Blooming

I was too lazy to write this blog up last week, but there are some changes with the warmer weather. Butterflies and bees are visiting. Here's a quick list of what has bloomed:

• scarlet flax
• calochortus, pale purple, likely C. Cupido
• tulips: the white T. clusiana "Lady Jane" with red outside, and the pink-and-yellow T. bakeri (I think), and one of the Darwin hybrids ready to open
  
• "bird's eye" gilia tricolor which I promptly pulled out
• plenty of osteospermum African daisies
• plenty of freesias
• the plum tree, covered with blossoms and quite wonderful
  
• a few "Johnny-jump-up" violas
• a little of the Vinca minor periwinkle
• a great deal of the Lithodora diffusa "Grace Ward"
• the scarlet and maroon cyclamens
• two poppy anemones (A. coronaria) gorgeous dark blue/purple
• some California bluebells
  
• in unison on the same day, all of the Falconet daffodils, followed by the Carlton and with the Mount Hood ready to open -- I was ready to give up on these last year, but perhaps that frost helped them along
• still plenty of grape hyacinth (Muscari armeniacum)
• the harlequin flower (Sparaxis tricolor) but only behind the house.
  

And a few things are finished: the true hyacinth, the Tenby daffodils (N. obvallaris), and the dwarf iris. Some purple crocus are still doing well. I've pulled out the scarlet flax from the lower half of the front bulb garden. It grew too tall too soon and made it hard to see the tulips. The snap peas have their first tiny pods.

Last weekend I tore out two shrubs under the north wall of the house that didn't belong there and planted a "Plum Passion" fringe flower (Loropetalum chinensis) and a "Newport Dwarf" (tm) escallonia. I've tried planting out another lion's tail (Leonotis leonuris) after the first one died, and the last of my indoor-grown yarrow seedlings, of which I think all the first lot died.

It's going to be dry. I may turn on some irrigation (groan).

More transplants

The things I transplanted two weeks ago are, at least, not visibly dying, and the phacelia actually looks better than it did. So on Saturday I took some lavender bushes (dwarf Hidcote) that I didn't need in front of the house and shifted them to the dry strip on the east side, in the hope that they'll establish themselves there before the rains end.

I also took out the frost-damaged parts of the plumbagos, since another hard frost is now quite unlikely. The smaller of the two was so badly bitten that I left very little of it above ground; the larger looks strange, since there were a few upright canes still alive, but otherwise only the ones lying almost on the ground had survived. I'm sure it will be fine in a few months. The former corner lawn is now thick with yarrow seedlings, so I tried thinning them out (it isn't easy). The front walkway is thick with morning glory seedlings; two sweet peas just east of the fence are an inch or two high. I've never grown those before.

One of the osteospermum daisies has put up a flower. The first spring starflower (ipheion uniflorum; triteleia uniflora) is open, as are a few more daffodils (but the paperwhites are gone). The cyclamens continue quite glorious, and the Clivia (clivia minata) has some flower stalks visible. The plum tree has many buds, some of which are now open. There are still a fair number of dwarf iris and some crocus, mainly purple but a few yellow. The hyacinth still looks good. The biggest of the snap peas has a flower or two.

This morning I did the dull, dirty, but important job of resetting and staking the edging strip along the front garden path. This had eased its way up out of the ground over the past year or three and was flapping. And, of course, I pulled weeds.

Transplanting

The weekend of the 10th was a busy one for me. I finally shifted the "Noell" grevillea from its rather shady spot under the north wall of the house to what I hope will be a better place. It was a fair size already and I hope the roots I had to cut were not essential to its survival. I also tried moving a California bluebell (phacelia campanularia) and two offshoots of the Fremont bush mallow (malacothamnus fremontii) because they weren't any use to me where they were. They look even less likely to survive.

This past weekend I moved another calla or two, and saw signs of life in the ones I moved earlier. I finally fertilised the plumbago. And shifted a few surplus "Johnny jump up" violas to the northwest corner, where I had tried to sow some seeds of that species, but apparently without success.

The dwarf iris are doing very nicely, as are the Tenby daffodils (narcissus obvallaris) and even a few of the generic big yellow daffodils that were sold as "King Alfred type". Tulips are poking up all over the front garden. The sasanqua has lost the flower it had, but I'm not sure if this marks the end of its season, since it rarely has more than one flower. The plum tree is covered in buds, and the remaining rose is showing leaves. The evening primrose (oenothera speciosa) has spread far too widely and I'll have to do something about it. The cyclamens are much as before; so are the primroses (primula).

early bloom

As of a week ago we already had some minature iris reticulata, the purple "George" and deep blue "Ida", and some yellow crocus. The Ziva are starting to wither, but some smaller daffodils, probably "Minnow", are open. The teucrium fruticans is doing nicely, and the creeping rosemary is in good bloom. That anemone has opened another flower. The red cyclamen is looking wonderful; the maroon one is blooming sparingly.

I've hacked off a lot from the leadwort (plumbago auriculata) and I ought to fertilise it soon. There are also any amount of weeds -- their growth rate seems to be limited only by the speed with which I can turn my back.

The weather is warmer, but those callas that I transplanted aren't showing much sign of recovery yet.

still cold

... but we have a dozen or more Ziva in bloom. Otherwise things are much the same.

cold

We've had several days where water actually solidified at night. (Yes, this is unusual. Yes, I know a night is not the same thing as a day.) The newly transplanted callas are looking very wilted.

I managed to put another hundred-odd kilos of pebbles where I wanted them. The place where I was thinking of putting lilies is both too small and too shady, so I'm contemplating a change of plans.

callas

Yesterday and today I levelled some of the soil in that strip in front of the house and planted into it some callas (zantedeschia) that I had ripped up from wherever they were. Then I bought some more wire mesh so I can make a protected bed for the lilies I hope to eventually plant in the rest of the strip (we have gophers hereabouts and I don't want my plants attacked from below).

I've pruned the plum tree, which I would probably do better if I knew what I was doing, and done demolition work on the gaura and the "Dallas Red" lantana.

There are more primroses open; the morning glory (convolvulus tricolor) behind the house is doing nicely; that anemone is still blooming; the red cyclamen in the front walkway has several flowers open, though the maroon has only one. The lemon tree is bearing magnificently. My neighbour tells me it needs spraying for whitefly; she is probably right.