winter comes early

... when the watsonia starts sending up shoots (the one east of the garage, which gets some irrigation). So are the muscari in the front walkway. Some of the ipomopsis are reblooming, as is one of the salvia nemorosa; the others are lost to sight. The caryopteris has one tiny flower. The echinops in front are almost finished; the one behind the house is just starting. Down by the street, one of the new catharanthus has put forth a white bloom with a small red eye; the ones behind the house are blooming strongly. The burgundy snapdragon blooms on, and there's even one nasturtium flower under the perovskia. The epilobium is pretty sparse, but the plumbago and solanum are superb. And I hardly need mention the Godzilla. The "red elf" escallonia has some nice green leaves and looks healthy; it's much harder to tell how the loropetalum is doing. The salvia chamaedryoides still looks good, and the malacothamnus is covered with flowers if I bother to examine it.

One of the pardancanda actually put out some blooms on days when I could see them, but they're not as pretty as in the catalogue. I may not grow any more of those. Something intriguingly feathery is sprouting just outside the back door. I wonder what it will turn out to be.

quiet mostly

The Godzilla has more flowers than ever, almost hard to believe. The malacothamnus is in bloom, and both plumbago are looking quite good, except that the smaller one has its leaves all yellow. I did fertilise it over the winter, but .... The only daylilies still blooming are Stella d'Oro, the big yellow, and occasionally Happy Returns. Some of the ones I recently bought are growing and some not.

The sweet peas are definitely over, and even the morning glories are doing badly; something is eating them. The catharanthus are OK, as are the dietes and alstroemeria; the latter, in fact, surprises me that it is still doing anything. The Paraguay nightshade looks fine. The epilobium is not in very profuse bloom yet.

The rose is OK. I'm still wondering what to replace it with, when I do that.

pull and trim

Pretty quiet this week. I've neatened up the epilobium and hauled out most of the remaining clarkia (harvesting some more seed, not a lot). And sheared the lavender. The morning glory by the east fence is six feet high but very leggy, for some reason I haven't yet thought of. The white snapdragon has one bloom.

new arrivals

Wow! It has been a long time. A few daylilies have rebloomed, but more importantly, or at least more fun, I've planted eighteen new ones. I ordered sixteen, dug holes for eighteen, but the grower sent me four bonus plants. Two of them are still sitting in water while I decide what (if anything) to do with them. [OK, I've planted them behind the house.]

The Godzilla is even bigger, and I've cut it back away from the road and footpath. The California fuchsia (Epilobium canum canum) has started to bloom, which adds a good spot of colour; some montbretia (Crocosmia crocosmifloria or something) are also blooming. The gaura still look good. I've pulled out several white gladioli. The sweet peas by the east fence offersome late flowers; the ones in the front walkway are still growing and looking lovely, as are the morning glories. I haven't looked lately at the morning glory by the east fence. The gazania still has about six flowers. The plumbago are gradually improving, but the bigger (northern) one has had to be trimmed. The burgundy snapdragon is still blooming, the only one of its kind; the alstroemeria by the gate is also blooming on three or four stalks. I've harvested some clarkia seed; the ipomopsis seem about over for the time being. Oddly, the malacothamnus has a few flowers. Of the ceratostigma that I moved, one looks very dead, one very alive, and two are in limbo.

We had a morning's rain ten days ago. It made little enough difference.

I've trimmed off the old flowers from those perovskia that I sheared six weeks ago.

digging again

The daylilies are mostly coming to an end, but the somewhat inaptly named Autumn Red has just bloomed, and is very lovely and symmetrical. As for other plants, the white gladioli at the front of the house are now open, but I don't think they're worth the water they drink. The echinops are doing nicely and look ready to bloom profusely with no water at all. The oenothera are just about ready to be cut down. The dietes bloomed again on Sunday, and are shrivelled this evening. The big alstroemeria has two good flower stalks open; perhaps I should have pulled the old ones out more eagerly. The Godzilla continues to do well, and the ipomopsis and plumbago develop as expected.

So what do I do when my daylilies are out of bloom? Order more daylilies! I've cleared some existing plants out of the strip by the drive, mostly the ceratostigma, which I've moved down to the edge of the street; it looks as if at least some of them will survive.

The other thing I've done is bottled a good deal of seed: white nigella, flax, lavender, and gilia capitata. I'm also working on some clarkia and California poppy; not much of the latter.

clearing the mess

Today I've pulled out a good many wildflowers (mostly gilia and flax) and collected some seed ... a great deal of lavender seed over the past few days. I've also harvested the very last plum, after slightly more than two weeks of abundance.

The new daylily, which I've named "Raspberry Salmon", has two blooms today, looking very pretty, and Frans Hals has six ... details on the spreadsheet. My wife doesn't want me to get rid of the Strawberry Candy ... OK.

I've tied up (?espalier) another branch of the salvia greggii. The shorn aquilegia has a couple more buds; even the alstroemeria by the back gate is sending up more flower stalks, which is a pleasant surprise. The dietes came into full bloom again this morning; the oenothera are definitely petering out. The only clarkia still in bloom seem to be those on the corner, which also has plenty of anagallis and a fair amount of (almost entirely white) yarrow. The gazania continues with about six or eight blooms at any one time, the morning glory by the east fence has one bloom, while those in the front walkway do better and better. The sweet peas reverse this trend: those by the fence are blooming well and indeed showing quite a number of seed pods, while the one in the walkway has only four or so blooms. The canna is having a hard time. The plumbago is now showing a few blooms at visible height, but is also trespassing on the walkway. The lantana continues to grow back, but has not bloomed yet. Both agastache look good. Two white gladioli have put up hefty flower stems. The ipomopsis are blooming on, rather sparsely. The malacothamnus has fewer blooms but is far from finished. The teucrium, tanacetum, and santolina are finished, and the latter two shorn.

Some of the perovskia are almost six feet high, and Godzilla is close to eight.

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.