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.