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.