Wordless Wednesday: Spring's arrived early

All material © 2012-2026 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party

Another perspective on the garden

In July, Tamara of Chickadee Gardens published a post by her "facilities manager" featuring his favorite flowers.  Earlier this week, Loree of danger garden provided a list of her husband's favorite plants from their garden.  With a degree of trepidation, I asked my spouse if he'd identify his favorite plants in our garden.  After a roll of his eyes and my assurance that he could limit his list to ten plants, he laughed and signified general acceptance of the request (after I agreed that we could skip the back slope).  As background, my husband has always been very willing to help me with all the heavy lifting in the garden, including the removal of all the lawn that came with it, laying flagstone paths, and constructing a stairway of concrete blocks down our steep back slope.  He also built an arbor for our grapevine, a dining table for our back patio, a lath house for my shade plants and, most recently, compost bins.

In addition to designing and building the lath house, including internal shelving and external window boxes, he also created custom-fitted shade-cloth screens to cover the ceiling and top two shelving areas to increase the shade quotient during the hot summer months 

That said, he shows little to no interest in what I plant, except to occasionally express concern that one plant or another may impact his view of the harbor.  He's also severely color blind, so much so that I'm regularly required to advise him as to the colors marking electrical wires when he's wiring anything. I periodically invite him into the garden to look at plants I'm particularly pleased with but the best I usually get out of him is "uh huh, that's nice."

He walked through the garden before making any selections.  Then he started pointing to things but he left the camera work to me.  I asked if he could tell me what he liked about the plants he identified and he responded to the effect that I hadn't said that was necessary so "no" and we proceeded with him pointing and me clicking the camera.  Here's his list in order of selection:

Pyrus calleryana, aka ornamental pear : This tree admittedly provides good shade cover in the front garden but it's also extremely messy; however, I'm the one that deals with the leaf litter and falling fruit

Phormium 'Maori Queen': One of my favorite plants as well.  He noted that we had several and his praise encompassed all of them.

Pennisetum advena 'Rubrum': He took note of two of them but there are others.  He looked up at Grevillea 'Peaches & Cream' as we walked by the area on the right but made no note of that plant.

Helichrysum petiolare 'Licorice Splash: I was confounded by this choice, especially as he completely ignored Acacia cognata 'Cousin Itt'

Arthropodium cirratum, aka Renga Lily (not currently in bloom): This selection startled me too.  I love the plant, which handles dry shade conditions well, but he passed by a couple of dozen of these plants elsewhere in the garden without noting them.  The two plants here receive more sun and are a bit sun-bleached by comparison to others in shadier areas.

Zinnia elegans: The first flowers he acknowledged, although he waved at them and said "these chrysanthemums or whatever they are."  In retrospect, I wondered if he noticed these because this area was recently covered with scrappy looking rosemary shrubs.  I added the Zinnias as a temporary filler after pulling the shrubs out.

Yucca 'Bright Star': Another plant we agree on

Polygala fruticosa, aka sweet pea shrub: Although I've got a few of these in the garden, the most I can say about it is that it's a tidy shrub when young

Lantana 'Samantha': Another flowering plant, this one with variegated foliage.  There was no mention of the lovely sunflower in a pot nearby that echoed the yellow flower color.

Pelargonium 'Lady Plymouth': His selection of this one had me thinking that he's drawn to variegated foliage that stands out among the surrounding plants

Gladiolus 'Green Star': A total surprise

The Mandarin and navel orange trees: In this case, he specifically mentioned that he appreciated their excellent fruit.  There are still a few orange spots visible near the top of the Mandarin orange tree on the left but most of those are just shells left by the rats after they ate the remaining fruit in place.

If you've counted, his list included twelve plant species rather than ten as we'd both lost track.  Like Loree, I suspect the list might be very different at another moment in time.  No succulents were identified.  I was moderately surprised there weren't more trees on the list (I'm certain the lemon tree would've been included if we'd gone down the back slope) and almost as surprised that he included any flowers at all.  I'm not sure what I can take away from the exercise about his preferences other than perhaps that he shows some preference for variegated plants.

Online sources are predicting a nice drop in temperatures over the weekend and although they've consistently underestimated our daytime highs I'm nonetheless hopeful they're right this time.  I hope you enjoy a safe and comfortable weekend as well.

All material © 2012-2020 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party

Bloom Day - February 2020

Coastal Southern California really only has two seasons - a cool season during which we get rain (if we're lucky) and a warm-to-hot season, which seems to be getting longer with each passing year.  While our nights are still definitely on the chilly side, we're getting more and more days with temperatures in the upper 60s and lower 70s (Fahrenheit).  I can't say Spring has exploded into being yet but it's slowly creeping in.  More rain might push floral production along more quickly but it's not clear we're going to get much more of that.  In fact, yesterday I heard that California's snowpack is currently sitting at 59% of average with no rain or snow in sight, which doesn't bode well.

Despite the lower than desired rainfall, my usual February blooms appear to be right on schedule.

Ceanothus arboreous 'Cliff Schmidt' on my back slope is putting on its best display yet

Echium handiense 'Pride of Fuerteventura', a native of the Canary Islands and always the first of my Echiums to bloom, is putting on a good show

Euryops chrysanthemoides 'Sonnenschein' (left) and Euryops x virgineus 'Tali' (right) are pumping out blooms in the same color but different sizes

Pyrethropsis hosmariense (aka Moroccan daisy) is pretty in both bud and bloom

Pyrus calleryana (aka ornamental pear) is a messy tree with funky smelling flowers but it stands out at this time of year

The flowers of Ribes viburnifolium 'Catalina Perfume' are tiny but plentiful

My prostrate rosemary have been blooming for some time but the flowers are now too profuse to ignore

Cooler temperatures have given the African daisies their usual seasonal boost.

The photos on the left and the top right are Arctotis 'Opera Pink' and the one on the lower right is my favorite Arctotis 'Pink Sugar'.  I went overboard this fall pulling up scruffy 'Pink Sugar', assuming that I could get more with little problem but, despite the fact that my remaining plants are blooming, I've yet to be able to find more in my local garden centers (even though I've submitted 2 special orders for them).

Gazanias are popping up all over, although the progeny of many of the self-seeded plants haven't replicated their parental stock

Osteospermums definitely prefer temperatures on the cooler side

I was particularly delighted by the appearance of a couple of early blooms.

Anemones don't do well here, seldom surviving more than one season, and I don't plant them every year but this year I ordered some special tubers and planted them in my cutting garden in early November.  This is Anemone 'Mistral Rarity', the first to bloom.  

I often complain that hellebores are slow to bloom here.  This year Helleborus 'Blue Lady (left) and 'Phoebe' (right) are a month or so ahead of schedule.  'Phoebe's' foliage also seems to have taken on some variegation.

Certain plants can always be depended on to show up.

Bauhinia x blakeana (aka Hong Kong orchid tree) has been blooming for months

Camellia williamsii 'Taylor's Perfection' produced its first blooms before Bloom Day last month, peaked in late January, and is now on the decline

Coleonema pulchellum 'Sunset Gold' has also been blooming for months but the flowers blanket the shrubs now 

Gomphreana decumbens 'Itsy Bitsy' has recovered from the hard pruning it received in November

The large-flowered Grevilleas bloom year-round.  Clockwise from the left: Grevillea 'Peaches & Cream' in a wide shot and a close-up, 'Ned Kelly', and 'Superb'

The small-flowered  Grevilleas join in at this time of year to produce a profusion of blooms.  Clockwise from the upper left: Grevillea 'Scarlet Sprite', G. lavandulacea 'Penola', G. alpina x rosmarinifolious, G. sericea, and G. rosmarinifolious.

Leucadendrons (aka conebush) don't have flowers in the conventional sense but their bracts take on the appearance of flowers this time of year.  Clockwise from the upper left: Leucadendron 'Safari Goldstrike' in a wide shot and close-up, 'Wilson's Wonder', 'Blush', and 'Safari Sunset'.

I picked up a couple of new flowering plants this month.

In pots by the front door: Boronia crenulata 'Sharks Bay' (left) and hybrid Pericallis 'Magic Salmon' (right)

I've organized the best of the rest of the blooming plants by color for the record.

Top row: Brachyscome angustifolia 'Brasco Violet', Campanula poscharskyana, Felicia aethiopica, and Freesia
Middle row: Iris germanica in bud, Lepechinia bella, noID Muscari, and noID Violas
Bottom row: trailing Lantana and Polygala fruticosa

Clockwise from the upper left: Cyclamen, Cuphea ignea 'Starfire Pink', Eustoma grandiflorum, Leptospermum scoparium 'Pink Pearl', and Lotus jacobaeus

Clockwise from the upper left: Argyranthemum fruticosa 'Everest', Cymbidium Sussex Court 'Not Peace', Hippeastrum 'Moon Scene', Digitalis purpurea 'Dalmatian White', and Westringia 'Morning Light'

Clockwise from the upper left: Alstroemeria 'Indian Summer', Euphorbia rigida, Phylica pubescens, noID Narcissus, and Rudbeckia hirta 'Denver Daisy'

Succulent blooms, top row: Aeonium arbroeum, Aloe 'Johnson's Hybrid', and A. 'Safari Rose'
Bottom row: Crassula multicava 'Red', C. orbicularis var rosularis, and C. rupestris 'Springtime'

That's a wrap until next month.  To see what's blooming in other parts of the US and elsewhere in the world, visit the host of Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day, Carol at May Dreams Gardens.


All material © 2012-2020 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party

Spring's Promise

It's raining again this afternoon and there's more rain predicted for late next week.  The long-range forecasts suggest that rain may continue at intervals through April, which, after 5 years of drought, is almost hard to get my head around.  As rain is synonymous with winter here, that suggests a delay in spring's arrival but there's already evidence that spring isn't going to let a little rain get in the way.  Right on schedule, our local harbinger of spring, the ornamental pear trees (Pyrus calleryana) dotting public and private spaces throughout the region, are bursting into bloom, a fact I couldn't miss when I took a peek at my back slope yesterday afternoon.

The ivy and Pittosporum tenuifolium 'Silver Magic' in the foreground mark the border between our property and that of our neighbor.  The ornamental pear trees festooned in white blooms are on the neighbor's property, providing a pretty screen.

These are messy trees but I can enjoy those on my neighbor's property without any problem.  However, I did inherit one of my own with the house and garden.  Its mess has been manageable in prior years but, despite a good pruning in early December, its litter habit has been a lot harder to deal with this year.

Our Pyrus calleryana failed to provide much in terms of foliage color this year and never dropped all its leaves but it's started its annual bloom cycle right on schedule, as indicated by my February 11, 2016 post

Perhaps all the rain we had beginning in December caused the tree to develop more or larger fruit.  Or perhaps the heavy January rains just brought more of the fruit down at one time.  You can see how it's stained the flagstones.  Keeping the fruit cleaned up (and preventing it from being tracked into the house) has become an almost daily exercise.

But the flowers on the ornamental pear aren't the only sign that spring is on the way.  Narcissi have been in bloom for a few weeks and other bulbs are now joining the chorus.

The noID Narcissi planted outside the dining and living room windows are almost bloomed out but they're still in bloom elsewhere in the garden

The first Alstroemeria flowers are just beginning to open

This and 2 other Anemone coronaria were purchased recently but the foliage of tubers planted in prior years have popped up too

Freesia foliage is everywhere but the buds on this yellow variety should be ready to release their wonderful fragrance within days

Other plants are also poised to bloom any minute.

From left to right: self-seeded borage (Borago officinalis), Echium handiense, and Veltheimia bracteata

In addition, Crassula 'Springtime' is in bloom.  Can there be any better proof that spring is in the air?

Well, how about the first sweet pea blooms?

Apparently, this pink sweet pea didn't want to miss out on Valentine's Day

All material © 2012-2017 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party