No colorful fall foliage to speak of

I'd intended to pay a visit to the local botanic garden this week since I haven't dropped in there since July but, between the election results and what weather forecasters have classified as an extreme Santa Ana wind event, I wasn't up to it.  The light was interesting yesterday morning so I decided it was time for some foliage shots of my own garden.

When I looked out at the horizon on Wednesday, I thought the marine layer was blowing in but humidity was low and air had a dingy tinge to it.  It didn't take long to learn that the Santa Ana winds had sparked wildfires to the north of us in Malibu, Camarillo, and Ventura.

Due to the Santa Ana winds, temperatures have remained on the warm end of the fall spectrum, which means there's very little in the way of colorful fall foliage but we may yet see some by the time we slip into what passes for winter here.  For now here are the highlights I picked out, starting in the back garden.

View of Leucadendron 'Pisa' featuring a skirt of Acacia cognata 'Cousin Itt' and Agave lophantha 'Quadricolor' and various Aeoniums in the foreground

The one remaining Prostanthera ovalifolia 'Variegata' in my garden and an Aeonium hierrense occupy the same bed

This Mangave 'Red Wing' sits nearby

The dwarf Jacaranda 'Bonsai Blue' I've considered removing several times is actually looking good after a hard pruning last year (even though it refuses to bloom)

The south-side garden offered a lot.

The 3 dwarf Agonis flexuosa 'Nana' shrubs fleshed out after their hard pruning in late winter.  The Coprosma repens 'Plum Hussey' in the background, which I cleaned up following our scorching summer heat, appears to be on the the rebound too.

As long as you ignore the troublesome weeds, this large clump of Agave 'Blue Flame' is looking good, although it's crowding the Agave americana 'Mediopicta Alba' (again)

The leaves of Cotinus coggygria 'Royal Purple' are just starting to turn

Below the Cotinus (and another Coprosma 'Plum Hussey') sits a good-sized Mangave 'Mission to Mars'

The Graptoveria 'Fred Ives' I replanted from cuttings this year surprised me by doing so well.  I suspect the credit belongs to all the rain we had from winter into spring.

Metrosideros collina 'Springfire' zoomed up in size this year, courtesy of the rain.  From this angle, it's fronted by Pennisetum 'Sky Rocket' and Agave 'Mr Ripple'.

Vitex trifolia has a smattering of tiny flowers but the purple undersides of the leaves put on a real show

Some flowers crept into my photos of the front garden.

The foliage of Leucadendron 'Wilson's Wonder', Abelia grandiflora 'Kaleidoscope, variegated Nasturtium 'Alaska', and Acacia cognata 'Cousin Itt' make the biggest statement here in the front garden but the touches of orange color in the flowers of Grevillea 'Superb', Nasturtiums, and Cuphea 'Vermillionaire' elevates the view.  Agave 'Jaws' and Aloe cryptopoda are almost hidden.

Closeups of the same area

Plectranthus scutellarioides 'Indian Summer' (aka coleus) is doing well in this barrel

Corokia virgata 'Sunsplash' is getting a little crowded by the Correa shrubs surrounding it

The various Plectranthus scutellarioides (coleus) I added along the the path to the front door are doing a good job of accenting the Phormium 'Maori Queen'

These 2 containers featuring Mangaves sit in the area in front of the garage.  Mangave 'Coffee Jitters' (left), a gift from Gerhard Bock years ago, is embellished with the best-looking Sedum morganianum I've ever grown.  Mangave 'Kaleidoscope' (right) is surrounded by a mishmash of cuttings I clipped from other areas of the garden.

Acer palmatum 'Sango Kaku' (aka coral back Japanese maple), situated next to the garage in my cutting garden, is showing more fall color than anything else 

There are also some plants making their presence known in multiple locations.

The Aeonium arboreum (tree aeoniums) are slowly waking up from their summer dormancy.  Those in shaded areas (as shown in the lower row) look fleshier than those that spent the year in full sun.

The Lomandra 'Platinum Beauty', which serve as ornamental grass substitutes, are shining in both the back and front areas

That's it from me this week.  Hopefully, the Santa Ana winds will be done with us by the time this post appears Friday morning.  I'm planning to bury myself in garden chores this weekend.

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

A Giveaway on Election Day

My husband and I voted early, as did most of my friends, and listening to political advertisements and constant flurries of statistics and predictions was something I've wanted to avoid ever since.  Unlike a certain billionaire, I can't give people a million dollars to "encourage" them to vote (and I certainly wouldn't act in support of the man he does).  However, I decided that an innocuous condition-free giveaway of my own might provide the diversion I needed on Election Day.  

I got started with my preparations on Monday.  The obvious focus was the two persimmon trees, which have been laden with fruit this year.  The trees' branches have strained under the weight of it and critters had started going after that fruit, breaking branches in the process.  It was time for a harvest.

These are both shots of Diospyros kaki 'Fuyu'.  I tackled the fruit shown on the left first, collecting 4 dozen undamaged persimmons to give away.  The fruit on the right, hanging over the fence, still needs picking. 

The flat-bottomed 'Fuyu' persimmons are shown in closeup on the left.  The rounder 'Hachiya' persimmon is shown on the tree (right).  I harvested 3 dozen of the latter as a start.

As I'd spent several hours cleaning up our back slope over the past weekend, I knew I also had an excess of lemons so I decided to add a bucket of those to my giveaway too.

The lemons that looked like this one, presumably stripped of their skin by rats, went in the green bin but I was able to pick more than 2 dozen lemons in good shape

As we had just two children show up at the door on Halloween, I also had leftover candy I needed to unload give away.  And of course I usually have succulents to pass along.  All combined, I was able to put together one of my larger giveaways.

I took photos with my phone after my initial set-up, which is a good thing as by the time I returned with my regular camera some things were already gone

Both varieties of persimmons were offered, along with bags if walkers needed help in carrying the fruit home.  A prior post on the differences between the 2 varieties can be found here.

The candy and the lemons are shown here

I put out 2 large rosettes of Agave attenuata (aka foxglove agave) I'd removed from different areas.  They weren't planted in soil but both had developed roots.  In addition, I added several pots containing pups of a Mangave, 2 varieties of Agaves, and an Aloe.  Surprising to me, all the small succulents disappeared quickly but the 2 foxtail agaves hadn't caught anyone's interest when I last checked in the late afternoon.

If you're a US resident, I hope you found a way to focus on little things that make you happy yesterday (after voting of course).  I imagine it's going to take a while to sort out the results given all the reports predicting a close race.  Be sure to take time to breathe!

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

In a Vase on Monday: The garden giveth

Although I look forward to the flowers that bloom during our cool season, the transition is always difficult.  The color quotient in my garden drops dramatically as seeds, bulbs, and plug plants take their time to develop roots, shoots, and buds.

I welcome the relatively few plants that flower during the fall months, one of which is Barleria obtusa, also known as bush violet.  I'm surprised that I've never seen these plants in local garden centers.  I picked up my original plant at the botanic garden located roughly five miles from my home years ago during one of their fall plant sales - when they had such sales, as well as an in-house propagation unit staffed by volunteers.  Perhaps my biggest disappointment with that botanic garden, where I was once a volunteer, is that both the plant sales and the propagation unit have been abandoned.

I selected a single stem of lisianthus (Eustoma grandiflorum) to flatter the bush violets.  Planted as plugs early this year, I was surprised that the lisianthus produced new flowers as temperatures cooled, especially as the plants took a hit during September's heatwave. 

Back view

Top view

Clockwise from the upper left: Barleria obtusa, Centaurea 'Silver Feather', Correa 'Ivory Bells', Eustoma grandiflorum, Lavandula multifida, and Vitex trifolia

I collected a grab-bag of other flowers to fill a second vase focused on the few pink flowers currently found in my garden.

Two bulb flowers, an Amarine and a Lycoris, provided the starting point

Back view, fleshed out with stems of Leucadendron and Plectranthus scutellarioides (aka coleus)

Top view

Clockwise from the upper left: Amarine belladiva 'Emanuelle', Lycoris springeri, Plectranthus scutellarioides 'Florida Sun Rose', Leucadendron salignum 'Chief', Pelargonium hortorum 'Dynamo Hot Pink', Persicaria capitata, and Eriocapitella hupehensis (aka Japanese anemone)

It remains very dry here.  Last week's rain didn't materialize and there's nothing auspicious in the ten-day forecast either.  It's windy too, which makes the garden even drier and the marine layer isn't expected to pay us a return visit until at least Wednesday.  However, in the meantime the garden soldiers on with the assistance of our irrigation system and spotty hand-watering.  According to my records, November 5th marks six months since our last real rain in early May, which measured only 0.17/inch.  I'm not expecting the bounty of rain we got during the last two "water years" (measured from October 1st through September 30th of the following calendar year) but something along the lines of "normal" rain would be much appreciated.

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

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