Just Enjoying The Flowers

Hydrangea

 I think every gardener has a critical eye when it comes to their own garden. I know I do. As I walk through the beds I focus on the bare spots, the plants that could be doing better, a bit of insect damage here and there and a number of other blemishes that mostly only we can see.

Duranta

 But it is important to learn to look past those imperfections and focus on the amazing beauty that the gardens offer up this time of year.

Bearded Iris

 Sometimes we are the only ones that see the pretty scenes in our gardens too. Visitors may take in the big picture or see only the plants that they are interested in personally.

Verbascum

 Allow me to indulge in some of the amazing blooms that are decorating my gardens this time of year. All of them are my favorites that are putting on a lovely show during our dreary weather.

Rose

Alstromeria

Clematis

Statice

A Corner of Color

With the water regulations in play, most of the flowering perennials that would be in bloom now are laying low. It hasn't been terribly warm yet, so there are still some corners of the garden in the shade that hint at what the garden used to be during years when there was adequate rainfall. I'm surprised to see the baby tears since most of the other tiny groundcovers have disappeared, but this little corner near the front door sits in the shade and must get a good dose from the sprinkler nearby a couple times a week. Other plants a few feet away are shrinking and shriveling. Sometimes I am fooled by what hangs in there and which plants cannot handle the stress.

Lovely Ground Morning Glories

It seems like the groundcovers that are not succulent in nature have a really hard time doing well with limited water. I'm guessing it is because they usually have very shallow roots. Convolvulus sabatius (Ground Morning Glory) is an exception. It is really more like a very short shrub, growing about three feet wide, along the ground, and I'm assuming it has deeper roots because of this. You buy it in one gallon containers and it doesn't naturally root, reseed or send out runners (unlike crazy vine morning glories) so maybe it isn't really considered a ground cover, more like a ground hugger! I do love the color and the easy growing nature of this charming plant, blooms all year round and drought tolerant too! You couldn't ask for more!

Loving Lantana in the Drought

 There are some plants that have really come into their own with the reduced watering cycles. I don't know if is because they are just finally mature after about seven years, whether they look good because some of the other plants typically that steal the show are suffering from the drought, or if they just truly thrive getting less water. (There is a fourth option and that is that my garden helper has been relegated to some new projects in Laguna and has not got near them with his pruners recently!)

 

One of these plants that I rarely think about planting is good old lantana. These are out in the curbside garden strip. I would not typically plant large yellow or orange flowering shrubs in any of my gardens, but the wall in the background is the same gold color as the house and I had to work with that. I have planted white lantana in the Moonlight Garden more times than I can remember and it never takes off at all. I find this common among plants, some colors are actually a more robust plant than other colored flower bloom colors of the exact same plant. Or maybe these guys are just situated perfectly. Lantana foliage is poisonous to animals and so the rabbits that are so profuse out here leave them alone. Another plus is that butterflies love them!

I honestly don't see this garden very often. When I drive out of the driveway I turn immediately left on the street and this garden is to the right, and to go out and walk by it I have to go through the front gates and leave my buddies behind (they are a bit too much off the leash to run around in the street) and nobody is happy about that.

Admiring Clivia

There are few flowers more showy in the shade gardens this time of year than the clivia.I know I am always singing their praises every year, but they truly do deserve to be considered for their ability to thrive where almost no other plants will in deep shade with little water. To prove it, here is a picture of some that are planted at the base of a eucalyptus tree way down at the bottom of our Laguna garden. They are lived like this for years. 

 The only thing that these troopers do not like is direct sun. Their beautiful green strappy leaves that look good all year long will turn yellow and burn in the sun. The flowers last for weeks and if orange isn't your color, (it isn't mine either, but I make an exception for these bold beauties once a year) try the yellow ones. 

Crazy-Busy Season

 I met someone who told me they didn't plant spring bulbs because they didn't like the messy foliage they had to put up with after the flowers faded. I must admit, there are a couple weeks when this is what it looks like in a few flower beds that the daffodils live in and I know that there are some fastidious gardeners that are very tidy and braid or bundle the dying foliage up while it is gathering the all important nutrients for next year's blooms, but I never get around to that. Besides, there is so much else going on in the garden to look at this time of year you can hardly notice a little chaos here and there!

 The orange trees that were all but withering away due to a lack of water when a broken sprinkler was not detected for a long time at the back of the property in SJC have once again come back to their previous glory (well almost) and with a heaping help of fertilizer and lots of rain and consistent watering in between the rain are blooming and filling the air with the lovely scent of ummmm... orange blossoms! How wonderful!

 The sweet little 'Anna' apple trees are blooming like crazy as usual.

The camellias and azaleas are winding down their seasons, but still have a few lovely blooms to share the stage with the spring flowers that are just starting to flower. 

The honeysuckle vines are in full bloom, climbing up the giant bird of paradise, so very fragrant and pretty, attracting the hummingbirds like crazy! Now really, who can worry about some fading bulb foliage when there is so much else going on in the garden?

A Few New Shrimp Plants

 It isn't very often I can say that I've bought a plant I've never had before, but last month I finally broke down and bought a justicia brandegeana or as it is commonly called, a Shrimp Plant. Although the salmon-colored ones are very common in our area, I have never been seduced by their cute little shrimp-like flowers or their easy cultivation. But I have a love of chartreuse flowers and I have been looking for shade-loving perennials for my "Palm Alley" that are easy to grow and will hopefully last more than a few months as many of the others have only been willing to stick around. I was combing the shade aisle of the nursery and there was this bright shining little green shrimp plant that caught my eye. I brought it home and planted it and the more I looked at it the more I liked it, so I went back and got a few more. I like the way it adds color, but in a subtle way. It is just a bright glow as opposed to an actual color.

 This area can be very tricky. Some plants thrive and others don't do well. The shrimp plant is supposed to be very easy and can grow to be about three feet high and wide, although I don't think I've every seen one in a garden that big, but maybe I've just never noticed. We'll just have to watch and see how they do, meanwhile I 'm very excited about them!

Shades of Spring - And Fall

 It doesn't take much to figure out what my favorite colors are in the garden this time of year. 

 The cool, misty mornings we are used to having in late spring have returned and the lovely purple and mauve flowers seem to add to the peaceful serenity that is punctuated by the birdsong and fluttering butterflies that they attract.

 Heavily scented blooms and soft textured foliage add to the sensual delights of the garden in the early morning.

 Soon these spring flowers will be joined by the more intense shades of summer as the weather warms up.

But suddenly, somehow there are rusty orange and brownish mums scattered throughout the garden beds! I was rather perplexed as to what these autumn flowers were now doing mixed in throughout my lovely purple spring perennials when I realized that they were a well-meant surprise from my garden helper who had rescued them as temporary three inch indoor plants from the compost pile last fall after I had tossed them when they had outlived their usefulness in my Thanksgiving house decor, and coaxed them into bloom only to replant them throughout the spring garden beds, where they add a "punch" of rusty color to my spring color scheme.

I must say I am touched by his quest to save every plant all the time (in my own defense, I usually do put them out to be replanted in a corner of the garden somewhere, it is just that I am running out of corners and I was very busy last year), and I realize he was just trying to help, and I should point out that I kind of have a vision that includes a color scheme (that evidently has escaped him) and that maybe we can find another spot for the lovely warm colored Chrysanthemums that shouldn't be blooming in the spring in the first place.

Until then I am just glad that my garden isn't on any garden tours this year!

Signs of Spring

 The first day of spring is bursting with color from all kinds of natives, shrubs, bulbs, perennials, annuals, and groundcovers.

 There are still buds waiting to wake up on the birch tree and Boston ivy, but

lots of other plants are in full bloom.

 Clivia lilies are making quite a statement in orange and yellow with primrose tucked underneath.

 Contrasting foliage has been adding color all winter long and continues to create drama as the flowers emerge around them.

 Reblooming iris and heliotrope have been blooming on and off all winter but look even more lovely with snapdragons that are finally starting to bloom.

 Native blue ceanothus makes a beautiful background shrub along the path.

 Helichrysum 'limelight' is as bright and colorful as any spring bud.

 So many shades of green in one garden make an interesting scene even without any flowers.

A small native iris peeks out from a sea of pretty blue ajuga groundcover. Just the beginning of a lovely sring season.

Learning Lessons

 So, I was going to write this post about my weeping cedar tree, and how much I adore it, and how much it has grown, but now I will probably write about how much your learn writing a blog about your garden!

When we moved into this house in 2008 there was a big awkward King palm in this little carve out that had out-grown the spot and was learning over the driveway. It was the first thing I had removed and relocated and I chose a weeping cedar to replace it for two reasons. First, it can be trained into a rather columnar tree which is perfect for this tall, narrow space, and second because I love this graceful, soft tree. Sure, it didn't look like much at first, but I had faith and sure enough as you can see in the top picture, with some staking and some pruning it has filled the space nicely (in hind-sight an Italian cypress would have probably been ideal and fit in with the feel of the house too).

 But in searching for pictures among all my files over the years for photos of this spot to show the progression I have made a few observations.

At first I was going to qualify the top picture saying that the 'Black and Blue' salvia that fill this planter, along with the bright orange daylilies are all dormant and cut back so it looks rather bare at this time of year, but is lovely most of the time. I then spent a long time looking for at least one picture of it looking "lovely". There were none. I take a lot of pictures, especially when things are looking good which leads me to believe that this area, which is right next to where I park my car every day, (you can tell by the tire marks on the edge of the planter) rarely looks good. Now this bottom shot with the snapdragons is not bad, but I would say that is a good four years ago. Part of the problem is that this east facing planter is very shallow and narrow and right up against the color of the house and therefor the colors of the flowers I can use is very limited and must be carefully chosen, and there is not a lot of air circulation so the plants must be tough. There are some lovely stained glass windows here too that have a rather tropical feel to them (Toucans and such), so they must also be taken into account. When I think about it, it is no wonder I have had such a hard time filling this little space successfully!

Another observation I have made today while writing this post is that I take a lot more pictures of my grandchildren now than I do my gardens! That doesn't bother me a bit!

A Little Late Fall Color

We are having summer like temperatures this week, but my SJC liquid amber tree thinks it is autumn and the leaves are just starting to turn yellow and fall to the ground. I had planted this tree, of which there are many in our neighborhood that turn beautiful shades of red, burgundy and orange in the early to mid fall, right outside the dining room window to add an ambiance of autumn color to our Thanksgiving holidays, but it is putting on the show a little late, not to mention somewhat less colorful than I had imagined. I am going to be patient and give it more time, assuming it is still young. I still love it though for the pretty color of green and the shade it gives us all summer, but I am still hoping for next year.

Pumping It Up

Although there are a lot of fall blooms in the Moonlight Garden right now, there is also a lot of bare dirt. With the holidays coming there are lots of guest showing up and it is nice to have everything looking good, even though late fall and early winter are not exactly peak bloom times. October it the best time for planting most plants in our area, so along with the cool season annuals that will hopefully bloom all winter, I am also putting in some perennials. Even though they are called perennial, many plants have a life span of a few years before they need to be replaced. That and hungry rabbits mean that some of my regular summer bloomers disappeared this year. I especially missed the pure white gaura that lends an airy feel to the beds for the warm months and was lucky enough to find some this trip.

Just One More

Boston Ivy

 Just a few more pops of fall color and then I am done.

Chrysanthemum

 After such a beautiful couple months of sunny days and warm weather, it is definitely starting to feel like autumn.

Chrysanthemum

Enough lollygagging around and time to get busy, or I will regret it next spring!

Autumn Details

Begonia

 Although I should be focusing on refurbishing the gardens this month, I get a bit distracted at the nurseries and bring home autumn colored potted plants to decorate the fringes of the house.

Ornamental grasses and Chrysanthemums

 Most of these plants will end up somewhere in the gardens after they finish this bloom, so it is all good.

Zinnia

 I am hoping against the odds that they will hang in there for five more weeks so that I don't have to replace them before the family starts rolling in for Thanksgiving.

Zinnia

I haven't even bought any pumpkins and gourds yet!