A departure from the usual programming

It's been another crappy week.  The news out of the US capitol is difficult to watch, although I'm still consuming more coverage than may be healthy.  Our humidity level dropped to ten percent as the Santa Ana winds picked up again.  Three fires broke out in San Diego County yesterday, while the battle to contain the Palisades and Eaton Fires in Los Angeles County continues.  (There's no marine layer at the moment!)  The air quality here remains poor and, with the wind chill, it's felt especially cold so, other than a little watering, I've barely touched my garden this week.

Meanwhile, on a recommendation from blogger Tracy at tz-garden, I pulled up a few Cat TV videos off YouTube to keep my cat entertained.

It took a little while for Meeko to warm up to it.  Some videos were clearly more compelling than others.  Those with noisy, active birds had the greatest appeal.

The videos kept her attention longer than I'd expected but she was periodically distracted by the activity at the bird feeders outside my office window.

The air purifier in my office has proven to be one of her favorite perches when tracking the outdoor birds.  Regrettably, she's also inclined to take in the view of the feeders from our kitchen island, a habit I'm having difficulty breaking. 

The real-time activity outside the the window tends to get her riled up, which led me to try "calming" Cat TV videos.  They worked, sort of.

The videos feature views of numerous cats and kittens, most sleeping with background music

The video shown above is accompanied by piano music with a continuous undertone of a cat purring.  It does seem to relax Meeko, although it's possible that's just a coincidence.

Snapshot of Meeko in my lap with the video playing.  She seems to ignore the video's visuals.

The purring sounds, which my husband complained about, brought to mind an old episode of the Star Trek TV series, entitled "The Trouble with Tribbles."  Tribbles were furry creatures that purred incessantly, and also procreated like mad, creating chaos.  Captiain Kirk eventually rid his ship of them by transporting them to a Klingon battle ship that was threatening the Enterprise.  Apparently, Klingons fervently dislike tribbles, which I suppose puts my husband in the same class as Klingons.  For the record: I can't in any way be construed as a "Trekkie" but my college boyfriend, now husband, and his friends exposed me to re-runs of that series back in the day and this particular episode stuck in my mind for some reason.

I hope to soon return to my regular garden-related programming.  According to AccuWeather (but not all weather agencies), there's currently a seventy percent chance of light rain here this weekend and a seventy-five percent chance of more rain on February 4th.  Fingers crossed!

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

Deconstructing and replanting my cutting garden

Tearing my cutting garden apart and replanting it is one of my most labor intensive annual garden projects.  I'd thought I might put it off until early November but the Santa Ana winds brought my dahlia season to an abrupt end.  I started removing dahlias from the raised planters last Friday, moving on to the zinnias and other plants on Monday.

This was what the cutting garden looked like on October 19th, when the winds got started

All but the last 4 dahlias in containers have been pulled up.  I tossed 2 plants out but I still have more than I want to store through their dormant period.  Once I clean them up, I'll try to take some divisions and perhaps give away some clumps.

I had all the zinnias and coneflowers pulled up by Monday afternoon but forgot to put them out for neighbors until after dark.  However, there were just 5 bottles of flowers left when I went to photograph them the following morning.  The rest were gone before the end of the day.

After all the plants were removed from the raised beds, it was time to refresh the soil in preparation for replanting them.

I mixed in soil especially designed for raised beds, a bit of regular compost, and worm compost.  I worked around several anemones that came back from last year's crop.

Once the beds were ready for planting, I start sowing sweet pea seeds, before moving on to bulbs and plugs of cool season annuals.

It's generally recommended to start sweet peas in September here so I'm well behind schedule but then that was the case last year too.  I couldn't get hold of some of my favorites like 'Blue Shift' but I still had more seeds than I could possibly use in the raised planter reserved for them.  I soaked the seeds for 12 hours prior to sowing them.

I also soaked my Anemone coronaria for 4 hours prior to planting.  I invested in 5 varieties of Italian Anemones this year: 'Mistral Rosa Chiaro', 'Mistral Plus Rarity', 'Mistral Bianco Centro Nero', 'Mistral Azzuro', and 'Mistral Grape'.  They're more expensive but they put on a good show.

My Ranunculus corms are still in transit but I'm happy to be more than halfway done with the replanting process.

This is what the beds looked like late yesterday afternoon.  In addition to the sweet pea seeds and the anemones, I sowed Nigella papillosa and Consolida ajacis (larkspur) seeds, and added a dozen Antirrhinum majus (snapdragon) plugs.

Closeups of the 3 raised planters.  I've laid down pieces of hardware cloth in 2 of the beds in an effort to keep the birds and critters from foraging there until the seeds germinate.

According to the seller, the Ranunculus corms I ordered won't arrive until Monday so my projects for the weekend will be cleaning up the dahlia tubers to get them ready for storage and/or cleaning up the back slope, two of my least favorite tasks.  Of course, if it rains on Saturday, I may get a reprieve; however, the most recent forecast for my area shows that the chance of that happening has dropped to twenty percent.  It also now projects no measurable rain for us, which is disappointing to say the least.

Another recent disappointment is that the peafowl are back.  To my dismay but the cat's delight, three peahens showed up in our back garden Wednesday morning.

Meeko may be intimidated by stray dogs but, watching from my office window, she was fascinated with the peahens as they quietly strolled through the back patio

They turned around as soon as I went outside and began following them

Meeko enjoyed the show as long as it lasted

The peahens split up, choosing different escape routes, all of which landed them on my neighbor's roof a little while later

Meeko curled up next to the sliding glass door, anticipating their possible return.  They did show up again in the late afternoon, walking along the street in front of the house, making a racket as they heeded calls from a peacock in the distance.  It's looking as though they're intent on taking up residence here once again.

Even with the current rain forecast what it is, my fingers are crossed that we'll get a little.  For one thing, a bit of downtime would be much appreciated right now.  Have a nice weekend.  And, if you haven't already done so, VOTE!

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

An unplanned nursery stop

Although, like Alice in Wonderland's white rabbit,  I seem to be running late for everything recently, I took off on a whim on Monday morning for Flora Grubb Gardens in Marina Del Rey in response to notice of a flash twenty percent off sale.  Halfway there, after getting a late start, then getting caught up in traffic delays related to construction projects I encountered everywhere, I decided to stop in at Deep Roots Garden Center in Manhattan Beach instead.  I'm currently focused on finding multi-petaled Osteospermums to fill in empty spots in my back garden and I thought Deep Roots was more likely to have those than Flora Grubb anyway.  As it turns out, I didn't sacrifice on a sale offer either.

Here's the sign I saw as soon as I stepped into the garden center:

The garden center is scheduled to move early next year.  It'll reopen in the new location nominally closer to my home on a date TBD in March or April.

Deep Roots is small but generally well-stocked (except during the lead up to the year-end holidays starting in mid-November).  And, like Floral Grubb Gardens, it emphasizes waterwise plants.

Despite their ongoing sale, most areas were still relatively well-stocked.

The bedding plants on display included some Osteospermums but not the multi-petaled varieties I was looking for

A wide selection of succulents in both small and big sizes was available

There were plenty of shade plants too.  I've been on the look-out for more coleus and they had a couple of varieties that are hard to find.

The forty percent off sale on all plants was compelling but I still talked myself out of several plants.

Clockwise from the upper left these included: Aeonium 'Pink Witch' (hard to find but priced at $40 before the discount for plants in 4-inch pots), a Lophospermum (not well suited to the conditions in my garden), Veltheimia (I already have 3 bulbs that haven't proven themselves), and Cereus forbesii ($48 even after the sale discount)

as well as a mature Beschorneria in bloom (I couldn't find a price tag and decided not to bother asking)

However, I didn't walk out empty-handed.

I brought home a Cordyline 'Can Can', 2 Plectranthus scutellarioides 'Lime Shrimp' (coleus in the 'Under the Sea' series) shown with 3 Gazania 'White Flame', and 3 Crassula 'Sea Urchin'

It's been a remarkably cool and dreary week and I haven't touched most of the items on my ridiculously long to-do list but the sun came out mid-day yesterday and the weekend should be beautiful so I'm hoping to get back to work.  The biggest issue currently distracting me are some behavioral problems with Meeko.  Other than her continued insistence on using furniture to sharpen her claws, she seemed to be adapting well, until she suddenly went on the attack this past week, turning on me a few times, as well as my husband.  I think this is attributable to stress related to a few random incidents involving stray dogs in our unfenced garden and also scent sprayed by skunks near her catio.  She actually scared me on two of these occasions, as well as leaving me bloodied.

Meeko was peaceful and relatively laid back yesterday afternoon.  I lined up an appointment with my vet next week to discuss both additional methods to manage the furniture scratching (already covered with two-sided tape and other deterrents) and the sudden aggressive behavior.  In the meantime, I've started giving her Zylkene, a hydrolyzed milk supplement designed to help cats relax in stressful situations.  I've also picked up a chewable vitamin-based treat intended to make cats feel more comfortable.

Hopefully, we can resolve the issues soon.  My husband is already in favor of taking her back to the shelter, something I can't even imagine.  I've never given up on an animal, even when vets on two separate occasions encouraged me to take cats I'd adopted back to the place I got them.  The prospect of doing so this time is heartbreaking. 

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

Friday Potpourri

"Potpourri" sounds better than mishmash, doesn't it?  I've spent a lot of time in the garden this week but not much of what I've done was photo-worthy so this post is comprised of a number of relatively unrelated topics.

Although areas throughout Southern California faced temperatures ranging from the 90s into the 100sF, we were lucky to have temperatures in the mid 80sF (30C) so I pursued a variety of tasks associated with my annual end-of-summer cleanup.  I deadheaded and pruned a few large shrubs, thinned messy clumps of ornamental grass, spread yet more mulch, and pulled a lot of weeds, including the skeleton of a tall Daucus carota which had somehow been buried among larger plants.  As it'd already dropped its seed, I imagine I'm going to confront a massive number of seedlings in the area next year.  

Only two small projects were worth sharing in photos.

Last year I removed masses of Aeoniums I'd used to edge this bed.  Unfortunately, the plants I put in their place didn't tolerate the dry conditions well so I've edged the area once again with Aeonium cuttings.  I mulched the bed too but plan to fill the interior of the bed with Osteospermums once temperatures drop to supplement the Hippeastrums already planted there.

This is what the bed looked like in January 2021 after I'd let the Aeoniums take over.  My hope is to strike a middle ground with the succulent edging this time.

This is a view of the same bed from the other side

I also cleaned up this bed that runs along the back of the house.  I thought I'd taken a before photo but couldn't find it so I hope you'll take my word for it that it's much tidier now.  The mulch helped.  The small Agave attenuata 'Ray of Light' that was scorched in a sunnier spot was moved into this bed, which gets only morning sun.

I also spent time cleaning up and repotting the orchids in my lath house, or most of them anyway.  (I ran out of orchid bark.)

Clockwise from the upper left are an Epidendrum with 2 pots of Cymbidiums, a third Cymbidium, a noID orchid, an Oncidium, and a Phalaenopsis.  As many orchids like to be crowded, it may take awhile for some of these to bloom again.

Despite another round of warm temperatures, I suddenly realized that the towering dahlias in my warm season cutting garden aren't likely to last much longer than another month so I also applied myself to ordering seeds and bulbs in preparation to plant a cool season cutting garden in November.

The 2 dahlias that have yet to flower, 'Hometown Hero' and 'Belle of Barmera', have buds at last.  Talk about keeping me waiting!

Speaking of dahlias, have you heard about the discovery of a "daffodahlia" at a floral farm in Enumclaw, Washington?  When a friend forwarded photos of this extraordinary bloom to me, I was initially suspicious that the photos were AI creations but a little research suggests that the flowers are real.  They're not actually intergeneric hybrids of a Dahlia and a Narcissus but rather dahlia flowers that have developed daffodil-like ruffles.  You can find photos here.  Whether the flowers represent a natural mutation or are products of a virus or disease isn't entirely clear but an initial review by personnel at Washington State University found no evidence of disease or virus among the various plants sporting the unusual ruffles, which were present among various plants from the same stock.  The owners of the flower farm, Cattle & Cut Flowers, plan to experiment by collecting seed, cuttings and tubers from the affected plants to see it they can replicate the flowers in future plants to create a stable mutation.  It's a very interesting discovery for dahlia addicts like myself!  There are dahlias resembling anemones, chrysanthemums, and waterlilies so why not one that looks like a daffodil?  If interested, you can follow the farm's progress on its Instagram page @cattleandcutflowers.  Sunset has already published an article with opinions of all sorts, which you can find here.

Earlier weather forecasts suggested that our marine layer would fade out this coming weekend as the current heatwave continues but, even as our inland valleys are yet again experiencing record high temperatures, the morning marine layer here appears to be strengthening rather than declining.  It didn't lift until nearly noon yesterday, even delivering a hundredth of an inch of measurable precipitation.

The marine layer was so thick it blocked out most of the usual views

Another advantage of the marine layer is that the moisture makes the plentiful spider webs visible before you walk into them

Lastly, to send you off into the weekend with a smile on your face, I thought I'd share some photos of Meeko.  As of tomorrow, she'll be eight months old which is equivalent to fifteen years of age in human terms.  She's recently taken after Alice in Wonderland, seeking adventure through a looking glass.

These photos show Meeko staring into the mirror in our main bedroom

Then she attacked the cat in the mirror!

She's continued to fight off the intruder on a periodic basis.  Oddly, the cat in the bathroom mirror no longer bothers her.

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

Making a start

I had all sorts of plans for work in my garden before I left to join the Puget Sound Garden Fling.  However, shortly after I returned, I was downed by a bout of COVID.  Once that was behind me, late summer's intense heat blossomed into a full-blown heatwave, sidelining my plans still further.  I managed to get in a few chores, like spreading mulch, but I've only made an impact in cleaning up two areas, neither of which was on my original list.  Still, it feels like progress in the right direction.

Before the heat soared, I took an initial stab at cleaning up my street-side succulent bed.

This is what the street-side succulent bed looked like in early July.  The mass of pink in the middle of the bed are flowers of Oscularia deltoides, a low-growing succulent with gray leaves and dark pink stems.

Sadly, by mid-August the plant was a mass of dead brown flowers.  When I examined it closely, there was more dead material than fresh foliage so I ended up pulling it all up, collecting a relatively small number of cuttings.

After the Oscularia and a couple of clumps of burned up Aeoniums were removed, work was suspended due to the extended heatwave.  I took this photo on September 11th, showing new sun and heat damage to the agaves.

Both the 'Blue Flame' Agaves on the right and the mass of Agave attenuata on the left had more damage than I was prepared to live with

Agave 'Blue Flame' doesn't let go of it's dead foliage willingly and conducting surgery on damaged foliage is even harder.  The dried-out leaves of Agave attenuata are easier to remove but the plant produces even more pups than 'Blue Flame' and these were encroaching on its neighbors so I ended up removing one large pup and three small ones.

Wide shot of the bed taken yesterday after I'd cleaned up the agaves

Closer look at the 'Blue Flame' Agaves.  The rosette hanging over the rock wall should probably go later this year before it falls into the street but I left it in place for now.

View from the back of the bed.  Removing 4 pups of the Agave attenuata gave the Yucca rostrata and the Aloe lukeana more room to spread out.

The largest Agave attenuata pup (left) is sitting in an empty pot to allow it to develop some roots before I give it away.  The smaller pups were damaged and I tossed them.  I potted the Agave 'Mateo' pups on the right after I rescued them from the pot containing their parent, which had been nearly buried under the Oscularia.

I'll plant cuttings of the Oscularia deltoides soon but it'll be a few years before the plant makes a statement like it did earlier this year.  I plant to remove and replace all or most of the remaining heat-scarred Aeoniums with fresher rosettes once I can be reasonably certain that the heatwaves are behind us.  Fall can't be counted on to arrive on September 22nd in our part of the Northern Hemisphere.

The other area I tackled was a bed in the northeast corner of the back garden.

This photo was taken in late June for my July wide shots post.  The area directly surrounding the smaller of the 2 strawberry trees (Arbutus 'Marina') was the focus of my efforts this month.

This is a view of the same area from the opposite direction, also taken in late June.  It may be difficult to see but there are 2 very large shrubs growing underneath the strawberry tree, both of which into its upper canopy.

Sonchus palmensis (aka giant dandelion tree, left) should've been cut back in late June when the flowers were spent but I never got around to it and I hate to think how many seedlings it may produce next year.  Melianthus major (right) develops tall branches and even taller flower spikes.  The photo shows its seed pods.

I cut back the Sonchus and the Melianthus to about a foot in height, lightly pruned the nearby Leucadendron 'Jester' and the Leucospermum 'Royal Hawaiian Brandi', and pulled up the ivy that relentlessly climbs into the area from the back slope.  The heatwave arrived before I had a chance to pick up more mulch to cover the bare soil and replant some succulents so those tasks remain on the "to-do" list.

"After" closeup of the area in question

Shot of the same area from the back patio

Given that the heatwave stretched out for six days, peaked at 108F (42C), and night temperatures barely cooled, I expected more damage than I've seen thus far.  I deep watered my cutting garden three times during the heatwave.  While a lot of blooms and foliage shriveled in place anyway, everything but a few recently planted zinnia plugs survived.  A few newly acquired plants in pots are in poor shape and a variety of annuals, including most of my Lisianthus (Eustoma grandiflorum), croaked.  But most of the trees and larger plants should be fine once they grow new foliage to replace what was toasted.

The small Agave attenuata 'Ray of Light' in a sunny bed in the back garden (left) looks like it'd prefer to be moved to a shadier location.  The leaves of the large Coprosma 'Plum Hussey' planted alongside our south patio (right) was burned on one side but I expect I can prune out the damage. 

 

Phormium 'Apricot Queen' received a bad sunburn but should recover

I've got a lot of self-seeded Polygala myrtifolia (sweet pea shrubs) so this one won't be missed.  I've already dug it up.

Large patches of the creeping thyme planted between the flagstones burned so I'll be looking for flats of thyme to replant the affected areas this fall

I didn't even notice that this Yucca gloriosa had a bloom stalk until 2 days ago.  Many of its buds are singed and it remains to be seen whether it'll look presentable when they open

In other cases of severe heatwaves, the lemon tree at the bottom of our back slope has dropped all its fruit, setting its production back a year or more.  I was surprised that there was so much fruit left on the tree this time.  I've yet to test the fruit's quality, though.

Some plants show no signs of heatwave-related damage whatsoever, at least thus far.  That includes all the 'Cousin Itt' Acacias, Leptospermums, Leucadendrons, Leucospermums, Callistemons, Coleonemas, and other large, well-established plants I can't bring to mind at the moment.  A couple even seem to have thrived in the heat.

While many agaves showed sunburn damage, the 3 'Blue Glow' Agaves shown above had their own sunscreen in the form of a Chondropetalum tectorum, aka a small cape rush.  The rush itself is flowering abundantly too.

And I'd swear that this Vitex trifolia shot up another foot in height during the heatwave

The heatwave also brought three unexpected visitors to our garden.  Although their visit was brief, it created something of a stir.

Meeko and I caught sight of the 3 from inside the house at about the same time.  By way of explaining the poor quality of this shot, I caught them in action through the window with my phone's camera.  All 3 appear to be juvenile peafowl but I can't be certain of their genders as their tail feathers haven't developed.  At least one appeared to be a female.

When I went out to chase them down, I captured Meeko watching them from inside the house, looking interested if possibly also a little peeved

I should acknowledge that, even though the heatwave stretched into the coastal areas this time, delivering six days of temperatures over 100F (38C), we got off much easier than people living in the inland areas of California, which saw record temperatures in many cases.  In fact, the entire US Southwest has had to deal with a difficult summer.  I'm hoping that the heatwaves are over for the summer season but I know we can't count on cooler autumn weather yet.  Although my fingers are itching to cut back all the burned foliage in my garden, it's probably best to wait awhile until we're sure the cooler temperatures are going to last.

My best wishes go out to anyone dealing with wildfires or smoke or flooding from hurricanes and tropical storms.  I hope everyone has a safe weekend.

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