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.

It has been a fortnight

... and the dietes are earning their name of "fortnight lily" by blooming again. Well, they are earning the first half of that name. It annoys me to think of how many plants are given names containing "lily" in the hope that they will sell better, or something. The true lilies are not blooming at all, and I plan to dig out that raspberry-coloured one. The daylilies are doing nicely, though. The two Happy Returns in the back patio have started, as has the Stella d'Oro under the back fence; the Small Gesture is still blooming intermittently; the little Wine Cup has started; just today we have Strawberry Candy, Leebea Orange Crush (I'm not as pleased with it as some folks), Holiday Happiness (misshapen petals), and maybe Gingerbread Man. Two that I think I grew from seed have also begun: one is a dark purple with a white blush, not very impressive, and the other a handsome wine-red. I think both are children of Dark Ruby, with paternity uncertain but perhaps Always Afternoon or Stella d'Oro. Several of the big yellow daylilies have now quit.

The romneya started about a week and a half ago and now has nine big white flowers open. The gaura have been stealthily adding blooms to the point where they look very pretty. The perovskia are just as stealthy and not as far along. The "wild lilac" (ceanothus thyrsiflorus "Skylark") has a few almost invisibly tiny flowers, long after I had stopped looking for them; the larger plumbago has its first few flowers, normal size but close to the ground and hard to see. The cistus stopped blooming some time ago, and I've pulled off most of what I suspect are seed pods. Some nigella are still blooming, but many are forming seedpods; I can scatter some seeds of the white ones at the western margin, where the ixia are over and the ipomopsis not yet started, with the teucrium fruticans still showing a few flowers and the big escallonia getting bigger -- I've trimmed it back -- and still blooming. Oh, and the rose looks good. No more zantedeschia. The lavender look very well next to the clarkia. The scarlet flax continue in some parts. Almost all the gilia are over, and I've collected seed from them. The gazania and solanum rantonettii are blooming with rather less enthusiasm. The first of the newly sown yarrow has bloomed, but it's white. There seem to be several volunteer epilobium seedlings; I'm not quite sure what to do with them.

In the back garden, one of the catharanthus that suffered so badly last winter has shown a nice red flower. There's a red canna just opening. Some of the heuchera are staying on. In the front walkway, the morning glories are two feet tall or so, the sweet pea there is struggling, but the one by the east fence has been blooming for a week and more, showy red (pinkish) flowers. The alstroemeria by the back gate is fine; the one behind the house is suffering fromthe heat, or something -- no blooms, despite extra water. I've sheared off the big aquilegia in the hope that they'll re-bloom; the seedlings are having mixed success.

The gopher is back. I've baited a trap with a fresh eschscholzia root and not much optimism.

one for the morning glory

Yes, both Grandpa Ott plants are blooming, though neither is far off the ground. Yesterday I saw the first "Small Gesture" daylily. The dietes are out again; the Hidcote lavender look superb, except that half of the ones I transplanted in the winter look dead. The oldest-established pervoskias are starting to bloom, though it isn't easy to see; the same goes for the malacothamnus fremontii. There are plenty of clarkia open, including one unusual one with strong red markings on an almost white ground, and more than plenty of oenothera. A few of the palue blue nigella have made their appearance, and some more clarkia unguiculata (?). There are even still some scarlet flax open, and a few flowers on the lithodora. I keep forgetting to mention the lavender cotton (santolina chamaecyparissus), not that its yellow flowers are all that spectacular. The snow-in-summer continues. The ixia are disappearing fast, but the salvia nemorosa are spectacular, at least by comparison with earlier years.

The gilia capitata are fading, and I have pulled some out; likewise the first row of snap peas, and the second row looks as it will only last a week. I've also pulled a lot of nasturtiums, but mostly on aesthetic grounds, and ditto the pink watsonias. The orange and red ones have few but attractive blossoms; only the white are making a really good show. The first true lilies are open -- have I mentioned them -- but they are the raspberry pink ones with yellow centres, which I don't like and shall probably dig up.

rockrose for sure

It showed nine flowers today. They don't seem to last long. Oh, and the dietes opened its first blooms of the year a few days ago; today I cleaned them off. The first farewell-to-spring (Clarkia amoena) are open, looking very good, and one astonishing yellow Calochortus, possibly "Golden orb". For no good reason there is a white freesia. The Dutch iris are all gone and my one bearded iris is not yet doing anything. The ixia look good and there a couple of purple flowers that almost have to be Ixiolirion except I don't remember planting any in that spot :-) The mimulus is adding more blooms, and I think one of the "Grandpa Ott" morning glories has its first one ready to open. I've dug out some little allium neapolitanum.

The soapwort and Indian hawthorn are getting pretty sparse, as is the "Grace Ward" lithodora. But guess what? One of the anemones is back. The teucrium fruticans and the big escallonia, both on the western edge, are in good bloom. Nearby, the salvia nemorosa have grown to quite a size and are still visible under the romneya, which is in bud. We definitely have some bachelor's buttons (centaurea cyanus) but only near the house, where they benefit from reflected heat; ditto some love-in-a-mist (nigella) but only the white ones, of which I am less than fond.

The Paraguay nightshade has fewer flowers than before and looks rather bare on its topmost twigs. I'm giving it more water, and likewise to the plum tree. The first row of snap peas, planted back in late November, is yellowing.

Concerning the gopher, one of my traps tripped but did not trap.

a little more

Some white (and pink) yarrow is in bloom -- an old plant, though -- and one of the rockroses (Cistus ladanifer) seems about to open. The iris are mostly withering. The cyclamens are ramping down slowly, but the big yellow daylilies are ramping up fast. One of the columbines I transplanted last weekend from the back fence to near the back door doesn't look too healthy.