There's only so much space

It's still too hot to get any major projects done in the garden and too early to go ahead with replanting areas that need an overhaul.  However, I've taken advantage of some cooler days here and there to start small-scale cleanups in a few areas.  In the process, I've pulled up a lot of agave pups.  I hate to throw them away so I've been potting them up and storing them behind the garage and next to my compost bins.

Agave 'Jaws' has become something of a pupping machine.  In addition to the pups you can see under the mother plant's arms (left), I discovered four more pups feet away (right).

With the noID agave pups I pulled out of the dry garden on the northeast side of the house late last month, the Agave 'Jaws' pups shown above, and another handful of Agave 'Medio-picta Alba' pups I pulled out of my south side garden earlier this week, I'd accumulated more than I wanted to store.  Time for another plant giveaway!

This batch of 24 plants were placed at the corner of our driveway late yesterday afternoon

I labeled everything as best I could.  These pups came up in the vicinity of several Agaves in my northeast dry garden and, at this size, I'm uncertain of their parentage.

I was able to identify most of the rest.  The exception was a stressed-out pup of what may be Mangave 'Lavender Lady'.

While reducing some of my surplus plant stock, I somehow managed to pick up other plants courtesy of a few friends at the same time.  Funny how that happens.  Here are the plants currently awaiting placement somewhere in my garden.

Aloe lukeana, received from Gerhard of Succulents & More.  It needs a lot of space so I'm debating whether it should go in my street-side succulent bed or on my back slope.

Aloe 'Moonglow', received as bare root pups from Denise of A Growing Obsession.  I potted them up while they await placement.  At least one or two of these will go into my south side garden.

Mangave 'My Dog Spot', received yesterday from my friend Kay, who can be found on Instagram @kaeru.niwa

Of the twenty-four plants I put out late yesterday afternoon, only nine of the smaller ones were still left when I checked this morning but, with the marine layer still firmly in place, there's a good chance more of them will find homes with neighbors who walk the area when the temperatures are still comfortable.  I'll leave them until late this afternoon to see if more disappear.  Twenty-four small plants out in exchange for four larger ones in isn't bad, though!

All material © 2012-2021 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party

In a Vase on Monday: My timing was a little off

My dahlias are gradually making progress, displaying more buds and a few more blooms, but it's a toss-up as to whether the blooms will beat out the progression of mildewed foliage, which is already developing in small amounts.  After a nice stretch of cooler than normal temperatures last week, the heat returned for the Labor Day holiday weekend.  We still haven't passed the 100F mark but we did reach 97F (36C) yesterday afternoon and, after three hot, dry days, the dahlias I'd  targeted for for this week's arrangements were no longer looking their best.  I tossed two blooms of Dahlia 'Cafe au Lait Royal' in the compost heap but I couldn't bring myself to toss out the blooms of Dahlia 'Gitt's Crazy' I'd been eyeing since the middle of last week. 

This was what Dahlia 'Gitt's Crazy' looked like in my cutting garden early Tuesday evening

 

Rather than toss all three of these blooms, I tidied them up by removing masses of the lower petals

Back view

Top view: Three 'Candy Mountain' sunflowers bloomed on relatively short stems with small blooms so I cut those to include in the arrangement as well.  Helianthus 'Lemon Queen' has done relatively well this year but, like last year, the other sunflowers I sowed from seed appear stunted.

Clockwise from the upper left: Agonis flexuosa 'Nana', Corokia virgata 'Sunsplash' (aka variegated wire bush), Dahlia 'Gitt's Crazy', and Helianthus 'Candy Mountain' 

In contrast, the flowers of Dahlia 'Enchantress' opened just as the weekend started and were still in fine shape early Sunday morning when I hurried through my selection process trying to stay ahead of the heat.

'Enchantress' is a star.  This is my third year growing the plant from divisions of the original tuber i purchased in 2019.  The flowers aren't as large as the dinnerplate varieties but they're flashy.

Back view: I threw in bits and pieces of everything I could find that was looking good in my garden following the latest blast of heat

Top view

Top row: Abelia grandiflora 'Hopley's Variegated', Angelonia 'Archangel White', and Cosmos bipinnatus
Middle row: Dahlia 'Enchantress', Eustoma grandiflorum, and noID white Gladiolus
Bottom row: Gomphrena decumbens 'Itsy Bitsy', Pelargonium peltatum, and Digitalis 'Pink Panther'

Like the dahlias, the gladiolas have been disappointing this summer.  I don't recall any issues with them last year, other than that the majority bloomed all at once.  This summer, the gladiolas are opening one at a time, often with a break of more than a week in between blooms, with the flowers fading within a day.  I've already tossed out several because they looked too sorry to include in an arrangement.

I cut the Gladiolus 'Guinea' shown here to include in the first arrangement but I didn't like it with the dahlias.  Rather than toss it out, I stuck it in this small vase with a Zinnia 'Senora' flower I'd cut earlier.  The gladiola's color is interesting but it hasn't held up well either.

 

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

All material © 2012-2021 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party

Highlights of my botanic garden visit

Last week I visited South Coast Botanic Garden, about 6 miles from my home.  My intent was to see the disco rollerskating set-up before that event closed but of course I also checked out other parts of the garden.  Some areas frankly left me depressed; however, there was beauty to be found and I wanted to share the highlights.  (My prior post on The DiscOasis can be found here.)

The Japanese Garden is small but well-maintained

The Living Wall has undergone some replanting

Even in late summer, there were  flowers to be found.

Flowering plants found elsewhere in the garden:
Top row - Amaryllis belladonna and Physostegia virginiana (aka obedient plant)
Middle row - a variety of Lagerstroemia (crape myrtle trees)
Bottom row: a mass of Bauhinia galpinii (aka red orchid bush)

My visits are often restricted to the garden's front area but, on this occasion, I covered a good portion of its 87 acres, including one of my favorite areas, the Banyan Grove.

This is literally the coolest part of the garden - it's ten degrees or more cooler that other areas of the garden during our hot summer months

The trees are Ficus macrophylla (aka Moreton Bay figs or Australian Banyan)

The aerial roots stretch to the ground, eventually taking root to help support the tree's top-heavy canopy

When I was involved in giving school tours, we called this Ficus petiolaris the "ghost tree" due it its naturally pale bark color

We also used to refer to this as a "strangler fig" as the fig tree sprouted from a seed dropped into the trunk of a large palm.  The fig is usually cut back hard each year but this year it looks as though it might actually succeed in strangling that palm.

As I moved into the "back forty" of the garden, I focused on the trees.

Ceiba speciosa (aka silk floss tree)

I'm not sure what kind of conifer this is but it's in the process of being strangled by what I think are honeysuckle vines

Two Podocarpus  macrophylla (aka yew pines) surround a Taxodium distichum (aka bald cypress) fronted by a weed-free blanket of fresh wood mulch

A tree-shaded tunnel

Most of the sculptures included in the Hide & Seek - Art Meets Nature exhibit loaned to the garden by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art are located in the back part of the garden.  I photographed all but the original sculpture in the front area, which is owned by the garden.

This is Fuller by Doris Sung, commissioned specifically for SCBG.  It's surrounded by Centaurea 'Silver Feather'.  Last time I visited kids were crawling inside the sculpture.  Luckily, this time it was unmolested.

This is Firestone, one of the pieces on loan from LACMA.  It was created by Peter Voulkos in 1965.  The plants surrounding it in the Sakura Meadow are Agave vilmoriniana (aka octopus agave).

This sculpture, called One on One by Richard Artschwager, actually was almost entirely hidden behind a hedge of cypress trees in Phoebe's Meadow

This colorful sculpture is called Trace.  It was created in 1981 by Nancy Graves.

The Duchess of Alba by Reuben Nakian was created in 1960.  It sits in the She-oak Meadow surrounded by a bed of begonias.

This kinetic wind sculpture, Four Lines Oblique Gyratory-Square, forms different shapes.  It was created by George Rickey in 1973.

Teha, by Mark di Suvero, sits in the Memorial Meadow surrounded on three sides by dark Aeonium arboreum

I crossed the garden's upper meadow on my way to the the exit and noticed that, even if school tours are on an indefinite hold, the garden was being used by some for educational purposes.

I'll end with photos of the renovated Palm Circle near the garden's entrance.

Formerly filled with flowering plants, this area was replanted with palms, agaves, and other drought-tolerant plants earlier this year.  It's filling in nicely.

Best wishes for the holiday weekend.  My thoughts are with those of you in the US dealing with one or another climate-related disaster.

All material © 2012-2021 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party

Wednesday Vignette: Surprises, the good, the bad and the just plain odd

Yesterday, as I was heading into the house, I happened to take a closer look at one of the pots sitting outside the front door.  Planted with just two kinds of succulents years ago, it didn't look quite right but I didn't immediately realize what was off about it until I cleared away some of the dead foliage.

I'm referring to the tall pot in the rear of this photo.  With the dead leaves cleared away, perhaps you can immediately see what's unusual about its contents.

What was originally a pretty but very average Echeveria 'Blue Atoll' had at some point taken on a cristate, or crested, form.  Cresting can occur as a result of damage to a plant's growing tips, a genetic mutation, or due to some form of stress as described here.  

I wasn't even sure of the Echeveria's identity until I hunted down my original photo of this pot in July 2018

The flattened stems of the succulent are easier to see here.  I'll probably move the crested Echeveria to another pot where I can give it more sun and less water as recommended.

As our dry conditions continue and I try to avoid watering any more than necessary, my plant losses are stacking up.  I've come to terms with many of these as they suggest the need to change my plant palette to adjust to changing climate conditions but some losses still manage to surprise me.

This Coleonema pulchellum 'Sunset Gold' was seemingly fine one week and dead the next.  There are other Coleonema nearby and elsewhere in my garden, which are all doing fine.  This one was crowding nearby plants so I may not replace it once it's been removed.

Correa 'Sister Dawn', my favorite Australian fuchsia, planted in 2018, also suddenly gave up

And then there's the all-too-common discovery that the bulbs I ordered weren't what I received.

I ordered Canna 'Phasion' for its foliage but I got neither the colorful variegated foliage it's known for nor any flowers 

I've complained enough about how slow my dahlias have been to bloom this year so I'll end this post with some recent happy surprises among my flowering plants.

Dahlia 'Gitt's Crazy'  has grown sky-high and produced its first fully open blooms this week

A Delphinium from the 'Pacific Giants Mix', cut down to the ground following its spring bloom cycle, put up a new bloom stalk

I bought hybrid Nepeta 'Blue Prelude' on a whim back in May and planted it in one of the half barrels in the front garden.  Although the neighborhood cat that visits my garden regularly didn't eat it down to the ground as he's done with every other Nepeta I've ever planted, it appeared to die back as the summer progressed.  I'd planned to replace it, when it suddenly reappeared, sporting blooms no less.

This Passiflora tarminiana x manicata 'Oaklandia', growing in a pot on my south side patio, produced one or two flowers last summer but I wasn't expecting any this year.  I discovered this one on Monday morning.

I've had a Plumeria in a large pot for years and it's never bloomed.  A neighbor offered me a cutting she'd rescued from someone's trash several months ago.  I demurred but nonetheless found the cutting in a nice terracotta pot waiting for me in the driveway two weeks later.  It started flowering last week.

These Zephyranthes candida flowers (aka rain lilies) appeared last weekend despite the fact that we haven't had any actual rain.  Maybe the return of our morning marine layer, heavy at times, made a difference.  There aren't many this year but they're appreciated nonetheless.

I didn't sow any seeds of Zinnia 'Senora' this year but one plant appeared in my cutting garden anyway

I find it's important to remember to look for the positives when I feel as though I'm surrounded by negatives, whether in the garden or in life in general.  A broader perspective helps.

For more Wednesday Vignettes, visit Anna at Flutter & Hum.

All material © 2012-2021 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party