January Projects

After the holidays, I threw myself into cleaning up my garden, focusing first on pruning plants I'd allowed to get completely out of control during our remodel, as well as pulling plants too woody or beat up to prune into shape.  I spent so much time pruning (admittedly using tools too small for the purpose on occasion) it appears that I threw my right wrist out of whack.  I don't have a medical term to describe what I did but I'm seeing a doctor on Friday to get an assessment.

I haven't stopped work in the garden but I did shift my focus to tasks that put less strain on my wrist.  Having reduced the large shrubs adjacent to the patio on the south end of our house by more than half, I mulched the soil, pulled out scraggly succulents, and filled in with a mix of succulent cuttings and California poppy plugs.

Reducing the height of the "dwarf" Agonis flexuosa 'Nana' shrubs, means I can once again see the harbor while sitting on the south patio (not that I sit much).  Although I expect the shrubs will flesh out again within months, the area looks a bit bare to my eyes at the moment.  I may plant more California poppies to provide additional spring color.

Next, I tore apart an adjacent area that had been overrun with Bulbine frutescens to make room for a Leucospermum that had been languishing in a large pot.

Bulbine frutescens is a succulent groundcover that spreads by rhizomes to form large clumps.  I planted 3 yellow-flowering and 2 orange-flowering plants in 2014.  This is what they looked like last May, when they'd gotten completely out of control, swallowing everything around them.

Digging the clumps out wasn't hard but it took a good deal of time to remove all their roots to clear the area for the Leucospermum

This is about two-thirds of what I removed

I saved a small number of divisions of the orange Bulbine for use elsewhere in the garden

I dug up that sorry-looking 'Amazing Red' Phormium and added planting mix to the bed

Leucospermum 'Sunrise' didn't bloom last year in its pot near the front door in partial shade.  It'll get full sun in this spot and I hope to see some flowers next year, if not this year.

Yesterday, I freed another Leucospermum that wasn't living up to its potential from its pot and found it a new home in a sunnier location as well.

I cut back and moved some groundcover Lantana to make room for Leucospermum 'Spider' here along the front slope.  The planting is "cozier" in this area than is ideal but I'm going to allow the plants to sort things out among themselves for the time being.

My next project will be filling the two pots left empty at the entry to the house.

At present, I have absolutely no idea what I'm going to put in these 2 empty pots

I'm lucky.  Winter in coastal Southern California allows me to work in the garden almost without a break.   We're looking at a nice stretch of mostly sunny skies with temperatures in the mid-60s over the next 10 days, perfect for working in the garden (as long as the doctor doesn't put me on the sidelines).  There's no rain in the forecast for the rest of January but then we can't have everything.


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

In a Vase on Monday: Starting Over

I walked through my garden yesterday with some clear ideas in mind as to what I'd use in a vase this week.  Once I cut a flower as a focal point, the rest of my choices usually fall into place.  If I come up short, I make another pass through the garden and, more often than not, I can find something to fill out an arrangement.  When I carry my glass jar of cuttings back to the house I'm generally satisfied that I'll be able to pull together what I've cut.  That didn't happen yesterday.  I pulled out another glass jar and tried again.  When I'd filled that with pieces of this and that, I still wasn't happy.  So I re-sorted everything into two completely different mixes and went back outside to cut a few things to fill in the blanks.  The result?  Three vases.

The original inspiration for vase #1 was Grevillea rosmarinifolia, which I'd planned to pair with the first Alstroemeria bloom I'd noticed earlier in the week.  But the Alstroemeria was past its prime and I lost my intended focal point.

In the end, I recycled a stem of pink Lisianthus (Eustoma grandiflorum) I'd had in a vase in my office as a new focal point and used Leucadendron 'Chief', which has pink and red flower-like bracts, to tie together the colors in the Lisianthus and the Grevillea.

Back view: I picked a paler pink Lisianthus to dress up the other side of the vase and used Narcissus to echo the yellow tones in the Leucadendron

Top view

Clockwise from the upper left: Eustoma grandiflorum (aka Lisianthus), Coleonema pulchelum 'Sunset Gold', noID Narcissus, Grevillea rosmariniflia, Leucadendron salignum 'Chief', and Penstemon mexicali 'Mini Red Bells'

Vase #2 was going to be constructed using the white snapdragons in my cutting garden which, despite my best efforts, are once again covered in rust and are therefore living on borrowed time.  Without a lot of thought I picked a nearby foxglove stem to go with the snaps but, to steal a phrase from Marie Kondo,  the pairing didn't "spark joy."  I gravitated away from white toward purple flowers but didn't find a focus until I cut some multi-colored Violas.

The purple, white and orange Violas led me to add the orange berries and Grevillea flowers to the mix

Back view: The purple Sweet Pea Bush (Polygala fruticosa) flowers look better in person than they do in these photos, where they appear more pink than purple

Top view

Clockwise from the upper left: noID Viola, berries of Auranticarpa rhombifolium, Campanula poscharskyana, Grevillea 'Superb', Digitalis purpurea, and Polygala fruticosa (shown with Gomphena decumbens 'Itsy Bitsy')

The leftover snapdragons went into vase #3, along with a few other things I picked to tie them together with the yellow flowers I'd picked during my first pass through the garden.

The florescent yellow weed, Oxalis stricta, picked up the bright yellow touches in the white snapdragons

Back view: I used 2 species of yellow-flowered Euryops here as well and added a couple of blue notes to the mix

Top view

Clockwise from the upper left: Oxalis stricta, Antirrhinum majus, Salvia 'Mystic Spires', Rosmarinus 'Gold Dust', Euryops chrysanthemoides, and E. virgineus

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

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

Fabulous Foliage

With flowers taking a backseat even here in sunny California, the foliage in my garden has an opportunity to stand out and demand notice.  Yesterday afternoon I took photos of a variety of plants that caught my attention.

Succulents hold up against all kinds of weather extremes in my climate but, cleaned of accumulated dust and dirt by rain, they really shine during the winter months.

Aeonium 'Mardi Gras'

Agave 'Blue Flame' and Agave americana 'Mediopicta alba' mix it up

My Agave 'Blue Glow' have gained size and presence

Agave vilmoriana and Agave ovatifolia backed up by Coprosma repens 'Plum Hussey' and Leucadendron salignum 'Chief'

Agave bracteosa, Agave 'Joe Hoak' and Agave attenuata 'Raea's Gold'

The color of Euphorbia tirucalli 'Sticks in Fire' is at its most vivid in winter.  This one's been in a strawberry pot for 9 years.

I planted Mangave 'Tooth Fairy' in this metal container (a rusted wok) and filled in with a variety of other succulents while I wait for this slow-growing Mangave to bulk up

The succulents planted atop this stacked rock wall have settled in well

But my garden has more than succulents.  Here are some of my other foliage favorites:

I've featured this mix before but it bears repeating.  This is Centaurea 'Silver Feather' and Pennisetum 'Rubrum'

Echium candicans 'Star of Madiera' is months from blooming but its foliage still makes a splash

Hebe 'Purple Shamrock' has colored up as temperatures dropped

Lomandra 'Platinum Beauty'

Phormium 'Maori Queen' paired with Corokia x virgata 'Sunsplash'

Back-lit Phormium 'Maori Queen'

I'll end my survey with a few relatively new additions to my garden.

This is Cordyline 'Can Can', which spent our remodel with its roots stuck in a pot

This was simply labeled "Earthstar' when I bought it.  I think its Cryptanthus bivattatus.

Pelargonium cordifolium 'Caroline's Citrine' managed fine during the summer and will hopefully cope with winter just as well

We had a little rain overnight.  My rain collection tanks are full once again and the air, at least for the moment, is clear.  I'm looking forward to the weekend.  I hope you are too.


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

Bloom Day - January 2020

This January's Bloom Day post is a bit lighter on flowers than those in the two prior years, although my garden's usual workhorses are mostly present and accounted for.  I generally attribute year-to-year floral fluctuations to rain, or the lack of it, but comparisons of 2020, 2019 and 2018 bring that rationale into question.  Rain levels were higher in 2019 but much lower in 2018 yet my January posts for those years are comparable.  This year I expect that my preoccupation with the late stages of our remodel during the last quarter of 2019, which dramatically reduced the time I spent in the garden, is largely responsible for the differences.  Fall is usually my peak planting season but I did precious little of that in the last few months.  Still, there's no shortage of flowers to share this month, at least by comparison to those of you who garden in colder winter climates.

I'll start with the biggest surprises.

This is Metrosideros collina 'Springfire'.  I featured it in last month's post too.  It's supposed to bloom in spring and summer but here it is in the dead of winter brightening the south end of my garden.

Crocus don't do well here.  At best they bloom the first year and then disappear.  I stopped planting them years ago.  However, when I got a handful of the bulbs as a gift with purchase 3 years ago, I went ahead and stuck them in the ground.  This is now the third year they've made an appearance.

I showed the first sign of a bloom spike on this hybrid Aloe ferox x vanbalenii last month.  It's now in full bloom for the first time since I acquired the plant in 2016.

As was the case in prior years, the Grevilleas and Leucadendrons are putting on a good show.

The large-flowered Grevilleas like 'Ned Kelly' bloom year-round here but the small-flowered varieties are now joining in the parade.  Clockwise from the upper left: Grevillea 'Ned Kelly', G. rosmarinifolia, G. alpina x rosmarinifolia, G. 'Peaches & Cream', and G. 'Superb'.

A variety of Leucadenrons produce flower-like bracts during the winter months.  Clockwise from the upper left: Leucadendron 'Wilson's Wonder', a close-up of the same plant, L. salignum 'Summer Red', L. 'Safari Sunset', and L. salignum 'Chief'.

Many of last month's bloomers are still going strong.

Bauhinia x blakeana (aka Hong Kong orchid) has been blooming steadily since October

The noID Camellia sasanquas shown in the first 2 photos have now been joined by the hybrid Camellia williamsii 'Taylor's Perfection'

Hippeastrum (Amaryllis) 'Zombie' is finishing up its run but I'm hoping that 'Moon Scene' and 'Giant Amadeus' may show up within the next month of so

The plants that flower year-round or nearly so are making their contribution.

Arbutus 'Marina' blooms almost non-stop but the trees are usually relatively bare of flowers in January because I generally have them pruned in late fall.  Pruning was postponed while we finished up our remodel so the trees are heavily laden with flowers at the moment.

The Coleonema pulchellum 'Sunset Gold' shrubs in the front garden are blooming, although those in the back garden are not.  Who knows why.  The tiny flowers look white from a distance but they're actually a very pale pink. 

Gomphrena decumbens 'Itsy Bitsy' only stops blooming when I cut the shrub down to one foot in height

I've added a few plants in the past month but only one of those is already adding a punch of color.

Brachyscome angustifolia 'Brasco Violet' (aka Swan River Daisy) is a drought tolerant Australian native.  Sold as an annual, it's a short-lived perennial here.

Other flowers are present in smaller numbers.  As usual, I've packaged them in collages organized by color.

Top row: Campanula poscharskyana, trailing Lantana, and Lavandula multifida
Bottom row: Polygala fruticosa, Rosmarinus 'Gold Dust', and noID Viola

Top row: Dermatobotrys saundersii, Euryops chrysanthemoides, and self-seeded Gazania
Bottom row: Phylica pubescens, Rudbeckia hirta 'Denver Daisy', and Tagetes lemmoniii

Top row: Correa pulchella 'Pink Eyre', Cuphea x ignea 'Starfire Pink', and assorted Cyclamen
Middle row: Eustoma grandiflorum, Osteospermum 'Berry White', and noID Pelargonium x hortorum
Bottom row: Pelargonium peltatum, Penstemon mexicali 'Mini-bells Red', and Rosa chinense 'Mutabilis'

Top row: Antirrhinum majus, Argyranthemum frutescens 'Everest', and Digitalis purpurea
Middle row: Lantana 'Lucky White', Nemesia 'Snow Angel', and Osteospermum '4D Silver'
Bottom row: Pennisetum advena 'Rubrum', Pyrethropsis hosmariense, and Lobularia maritima

What's most obviously missing from the current line-up are the blooms of Aeonium arboreum.  I use this succulent as a filler throughout my garden and the flowers generally arrive on schedule with no help at all from me.  This January there are plenty of bloom spikes but no actual flowers as yet.  The Aeoniums, along with several other common January bloomers, are taking their time making an appearance in 2020 but they're on their way.

Clockwise from the upper left, coming attractions include: Aeonium arboreum, Calliandra haematocephala (first bloom!), buds on Echium handiense, tiny buds of Grevillea lavandulacea 'Penola', naval and Mandarin oranges (not quite ripe yet!) and, in the middle, the first flowers of my noID paperwhite Narcissus

That's a wrap!  Visit Carol, the host of Garden Blogger's Bloom Day, at May Dreams Gardens to discover what's happening in other gardens.


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