Happy Halloween?!

I'm finding it hard to get excited about the holidays this year given that every news release leaves my head spinning and sends my blood pressure up.  Halloween isn't my favorite holiday in any case but I usually invest a little time decorating for it mid-month.  This year, I just pulled out a few things yesterday.  Our neighborhood isn't teaming with children to begin with but there are more now than there were when we moved in and I didn't want to disappoint those that show up on the 31st.

My decorations, such as they are, arranged in the front porch area

Last year, the neighborhood offered a lot more decorations for kids to enjoy, including one house with a front yard full of blow-up monsters and the like.  This year, there's nothing like that going on.  I noted only four houses with any kind of decorations and they were all low-key.

Spiders and ghosts on a front gate

I liked the little bats surrounding this front door.  Two other houses sported scarecrows.

I wasn't aware that chocolate prices have gone through the roof, which puts its own edge on the holiday.  I'd forgotten to pick up candy on my last trip to the market and asked my husband to get two bags while he was out.  He mentioned their price to me when he got home.  We didn't "need" two bags of candy as we're unlikely to have that many Halloween visitors but I like to leave the leftovers for delivery people during the holidays.

According to an NBC news report, cocoa prices that had typically ranged from $2K to $3K per metric ton reached $10K earlier this year.  Tariffs have impacted the candy production supply chain but crop diseases in West Africa attributed to climate change are a bigger factor as that region of the world produces 70% of the world's cocoa.

Meanwhile, my own garden offered me some spine-chilling sights I could've done without.

I noticed that 2 of the 5 Agave desmetiana 'Variegata' I planted here as pups in 2019 are in the process of developing their own bloom stalks.  As the others are approximately the same size and were installed at the same time, there's a good chance they may follow on the heels of the first 2, which means I'll probably face an entire do-over of the area in 2026.

My persimmons are ripening fast but the critters are getting to the fruit even faster.  The Diospyros 'Fuyu' offered a much smaller crop this year and the critters have taken most of them.  The fruit of the 'Hachiya' variety is more plentiful but less appealing to most people as it's very astringent until it's mushy.  Once both persimmon varieties are riper, I'd planned to give them away in November with a variety of plants and some of the leftover candy.

I'd assumed that raccoons were digging holes up all over my garden but on Wednesday night I discovered that a skunk may be responsible.  My cat alerted me to its presence and I turned on the outside light nearest this bed and caught photos of it at work with my cell phone.  My photos make it appear they were taken in daylight but it was close to 10pm.

Banging on the window briefly sent the skunk packing but he almost immediately returned.  I risked a spraying by going out on the patio to create more noise before heading to bed but I suspect he returned after I left.

The next morning, I discovered the skunk had done a thorough job of turning up the soil and pulling out entire plants in that bed and others even though I'd previously pinned hardware cloth over much of the bare soil.  I spent nearly an hour cleaning up after it yesterday morning.

I also discovered that the bloom stalk of this Yucca 'Bright Star' has stressed out the plant.  I expect I'll end up removing it once the flowers are spent.

In spite of news reports and the price of chocolate, I hope you find some reasons to smile this Halloween, be it a piece of candy or a child's smile.  In the US, the clocks roll back this weekend and I'm looking forward to that!

All material © 2012-2025 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party

Local rambles around town

My sister-in-law was here for a short visit last week.The last time she visited, we took her to the Getty Center but on this occasion we remained closer to home.  We took a long walk through South Coast Botanic Garden the first day.  The garden is in the process of transitioning from one set of events to another and I felt the emphasis on those rather than the beauty of nature and the garden itself, but I can't say that bothered my husband or my SIL, who don't have the same expectations of the garden as I do.  However, the weather was perfect and the walk itself was comfortable.

These are the only plant-related photos I took during this visit.  Construction of the new children's garden remains completely stalled and much of the garden is still cordoned off.  That may explain why the garden's administrators are leaning so hard into event traffic.

The biggest ongoing event is the "Magic of Jack O' Lanterns," which is a nighttime lights show and festival managed by a contractor.  It requires special tickets and ends on November 2nd.  

Dogtoberfest was open to dogs and their owners on Saturdays and Sundays during October.  I think it's officially closed now but some of the props were still in place.  

Astra Lumina, another light show, is returning to SCBG in November and is expected to run through the holiday season.  Although some features of that display were never removed, the contractor's staff was actively working on installation of the light connections when we visited.  You can find information on the contractor's site but, oddly, it isn't yet showing on SCBG's own site. 

The newest event, Dinosaurs Around the World, is scheduled to go live on November 1st, and continue until February 1st, 2026 but this was the only sign of it we came across during our visit.  Said to feature 13 animatronic dinosaurs, this one was half a dinosaur missing his electronic bits hanging out near some of the Jack O' Lanterns event stations.  However, on the way to a medical appointment on Monday, I saw plastic-wrapped dinosaurs being unloaded at the back of the garden.

The next day we decided to visit San Pedro, an area surrounding the Port of Los Angeles that we can see from our back garden.  I suggested stopping at the 25th Street mosaic mural.  I don't think my husband was impressed by the idea but he went with it as our first stop.  The only reason I was aware of the mural was that I answered a call for succulents to fill the hell strip that lines the street in front of the mural back in January 2024 when I happened upon an article on the effort in a local magazine.  I wrote a post about that, which you can find here.

I was even more impressed by the effort that went into the mural during this visit.  My husband and my SIL were impressed to.  I took more photos of the details this time but you can get the big picture in a video featuring Julie Bender, the woman who directed the project with the help of 600 volunteers from the local community (which you can find here).

Volunteers helped create individualized mosaic pieces.  These focused on boats, a big part of life in San Pedro, both past and present.

Houses, some containing family names and addresses

Snippets of memories and views on what it means to live in San Pedro were tucked in throughout the mural

The mural also included lots of historical highlights

San Pedro's former destination location was the Ports O' Call Village, a spot I can remember visiting as a child and at least once with my husband as an adult.  It was demolished in 2018.  My husband had the impression that the West Harbor development that's meant to replace it was further advanced than it is. It's intended to include restaurants, a famous fish market (temporarily relocated), retail shops, an open-air theater, and a three-acre pedestrian walkway. In fact, it's still under construction and isn't currently expected to open for business until 2026.  So we ended up at the Cabrillo Way Marina and walked there.

Lots and lots of boats, some qualifying as yachts in my view.  I spotted one paddle boarder and got a fuzzy photo.

Needless to say, I didn't get much done in my garden last week.  I did finish clearing the raised planters in my cutting garden but, as we've now got a bit of a heatwave going on - our temperature peaked at 90F/32C yesterday - I've held off on doing much in the way of replanting the beds or sowing seeds.

All material © 2012-2025 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party

In a Vase on Monday: The Lisianthus step up

It's considerably harder to determine what to use to fill a vase now that the summer bloomers are, for all practical purposes, gone.  A few new flowers have emerged here and there but they don't send the siren's calls that dahlias do.  However, the bush violets, Barleria obtusa, have just gotten started and I can't ignore their blue flowers.  While these plants flower abundantly, the stems are best used as accents and fillers so the remaining question concerned what I could use as a focal point.  Luckily, a small number of Lisianthus (officially classified as Eustoma grandiflorum) provided the answer.

I cut stems of just about every blue flower I have to fill the vase but I had just one stem of a pure white Lisianthus

Back view: The bush violets flower profusely but their delicate blooms also drop continuously.  Fortunately, buds continue to open as others fall.

Top view: The butterfly-like flowers of Rotheca 'Ugandense' (formerly classified as Clerodendrum ugandense) are as prone to dropping as those of the bush violets but less profuse, yet I included them too

Clockwise from the upper left: Barleria obtusa, berries of Billardiera heterophylla (formerly Sollya heterophylla), foliage of Centaurea 'Silver Feather', Eustoma grandiflorum, Lavandula multifida, and Rotheca myricoides 'Ugandense'

I'd originally planned to use stems of the green Lisianthus in my back garden with the bush violets but, when I saw the pristine white variety in the front garden, I went with it.  Still, I'm very fond of the green variety (which I've used as wallpaper on my mobile phone) so I wanted to take advantage of them while they're fresh.  I cobbled together a second arrangement featuring two of those stems.

I used stems of Correa glabra, a green-flowered Australian fuchsia, to echo the pale yellow-green color of the Lisianthus.  The Correa's flowers are sparse but the plant seems to produce slightly more flowers with each passing year.  The vase is a smaller version of the green porcelain vase I've often used this year. 

Back view:  I used 2 stems of Coleus 'Chili Pepper' to spice things up a bit (pun intended)

Top view

Clockwise from the upper left: Coleus 'Flame Thrower Chili Pepper', Correa glabra 'Coliban River', Eustoma grandiflorum, and Prostanthera ovalifolia 'Variegata'

All but one of my dahlias, the 'Caproz Pizzazz' that produced a single bud, are now gone.  While preparing to remove 'Lady Darlene', I realized I had two more zinnias growing nearby in the corner of the same raised planter.  I plopped two of the flowers into the small vase on our kitchen island, accompanied by some of the leftovers from the vase that contained the last of 'Lady Darlene's' flowers last week.

Single stems of Zinnia elegans (probably 'Senorita' and 'Benary's Giant Coral') accompany stems of Leucadendrons 'Blush' and 'Jester'

The marine layer has brought down temperatures again over the last few days but weather forecasters are predicting yet another mid-week uptick.  Meanwhile, there's no rain in sight as we bore ahead into November.

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

All material © 2012-2025 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party

Recent garden edits

My sister-in-law was in town this week and I didn't have a lot of time to work in the garden, much less put together blog posts, but I made a few edits to my south-side garden last weekend I thought I'd share in this short post.

You may recall that we removed a number of agaves from the main area of the south-end garden earlier this year.  We took out the all-too-exuberant 'Blue Flame' Agaves that were overtaking the bed in stages in July (as shown here and here).  In September, we tackled removal of a large 'Blue Glow' Agave that had bloomed twice and was left looking worse for the wear (as shown here).  Those actions left some large holes and it's taken me awhile to decide how to fill them.  My efforts there are by not means done but there's been some progress.

I removed a small Agave titanota that'd been hidden under the 'Blue Flame' Agaves in this area and planted the 'Sun Glow' Agave I'd purchased months ago in the middle of the space.  I filled in around it with cuttings of Senecio mandraliscae (aka blue chalksticks) and Aeonium 'Sunburst'.  It's going to take some time before everything fills out.

I potted up the Agave titanota and 2 pups to use elsewhere or give away

I added soil and cleaned up the area that'd been occupied by the bloomed-out 'Blue Glow' Agave and added more cuttings of Aeonium 'Sunburst' there.  I'm tentatively planning to fill in a portion of the remaining blank space with a Pelargonium, possibly 'White Lady', which produces small white flowers and loves to spread itself about.

I tweaked two smaller beds nearby too.

The 'Mission to Mars' Mangave shown in the center of this photo had a smaller Mangave, which I can only guess was a pup, growing under its leaves on the right.  I neglected to take a before shot but, because it was getting quite large, I dug it up and replanted it in front of its parent.  There's an even smaller Mangave in the foreground on the right, which I think is 'Tooth Fairy'.

This is a closeup of the Mangave pup.  It has coloring similar to 'Mission to Mars' and I've no record of planting any other members of the species in this area.

I can't recall if I've shown this small bed adjacent to the catio before.  It originally was filled with a mass of Mexican feather grass (Nasella tenuissima) and self-seeded Daucus carota, which I removed in the interest of eliminating flammable material so close to the house.  I recently planted 'Bronze Blend' Dutch Iris bulbs in the foreground and also added more bromeliad divisions (Neoregelia 'Guinea' x 'Pepper').  I may add even more divisions of the same Neoregelia soon.

I still have work to do in the cutting garden but, as I got an early start this year and the weather isn't quite right to sow sweet peas or other seeds yet, that can wait another week or so.  Meanwhile I received the second of my recent bulb orders and they may be given priority.

100 more bulbs, not all of which I can't honestly claim I've identified spaces for

Although my garden feels short on flowers at the moment, I did get a surprise when I noticed a touch of bright pink in my front garden.

Protea 'Claire' in the front garden already has one good-sized flower open and I counted at least 6 more buds working to catch up.  Meanwhile, my Protea neriifolia 'Pink Ice', tucked into a shadier section of the north-side garden, has yet to show signs of any buds.

Best wishes for a good weekend.  Although I wasn't able to join a "No Kings" rally myself last Saturday, I was very impressed by the strength of the turnout, estimated at between 7 and 8.2 million peaceful protesters.  Sadly, the White House responded by releasing a pathetic and tawdry AI-generated video that brings shame on the presidential office.  In my opinion, every elected official that fails to note that disgrace isn't worth keeping in office.  As an independent voter, I'm disgusted to the point of nausea.

All material © 2012-2025 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party

Wordless Wednesday: House plants find their happy place

 

All material © 2012-2025 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party

In a Vase on Monday: As luck would have it

I fully expected to be scrambling to find material to fill a vase this week.  This was indeed the case with my first arrangement.  I identified two flowering plants that might serve as centerpieces, a yellow Rudbeckia growing in a barrel in my front garden and the first buds of Senna bicapsularis growing along the fence separating us from a neighbor.  I cut stems of both but in retrospect wasn't too pleased with either so I went searching for other plants to give them a boost.  As is often the case in such circumstances, I cut more plants than I probably needed and end up with a hodge-podge.

Most of the Rudbeckia flowers had been nibbled by the grasshoppers still plaguing my garden and the Senna buds hadn't quite opened yet

Back view: I threw in the shaggy Shasta daisy (Leucanthemum x superbum) that made a lone late showing in my front garden and the orange berries of Auranticarpa rhombifolium (aka diamond-leaf pittosporum)

Overhead view: 2 stems of Japanese anemone (Eriocapitella hupehensis) elevated the arrangement somewhat, although they were partially buried on the mix

Top row: Abelia 'Kaleidoscope', Agonis flexuosa 'Nana', and Auranticarpa rhombifolium
Middle: Correa 'Ivory Bells', Eriocapitella hupehensis, and Lantana 'Lucky Yellow'
Bottom: Leucanthemum x superbum, Rudbeckia 'Juliana', and Senna bicapsularis

I had some unexpected luck in putting together my second arrangement.  Due to last week's heavier-than-expected rain, I wasn't able to get as much done in my cutting garden as I'd planned.  I managed to get all the dahlias but one out of the raised beds, which I left in place temporarily as it still had buds.  After the sun came out and temperatures surged into the mid-80sF (29C) days later, two new blooms of Dahlia 'Lady Darlene' made an appearance.

The 2 dahlias are smaller and redder than the 'Lady Darlene' flowers I've featured in prior vases

Back view: I've plenty of colorful Leucadendron stems to fill out my vases

Overhead view

Clockwise from the upper left: Dahlia 'Lady Darlene', Grevillea 'Ned Kelly', G. 'Superb', Leptospermum 'Copper Glow', Leucadendron salignum 'Blush', and variegated L. 'Jester'

Despite delays, I completed the process of digging up one of the raised beds in my cutting garden and replanted it with spring blooming plugs and bulbs (anemone corms).  Meanwhile, the local raccoons have been "helping" me clear the other two raised beds of grubs.  (I've laid hardware cloth and wire cloches over the first bed to keep them at bay.)  However, my sister-in-law will be visiting midweek so work will be delayed once again - but then my back will appreciate the break.

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

All material © 2012-2025 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party