Heatwave headaches

So much for the temperature buffer provided by our marine layer.  A heatwave moved into the area mid-week.  While we haven't experienced the 100F-plus temperatures some inland areas have, we peaked at just under 95F (35C) yesterday, which is miserable enough to put a virtual stop to my garden activities.

I got in a few minor garden chores and my daily walk during the early morning hours before ducking inside to take advantage of air conditioning for the balance of the day

These guys are everywhere because they LOVE the heat.  I have to watch my feet to avoid stepping on them.

Earlier this week when temperatures were nominally cooler I made a bit more progress with the bed formerly choked by the large Ceanothus and overgrown clumps of Aeoniums.  I spent another ninety minutes or so pulling out bulbous roots of asparagus fern and added a soil amendment.  Then I replanted the bed using numerous Aeonium cuttings and other plants and called it job done (for now).

The top photo shows the bed with the spare number of plants I added, including Aeonium arboreum and A. haworthii 'Kiwi' cuttings and 3 recently purchased Catharanthus 'Blueberry Kiss' plants I couldn't resist

The space remains fairly bare.  I'm considering adding a few Agapanthus bulbs or possibly a couple of smaller ornamental grasses in the background but those tasks had best wait until fall when transplants have a better chance of settling in.  In the meantime, I relocated more of my Aeonium cuttings to the back border.

My intention is to plant the area here, formerly planted with Mexican feather grass (Nassella tenuissima), with Aeonium cuttings and possibly other succulents.  At the back of the border next to the dirt path used for maintenance purposes, it's relatively invisible but I need plants there to keep the soil in this slightly sloped area in place during the rainy season.

I also replanted a very sad pot on our back patio this week.  I thought it'd be a twenty-minute job but the existing plant material fought me on its removal.  However, it was still a simpler task than digging up asparagus fern roots.

Foxgloves (Digitalis purpurea) do NOT like summer conditions here.  I generally pull them out when summer arrives but many of mine got a late start and this one was still producing flower stalks even as the foliage was turning crispy.  When it also developed an aphid infestation, it had to go.

Coneflowers don't last long in my garden either but I love them and try to find a place for them every summer

The pot contains: Achillea 'Terracotta', Calibrachoa 'Mango', Pentas lanceolata 'Graffiti White', Echinacea 'Pow Wow', and E. 'Sombrero Lemon Yellow'

Other than those tasks, my gardening has been mostly limited to watering, with particular emphasis on the cutting garden.  I used to hate summer but growing dahlias and zinnias there has redeemed the season for me.  They stand up to the heat and bring me great satisfaction.

View of the cutting garden looking northeast.  The raised planter in the middle is the most bountiful at present as it was the first one I planted up with dahlias and zinnia seeds this year.

View of the same area looking northwest.  The raised planter in the foreground was the last one planted as it was previously occupied by sweet peas.  They didn't bloom bloom until mid-May this year and I didn't get around to pulling them until the third week of June.  I'd sprouted my dahlia tubers in temporary pots but their roots didn't get a chance to spread out until they took over this bed.

Dahlia 'Mikayla Miranda', featured in this week's "In a Vase on Monday," was the first dahlia to bloom this year.  Dahlia flower production is late because I don't leave any of my tubers in the ground.  I grow all of them in either the raised planters of my cutting garden or large containers where I can manage the water they require during the growing season.  As I use the same raised planters for cool season flowers, I can't leave them in place as they'd get in the way and/or rot due to receiving excess water during their dormant period.  I also pinch all the plants once they reach eight to twelve inches tall, which delays flowering at least three weeks.

The dahlias blooming this week include these:

Dahlia 'Labyrinth' grows tall but its petals seem more sensitive to extreme heat

Dahlia 'Creme de Cognac', another holdover from last year, is one of my favorites

Dahlia 'La Belle Epoque' is new for me this year.  I wasn't initially enamored with it but the yellow highlights it's just started to show have improved my view of it.

Our heatwave is expected to end today.  Wherever you are, I hope your weather conditions deliver a pleasant weekend.

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

(Almost) Wordless Wednesday: Fogust

"Fogust" is a term used to describe our coastal Southern California marine layer when it extends into August.  While common in June, they're far less so once summer takes hold.  The first of August, when I took the following photos with my cell phone, was particularly wet and foggy.

The marine layer is still present every morning, although it burns off earlier now.  However, at present, as shown in the photo below, the Port of Los Angeles is visible only through a haze, as if viewing it through tissue paper, and the mountains to the east can't be seen at all.  This is attributable to especially poor air quality, due in part to a major fire burning about 200 miles to the north of us.

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

In a Vase on Monday: The first dahlias

Dahlia buds take their time about opening but 'Mikayla Miranda' came through this week while my others continue to dilly-dally.  Luckily, it's one of my favorites, which makes the slow roll of the rest more tolerable.

This is the 4th year in a row I've grown 'Mikayla Miranda', all from divisions of a single tuber I purchased in 2022

Back view: I used foxglove stems as the primary accent, the majority of which came from a single plant that keeps on giving.  The other 2 fillers, stems of common myrtle and the sweet pea shrub (Polygala myrtifolia), were mostly buried in the mix.

Overhead view

Clockwise from the upper left: Dahlia 'Mikayla Miranda', Digitalis purpurea, Myrtus communis, and Polygala myrtifolia

Dahlia 'Labyrinth' has produced just a single open flower thus far so I elected to hold off on using it until it makes more of an effort.  Three other dahlias are showing color and all but eight of my twenty plants are flaunting buds.  The stragglers look as though they're ready to pop, however.  In the interim, I decided to take advantage of the newest Agapanthus blooms as the blue notes in my garden are rapidly fading under our increasingly warm temperatures.

I used 3 different varieties of Agapanthus

Back view: I struggled to find suitable filler and ended up with a diverse hodge-podge

Overhead view

Top row: Abelia grandiflora 'Hopley's Variegated', Billardiera heterophylla, and Myrtus communis
Middle: Agapanthus 'Elaine', noID, and 'Twister'
Bottom: green Eustoma grandiflorum, Felicia aethiopica, and Globularia x indubia

The afternoon temperatures are relatively comfortable by our standards, running in the low-to-mid 80sF (28-29C) but our air quality is awful.  I can't even see the outlines of the mountains to the east and I'm not inclined to take deep breaths when outside.  While I'd gotten a little tired of our persistent afternoon winds, I'm now wishing they'd kick up again.  Under the circumstances, I'm not sure how much work I'll be putting into the garden until there's some improvement.

For more IAVOM creations, visit Cathy at Rambling in the Garden, the conductor of our merry band.

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

Some projects look easier than they turn out to be

As our morning marine layer backs off and temperatures begin to climb, I thought I'd tick off one of the easier projects on my list this week.  After all, I'd tackled the hard part a few months ago - or so I'd thought.

This is the area in question as photographed in January, a bed in the back garden badly congested with overgrown Aeoniums and a rambunctious Ceanothus

This photo, taken in late April, shows a worsened situation in which Aeonium haworthii 'Kiwi' in the bed directly across from the one shown in the first photo had effectively merged with the other bed, impeding the flagstone path that lay between the 2 areas

This "after" shot was taken once I'd cleared the path by removing most of the Aeonium 'Kiwi' and a portion of the taller noID Aeonium arboreum planted in front of the large Ceanothus shrub

My stage two project was to pull out all of the tall, bare-legged Aeonium arboreum, lightly prune the Ceanothus, and then replant.  It appeared a quick and easy fix to me!

I thought I had a better shot facing that area but, if I did, I couldn't find it, and I didn't take an updated photo prior to starting this phase of the project.  This photo, taken on April 30th, has to suffice to show the leggy Aeoniums on the right.

Pulling out the large Aeoniums took longer than I thought it would as many of them were buried underneath the Ceanothus but it wasn't difficult, even though I enlisted my husband's help digging up the more stubborn stumps.

I saved a fraction of the Aeonium arboreum for use in replanting the area, focusing on stems with multiple rosettes.  What I can't use there, I'll plant elsewhere or give away.  The discards filled one of our 3 green recycle bins.

This is a shot of the bed once the Aeoniums (with the exception of 2 clumps of 'Kiwi') had been removed.  I'd foolishly ignored the asparagus fern buried in there until it was fully revealed.  It proved to be another problem.

I don't know if it's apparent in the preceding photo but that noID Ceanothus is a behemoth.  It's the only one left from the garden we inherited when we purchased the house.  Like the mass of Ceanothus that originally occupied the front garden, it's backed by the Xylosma congestum hedge that runs the entire length of the main level of the backyard garden as well as most of the front of our property.  I'd no reservations about pulling out the three massive Ceanothus in the front garden when the plants began dying because the narrow space between them and the Xylosma made me claustrophobic.  The Ceanothus-Xylosma pairing in the back creates a similar feeling but I seldom pass through that section of the path, which is generally used only by the gardeners during their quarterly shearing of the hedge.

Pruning the Ceanothus proved harder than I expected.  Not only does the bed slope downward there but there's another sharp drop of two to three feet between it and the maintenance path separating it from the Xylosma.  I thought about asking the gardeners to prune the top of the shrub for me but I expected they'd shear it with an electric pruner, leaving the top looking butchered so I did what I could with manual pruning shears.  Given the sloping ground, there was no way I was going to attempt the job atop a ladder, or ask my husband to do so.

Here's what the area currently looks like.  The dead lower limbs of the Ceanothus have been trimmed back but they're still homely.  New growth will emerge but I plan to replant the space in front to hide the shrub's base anyway.

Thankfully, my husband jumped in and did his best to remove two foxglove asparagus ferns (Asparagus densiflorus 'Myers').  That plant is a menace and should never, ever be planted directly into the ground, except perhaps by someone who lives in Death Valley.

Although I'd been assured that the foxtail form of this asparagus fern is better behaved than it cousin, it appears to be as bad or worse.  I introduced one plant but we found 2 and they'd spread over a wide area.  We filled 4 trugs with their bulbous roots and I doubt we got them all.  Our recently purchased Root Slayer paid for itself when used on the ferns' roots.

So, this project isn't entirely done.  I want to make another pass through the bed to make sure all (or at least the vast majority) of the asparagus ferns' bulbous roots are gone.  Then I need to supplement the soil and replant.  As yesterday's trip to the garden center didn't provide other ideas, I'll replant the bed with Aeonium cuttings once again, even though the Aeoniums are entering their dormant status.  They do a good job of masking the underskirts of that Ceanothus.  I just need to be more meticulous about keeping both the Aeoniums and the Ceanothus well-trimmed in the future.

I'll close my Friday post with some prettier photos of two succulent plants in flower at present.

I think this is a monkey tail cactus (Cleistocactus colademononis as that was how it was labeled but my phone thinks it's a rat tail cactus, C. winteri).  In any case these are its first blooms 

 

The sweet bell-shaped flowers of Cotyledon pendens in this mixed succulent container was a nice surprise.  I bought the plant for its foliage, having no idea what its flowers might look like.

Enjoy your weekend!

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

Wordless Wednesday: The season's launch or just a tease?

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

In a Vase on Monday: Finally!

Leonotis leonurus (aka lion's tail) finally gets time on the central stage this week.  The plants in my garden are admittedly past their prime at this point yet there were still enough stems to make an impact.  I'd been uncertain what to pair with the plant's bright orange flowers from the start but the first blooms of another zinnia variety offered a suitable companion - pure serendipity in this case.

Zinnia 'Benary's Giant Lime' arrived in time to provide just the right contrast to the furry flowers of the Leonotis, which arrange themselves in whorls along the plant's stems

Back view: Lion's tail has been used for a wide variety of traditional medicinal purposes from treating tuberculosis and muscle cramps to diabetes.  It also has some psychoactive properties and has been banned in Latvia and Poland.  (More on the plant can be found here.)

Overhead view

Clockwise from the upper left: Agonis flexuosa 'Nana', Cuphea 'Vermillionaire', Zinnia elegans 'Benary's Giant Lime', Z. e. 'Queeny Red Lime', and Leonotis leonurus

I'd planned to put together a second arrangement using Agapanthus but, despite the cooler-than-usual July temperatures, the majority of my Agapanthus flowers have already taken a hike.  Instead of the heat taking them out, I think the persistent winds we've had of late have hurried their demise.  I've been cutting down the shaggy flowers en masse.  There are a few named varieties popping up here and there so, perhaps, I'll get another arrangement featuring them sometime in August.  A few Amaryllis belladonna made an appearance this week which could've provided a subsitute; however, after pulling weeds and deadheading flowers, I ran out of time.  And, with leftovers from last week's vases, I didn't have a good spot for another arrangement anyway.

Last week's arrangements were winnowed down for another round, although I don't think the remaining 'Zeba' lilies (left) will last much longer.  The zinnias in both vases should last awhile longer, though.

While parts of the US continue to experience intense heat and other extreme weather events, our part of coastal Southern California has been very lucky this month and it looks as though that pattern will hold through at least this week.  I've got a busy schedule so I may not have an opportunity to take advantage of our Goldilocks weather working in the garden but I'll try to squeeze some work in.

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

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

Another project ticked off the list (mostly)

I finally tucked back into clearing and planting up the long, narrow bed adjacent to the house that runs outside our dining and living room areas.  It was never a showpiece but it's highly visible from inside the house, as well as every time I walk out the back door.  From the time we moved in, it'd been dominated by a large red powder puff shrub (Calliandra haematocephala), which was sheared every couple of months to prevent it from overwhelming the walkway.  It seldom produced any flowers as a result but it did serve to hide the back side of the TV in the living room from sight.

This isn't the best photo but it's one of the few "before" shots I have.  The bed is approximately 3 feet wide and 25 feet long.

The regular shearing of the Calliandra caused dry, dead foliage to constantly build up inside, below, and around the shrub so I included it among the twenty-plus shrubs we had removed in early May in an effort to minimize our exposure in the event of a wildfire, along with the other three Calliandra shrubs planted elsewhere against the house and garage.

View of the bed after the Calliandra had been removed

I subsequently removed the Ageratums with the purple foliage myself but that's where I left things until this week.

Ageratum corymbosum in better days

My main hang up over moving ahead to replant the area was some apprehension about handling the merged mass of two plants, a large clump of clump of Renga lilies (Arthropodium cirratum) and a valued hellebore (Helleborus 'Phoebe').

Poor photo of the mass of plants in question

After trying and failing to dig up the hellebore in one piece, I focused on digging out the clump of Renga lilies, which proved to be far easier to remove.

I got 9 divisions from that one clump of Arthropodium.  I removed the scruffy bits and potted all the divisions in 7 one-gallon pots.

This photo shows the one remaining Arthropodium that'd been part of the clump, the droopy Helleborus 'Phoebe', a mass of Liriope muscari (aka lily turf), and a noID fern, all left in place

Then I started replanting, using cuttings and divisions taken from other plants.

Photo of plants now filling the area formerly occupied by the Calliandra

The "new" plants include: a mix of Aeoniums (A. arboreum, A. 'Jack Catlin', A. 'Kiwi', and A. 'Kiwi Verde'), Agave attenuata, and Agave bracteosa

In addition to the Liriope and Helleborus, I've left some other established plants in place, including the Arthropodium clumps shown in the left photo and other Agave attenuatas, a few Aeonium 'Sunburst', a mass of Campanula portenschlagiana, and various Narcissus and Freesia bulbs (currently invisible)

While the Renga lily divisions all have nascent roots, I'm giving them time to develop larger root masses before I add a few back into the bed.  I don't anticipate adding more three of those plants.  The rest will probably be planted out in the front garden.

Here are views of the bed at present:

View of the replanted bed from the north end looking south

View of bed's mid-section

View of the bed from the south end looking north

Much as I love my garden and as helpful as it is in offering me a way to de-stress, I've been having a harder time focusing on it of late, despite our remarkably pleasant below-average temperatures.  Even though I've significantly reduced my news consumption I can't help feeling distressed, angry, and sad about what's happening in the war zones overseas and the cruel treatment of people at home under the so-called leadership of those in political power.  The treatment of law-abiding immigrants collected by masked ICE agents based primarily on race, without regard to their contributions to our community, and the fear the agents generate even among US citizens, make me sick.  All the independent surveys I've viewed over the last few weeks show that I'm far from alone there but either those in charge don't care or they're choosing to listen only to the sycophants who insist on feeding their delusions to serve their own short-term goals.  It'd be pitiful if it wasn't so immoral and disgusting.

Rather than spend my time on constructive tasks, I've been roaming my cutting garden counting the buds on my dahlia plants.  My last count was 23 buds but about half of the plants have yet to show anything.  They buoy my spirits, even if only briefly.

The most promising buds are those produced by Dahlias 'Creme de Cognac', 'Labyrinth', 'La Belle Epoque', and 'Mikayla Miranda'

May you find pleasant ways to spend your time this weekend.

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