gopher again

... I've set traps.

I've hacked away a big chunk of the godzilla and some of the malacothamnus. I've dug up what I hope are some tulipa clusiana bulbs that had been under the godzilla, and hope to re-plant them this autumn; the hacking also revealed a very handsome ixiolirion, which I have watered. In the strip just west of the drive, I've pulled out a great deal of spent foliage from bulbs and flax, leaving a few flax that are still in bloom and some clarkia that are opening. Nearby, the anemones are gone and the "Eye of the Tiger" iris starting to wither, along with all the white iris, but some of the blue iris are still good. The rhaphiolepis continue. The "Hidcote" lavender are blooming nicely, as is -- still -- the teucrium. That calla has gone, but one or two more have taken its place. In the front walkway, the sweet pea is taller than I am, but has still not bloomed, whereas the one by the east fence is magnificent.

In the southern part of the Zone, the gaillardia has its first flower open, and so does the red aquilegia, though it's behind the purple one by the back door. There are plenty of big yellow daylily flowers and a few Stella d'Oro; I'll update the daylily spreadsheet, and a few others are in bud. There are also a few nasturtiums open and some anagallis. There are plenty of gilia, though I'm taking some out, and more Calochortus venustus plus one C. superbus. Further north, both plumbago are blooming and so are four cistus, with a fifth almost certainly on the way; the dietes are blooming and plenty of oenothera interspersed with eschscholzia and ixia. The corner lawn is much as it was: plenty of yarrow and anagallis, to say nothing of the weeds, and a pretty fair leonotis. The first gaura has opened.

feels like summer

... and a long time since I've been here.

Latest to bloom are the aquilegia by the back door, one of the cistus ladanifer, and a few clarkia. Before that, there was one (one) zantedeschia and two calochortus ... I think these are C. venustus, anyway, the white ones with the lovely markings inside. The oenothera have also started. The freesia are just about gone (some shrivelled ones left hanging on the stem) and some of the flax are starting to fade; but there are still plenty of these, many eschscholzia, and quite a number of gilia.

I've pulled out a lot of flower stems from the flowering stachys, which were probably a mistake to buy in the first place, and a lot of clarkia ?unguiculata and gilia from the corner lawn, which is being overrurn by anagallis, not that I mind that. The "Eye of the Tiger" iris are proving more numerous than I had thought: there are at least eight in front of the house, though apparently only one in the Zone. The big yellow daylilies are starting to bloom, and several others are budding. The sweet peas outside the fence are quite splendid, as is (still) the solanum. Nothing yet from the "Grandpa Ott", and the cyclamen are losing blooms; the clivia has been withered for a week or so, but I'm thinking of trying to get a seed from it. The alstroemeria seem very happy: behind the house there are four stalks blooming and two more to come, and by the gate very many stalks in bloom simultaneously. But the ones behind the house are starting to lose leaves already, even though I give them extra water. It's hot there.

The ixia are mostly open, but I wish they weren't all pale cream with deep red centres. Well, one of them is rose-pink. I should try and buy some better ones. Several of the transplanted watsonia look dead.

The godzilla is already huge. There's not much to be done for the plants under its spreading footprint. Oh, the berberis is now fully clothed in dark red leaves; the grevillea has opened some spidery red flowers; the ceanothus is blooming fairly well for its size, but the lower leaves are yellow and I daren't flood it with nitrogen as I did (apparently successfully) the plumbago.

not yet warm

But the tulips are mostly withered anyway, even unto the two remaning T. clusiana chrysantha (beautiful), and there is only one "Ice Follies" representing the daffodils. The ipheion are nearly gone, freesia starting to wither, sparaxis about half gone, and ixia just in bud. The watsonia seem to be suffering from transplant shock. Only the clivia, cyclamen, and anemones are doing well, relatively speaking. The alstroemeria look promising, though. The calochortus frankly do not.

The sweet peas are starting to bloom at the south-east fence, and the snap peas are almost yielding a useful harvest. This autumn I'll plant an entire row in November instead of half a row. The saponaria is starting to bloom and the lithodora is looking very pretty. We also have several eschscholzia. The nameless ceanothus has some bloom, which is rather hard to see. The loropetalum is unmistakably out, the flowers much brighter than the leaves, and the berberis has more leaves, including green ones near the ground. Nothing from the zantedeschia yet. The lavender at least look nice and green; there are more nemophila open, I think three plants.

The solanum is most impressive viewed from the south. The osteospermum are also very showy, to say nothing of the flax. The dietes muster four blooms between them. Oh, and the salvia greggii is sparse but very bright red; the nasturtiums are climbing well and have some good deep orange flowers.

I'm after that gopher again. I've ripped out some more allium neapolitanum and transplanted various gaura and catharanthus, plus a couple of leonotis. All in all a busy weekend.

tulips wilting

... the species tulips, anyway. Next year, I should have some of the T. clusiana in the western strip, which has been pure green these last few weeks. Now the nemophila are starting to decorate it, and I'm very pleased to see them back. All the Darwin hybrids are out, and a plethora of sparaxis and freesia; this may well be the high point of my bulb garden. The daffodils under the front of the house are getting dry and old. Another red anemone is blooming. The cyclamen still have plenty of blooms and the Clivia is starting to open.

The plum tree has exchanged most of its petals for leaves. The solanum has a fair number of purple flowers, and rather fewer leaves. I've hacked off the outer parts of the two plumbago, which I should have done weeks ago. The biggest of the leonotis has more flower heads starting; I should consider what shape I want it to be.

The snap peas are just starting to be big enough to eat. Next year I should sow a full half of them in November. Make that this year. On the Strip, the osteospermum and freesia look gorgeous, except that I wish I had more yellow freesia, and perhaps even a few more purple ones. The California bluebells are being joined by their neighbours the eschscholzia and by their colour allies the lithodora and anagallis. The scarlet flax blazes generously from the northern Zone and the edge of the drive.

better and better

Just after my last, nine days ago to be exact, the "Ice Follies" daffodils in front of the house started blooming. In a few days they were all open, looking crisp and pretty. Now the "Barrett Browning" that I planted in front of them are also open, less spectacular, but a good counterpoint. The others, which I think were salvaged from elsewhere in the garden, are not yet even in bud. I may put some daffodils in the south Zone for next year. The "Falconet" are almost finished; some of them will be trimmed this weekend. The "Tete a Tete" are over, and there is one "Minnow" (I think) open. There is still no news of the N. obvallaris. Puzzling, that.

The species tulips are doing very well, at least the yellow-and-pink ones ... T. sylvestris I think ... and the "Lady Jane" T. clusiana. The Darwin hybrids are opening, starting with the bright red ones. The anemones are much as they were, except that the bright red one now has more blooms. Four. The hyacinth is over.

I've ripped out the zantedeschia that were under the big escallonia by the front gate and put them next to the solanum, where the watsonia used to be. They may not bloom this year. The ones in front of the house, next to the aforementioned daffodils, are growing but not yet in bloom. Where the z. were I might put in some ipheion, crocus, or miniature daffodils.

In the front walkway, the clivia miniata has six -- six! -- flower stems and buds are swelling. The cyclamen are still doing well. The sweet pea is starting to climb (but you should see the ones by the east fence) and some "Grandpa Ott" ipomoea have at least germinated. There are plenty of flax, a few eschscholzia, and a few gilia capitata open; the osteospermum are putting on a good show, and the trailing rosemary, besides blooming, is starting to grow upwards. The calochortus and phacelia campanularia continue. At the south fence a few nasturtiums are open, and the salvia greggii has a few flowers as well. In front, the new grevillea has inarguably got some flowers, which are slowly getting bigger; the same goes for the loropetalum. The berberis has leaves to perhaps six inches above the ground. The teucrium still looks good. The various perovskia are getting their first leaves. And there are plenty of muscari; perhaps too many. The white freesias outside the back door opened last week, and are now being joined by one or two in other places. What look like most of the sparaxis are open, in colours ranging from deep red through orange to pale pink and one or two rather startling white ones.

The first few "Johnny-jump-up" viola are in bloom, and the leonotis in the corner lawn has more flower heads active, so that I become very glad I protected it over the winter. The gophers are back; I've set traps in the corner lawn and my son is trying to drown them in the back lawn. The plum tree still has some blossom and is adding leaves, including some that probably presage the growth of additional twigs from the trunk, and so must be stripped off. The rhaphiolepis are budding strongly. The alstroemeria by the back gate has a few flowers ready to open.

lonely as a cloud

Ouch! It has been more than a fortnight since I last was here. And the first yellow daffodil -- a St. Keverne, I think -- opened nearly that long ago. We now have a few more yellow ones and several of the Falconet, some of which I evidently moved a few yards northwards without telling myself. A few miniature daffodisl are open, possibly the Tete a Tete, which I should move closer to the street (in front of the row of lavender). There is one calochortus, the pale purple one; the hyacinth is doing nicely, and though we still have only two anemones open, there are more growing where I planted them in soil that I had enriched with compost. I'm now nearly sure they just can't take this heavy clay unless it is amended. There are plenty of ipheion and it would be a good thing to put some of them in the western strip, which is rather dull at the moment. The muscari armeniacum are opening and the cyclamen are still strong; no bloom from the alstroemeria at the moment. The freesias, and some of the tulip species, are in bud.

The plum tree is in wonderful nearly full bloom. The creeping rosemary at the south-east corner is also blooming, which I had forgotten to mention, and the snap peas that I planted in October or November have got a few flowers. Many of the phacelia are open, and of course the osteospermum. There are a few more flowers from the dietes. The loropetalum is clearly budding.

Springing!

For a week and more I've had some mini iris open, starting with the dark purple I. reticulata "George", and going on with the deep blue "Ida" and not quite so deep blue "Cantab". I should put some of those in the place west of the old malacothamnus where it's now rather bare. Today I saw one blue-purple anemone coronaria had also opened, several anagallis monellii, and one scarlet flax in the Zone. The scarlet cyclamen looks quite wonderful; the maroon one is losing blooms. None of the alstroemeria are blooming at the moment; on the east side, the osteospermum are doing well, as is the creeping rosemary, and at the south fence the salvia greggii has started to bloom too. The new grevillea has some deep red buds. The teucrium still looks good.

The daffodils I planted in front of the house last autumn are simply rocketing up out of the ground; some older ones already have swelling buds. That unidentified bulb by the back gate is a freesia, to judge by its flower stem, so I had better move it to somewhere sunnier. Behind the house, those leonotis I transplanted look fat and healthy; in the corner lawn, the half-grown one is fine, but of the others, one
half-eaten seedling remains. In the southern Zone I am going to have far too many of them if I don't watch out.