Vine Embraces Bird

On the front entry way at our Laguna home lives a pair of "rocking" birds. They are sculptures that my husband found in Boston many years ago. They are made of metal and a large rock for the body and they are configured so the body of the bird rocks in the base which is the birds' legs.

They are positioned at the turn in the steps leading from the street down to the house and everyone taps them to set them rocking on their way down to the house.

Evidently this jasmine vine from the nearby flower bed wanted in on the action and reached over to embrace this bird.

Ruffly Roses

I love big, full, ruffly roses
and the gardens are full
of them this time of year!
Aren't they gorgeous?

More Cool Whites for Hot Days

The past few days continue to be hot here so the cool white garden is where I have been spending time. Here are a few more close-ups of some of the flowers that are in bloom right now in that garden.

Clematis

Astilbe

Abutilon

I have forgotten what this little shrub is called,
but I love it and will have to track down the name.

Paul Ecke Florabunda Rose

I added this rose last fall and it is just starting to bloom. It is named after the "Father" of the modern day holiday poinsettia plants. It is a brilliant deep red with tinges of burgundy and dark green foliage.

Shades of White In The Moonlight Garden

The front yard in San Juan is to be my Moonlight Garden with all white flowering plants. Other colors do try to sneak in and occasionally I am charmed by them enough to let them stay a while, but I do try to be diligent. I've tried to create this kind of a garden before, but I could never be disciplined enough to follow through. We'll see this time.

We are in the process of removing long hedges of pink Indian Hawthorne to make room for the wide borders.

There are a few small beds in this garden that I started last spring that are looking quite good right now, of course filled with white flowers and variegated foliage.

Pelargoniums (Geraniums)

Brunnera macrophylla "Jack Frost"
(Okay, maybe an occasional tiny bit of blue... )

Lamiastrum (dead nettle),
miscanthus sinensis (Silver Grass),
and white heliotrope

The lamiastrum, heliotrope brunnera all prefer shade and the miscanthus can tolerate shade.

Plump, Round, Ripe Artichokes

There are always artichokes growing in the garden. These are growing in the Flying Rabbit Island bed and they are at least 8 inches in diameter and ready to pick. They were planted last fall from a one gallon pot, are globe artichokes and they are almost as big as the 24" box pepper trees they are next to in the garden.

We include artichokes in the elementary school garden for a number of reasons:

• They are way easy to grow
• They provide five or six vegetables per plant
• They are fun to eat and talk about
• They harvest before school is out
  
• Even though a hungry rabbit (our biggest problem in the kids' garden) will still eat the course, prickly leaves, they grow faster than the bunnies can eat them, therefor they survive!
  

I also have one growing in the front yard that was planted last spring, but it hasn't grown one iota since it was planted - go figure.

If I am guilty of anything when it comes to these guys, it is leaving them on the plant way too long. I enjoy seeing them in the garden and I miss them when they have been harvested. They will send up a second harvest in the summer, but the chokes are much smaller.

If you look closely in my "Mauvelous" posting, you can see the greenish-purple of the chokes growing in the Laguna garden.

New Roses In The Garden

I have won awards at amateur rose contests with this beauty called Miami Moon. I had one in Flying Rabbit Island and when a spot opened up next to it I planted another one. I love the ruffles and the peachy-pink color is lovely. It is on the smaller side as far as the overall dimensions of the bush goes. I like to plant more than one of each rose bush so I can have very large bouquets of all the same roses.
This has to be one of my very favorite roses because I have so many of them and I just keep planting another and another. It is Graham Thomas and it grows very tall here in Southern California. I actually use it on arbors occasionally.
This is the Disneyland Rose. It is a fairly small floribunda bush with tons of beautiful blooms that range in color from orange to pink and all colors of the sunset in between! I have just added five new bushes in the San Juan Capistrano Garden. I have about five bushes in Laguna and they seem to be very disease and pest free as well as abundant bloomers.

Costco Beauties

This was the first fall at our home in San Juan Capistrano and during the frantic fall planting I put in dozens of spring bulbs that I purchased at Costco.

My garden in Laguna has naturalized what are now hundreds of daffodils and snowdrops that put on quite a show every year. I wish I was more organized and ordered bulbs from the lovely catalogs I receive every year... maybe next year.

The new bulbs actually went in fairly late, but no worries, they still performed with enthusiastic vigor!

Here they are planted with nemesia, thyme and Mexican feather grass.

Meet Beverly

I have a neighbor who has a very charming and drought tolerant garden that I love. There are lavender and rosemary bushes and olive and pomegranate trees throughout the front yard. But my favorite element in the garden are her dark purple iris that bloom from spring to fall, I swear!

She told me they are called Frequent Violet and she got them at a local nursery. I have looked everywhere for them and they were nowhere to be found. After searching for about nine months I happened upon some at a garden show this week. I bought five one-gallon containers of them, much to my delight.

I also was smitten with this lovely peachy pink iris called Beverly Sills and it came home with me too!

Mauvelous

The garden in Laguna Beach is in its full glory this week. This photo is from the center bed. It is all done in shades of mauve flowers and bluish-gray foliage.

Included in the bed is Angel Face rose (one of my favorites), Hazel Spanish lavender, salvia and I believe that is Breakers iris.