Another Heatwave Alert

Yesterday, the Los Angeles Times published an article predicting that the most significant heatwave of the summer is expected to arrive on Wednesday and hang on through Sunday.  While a local online source still suggests that my area will top out at 86F (30C) on Thursday, it became a little harder to believe that we could be that lucky when yesterday's temperature reached 87F after the day started out with a dense morning marine layer.  I spent most of yesterday morning weeding and watering and expect to get in a little more watering this morning.

However, I haven't entirely abandoned planting activity, although I've restricted most of that to succulents. 

I filled this large terracotta container with an assortment of succulents

The mix included: 5 Aeonium davidbramwellii 'Sunburst', 2 Cotyledon pendens, one Crassula swaziensis 'Variegata', and one Kalanchoe marmorata

In addition to succulents, I've given myself permission to replant a few containers with summer annuals.

I couldn't stand looking at this barrel any longer.  The foxglove in the middle never even tried to bloom and the 2 Cuphea 'Honeybells' were overgrown.  I cut back and replanted one of the Cupheas elsewhere.

Rudbeckias are effectively annuals in my climate but I enjoy them despite their short lives in my garden

In addition to Rudbeckia 'Juliana', I included 2 'Caramel' Petunias and 2 Achillea 'Terracotta'

I've also started to replant some of the areas I cleared in late spring and earlier this summer.

A large empty space was created when we removed a massive clump of 'Blue Flame' Agaves.  After cleaning up the area, I transplanted cuttings of Senecio mandraliscae (aka blue chalk sticks)  I'm not all that fond of the Senecio as the sticks flop about after awhile but they'll serve as a filler for now.

This Agave titanota was buried below the 'Blue Flame' Agaves for years.  It isn't in the best shape but I may give it more space by centering it next to the Senecio to see how it does, at least until I come up with something I like better to fill in the remaining empty space.

I finally got around to planting some of my Aeonium arboreum and A. haworthii 'Kiwi Verde' cuttings in the back border area formerly occupied by Nassella tenuissima (Mexican feather grass), which I removed due to its combustibility.  The succulents will take time to beef up but, based on past experience, at some point I'll be complaining that they've gotten too big.  In the meantime, they'll help keep the soil from eroding if/when we get rain again.  There's still more space to fill there but I'll look for inspiration when fall temperatures allow more options.

I came across these Catharanthus 'Peppermint White' at the garden center and could resist picking up a few to fill an empty space in my front garden.  Although they are a clear violation of my "no summer planting" rule, in my defense Catharanthus had previously proven itself to be remarkably drought tolerant.  Whether it can withstand a serious heatwave is another matter. 

I hope my dahlias make it through this new heatwave unscathed!  Here are photos of the newest blooms.

I included Dahlia 'La Luna' in my Bloom Day post but it wasn't fully open.  Now it is.  The first flowers have just the palest hint of yellow.  Last year, some developed more prominent yellow streaks but I haven't seen any sign of that yet.

Dahlia 'Blue Bell' has also opened more fully since my Bloom Day post

Dahlia 'Excentric', grown from a tuber saved from last year's crop, just produced its first flower in a barrel in partial shade

This is the first flower of Dahlia 'Fairway Spur', also a holdover from last year.  It was formerly one of my favorites but it's looking a little funky and as I recall it produced some deformed blooms like this last year.  I hesitated about planting the saved tuber this year but I had an open spot so I went ahead; however, I remain concerned that whatever caused last year's deformities may be present again.

I hope you're managing any summer stressors you're facing wherever you are.

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

Another project ticked off the list

Last Friday I reported on one project involving a cleanup in my north-side garden.  I also referenced the horde of Aeonium arboreum I'd accumulated as "edging" in my cutting garden.  It started innocently enough.  Shortly after we moved into our current home in December 2010, a close friend gave me several cuttings of these plants, which I think she got from her parents' home.  Unsure what to do with them at that point, I planted them along the border occupied by three citrus trees in what was originally set up as a vegetable garden.  I figured I could always dig them up or harvest rosettes from the plants to place wherever I liked once I'd made some decisions about where I could use them.  And I did just that year, after year, after year.  But I never removed the mother plants and the clumps only grew larger and larger with each passing year, until I could barely move between them and the raised planters I now use for growing flowers to cut.  Meanwhile, I have more Aeoniums of numerous varieties spread about in virtually every corner of my garden.  

I decided that it was time for the Aeoniums in the citrus beds to go.

"Before" shot taken just over a week ago

Closeup of the ungainly efforts I'd previously made to prevent tripping over the plants extending into the pathway

I removed half the mass last Friday morning, filling one and a half of our three green bins.  I was planning to hold off on the rest so I'd have room in the bins for other material I planned to prune; however, I asked my husband to remove two stumps I couldn't budge.  Two hours later I discovered that he'd moved the stumps and the remaining expanse of Aeoniums.  I'd planned to give away the Aeoniums in the best shape but oh well!  As it was, it took me a couple of hours to pull up stems and roots still embedded in the soil.  I also paid a visit to my local garden center to pick up soil amendment to give the somewhat sad citrus trees a boost.

I really needed more than this but I didn't want to get ticketed for blocking my rear view on the way home

I could still use a couple more bags of soil amendment but at least the bed looks better already

Side view of the same bed

I also cleaned up an adjacent bed occupied by a persimmon tree, a dwarf Japanese maple, and more Aeoniums

One small Aeonium cutting filled this small planter on my back patio

So, do you think I visited the garden center and just picked up soil amendments?

I rarely leave a garden center without plants and this was no exception

In addition to a citrus fertilizer, set aside to spread after we harvest the citrus currently on the trees, I brought home two other varieties of Aeoniums and an Agave 'Snow Glow'.  I think I was relatively restrained.  I emptied a large pot in the succulent bed in front of the garage of Manfredas and Sedum that had seen better days to give my new Agave 'Snow Glow' pride of place.  I've looked for a reasonably-priced specimen of that agave for years.  Along the way, it could be said that I've lowered my expectations of what a "reasonable price" is.

This is the replanted pot.  Although the agave will probably fill the entire pot in time, I thought it could use an embellishment.

The burro's tail succulent (Sedum morganianum) in this pot has been trailing the ground for some time.  I took 6 cuttings to trail down the side of the pot containing 'Snow Glow'.

I did a little tweaking of the succulent bed while I was working in the area.

The 3 small pots of Aeonium decorum 'Sunburst' went into the bed next to the mutant cutting I took from elsewhere in my garden last year.  Note that 'Sunburst' and the "mutant" are similar in color but the variegation is flipped.  The mutant has yellow stripes down the middle of its leaves with green edges whereas the variegation in 'Sunburst' is the reverse.

I'd never seen Aeonium 'Super Bang' before so I picked up 3 of those in small pots and added them to this bed too

This noID Aloe was included with a variety of plants given to me by a neighbor in a temporary planter made of the base of a fallen palm frond.  It and its companions were stressed and needed to be planted in the ground.

I also moved around succulents that were crowding Veltheimia braceteata bulbs.  I transplanted the bulbs last year in the hope that, given time, they'll bulk up and bloom again.

I've more work to do on that succulent bed but that may take a backseat to the pruning I still need to finish now that my three green bins are empty again.  Meanwhile here are shots of yet another variety of my blooming Anemones to end the week on a colorful note.

These are both examples of Anemone coronaria 'Rarity'

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

A pause for prettier stuff

After spending a little too much time with pruners in my hands, I took a break to replant two containers that had seen their best days.  Replanting them provided an instant mood boost.  One can only spend so much time chopping things back.

The barrel that contained Rudbeckia hirta from summer through fall needed to be changed out.  Although the Rudbeckia might have sprung back into flower come late summer, I plant the barrels under the Magnolia tree specifically to provide a splash of year-round color.  Admittedly, the garden centers don't have much variety in annuals at this time of year when they're still recovering from the holidays but I made do.

The primary element was labeled as Delphinium grandiflorum but it looked a lot like Consolida ajacis and I wondered it it was mislabeled.  While both plants are called larkspurs, it seems that the plants native to Siberia and China are classified as Delphiniums.  However, it has me wondering if botanists will be reclassifying them or Consolida ajacis one day.

Clockwise from the upper left, the barrel includes: Delphinium grandiflorum 'Diamonds Blue', Nemesia 'Nessie Plus White', Viola 'Colossus Lemon', and V. 'Sorbet XP Neptune'

The other container I replanted was the urn positioned in the bed in front of the garage that I walk by several times a day.  The Ptilotus 'Joey' was pretty for several months and then it wasn't.  It turned out to have a very shallow root system.  The trailing Verbena I'd planted to complement it never did well even if the butterflies enjoyed it for a short time.  This time, I decided to plant the urn with succulents, which should hold up longer.

I wanted a taller Mangave but decided to replant one a friend gave me years ago instead of buying a new one.  It was very overcrowded in its relatively small pot and I ultimately had to break the pot to free it.  I purchased 2 small Graptosedums to complement the Mangave and split them into smaller pieces, adding a few other cuttings from my garden.

Closer view from the top

Clockwise from the upper left, the urn contains: Crassula multicava, Graptosedum 'California Sunset', Mangave 'Kaleidoscope', and Portulacaria afra

I removed 5 small pups from the larger Mangave, which I'll try to root.  'Kaleidoscope' is a prolific pupper.

That's it for me this week.  I'm off to the dentist this morning...

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

Puttering about

I've been busy for the past week cutting plants back, tidying things up, and even doing a little planting.  Between taking down the dead Auranticarpa rhombifolia and my end-of-summer pruning activities, we filled all three of our green recycling bins so I felt compelled to take a little break until the waste material is collected on Thursday.  In the meantime, I repotted some succulents and gave myself time off to check out a houseplant sale at the local botanic garden.

These are the spiffed up containers arranged outside the back door

The green pot contains Aeonium 'Jolly Green' and Graptosedum 'Vera Higgins'.  The tall blue pot holds Mangave 'Black Magic' and the small pot holds a Faucaria tigrina.

The green pot shown here is one I planted a couple of weeks ago with a Crassula, Echeveria, Kalanchoe, and a small Sedum.  The wide blue pot containing Aeonium 'Sunburst' and a variety of other succulents is still in need of sprucing up.  I can't remember the name of the Aloe in the Talavera-style pot.

I just upgraded Mangave 'Praying Hands' (left) to a larger pot.  Behind it is Mangave 'Aztec King' and on the right is Mangave 'Falling Waters'.

 

I also did a little cleanup in one area of the "bromeliad bed" in the front garden.  Only one section of the bed actually contains bromeliads.  The other two sections are filled with succulents.

I cleaned out most of the leaves that were covering this section.  In addition to assorted Echeverias, it contains Aeonium 'Lily Pad', Crassula orbicularis var rosularis, and several Haworthia cymbiformis.

The translucent leaves of Haworthia cymbiformis are tougher than they look, at least when provided adequate shade

 

Yesterday morning I took a drive over to the local botanic garden to check out the house plant sale they'd advertised on Instagram.  It looked impressive in the video they'd posted but sadly it was underwhelming when I visited in person.

To be fair, they may have sold out a lot of items following the video I saw late last week but the pickings were pretty slim at the time of my visit.  The woman manning the plant stand said she expected another shipment of plants later in the afternoon.

I took home just this unlabeled Vriesea (maybe Vriesea splendens)

 

After spending all of ten minutes in the plant sale area, I took a walk through the garden.  Here are some of the highlights from the Desert Garden area:

Like this Alluaudia humbertii, a lot of succulents were looking healthy and happy, presumably plumped up by the rain delivered by Tropical Storm Hilary last month

Cyphostemma juttae, aka Nambian grape (It's grapes are NOT edible as they're poisonous.)

The leaf-less Drimia maritima flowers were in full bloom

Two interesting Mammillaria clumps

Pedilanthus bracteatus, aka tall slipper plant, looking better than any others I've ever seen

I've seen Pseudobombax ellipticum 'Alba' (aka shaving brush tree) in bloom many times but I can't remember ever seeing it fully leafed out like this

 

Just outside the Desert Garden, I also saw something I'd never noticed before:

There's a mass of what I assume are Epiphyllums (orchid cacti) climbing up this tall palm tree.  It'll be an interesting sight when those plants bloom.

 

I'll be back to pruning later this week.  I really should get to work on the back slope but I misjudged the activity level among the fire ants earlier this week and have already accumulated almost a dozen bites.  I'm inclined to wait until the temperatures fall into the 60sF and the ants become less active.  The alternative is to hose myself down with insect repellent and put on the equivalent of a hazard suit.

All material © 2012-2023 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party

Summer Containers

I have a self-imposed rule against planting during the summer months, specifically late June through August.  But I admit that I make a lot of exceptions.  One of my most notable exceptions permits planting succulents, although I haven't planted any of those this summer, at least not yet.  I sometimes plant annuals too.  If planted early in the summer season, they have a decent chance of surviving for the duration of the "warm" season but that's certainly not guaranteed.  Their survival requires vigilance, regular watering, and often shade.  An additional element, which can't be controlled, is luck.  If we get a serious heatwave - and by that I mean sustained daytime temperatures in excess of 100F (38.8C) with limited cooling during the nighttime hours - all bets are off.

At present, I'm counting on our avoiding a "serious" heatwave.  Four of my larger containers, some which had contained cool-season annuals that hung on well into summer, were looking very sad.  Living with them as they were wasn't an option and leaving them all empty wasn't an appealing option either.  I replanted them using mostly annuals with a few perennials thrown in.

The first two are half barrels in my front garden, partially shaded by the canopy of our Magnolia grandiflora.

This barrel formerly held a mix of plants, including several worn-out Pelargoniums and an unhappy daylily.  I've saved the daylily and some of the Pelargoniums in temporary pots and replenished the soil before replanting with the plants shown below.   My husband rigged up a temporary (though not very attractive) screen to provide additional shade.

The new contents of the barrel include, clockwise from the upper left: Cuphea 'Honeybells' (2), Dipladenia 'Sundenia Coral', Gerbera 'Festival Pink', Hibiscus acetosella 'Haight Ashbury', Plectranthus scuttellairioides 'Pineapple' (formerly known as coleus), and P. s. 'Salsa Verde'

This barrel had contained Pericallis, pansies, alyssum, and Bacopa.  I pulled everything but the Bacopa and planted 3 plugs of Rudbeckia hirta 'Sahara'.  It's not a great photo or a bountiful planter but 2 of the Rudbeckia have buds already.

 

 The other two containers are in my cutting garden.

This barrel had contained Digitalis 'Dalmatian Peach', Bacopa, and Viola 'Penny Peach', all of which finally collapsed last week.  I pulled everything and replenished the soil before replanting with the materials shown in closeup below.

Clockwise from the upper left: Catharanthus roseus (aka vinca) in 3 colors, Pelargonium 'Dynamo Hot Pink', P. 'Dynamo Purple', Calibrachoa 'Double Pinktastic', Scabiosa columbaria 'White', and Pentas 'Graffiti Pink'

This pot had contained a Delphinium 'Cobalt Dream', underplanted with Lobelia erinus and Nolana paradoxa.  The Delphinium was destroyed by an unknown bug and the Nolana was disappointing so I pulled everything.  I replanted the pot just before our first heatwave struck and the new plants struggled for a bit before recovering.

The plant on the left is another Dipladenia, which is related to Mandevilla but prone to trailing down rather than climbing upward as Mandevilla vines do.  The pot includes a noID lavender-flowered Pentas (shown right) and 2 noID bicolor lavender and yellow Lantanas (not currently in bloom).

 

My cutting garden is looking much fuller than it did in early July when I posted wide shots.  The first zinnias are blooming and many of the dahlias have buds but the flowers are taking their time.  There are some more well-developed buds in a barrel in the front garden but I think it's iffy as to whether I'll have blooms for 'In a Vase on Monday' next week.

The cutting garden looks promising but it has yet to deliver

 

We enjoyed a pleasant, relatively cool afternoon with a nice breeze yesterday and I made the most of it, cutting back the rest of the shaggy Agapanthus (65 more stems!), as well as deadheading other plants and pulling weeds.  Unfortunately, temperatures are expected to soar back into the 90sF again this weekend.

 

Whatever your temperatures, I hope you enjoy your weekend.

All material © 2012-2023 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party