear my cutting garden of the last of the season's colorful blooms.  It'll be months before the cool season cutting garden jumps into gear, especially if it remains dry and warmer temperatures persist.  Much as I appreciate the trivial amounts of precipitation we periodically get from our morning marine layer, we haven't had any real rain here for nearly six months.  The current forecast says there's a forty-five percent chance of light rain next weekend but that could quite literally evaporate over the course of the week.

For more IAVOM creations, visit Cathy at Rambling in the Garden.

All material © 2012-2024 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party

Some progress

I've made progress here and there with my annual fall cleanup but there's still plenty to do - and seemingly never enough time to do it.  I have a habit of getting distracted by the little things that need doing.  Fortunately, little things do eventually add up.  Just yesterday morning I managed to fit in two small pruning jobs and a bit of weeding before breakfast.

I cleared out the dead plants in my back border and pruned the 'Pozo Blue' Salvia that was dominating the space shown on the left.  I also cut back the dead artichoke stalk (Cynara scolymus 'Romagna', which promptly produced fresh foliage (upper right).  Two overgrown Artemisia californica received a hard pruning (middle right) and the feather grass (Nassella tenuissima, lower right) got another grooming session.

I finally dug out the large clump of Helichrysum thianschanicum 'Icicles' that dominated another section of the back garden, replanting the area with 2 small replacements.  I originally had 3 of the plants in the area but hope than 2 will be more manageable in the long run.

Two 'Winnifred Gilman' Salvia clevelandii in the south-side garden also got a hard pruning

I finally tackled the Phormium 'Apricot Queen' that was so severely burned during September's heatwave in the north-side garden (before photo on the left and after shot in the middle).  The smaller Phormium 'Yellow Wave' (right) wasn't as affected but it got a cleanup too.

After years of frustration with the pom-pom tree (Dais cotinifolia, left) I planted in the same north-side bed in 2019, I cut it down and dug it up.  I got it from Annie's Annuals & Perennials with the assurance that it could be grown as a shrub but it was determined to be a tall, skinny tree that never showed a single sign of flowering.  I also removed a lot of self-planted western sword ferns (Polystichum munitum) but I need to pull many more, as shown on the right.

A few of the pruning tasks I'd undertaken earlier have already produced positive results.

Melianthus major (left) and Sonchus palmensis (upper right) are greening up again and the Arctotis 'Pink Sugar' cuttings I took a month ago (lower right) are doing well

Getting to the jobs already on my docket is complicated by the fact that I keep buying new plants.

Clockwise from the upper left are: Rex Begonia 'Spirit of Sumatra', Cordyline 'Can Can', Peperomia 'Ginny', and 5 Eustoma grandiflorum (aka lisianthus) and 2 Evolvulus glomeratus 'Beach Bum Blue' intended to go into the ground as soon as the temperatures cool

The biggest jobs ahead include clearing out my cutting garden and preparing the cool season garden to come and cleaning up the back slope, which is currently in rough shape.  In the near term, I also need to harvest the persimmons.

Both persimmon trees, Disospyros 'Fuyu' on the top row and D. 'Hachiya' on the bottom, are ripening fast.  In the past, I've picked the fruit to give away as early as September and as late as mid-November.  There's no evidence that the squirrels (or rats!) are getting to them yet but I probably need to harvest the fruit within the next 2 weeks.

There's a lot of pruning yet to tackle but I'm contracting some of what I normally handle myself to my trusted tree service this year.  That work is currently scheduled for November 19th.

In the meantime, the strawberry trees (Arbutus 'Marina') are dropping scads of spent flowers.  I've swept those that fall on the pavement and dumped them in my compost bin but the rest pepper the beds surrounding them.

I have a tendency to focus on what needs to be done rather than what's looking good.

The bush violets (Barleria obtusa, left) are just getting started; some Japanese anemones (Eriocapitella hupehensis, middle) survived both the heatwave and the drying wind; and what I think is an autumn zephyrlily (Zephyranthes candida, right) popped up as a surprise

 

Aloe lukeana (left) is putting up a new bloom stalk and Mangave 'Praying Hands' (right) is living up to its publicity photos

And I managed to collect enough presentable flowers from my cutting garden to fill 3 small plastic bottles to give to friends I met for lunch on Wednesday

As the season continues to shift, I hope you're seeing the positives around you.  Best wishes for a happy weekend. Whatever you're up to, I recommend tuning out the political ads.  Honestly, I'd like to see the US Congress enact a law terminating all political ads during the two weeks leading up to the election - a steady diet of them is poisonous.

All material © 2012-2024 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party

  

Wide Shots - October 2024

I'm late with my quarterly wide shots post for October.  At this time of year, I've got a lot to do in the garden and seemingly never enough time to do it.  I also struggled with the light the last few days when I finally got around to taking photographs.  After two attempts I ended up with some photos I didn't entirely care for but so it goes - the garden is calling for me to get back to work!

I'm starting with my back garden as usual and moving in a generally clockwise fashion around the exterior of the house.

View from the back door looking toward the hazy harbor.  The fountain was rehabbed by my husband in July/August after it'd sprung several leaks and we'd nearly given up on it. 

View from the main patio looking north.  The strawberry trees (Arbutus 'Marina') are literally covered in flowers, which has made the hummingbirds going crazy, exciting Meeko in turn.

View from the north end of the back garden looking south.  What looks like kernels of corn on the pavement and in the succulent bed are zillons of spent flowers falling from the strawberry trees.  I don't recall them ever making this much of a mess.

Back along the midpoint of the back patio, this is the view looking south.  A lot of my Osteopsermums and other small plants burned up during September's heatwave.  I've pulled many of them, covering the ground with mulch until I find replacements to fill the empty spots.

View from the south end of the back garden looking north

On to the south-side garden.

South-side garden looking west.  The Leucospermum 'High Gold' in the foreground on the right is invading the flagstone path.  I chipped away at its growth after it finished flowering but I clearly need to take the pruning to another level.

View from the small south-side patio looking south.  The peppermint willow (Agonis flexuosa) and the Vitex trifolia in the background have now combined to nearly mask a neighbor's house from view  I cleared the short path leading to the hedge in the background but the Cistus shrubs on the right need additional pruning.  The Cotinus will get pruned later this year.

View of the south-side garden looking east.  I'm planning to plant an Australian fuchsia (Zauschneria) in front of the dwarf Agonis flexuosa 'Nana' on the left once the plant recovers from the dieback is sustained during the heatwave.  The Zauschneria was one of my last purchases from Annie's Annuals & Perennials, now sadly closed.

Moving into the front garden, I veer into the lower level before returning to the main level.

View of the lower level of the front garden occupied by my lath (shade) house, looking down from a path above the area.  It needs a major cleanup but I've scheduled my annual tree trimming exercise for November 19th.  There's always collateral damage to this area so I'm holding off until after the work is done.

Back on the main level of the front garden at its southern end looking north, although you can't see much beyond the Magnolia tree. The Grevillea 'Superb' on the right is low on flowers at the moment but there are still enough to keep the hummingbirds and bees happy.

View from the front door looking southwest.  The barrel in the foreground is in need of replenishment as the Dahlia 'Labyrinth' that served as its centerpiece has given up for the season.

View from the driveway looking at the front of the house.  The 2 tree-like 'Copper Glow' Leptospermums have gotten taller than I'd intended.  I've asked the tree service to bring them down a notch when they're here in November. 

View of the bed on the south side of the path to the front door.  Protea neriifolia 'Claire' is barely visible behind the fernleaf lavender (Lavandula multifida), which I intend to replace with a lower-growing groundcover, possibly more hairy Canary clover (Lotus hirsutus, aka Dorycnium hirsutum).  The bush violet (Barleria obtusa) in the foreground on the right is just about to begin its seasonal bloom cycle.

View of the area on the north side of front door path, featuring some of my low-profile Halloween decorations 

View of the beds in front of the garage looking north.  The lavenders need to be cut back.  Self-seeding Polygala myrtifolia is slowly creeping into every available nook and cranny in this area but I have to give it credit: it's a resilient groundcover.

A different angle on the same area taken from behind the succulent bed in front of the garage

The succulent bed renovated earlier this year is filling in albeit slowly

On the other side of the garage is my cutting garden.

I took this photo of the cutting garden before the majority of the dahlias collapsed or were withered by last week's Santa Ana winds.  I'm planning to begin the process of digging up the dahlia tubers this coming weekend to make way for my cool season garden.

Turning around to face east brings me to the north side garden.

I've done some work to clean up the damage wreaked by September's heatwave but more is required to thin and cut back the plants that became overly exuberant following the heavy rain earlier this year

I made a quick trip down that gravel path to the bottom of the concrete block stairway to capture a photo of the slope.

Don't look too closely!  Other than the Agave attenuata, almost everything is in need of grooming.  The dead, dry and burned up Centranthus alone (much of which is massed under the lemon tree outside the frame of this photo) will take a couple of hours of work.  I'm waiting until temperatures have cooled down again and I can be reasonably certain that the fire ants won't be a problem.

Last up are a couple of photos of the street-side succulent bed.

I posted about work on this area in an earlier post.  I plan on replacing the burned up Aeoniums with cuttings once the heat is clearly behind us.

Side view of the the same bed

Time permitting, I'll share a few of my more recent projects in the garden in Friday's post.

All material © 2012-2024 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party