It All Started With A Picture

I fell head-over-heels in love with a cover of Garden Design Magazine about 15 years ago. It was an extreme close up of this rose, 'Graham Thomas'. I was growing some roses at the time, but they were all very common hybrid teas that I had bought bare-root at the grocery store (remember those days?). I had never seem such a voluptuous rose before and it ignited a passion that would result in over a hundred David Austin roses with about a dozen of them being Graham Thomas just so I would have lots of blooms all summer long. It smells as heavenly as it looks. Over the years the romance has not waned. I still love this rose as much as the day I first spotted it on the cover of the magazine. Kind of like an obsession with a super model, except this one is accessible!

Happy Mothers' Day

Betty Prior Rose

Hundreds of dewdrops to greet the dawn,
Hundreds of bees in the purple clover,
Hundreds of butterflies on the lawn,
But only one mother the wide world over.
~George Cooper

Badlands and Goose

'Badlands' is a gorgeous dark purple iris and Goose is our cat.

Two of my favorite things in the garden!

A Donated Container

Last month I was asked to create a container for a charity auction to benefit the Great Park Conservancy. I put together this romantic combination in a lightweight container. It contains a 'Ballerina' rose, 'Black Knight' heliotrope, nemesia, bacopa and 'Blackie' sweet potato vine. Over the summer it will grow and overflow the container nicely as well as be fragrant. I'm not sure what the final amount was it went for, but it was a couple hundred dollars when I last checked during the auction. I hope whoever got it enjoys it!

Elegance Imperial Martha Washington

This is the only Martha Washington geranium that I have in my gardens, 'Elegance Imperial'. They are also called 'Regal Geraniums'. It is not really my style of flower, kind of flashy, but pretty and robust never-the-less, and very easy to grow with few problems and fairly drought tolerant as long as they get protection from the hot afternoon sun.

Color and Texture

This is a small border that is less than a year old in the Moonlight Garden in SJC. It runs between the play lawn and the "Tricycle Track" that surrounds the lawn. In this area all of the flowers are white (thus the "Moonlight Garden"), but what I wanted to show was the variety of shades of green and the combination of textures that makes this spot interesting all year round. I expect it will take until the end of summer for these plants to fill in enough to cover the ground and eliminate the need for weeding. In a few weeks the white airy gaura (upper left) will be blooming as well the species crocus with the grass-like foliage. The stiff arborvitae has a tinge of yellow and the lamb's ears are a soft bluish gray. In the lower right corner is helichrysum 'Limelight'. As a side note, all of these plants take lots of abuse, from the dogs, kids and toys.

Pretty But Problematic

This is an unnamed hibiscus plant that I inherited with our house in SJC. It is blooming for the first time this season, and it begins with beautiful blooms that evolve into one of the biggest problem plants on the property. I threaten to take it out every year, but it remains. The problem is that it is in a corner planter that has walls on two sides and no automatic watering system. Hibiscus in our area are prone to whitefly infestation and this one is no exception. Because it is planted in a restricted area it doesn't get any air circulation and few visits from birds and beneficial insects. The only ones that seem to find it are those insects that feed on it and seek it out like the whiteflies (that lay their eggs on the undersides of the big leaves) and aphids. It is somewhat drought tolerant, but stresses out easily when it goes dry which attracts more insects. A strong stream of water will take care of the pests, but it has to be done consistently and that doesn't seem to happen. I guess the best solution would be to move it and replace it with a plant that is not so attractive to insects. Maybe I'll get around to that this year!

Privacy Please

Our property in SJC is surrounded by a block wall in the front and chain link fencing in the back. It doesn't sound very appealing, but you hardly notice it because of the mature landscaping that was there when we moved in two years ago. This picture is an example of the fencing around the pool that separates our yard from our neighbor's yard. It is made up of a combination of plants including podocarpus, ficus, pyracantha, rhaphiolepis, and agapanthus along with a few queen palms. It gets lightly pruned about once a year and that is about it. There is a definite feeling of privacy when using the pool which is just perfect. The one thing that I think is important to point out is the combination of plants. On other parts of the yard the chain link is camouflaged using only one type of plant, oleander, and that plant is dying out in our part of the country due to a disease called scorch. This is leaving us with bare fencing which would not be the case if there were more than one type of plant used.

Spots

This farfugium japonicum or as some refer to it, ligularia tussilaginea is commonly called the 'Leopard Plant' for obvious reasons. People that are not familiar with it often think it is diseased or the spots are the work of some pest, but that is not the case. It is a shade plant that adds a bright spot to dark beds with what looks like dappled light hitting the leaves. It does have yellow flowers on spikes, but I grow it primarily for the foliage.

Happiest Rose...

If Disneyland is the happiest place on earth, than it stands to reason that the Disneyland rose is the happiest rose on earth!


I can't argue with that because it puts on a bright show all season with few problems with pests or disease and that makes me happy!