A Look at the Moonlight Garden

 It takes a long time to establish a garden. I have been working on mine in SJC for about nine years and although they have looked lovely on and off, they are finally starting to mature enough to come into their own I think. Shrubs are filling out and plants that work and thrive in different spots are settled in nicely. Every year I add to the bare spots, trying to find something that works in difficult spaces. Some things die and some things I just yank out after admitting defeat. This is especially true in the Moonlight Garden. Although the white blooms are the highlight, it is the variety and depth of the shades of green and foliage textures that I think make this a lovely place to spend time.

 Although they aren't what you would think of as drought tolerant, and they certainly had bad days during the past year, this giant ligularia are quite content in this cool damp spot where the yard drains.

 It didn't take too much rain to encourage the Australian daisy groundcover to perk up and spread. Pelargonium geraniums are rather pedestrian around here, but I especially love the white ones along with the Marguerite daisies. They add a bit of sparkle to the garden.

 I don't think a garden is complete without some vines for vertical interest and these bower vines do the trick with their easy disposition and charming trumpet flowers.

 Oak leaf hydrangea is another plant that surprises me with its ability to adapt to our dry conditions. It grows large and healthy with little to no care other than deadheading after a few months of beautiful blooms.

 It is hard to keep the all-white theme when it means removing blooms that have changed color a little due to micro climates. Some all white flowers revert to a soft shade of pink and others like this daylily turn a soft yellow. If I was a perfectionist I would remove them, but I find perfection a bit boring.

 I really need to mulch some of this little areas with gravel I try to encourage the use of groundcovers to fill in but they don't always take to every spot and wood mulch breaks down so fast. You can see by the dainty little weeds that something is definitely needed here other than monthly manual labor!

 Variegated foliage is an easy what to add white shades to the garden.

 I add a lot of silver leafed plants to add another color to the foliage palette.

 True white daylilies are a little like unicorns. They exist only with a bit of imagination!

 There is a lot of additional vertical interest in this garden with the existing queen palm trees, the Italian cypress we added and some sculptural plants.

Signs of Life

 It has been a lovely spring for surprises in the gardens. Plants that were sleeping for months if not years have suddenly been replenished with the rain this winter (and I understand more is in the forecast). One example is this variegated acanthus I thought I had lost. You either love acanthus or not so much, but they are survivors in dry shade and a rich dark green, classical leaf and most of the time and I kind of love them! I planted this about a year ago and it faded fast in the dry summer, but looks revitatlized now. Let's see how it fares this summer.

Ajuga is one of my favorite groundcovers with lovely purple blooms low to the ground. Most of it disappeared over the past year, but I'm counting on this little patch that has hung on to grow again and refill the path edges.

Sun and Shade

 Here is another view of the white climbing roses from the last post showing just how beautiful and full they are during March facing the early morning sun! I don't even think they get fertilized!

I have been struggling with trying to fill in this bed under the fast growing California peppers trees.  The trees prefer not too much water or they get root rot, so shade and dry loving perennials were my only choices. There is some late day sun that creeps into one side of the bed in the afternoon which evidently is enough to sustain the purple lantana, the tagetes lemmonii and an 'Easter Basket' rose bush. The plants facing the other way have to be shade lovers or, like the daylilies from years ago that linger there, they may hang on, but never bloom.

My garden helper does not really pay any attention to sun and shade requirements and propagates plants all the time and puts them in where ever they are needed like these Margarete daisies. They need full sun, but seem to be blooming like crazy in this dappled shade. Years ago this bed was filled with beautiful calla lilies that I thought disappeared during the last few dry years, but it looks like they are making an appearance again after staying on the low down until the rains came back. What do I know?

Late Winter Blooms

 It is hard to believe that spring is just a few days away. This winter has flown by with so many family happenings as well as personal events that took over much of my focus and time. 

 The big El Nino we were counting on to bring us relief from the long drought has been rather winpy to say the least, but there is still more rain in the forecast and the mountain tops are covered with snow, a good sign.

I haven't spent any time in the gardens up until this week, but they have been soaking up the rain and the record breaking heat in February and there are signs of growth everywhere. I am delighted that the abutilons I searched for all over last year have settled in and are blooming like crazy in all the shady gardens that were so bare. I absolutely love their charming blooms as do the hummingbirds. Their structure is a bit leggy and sparse still, but I am hoping they will fill in this spring. I learned the hard way not to prune them too hard because they are slow growers so I am just leaving them alone to allow them to spread out in their light and airy fashion. Because they prefer the shade, they don't seem too bothered by the lack of rain last year and are good sports almost everywhere I have planted them. I am going to figure out how to cut some branches and bring them in the house too.

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.

Primroses in June

A shady nook in the garden that rarely is seen by most viistors still has a few English primrose blooms left thanks to the cool, overcast weather we have been having. The hellebores were done blooming months ago. These primrose were in a basket I used for some dining room arrangements in March and were just kind of stuck in the ground when they stopped blooming, but I guess they had more buds to show!

A Woodland Feeling

If you asked me for my philosophy on garden design, it would probably involve something about creating a specific ambiance in the garden. I wish I could say for certain what this charming mauve plant that I put in a few weeks ago is called, but the label is long gone. I'm guessing it is some sort native or wold foxglove. I absolutely love it because they have been blooming constantly since they were planted (this was five one-gallon plants) and they make the dappled shade under the pepper trees look downright woodland-like, an ambiance I am particularly fond of that is not easy to pull off in a drought. They are tall enough to have a nice proportion over the boxwood hedges that border this "island." But the best part is that the hummingbirds love them and they come down to eye level to enjoy them while we are sitting nearby in the garden! I really should go back and see if the nursery has any more while this cool weather hangs around, extending out planting season!

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. 

Happy Valentines Day

It's been a number of years since I've indulged in planting bleeding hearts (Lamprocapnos spectabilis) in the shade garden. I guess once again the rain has been encouraging me to take a chance on something that I know is just a short-lived charmer. Even though they are supposed to be perennials, I have never seen them come back to bloom the second year around here, but they are just so sweet, I am willing to go to the trouble and expense just to have them in the garden for a few months in the late winter and early spring. Besides, is there a more perfect flower for Valentines Day? Anyone can have roses, but a bleeding heart? Come on!

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!

Getting Back to the Garden

 It has been a while since I have been able to spend any time in the garden, let alone write about the garden, but today was a beautiful day with the temperature of about 80 degrees and I finished my "must do" list and headed over to the nursery to see what was going on there. I had just written a post for the UCCE Master Gardener blog about fertilizing citrus this month along the coast and I decided that I had better follow up on the dose I gave last summer that resulted in a bumper crop of grapefruit and lemons. I have a feeling my garden helper is a bit frugal with the organic fertilizer I buy (it is pricey) and spreads it a bit thin, resulting in weak trees with not much fruit. Citrus trees are heavy feeders and need to be fertilized at least three if not four times a year.  You might as well save your money if you are going to skimp on the dose.

Of course just to prove that we really don't know more than mother nature, my key lime tree in the front yard that was here when we moved in, never gets fertilized and produces a ton of fruit every year! I always look at the poor scrawny thing growing in a rather shady spot and think it certainly can't hang in there another year thriving on neglect, but it continues to prove me wrong! I suspect that because it is tucked away behind the grape tunnel it gets lots of natural fertilizer from all the grape leaves and fruit that fall and go unnoticed.

 The camellias are blooming all over the yard. I am going to make sure to feed them soon because I am afraid I am asking them to keep going without much care and they do seem to be giving me fewer and fewer blooms each year. I did go to buy some fertilizer today, but came home with five new camellia bushes instead, they were just too beautiful for my weak constitution to resist on this beautiful day! Now is the time to plant camellias and azaleas because they are dormant while they are in bloom. Once they stop blooming they go into a growth cycle and will need the nutrients the fertilizer will provide, so I am going back for fertilizer tomorrow! I have already cut a few but I need to get out my shallow bowls that I use to float the blooms in all over the house!

 Of course the azaleas are blooming too! I'm not a big azalea fan, but there were tons of them here when we moved in and after moving them around a bit I've grown to appreciate the sparkle of color they add to the winter garden and the low maintenance requirements. I'm sure they are in need of some food and they will use the same acidic kind as the camellias, so I will see that they get some this month too.

Focusing on Foliage

 Although this time of year is all about showy flowers, I have to give some space to the month-in, month-out performers that look good all year round with little or no care. In this case it is ligularia. An old fashioned perennial that is grown more for its foliage than the tall yellow flowers that I actually cut off as soon as they appear. I grow three varieties including the white variegated one in the top picture that was just divided and spread throughout the Moonlight Garden where it does very well. It thrives with early morning sun and stays about 12 to 18 inches high and is very sweet. It rarely flowers and needs the least amount of water of all of the ones I grow.

 The middle picture is the one that most people are familiar with, often called the leopard plant. The yellow splotches on the leaves are a part of the natural variegation pattern and will vary depending on how much light it gets. This one is planted on the side of the house, but in the middle of summer it gets direct sunlight the last part of the day and will actually wilt on hot days until the sun goes down and then it perks up again.

This is the largest of all the ligularia and I have seen it referred to as big-leaf ligularia. The leaves are about 18 to 24 inches across and quite dramatic. These I grow in deep shade and rarely ever bloom. They all get a little compost occasionally, but that is about it as far as an special care goes.

There are other types of ligularia other there, like a ruffly variety that I have seen in our area. If you don't find them at any of the big nurseries try some of the smaller, independent nurseries around.  I find they carry some interesting old fashioned plants that you don't always see in the nurseries that all get their stock from the same growers. Ito Nursery in San Juan Capistrano is one that carries some different varieties that you might not find elsewhere. 

Ligularia require regular water and are not considered drought tolerant plants. You can tell by their big, glossy leaves. They are easy to grow in the shade and good for spots that don't dry out and stay cool and damp, like the north side of a building. They are surprisingly durable and the only issues they have are with slugs and snails that also like cool damp conditions and big tasty leaves.  I don't have any problems with snails in my gardens, but they are easily controlled with iron phosphate. 

It is hard to have an interesting garden without some good foliage plants that give the eye a place to rest in the chaos of color this time of year. Consider ligularia like a palette cleanser for the eye!

A Gravel Garden Update

 I was recently asked for an update on the Gravel Garden by a reader, so here it is. As is the case with any low maintenance area, not much changes back here, at least not quickly. 

 You can see though, that the screening shrubs between our property and the neighbors are continuing to thin. This is in part due to the demise of the oleanders in the area due to oleander scorch disease and just the normal growth of the overhead plants shading out the under plantings. We planted Carolina cherries (Prunus caroliniana) to replace the dying oleander and continue to plant vines and shrubs along the fences to encourage a dense thicket, but the right combination takes time to grow in and fill in the gaps in this shady space. The dry weather has not be helpful. The automatic sprinkler system can only provide so much water to these large specimen plants and even the drought tolerant ones are a bit stressed these days and not as full as they could be under optimum conditions. There is a large old Brazilian Pepper Tree to the right in these pictures that covers most of this area with shade that is looking very stressed and I am planning on giving it and the orange tree in the back a good long soak with a hose-end sprinkle this weekend to give them a little relief.

I've added layers of hedges and although I was overly romantic and optimistic when I first put this garden in a few years ago with planting a row of white hydrangeas and a drip system, but it has not quite unfolded as I had envisioned. Since then I have tried to wean myself off of reading so many blogs from the rainy part of the country where 'Limelight' hydrangeas grow like wildfires do here. I planted some 'Yuletide' camellias last year in this shady area and I am still contemplating some more shrubs to fill in that can tolerate the shade. Because both neighbors' yards that border this area are far removed from their homes, they don't pay much attention to what goes on here on their sides of the fence, so it is pretty much my issue. One neighbor's yard is actually a horse stable and riding area with lots of chickens, which kind of adds an interesting atmosphere to the backdrop of this garden.

Overall, with the challenges we are facing with the drought this year, the Gravel Garden with its low maintenance and low water needs along with lots of cool shade make it one of the easiest parts of the property to manage. It handles as much or as little time and energy as I want to put into it quite gracefully and provides a lovely space to hang out on top of it all!

Cutting Camellias

This year I've started using the winter blooms of my many camellias as cut flowers indoors on a regular basis. I always tell people that camellias are to winter what roses are to summer, but I do know that they do not quite have the scent of roses and the long stems that lend themselves to beautiful indoor bouquets so I am not surprised when I am met with a bit of skepticism over my enthusiasm for these beautiful blooms as cut flowers. Although I do sometimes cut them with stems and they do fine in small vases, my favorite way to display them is floating in flat bowls of water. On my coffee table all winter I have a large glass bowl of water that holds five to seven blooms and they last at least a week and are a lovely change of pace from the usual bouquets that are gathered from the garden. Add a few of the lovely dark green leaves tucked in around the blooms for a full look. One single bloom and a few leaves in a pretty saucer is lovely on a nightstand or in the powder room too. I did plant a couple new varieties this year for the sole purpose of adding to my choices to bring inside. My sister has moved into a home that has some established bushes and she always calls them "those peony-like flowers". Maybe I am missing the mark when I compare compare them to roses!  

On a side note, camellias are shrubs that prefer shady locations and once established and well mulched, can survive with minimum additional watering during droughts. Do clean up spent flowers under them though to prevent fungal diseases. 

Waiting for Rain

I turned the sprinklers off a couple weeks ago to try to conserve water while the weather is cool and plants other than natives are somewhat dormant. There are some spots in the yard like this one, that stay cool and damp in the winter with minimum water due to the deep shade and being at the down side of the slightly sloped property. This area was originally a swampy mess when we first moved in and it was only grass, but now the ferns and flowering shade plants and ground covers keep it in check. I added some primrose a few weeks ago for a touch of winter color in hopes that we get some rain this season and sure enough, we have had some this week to keep them perky, although we will need much more to catch up and make a difference in the drought conditions. It is not just the rain along the coast we need, but snow in the mountains to fill the rivers and creeks this spring and summer. We still have time in our rainy season, but today the sun is shining beautifully and there is not a cloud in the sky. As much as we love our mild weather, we understand the need for rain and will gladly welcome it when it comes. There are always some plants that can be sacrificed during a drought in the gardens and many more that will survive tough times, but let's hope we get the rain and can look forward to a lush garden this summer.

Hydrangea Basics

Among the fall colors I have to include the drying hydrangeas. Many of them actually dry right on the plant without turning brown and can be cut and brought in the house. 

It seems like every year there is one question that people keep asking me about their gardens and this year is was about hydrangeas. Specifically hydrangeas that aren't blooming.  I just ask them a very simple question. Did you cut them back last winter while they were dormant? Inevitably they say yes, often proudly that they kept up with what they perceive to be annual maintenance.  But you can't cut back traditional hydrangeas in the winter without cutting off the next year's blooms. Hydrangeas bloom on last year's growth, so when they are bare and terrible looking in the winter, they are filled with flower buds and if you cut them back you are removing all the next year's flowers. The best time to cut back a hydrangea (although you never really need to) is right after they bloom in early summer when there is still time for them to grow and form buds the rest of the summer. I advise people to plant their hydrangeas where the dormant plant blends in with other plants and is not in a spot where bare sticks coming out of the ground for a few months in the winter will bother them. 

That being said, there are some new varieties on the market that bloom on old and new growth and will continue to bloom all summer even when you cut the dormant stems or flowers. They are the Endless Summer Collection and I have planted a few of them and am very happy with them. They happily bloom all summer even when I cut them to bring inside for arrangements.

The End of Summer

After a very busy summer, filled with lots of house guests, travel and just overall fun, it is time to focus on the gardens again. Tree trimming and sprinkler fixing top the list of priorities, but there is a lot to do in the coming months as far as refurbishing the plants. We came back from vacation to a major heat wave that makes me thankful that the lush backyard has filled in with lots of shade in SJC. The California pepper trees are as tall as the house and make a big difference in the temperature in that part of the yard. Of course this means that all the colorful perennials, bulbs and shrubs that require full sun are suffering, but they can be moved. There is also a big problem with the rabbits eating many of my favorite perennials that are herbaceous and that is not so easy a problem to fix. But for today I am appreciating the serenity that a shady, mostly green garden offers in the way of a calm retreat from all this heat as summer winds down!

Spring Feeding for Winter blooms

On my to-do list this week; buy acidic fertilizer for my winter bloomers like this pretty azalea. They have been doing fine without much attention, but it has been years since they were planted and this is the time to make sure they have the nutrients they will need for blooming next year. I don't want to be disappointed next winter because I didn't do it this spring!

More Please!

Note to self; plant more abutilon! The are so easy that I sometimes forget about them, but they are one of the most charming shrubs in the garden this time of year! Shade tolerant, drought tolerant, disease and pest resistant and blooming beautifully without any fertilizers other than a topdressing of compost occasionally. Those charming flowers and lovely foliage even when they are not in their long bloom cycle. What's not to love?