rockrose for sure

It showed nine flowers today. They don't seem to last long. Oh, and the dietes opened its first blooms of the year a few days ago; today I cleaned them off. The first farewell-to-spring (Clarkia amoena) are open, looking very good, and one astonishing yellow Calochortus, possibly "Golden orb". For no good reason there is a white freesia. The Dutch iris are all gone and my one bearded iris is not yet doing anything. The ixia look good and there a couple of purple flowers that almost have to be Ixiolirion except I don't remember planting any in that spot :-) The mimulus is adding more blooms, and I think one of the "Grandpa Ott" morning glories has its first one ready to open. I've dug out some little allium neapolitanum.

The soapwort and Indian hawthorn are getting pretty sparse, as is the "Grace Ward" lithodora. But guess what? One of the anemones is back. The teucrium fruticans and the big escallonia, both on the western edge, are in good bloom. Nearby, the salvia nemorosa have grown to quite a size and are still visible under the romneya, which is in bud. We definitely have some bachelor's buttons (centaurea cyanus) but only near the house, where they benefit from reflected heat; ditto some love-in-a-mist (nigella) but only the white ones, of which I am less than fond.

The Paraguay nightshade has fewer flowers than before and looks rather bare on its topmost twigs. I'm giving it more water, and likewise to the plum tree. The first row of snap peas, planted back in late November, is yellowing.

Concerning the gopher, one of my traps tripped but did not trap.

a little more

Some white (and pink) yarrow is in bloom -- an old plant, though -- and one of the rockroses (Cistus ladanifer) seems about to open. The iris are mostly withering. The cyclamens are ramping down slowly, but the big yellow daylilies are ramping up fast. One of the columbines I transplanted last weekend from the back fence to near the back door doesn't look too healthy.

old men forget

... and I forgot the mimulus in the front walkway, which I had not expected to see bloom again.

The lantana turns out not to be quite dead! I was breaking off the dead wood -- branches thicker than my thumb simply cracked in my hand, and the wood inside was black -- but at the bottom I saw a few green leaves. So it's tougher than I thought. There are more volunteer perovskia than I realised. Most of them will probably die when I transplant them.

I've set some gopher traps after finding a fresh mound. We shall see.

blooming all over

Nearly another two weeks gone by. The freesias are all finished, and some iris have withered, but there are now some white ones open, as well as 15-20 "Eye of the Tiger" and quite a few blue ones. The anemones are quiet, but some Allium neapolitanum are open, and some Ixia near the garage. I'm not too fond of the allium. The T. linifolia are either gone or hiding. Big news: the first Calochortus venustus is open and living up to its name. The Alstroemeria by the gate has plenty of blooms open, and the one behind the house has buds that look very ready. Just today I saw, by the NW corner of the house, a butter-yellow dwarf iris ... I. reticulata? The callas are still blooming.

There are still a fair number of scarlet flax, and the Gilia capitata are quite prominent in the East Zone. The masturshalums are making a good start. Two pinks (Dianthus) that I had more or less given up on are shining out. The gaura are coming along slowly. Some of the true lilies are in bud. The two Rhaphiolepis still look good and the Solanum is excellent. The Romneya is nowhere near blooming, but may deserve to be renamed Godzilla. The Heuchera are fine, and the first snapdragon (Antirrhinum majus) is open; it may also be the last. The morning glory bush was lost to a rampaging mole (I hope it's a mole and not a gopher) a day or two ago. One of the dark red "McKana Giant" columbine (Aquilegia) has opened three or four blooms. We may or may not have a Centaurea cyanus. The "Hidcote" lavenders look ready, except for some that didn't survive my attempts at transplanting. Some of the Ipomopsis are standing higher than the others, which may help me decide how to thin them. The California bluebells seem to be fading.

Three of the big yellow daylilies are now open, and a week ago today I saw the first bloom on a Stella d'Oro. The others are not ready yet.

some shall bloom and some shall die

The Grevillea shows no sign of life. Neither does the "Dallas Red" lantana at the bottom of the drive; I'm afraid those few days of frost killed it, though it was quite well established and mulched with plenty of its own dead leaves. I'll wait another month or so to be sure.

The good news is that there is plenty of good news. There are several more T. linifolia poking up, though some are hard to see under the clarkia. One of the "May Night" sage (Salvia nemorosa) is blooming well, half hidden by the Matilija poppy (Romneya coulteri), which is not yet in bloom; the blue sage (S. chamaedryoides) is also starting to flower, and the S. greggii has several vivid red flowers. The gaura are showing their first little white flowers. The rose is doing very well, and some callas are open. The Watsonia are starting too. The one behind the house is that dusty pink I remember from last year, and perhaps I should replace it. A fair number of blue iris are open, and one of the strange-looking "Eye of the Tiger" in the east zone. The blue pimpernel (Anagallis monellii) is starting, as are the nasturtiums. We also have our first daylily blooms, the big yellow ones that I got from a neighbour.

Most of what was in bloom stilll is, except that the tulips are completely gone and the freesia and sparaxis nearly so.

fast to bloom, fast to wither

Believe me, things have been growing -- I just haven't been writing about them.

The daffodils are all gone; the Mount Hood lasted about a week longer than the rest. Almost all the tulips are gone; we still have a few of the generic Darwin hybrids, maybe a few Daydream, and three of the bright red T. linifolia. I wish these grew better hereabouts. And of the other spring bulbs, the only ones that I can remember from a few hours ago (my, aren't we getting old?) are the anemones. The sparaxis are not quite over.

I've reconsidered buying more Falconet, since they lasted for such a short time and do take up quite a lot of space. But more sparaix would be welcome, as they combine with other bulbs.

On the bright side, the "coral bells" (Heuchera) are looking well, the Clivia minata is quite spectacular, the scarlet flax are bright and numerous, and my "Daybreak" gazania is best described as unbelievable. The Lithodora diffusa is covered in little blue flowers on both sides of the fence, and the blue thimble flower (Gilia capitata) are also out in force. Oh, and the Indian hawthorn (Rhaphiolepis indica) is doing well, as are the teucrium fruticans and the soapwort (Saponaria ocymoides). I was wondering about he autumn sage (salvia greggii) but it is coming into bloom too.

The plum tree is in leaf, with embryo plums clearly visible, and the snap peas are yielding a few very sweet and crunchy pods per day. Those are the ones I planted in, umm, November. The yarrow I sowed into a December frost has yielded some seedlings, but I think most of the green in that corner is actually low-growing weeds whose feathery texture reminded me of yarrow. In a few weeks I'll know for sure and perhaps do something about them.

The grevillea shows no signs of life. A week or two ago I cut off most of its foliage (to prevent dehydration) and poured several gallons of water around it, but I see no effect. The piece of malacothamnus that I tried to transplant has not grown, but the Ca. bluebell looks healthy. A few days ago I noticed what looked like "volunteer" seedlings of the Russian sage (Perovskia atriplicifolia); that plant also spreads by underground roots, but I dug around these and they seemed to be true seedlings. I've moved three of them to where they can perhaps do some good. The columbines that I planted out a few weeks ago are, at least, alive. The ipomopsis rubra has enormous numbers of children. For now, I just watch them grow, but I can see that before long I'll have to pull a lot of them out.

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).