The garden is DEMANDING attention!

My garden has gotten away from me.  Not only do I have all sorts of empty spaces in need of tending but I've got weeds all over the place, the cutting garden requires assistance with its seasonal transition, and the back slope somehow exploded out of control.  I've been tackling the weeds and deadheading flowers here and there in the back and front gardens when I have a few minutes but this week I focused on the cutting garden as the dahlia tubers were ready to move out of their temporary pots and spread their roots.

I cleared most of two of the raised planters to make room for eleven of the sprouted dahlias.  Two other tubers were transferred to barrels in the cutting garden as well.

I left some of the Calendulas in place at each end of this bed and supplemented the soil before transplanting 6 dahlia tubers here.  The infant dahlias include: 'Creme de Cognac' (2), 'Kelsey Ann Joy', 'La Luna', 'Miss Brandy', and 'Summer's End'.  I sowed seeds of 4 varieties of Zinnia elegans in this bed too.

I left 3 foxgloves and a handful of larkspur in place in this bed.  I added the following 5 sprouted dahlias: 'Blue Bell', 'Cafe au Lait', 'La Belle Epoque', 'Mikayla Miranda', and 'Molly Raven'.  I've added 3 varieties of zinnia elegans to this bed.

Last year, this bed was crowded with larkspurs (Consolida ajacis) but, for whatever reason, few seeds germinated this year.  The foxgloves (Digitalis purpurea) I planted months ago as plugs haven't grown much so I removed all but 3 to make room for more dahlias. 

Dahlia 'Caproz Pizzazz' found a home in the barrel on the left after I removed all its contents other than the red Pelargonium peltatum.  The middle barrel received a Dahlia 'Labyrinth'.  The third barrel contains one of the foxgloves that has done well and the Argyranthmum 'Mount Everest' I moved from the first barrel to make room for the dahlia I planted there.

As the sweet peas have finally taken off, I'm going to give them another three or four weeks before I clear that raised planter to receive three or four more dahlia tubers.  I expect to give away a lot of sweet pea posies within the next few weeks.

Like last year, because the sweet peas (Lathyrus odoratus) took so long to vine, I failed to thin the plants so they're overcrowded once again

I've ignored the back slope for close to a month.  I was shocked when I headed there earlier this week.  Even walking down the concrete block stairway presented a challenge.  I spent a couple of hours clearing the pathways and cutting some of the overgrowth but several additional hours of attention is needed before it gets too hot and the fire ants make work even more difficult.  Although the hedge that lines the neighbor's wire fence gets routine irrigation, the rest of the area is dependent on rainfall and we've had little of that this year so I didn't expect exuberant growth.  I've done no hand-watering of the area at all in almost a year.

This is a view of the slope looking up from the lower area (in front of the lemon tree) after my initial cleanup effort.  The Arctostaphylos bakeri 'Louis Edmonds'  in the middle of the bed to the right of the stairway has leapt in size since last year despite our low rainfall.

Clockwise from the upper left: The Aeoniums fleshed out nicely; the Centranthus ruber is a buoyant as ever; one of the top heavy artichokes collapsed under its own weight once again; and the hybrid 'White Lady' Pelargoniums have spread themselves about 

The saddest discovery was this:

Ceanothus arboreus 'Clifford Schmidt' appears to have died while I wasn't paying attention.  It was in full bloom in early April!  I love this plant and can't entirely account for its sudden demise.  The lemon tree on one side and the Pittosporums on the other are fine.  However, I'd had a peach tree that had given it some shade cover removed in November and I speculate that the sun exposure combined with low rainfall and no hand watering may have been contributing factors.  I'll cut it back to see if it recovers but I'm not hopeful.

On the good news side of things, the Agapanthus in my garden are marshaling forces for their annual stampede and the first Shasta daisies are making an appearance, as well as the first gladiolas.  Even the lilies are gearing up to put on a show.  Hopefully these plants will fill the floral gap until the dahlias and zinnias get around to flowering.

A noID Shasta daisy (Leucanthemum x superbum) with fringed flowers

Gladiolus nanus

A noID white gladiola popped up in with the bed with the sweet peas

Two varieties of lilies among many that have produced bloom stalks.  The taller ones are Lilium 'Zelmira' and I think the smaller ones are 'Orange Planet'.  There are at least 5 more varieties gearing up to bloom elsewhere in the garden this summer.

Best wishes for a pleasant weekend!

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

Sources of cool season excitement

Sources of cool season excitement in the garden are limited.  However, by comparison to much of the country, I know that those of us in coastal Southern California are lucky just to have our gardens remain active.  We don't get frost, much less snow, and we consider it cold when daytime temperatures drop into the low 60sF.  As I prepare this post, a tree-trimming team of six is busy pruning many of my trees and large shrubs.  It's a necessary although nerve-racking process but I'll cover that later this week.  In the meantime, I can offer only a couple snippets regarding events in the garden.

First up is a Mangave preparing to bloom.

Mangave 'Silver Fox' is the fastest bloomer among my modest collection of these plants.  This one was given to me by a friend as a good-sized pup in 2021 after the one I'd planted in 2017 bloomed out.

South Coast Botanic Garden had a 'Silver Fox' of its own in full flower when I visited there last week

Between October 31st and November 6th I got to work in my nearly naked cutting garden.  Seeds were sown and eighty-five bulbs were planted, along with a dozen plugs of snapdragons.  This week I was pleased to see that seedlings are already making an appearance.  It doesn't look like much yet but the germination rates seem faster than they were last year.

In addition to snapdragons, I planted 4 varieties of Ranunculus in bed #1.  They haven't emerged yet as far as I tell but the Calendulas I sowed from seed among them are popping up all over.  The Calendulas will be thinned as soon as they get taller and the Ranunculus show up.

In bed #2, the first of the 5 new varieties of Anemones are peeking up (in addition to those that have returned from last year), as are the larkspur (Consolida ajacis) seedlings.  The hardware cloth is a temporary measure to keep the birds and other critters from harming the seedlings.  It'll come up when it's time to thin the seedlings.

Bed #3 is already showing sweet pea seedlings; however, the Nigella papillosa seeds I sowed have yet to show themselves

A little rain would probably help things along.  The first "atmospheric river" of the season was slated to move into Northern California yesterday.  There's still just over a forty percent chance it'll reach my area this weekend but I'm feeling a smidge more optimistic about it.  As dry as we are, even a little rain would be the source of great excitement.

All material © 2012-2024 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

Summertime focus on foliage

In my part of the world, heat combined with a prolonged dry period, results in a fair number of torched and shriveled plants by late summer.  While some will come back, many will give up.  In prior years, I've spent a lot of time trying to minimize the losses by supplementing the twice weekly run of our irrigation system with hand-watering but for a variety of reasons I haven't done that this summer.  I hope I'll find suitable replacements for the plants that perish but yesterday I decided to focus on what looked good, which in general meant foliage plants.

Most of the photos I snapped were in our front garden, which I suppose makes sense as I want the front garden to make a good impression year round and therefore I rely more heavily on shrubs in the front garden.

My husband removed the very dead Leucadendron 'Safari Goldstrike' in the front garden when I was down with COVID and the 'Multicolor' Agaves and Aloe labworana, previously half-buried under the tall shrub, appreciate the change

The Hong Kong orchid tree (Bauhinia x blakeana) looked terrible in July but it's perked up recently, possibly due to the the part-time return of our morning marine layer

I wish I'd bought more 'Feather Falls' Carexes when I came across them last year.  They look good backed by this Phormium 'Maori Queen' and surrounded by Coprosma 'Evening Glow'.

Coprosma 'Evening Glow' (left) has done much better than C. 'Fire Burst' (right), which is prone to bare legs

Some of my Phormium 'Maori Queen' look great, like the 2 shown here, but I may remove 2 others that have gradually been enveloped by Lomandra and just look messy

Centaurea 'Silver Feather' looks better since I cut back its floppy flower stems

The 'Copper Glow' Leptospermums on either side of the front walk always look good but they still need a good pruning

Even with 2 pruning sessions a year, Leucadendron 'Wilson's Wonder' pushes the boundaries of the spaces I've allocated to them.  I'd asked the gardeners to leave their pruning to me and had signs posted on both shrubs earlier in the year, removing them once I thought the message had an impact.  It seems they left the one on the left alone but someone recently chose to sheer the one on the right like a hedge when my husband and I were out.

Having success with coleus (Plectranthus scutellarioides) in various shady areas, I've been adding more.  I successfully overwintered the 'Florida Sun Rose' (upper left) and 'Flame Thrower Chili Pepper' (upper right) last year.  Those on the bottom row, 'Stained Glassworks Velvet', 'Glennis', and 'Indian Summer', were added this year.

There were a few more plants in the front area alongside the garage that I took note of too.

With a little more cosmetic work, the Agave attenuata that suffered from "agave edema" last year when covered with tarps by the tree service pruning the Arbutus tree are looking good once again.  I've kept photos of the disfigurement of the leaves on the trunks I removed to share with the tree service on their annual visit in the fall.

Manfreda maculosa and an unknown Sedum spring back every year

I relegated this houseplant, Schefflera 'Neon', to this corner of the garden several years ago when it was in serious decline.  I fully expected it to die but it now looks pretty good with no attention from me whatsoever.

It's not that there weren't any foliage standouts elsewhere in the garden.  Here are some of those I identified:

I took this photo of a collection of Leucadendron and Grevillea in mid-July when the light was perfect.  The spiky Grevillea shrubs in front are 'Scarlet Sprite'.  The Leucadendrons include 'Chief'', 'Ebony', and 'Blush'.

I never got around to replacing Jacaranda 'Bonsai Blue' but I did cut it back earlier this year.  It didn't bloom at all but it's shape is more attractive now.

Lomandra longifolia 'Breeze' was my go-to grass substitute when I began planting this garden.  I've got them in both the back and the front garden areas.  As I generally grouped 3 in each spot, some of them are looking a bit cramped after all these years.  I may remove a couple of the smaller clumps this fall.

After 7 years in the ground Metrosideros collina 'Springfire' in the south-side garden has finally experienced a decent growth spurt

I hard pruned the 3 Agonis flexuosa 'Nana' shrubs shown here again this year and they've finally fleshed out again.  The Aeoniums edging this bed are in their dormant stage but most will recover once temperatures cool and rain returns.

I have varieties of Aeoniums all over my garden, some sadder than others.  The clump on the left is an unnamed Aeonium arboreum.  I believe the one on the right is A. 'Copper Penny' but it's barely recognizable at the moment.

The south-side succulent bed I renovated earlier this year is coming together, although it could use a bit of a cleanup.  This is the view from the back, focused on Agave americana 'Mediopicta Alba' and A. 'Blue Flame'.  The A. ovalifolia I planted just outside the lower frame of this shot is still teeny.

Lest you think I've lost my fixation with flowers, I rely on my cutting garden for floral color at this time of year.

I didn't have room for all my dahlia tubers in the raised beds and barrels in the cutting garden (left) so some ended up in containers elsewhere (right).  The cutting garden and the containers are the only spots that are getting extra water this year.

Best wishes for a pleasant weekend and, if you're in the US, happy Labor Day!

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