Late to the Garden Party

Monday, January 8, 2024

In a Vase on Monday: Poles apart

I prepared two arrangements this week and they're as dissimilar as they can be. The first one is soft and very pink.

The early blooms of Camellia 'Taylor's Perfection' provided the inspiration

Back view: As the Camellia blooms are likely to drop within 2-3 days, I dressed up the back side so I can turn the arrangement around to provide interest when that happens

Top view

Clockwise from the upper left: Alstroemeria 'Inca Lucky' (recycled from one of last week's arrangements), Alstroemeria 'Inca Vienna', Camellia williamsii 'Taylor's Perfection', Antirrhinum majus, Boronia crenulata 'Shark Bay', Prostanthera ovalifolia 'Variegata', and Plectranthus scutellarioides ' Florida Sun Rose' (aka coleus)

The second arrangement doesn't include any true flowers. I initially planned to stick with the flower-like bracts of Leucadendrons of various kinds in shades of yellow, pinkish-red, and green but I changed things up a little at the last minute.

The dark Aeonium rosettes provided a focal point

Back view: I added 3 stems of Hibiscus foliage to echo the color of the Aeoniums. The Hibiscus stems have small buds but I'm not sure they're developed enough to bloom.

Top view

Clockwise from the upper left: Aeonium arboreum 'Zwartkop', Hibiscus acetosella 'Haight Ashbury', Leucadendron salignum 'Chief', and L. 'Wilson's Wonder'

January isn't looking much better than December in terms of rain. At present, there's a forty-five percent chance of a dribble of rain next weekend. I'm already drawing down on my stored rainwater.

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

Friday, January 5, 2024

Wide Shots - January 2024

Virtually all my blog posts are focused on gardens and the practice of gardening. While I frequently photograph and write about public gardens, plant nurseries, and private gardens belonging to other people, a large percentage address my own garden; however, those posts rarely place the scenes I photograph within the context of the overall space. My quarterly wide shot posts are designed to show how the various areas relate to one another. They also capture the entire garden at regular points in time, which allows me to track its development and evolution from year to year. I've been surprised by how often I check my wide shots when trying to figure out what happened and when.

I'll start out as usual with the view from the back door and proceed clockwise around the house.

View looking in the direction of the Los Angeles harbor on a partially cloudy morning. In early September I replaced the woody Echium webbii that stood to the upper left of the fountain with a 4-inch pot of the same plant. It's already about a foot tall and wide but I'm not expecting blooms this spring.

View from from the back patio looking north. I miss the mass of Aeoniums I had lining the patio's edge on the left but the groundcover plants I put in there in September are slowly filling out. I think I may need more, though.

View from the north end of the back garden looking toward the patio. The succulents here have filled in nicely.

View from the back patio looking south, There are bare spots here and there in these borders at the moment. I've hard pruned one of the bush violets already, with another to go. The Helichrysum 'Icicles' shrubs (foreground), planted in 2017, are declining and need replacing.

View from the south end of the back garden looking toward the back patio. Solar-powered sonic gopher deterrents can be seen on the right and bottle-fed terracotta self-watering stakes are set up on the left to give new plants an extra boost as they get established.

With a pivot to the left, we're looking at the south-side garden.

View of the south-side garden looking west. The largest 'Blue Glow' Agave (foreground, left) shows no sign of dying back since its bloom stalk was cut down. The yellow-flowered Leucospermum 'High Gold' on the right already has buds.

View from the south-side patio looking south. I've trimmed back some of the Cistus shrubs on the right but additional work is needed. The Graptoveria 'Fred Ives' I recently beheaded await replanting at their base.

View of the south-side garden looking east. The insect-damaged Agonis flexuosa 'Nana' shrubs on the left need a hard pruning, followed by an application of Neem oil.

With a quarter turn to the right, we head to the lower level of the front garden.

Path leading down to the lower level of the front garden. I pulled out shaggy Limonium perezii and added pups of Aloe striata x maculata to the bed on the right.

View of the lower level garden area occupied by my lath (shade) house. I removed most of the shade-cloth screens as I usually do during our cool season but it's been colder and windier than usual and some of the Begonias have protested by dropping their leaves. I'm hoping they'll recover.

View of the lower level garden looking north. I replaced some smaller succulents with cuttings after they were damaged during our annual tree trimming exercise.

View of the same area looking east. At some point I need to behead the overgrown Aeonium arboreum rosettes and replant.

If you turn left from the point shown in the last photo, there's a dirt path that leads to the front driveway but you have to squeeze around two trees and the hedge facing the street to reach it. I rarely take anyone that way. It's easiest to go back the way we came through the lower level garden to the front garden's main level.

View of the front garden from the south end looking north. I recently cut all the Cuphea 'Vermillionaire' shrubs back hard, hence the bare spots in the foreground.

View from the edge of the Magnolia tree looking south. You can see the Freesia foliage is already up on the right. The large Leucadendrons in the background on the right need trimming, as does the hefty Leucadendron 'Wilson's Wonder' on the left. I hung a sign on the latter asking the gardeners not to touch it. I'll prune once the plant's winter "flowers" are done.

View from the front door looking southwest. The coleus (foreground, right) and Hibiscus acetosella (background, right) are still going strong despite the colder-than-usual temperatures.

View from the driveway looking at the front door. I planted my new Protea 'Claire' in the bed on the right but it's not readily visible behind the lavender shrub at the moment. Healthy though it is, I think I'm going to take out the chartreuse Coleonema 'Sunset Gold' on the left. It's too big for that spot and the gardeners keep cutting it into an awkward rectangular shape.

View of the path I described earlier that runs from the driveway entrance to the lower level garden where the lath house sits. The path is currently carpeted with moss.

This is a view of the area between that path and the brick path to the front door. The Grevillea 'Peaches & Cream' (background, right) was in bad shape several months ago but seems to have recovered. I initially blamed gophers but we later discovered that the irrigation system in the area had broken down.

View of the bed to the left of the front door. The Hong Kong orchid tree (Bauhinia x blakeana) has rebounded with the rain and cooler temperatures, although all the tree's flowers are unavailable for cutting (unless I get out a ladder).

One of my favorite views of the front garden, photographed from the north end of the house looking southwest across the beds that hug the house

View of the north end of the house I rarely show because it's usually hidden behind my husband's truck. I put another sign on the Leucadendron 'Wilson's Wonder' shown here to the left of the chimney to keep the gardeners away. It admittedly needs pruning but I want to use the plant's daisy-like flower bracts for cutting while I can.

Before we head around the corner of the house, I'll take you on a tour of the area on the other side of the driveway.

View from the driveway looking northwest. This area alongside the garage was mostly lawn when we moved in 13 years ago. It's never entirely come together but tree and hedge roots present a challenge. This fall, I removed the roses that edged the walkway by the trash and recycle bins as the area was too dry and shady for them to thrive. I'm now trying out various groundcovers.

This succulent bed has struggled too. Last year, I decided I was going to renovate it and I've let it go since. It's my #1 focus for the first quarter of this year once I've taken care of my winter pruning tasks. I'm also considering removing at least one of the 3 aged Abelia grandiflora on the far left.

View from the trash can path adjacent to the street looking east. I tried out another Japanese maple (foreground, next to Lomandra 'Platinum Beauty') but, despite good protection from the wind and sun behind the hedge, it hasn't done well and I'll probably pull it.

On the other side of the garage is my cutting garden.

My cool season cutting garden always seems slower to kick off than I'd like but this week I've seen the first Anemone coronaria bloom and the first foxglove flower stalks. I've also owned up to the fact that I have to reduce the size of the masses of Aeonium arboreum growing at the base of the citrus trees as the path between them and the raised planters is now very narrow.

Only two stops remain.

View of the north-side garden looking northeast. The gravel path leads to the back slope. This area requires a few cleanups, most notably pruning the giant Leucadendron 'Chief' and clearing the ivy growing up through the hedge (not visible here).

View looking down the back slope from the top of the concrete block stairway. I finally pruned back the Centranthus ruber and dead artichoke stalks but there are a lot of weeds that need pulling. The good news is that the lemon tree is once again loaded with fruit. The bad news is that the peach tree that came with the house isn't in good shape and warrants removal.

View from the bottom of the slope looking up. I cut back the woody Echium webii that blocked the path along the hedge on the right last spring but never got around to digging it out. I've given up on the idea of pulling out the ivy covering the steep upper slope, limiting myself to just weeding it as best I can.

That's the end of this quarter's spin around the garden. As I've already shown a shot of the street-side succulent bed in Wednesday's post, I won't repeat it here. There's still a lot of cleanup work to do in many areas of the garden so it's time to get back to work.

Wednesday, January 3, 2024

Time to get started

The holidays are over and our decorations have been packed away. Although I've yet to make up my 2024 "to-do" list, I thought it was time to at least fill in the empty spot in my street side garden. After all it's been bare since the dead Auranticarpa rhombifolium at the south end was removed in late September.

This is a recent shot of the street-side succulent bed. I thought I had a closeup photo of the empty space in front of the lath house but, if I took one, I can't find it. As it stands, even as I worked to fill the spot formerly occupied by the tree-sized shrub, I'm concerned that the remaining Auranticarpa on the far right is now also in decline.

Instead of adding new plants, I ended up moving others that were already there. Someone (not me!) had stepped on the small Agave colorata I'd originally planned to move there and I decided it wasn't worth saving. However, an Agave americana 'Mediopicta Alba' I'd planted two years ago as a pup deserved more room so I decided to give it pride of place and fill in around the edges.

The mid-sized 'Mediopicta Alba' had already produced 2 pups of its own so I moved the larger of the 2 as well. The 2 Agave 'Blue Flame' pups on the left will quickly fill the area between them.

I also planted 2 small cuttings of Echium handiense 'Pride of Fuerteventura' and 3 cuttings of Graptoveria 'Fred Ives' behind the 'Mediopicta Alba'. Unfortunately, at present they're barely visible in the larger photo.

As I tidied up the area in the process of making these changes, I generated succulent cuttings.

There's not enough here to warrant a giveaway yet but I'm willing to bet I'll have more within another couple of weeks

I spent a little time beheading the overgrown Graptoveria 'Fred Ives' in another area but I've yet to finish replanting those cuttings.

As soon as the cuttings callus over, most will go back into the area they came from. A few of these may go into the street-side bed.

I've also started cutting back the bush violets (Barleria obtusa) that are quickly dropping their ripe seeds. My largest clumps of these plants have been spreading not only by self-seeding but also by layering, where stems running along the ground root. So, in addition to cutting the plants back to the ground, I need to reduce some of the clumps to a more manageable size.

I want to remove about one-third of this plant before the new growth develops much further. The plant should rebound within 2-3 months.

My efforts to control the gophers, described in an earlier post, aren't going well. Supposedly, these are solitary animals that maintain territories of about an acre in size but, if that's true, the animals have gerrymandered their territories because their mounds are popping up in widely different areas of our half-acre lot.

A fresh gopher's mound that appeared just outside my lath house on New Year's Day is shown on the left. I poured deterrent granules down the hole, stomped the soil back into place, scattered more granules on top and watered it in (shown right).

Yesterday, more tunnels appeared directly adjacent to the lath house, in the street-side bed next to an Aloe lukeana, and in 2 new spots in back garden. (All these photos were taken after I stomped the soil back in place.) I'd tried to channel the gophers eastward toward the back slope but the uncooperative critters are moving west instead.

I'll end this post on a more positive note with a few pretty pictures of recent blooms.

Aloe 'Moonglow'

Lachenalia viridiflora was beaten down by earlier rainstorms but I had to share the fabulous turquoise color of those flowers

I'll be back on Friday with my quarterly wide-shots post, which should provide a good springboard for planning future garden projects.

Monday, January 1, 2024

In a Vase on Monday: HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Yesterday was cold (from our viewpoint) and damp. We got almost half an inch of rain on Saturday but we had some sun that afternoon. In contrast, Sunday was cloudy and damp most of the day so collecting material to put together a vase wasn't nearly the pleasure it usually is. New Year's Day is expected to be much sunnier, at least by late morning, so hopefully the Tournament of Rose Parade won't disappoint the tourists!

My garden is still relatively low on flowers but I managed two arrangements anyway.

One of the 'La Paz' Hippeastrums I planted out in the garden last year surprised me with a bloom stalk. When planted in the ground they don't usually bloom until spring at earliest, if they bloom at all. The other 2 planted in the same area have yet to make an appearance but then a gopher tunneled through the area earlier.

Back view: As the Hippeastrum 'Apricot Parfait' I used past week was still in good shape, I added it to this arrangement to fill it out

Top view

Clockwise from the upper left: Alstroemeria 'Inca Lucky', Coprosma repens 'Plum Hussey', Leptospermum 'Copper Glow', Hippeastrum 'Apricot Parfait', Leucadendron 'Jester', L. 'Summer Red', L. 'Safari Sunset', and Hippeastrum 'La Paz'

With all my Christmas decorations tucked away, I needed another flower arrangement for the front entry.

This arrangement turned out a little lopsided but I gave up fiddling with it

Back view, showing off Hebe 'Purple Shamrock'

Top view

Clockwise from the upper left: Hebe 'Purple Shamrock' Pelargonium 'Lady Plymouth', Pericallis x hybrida (aka Cineraria, syn. Senecio cruentus), Pelargonium peltatum 'Lavender Blizzard', and Polygala myrtifolia

I hope your New Year's Day is a good one, sunny or not!