it's raining plums

Well, not quite, but I think I harvested a hundred or so of them yesterday and today. Yesterday there were an embarrassing number of windfalls. I've frozen a fair number and distributed some to the neighbours.

Most of the clarkia are over. The scarlet flax and nigella are long over, and I should collect their seed, but there are a few more ipomopsis. The catharanthi continue to prosper and the aquilegia under the back fence has shown one rather ragged bloom and a fair amount of new foliage; today I've pulled away all the old foliage. There is one inarguably pink yarrow in the "corner lawn" and many weeds. The dietes bloomed most of last week, but has some stale flower stems that should be cut out. The erigeron karvinskianus is looking rather dry, and I should shear its flowers off. I've just done that to the tanacetum and some of the salvia nemorosa (others are smothered under the godzilla and I can't easily reach them). There's plenty of white yarrow.

The teucrium is clearly over, and the malacothamnus may be winding down. The godzilla, ahem romneya, is fine, as are the perovskia and solanum rantonetii (?sp). There are still a few osteospermum blooms and several gazania. The canna are struggling.

Daylily Tigerling opened two blooms this week (on different days) and has no more buds. Leebea Orange Crush has shut down. Another of my home-grown seedlings, let's call it Number Five, showed a diaphanous pink lower with a strawberry eye zone, making me wonder about its parentage. Stella d'Oro is doing well, and Pandora's Box. I think Small Gesture is over. As for Gingerbread Man, I have to admire it for being so prolific.

Summer is here

Warm-climate plants are prospering. The catharanthi have a few more blooms and the morning glories are as tall as I am. Some clarkia are over. Most of the anagallis are doing well; the "plumbago" (ceratostigma plumbaginoides) have shown a flower or so each, but the real plumbago is still hiding its flowers near the ground. Godzilla and the malacothamnus are looking wonderful. The dietes have been blooming all week after a fashion, and the oenothera still look good. The lantana is recovering well. I've pulled out the flower stems of the stachys, but I ought to replace them with divisions of a sterile one I have.

I've shorn off half of the blooms from the biggest three perovskia well before it was needed, in the hope that they'll have grown back before I need to shear the other half. I've also shorn some osteospermum that seemed to have finished blooming. I finally pulled up some very old bulb foliage.

The plums are ripening, and I've harvested two dozen over the past few days.

Daylilies are numerous. New arrivals include Hyperion and Frans Hals just today, Apricot Beauty, Fairy Tale Pink, Strawberry Candy (which is doing well but I'm not fond of it), and the second Holiday Happiness (not as tall as the first). Pandora's Box is blooming more generously. Custard Candy continues to delight me and Gingerbread Man is still going strong, as is Leebea Orange Crush. Stella d'Oro is back.

daylily time

Today's news is that, for no doubt at all, what I thought was one wine-red daylily seedling is actually two. Its two halves were both in bloom an hour ago, clearly different in size,shape, and colour. Another seedling ... number five ... finally got a bloom all the way open, a pleasant red colour. Its first two were an intriguing rusty brown but did not open fully. Hmm, maybe it also is really two plants. The Gingerbread Man produced one bloom that I quite liked, but mostly it's a landscaper's plant: looks better from a distance. Strawberry Candy is rather disappointing today.

Of true lilies, we now have two white speckled blooms and four orange, the latter starting to fade already. The ipomopsis are looking better ... well, two of them are, out of many. In fact they look better on camera (close up) than in real life. The teucrium has a few little blue flowers left. Other things are largely as they were; another canna is open and the Grandpa Ott are getting taller. Did I mention last week that the osteospermum are just about finished?

Watch out, Tokyo!

The Godzilla plant (romneya coulteri) is starting to roar. The malacothamnus isn't doing badly, either. These are both dry-summer plants, native to California, and I expect they will bloom for some time.

The daylilies are opening in increasing number and variety. Holiday Happiness looks quite handsome in the gentle light of evening. I suspect that the wine-red seedling is actually two plants, because I see two rather different colours in its blooms. Gingerbread Man continues to disappoint. For others, see the spreadsheet. Well, and maybe a few photos.








The sweet pea by the east fence is now two sweet peas, the other one being purple. The Turkish tansy (tanacetum densum amanii) has been blooming brightly for some time. In the south-east lawn, we have our first vaguely pink yarrow ... maybe. Among the true lilies, we have a creamy white with speckled centre, and two or three bright orange ones. Still plenty of clarkia, but I've begun to demolish the phacelia campanularia. The bright red canna behind the house is fully open. The mimulus struggles on. The very first ipomopsis flower is open, but they are so small, they are noticeable except in large numbers. The teucrium is getting pretty low on flowers, but the gazania is back.

I've shifted one of the volunteer perovskia to where it may do some good: just south of the main daylily bed, where the keckiella died last year.

I can almost hear the gopher laughing at my traps.