It snowed again quite a bit Thanksgiving day but we were away in L.A. and Zion, where it was rainy and cold in California, and snowy and cold in the park. Back home in December now, I put the tree up and decorated a bit but just can't get into it.
I'm not down or anything, in fact all is good and my spirits are festive. But the tree is a pain -- two strings won't light any more and we even bought a tester-fixer kit and that didn't help. And I just felt bored with the same old ornaments -- would love to get a whole new tree and start all over with new decorations!
I did just minimal decorations outside -- the same old. A wreath over the garage, one on the gate and some bells on the other side. No lights. It all seems a bit weak. I can't find the wooden flying Santa plaque -- did I get rid of it last year? I think it broke, but I can't remember now!
The wreath over the garage looks skimpy, and I noticed from the first year here that no one does greenery outside, they do lights or bagolitos.
I'm just not feeling inspired with the usual decorations. Too sedate, too familiar, everything so small. Need to jazz things up somehow next year!
It's all very nice but I'm not excited by the holiday or the fuss or my decorations this year.
November 21 - snow
Heavy wet snow all morning and it is sticking, weighing down branches and coating the top edges of the stucco houses. The patio is coated and roads have icy slush on them. It snowed hard. This is all too early.
November 17 - a still day
We've had such cold and wind and an early start to winter in fall. But today, Sunday, the sky was full blue and not a breath of a breeze. Very nice to do some work in the yard. I pulled away the red volcanic rock stones from the ajugas to let them spread a bit more, and added some compost to help them.
I watered things a bit. Most are going dormant, but we've had no rain.
The Parrotia isn't coloring this year, just turning an olive yellow green, much as it did last fall. I don't know if it's the alkaline soil, the high UV light, or the fact that both years we've had long stretches of early freezes long before this tree wants to drop its leaves.
The viburnum is holding its leaves for a long time, still full going into late November and all different jewel colors. It's nice peeking up between the red deck chairs.
November 9 - reprieve
The aspen leaves are down now, mostly. What's left are blackened leaves still hanging on. Although in Susan's yard next door she still has a lot of golden yellow leaves on her several aspens. The tall aspens in Nordstrum's yard are mostly bare now.
A little reprieve from the constant deep cold today! How I struggle with the chill in our house, wrapped in blankets, dressed in layers and socks and still so cold, everything I touch radiates chill despite the hot air blowing at 70 degrees. I can't get warm enough.
But today the air was in the low 60s, the sun was out, my walk was nice and the breeze wasn't too strong. Wine on the patio at 3 p.m. -- after that it's too dark and gets cold so I have it early and it was nice.
The viburnum has finally turned a funny combination of jewel tones, not red, but kind of colorful.
The poor 'Seiryu' Japanese maple -- once the chill teens hit on several nights, and most nights in the 20s and low 30s this October, it turned brown and won't release its leaves. I've written about this phenomenon -- marsencense, before. Just brown leaves, not letting go, especially on Japanese maples, because of too-early freezes.
November 4 - so cold
For the next 10 days overnight temps are going down to the high thirties, but not below freezing any more. So I hooked the hoses back up and won't have to keep bringing them in. Still much to do -- the aspen and cottonwood leaves are stuck inside the grasses and lambsear and blown into each plant's base and all have to be cleaned out on hands and knees, pulling out each leaf. Ugh.
The end of October bitter two week cold snap really got to me -- mornings in the 20s and one morning 16 degrees, and a long siege of it. Days too cold to do much outside. The heat on all the time and cold radiating from the tile floors and furniture and hard surfaces in the deep winter way that the forced hot air can't compensate for.
It got to me. Probably because it was unseasonal, probably because last spring was so lingeringly cold for so long too, and the gardening season seemed sharply truncated at both ends.
I can't get the cold out of my bones.
November 3 - lasting reds
The spindly Aronia, with its slender, sparse branches has had lasting red color all through the bitter cold end of October and into November. It's holding its few leaves and they are a pretty crimson.
Also, the plumbagos -- they are staying bright red through the sub freezing nights and are still leafy, red and full in November.
The Parrotia is still green and fully leafy. Last year it turned an olive green-yellow, but not until the first week of November -- I'm waiting to see if that happens this year!
The young aspen in back is bright lemon yellow -- the older ones are golden. The viburnum shows no red whatsoever, but is rich dark green -- and the sumac by the railroad ties next to 'Major Wheeler' honeysuckle was just the brightest red ever in late October -- gone by now in November, though.
October 30 - high today is 33!
Really cold. Despite sunshine, which usually makes even a cold day warm up a bit, the high today will be one degree above freezing. . . if it gets that high. At noon it is 27 degrees and breezy. The low tonight will be in the teens. Denver is worse, with snow and even colder temperatures! All gardening has stopped.
October 28 - more snow
Real snow this time, a blizzard all morning. It was mid 30s, and didn't stick to the roads, but it did accumulate about half an inch on the deck and chairs and gravel. Everything is coated in white. And the wind is bitter.
The whole next week will have nighttime temperatures in the 20s (and one night predicted in the teens) and very cold days in the 30s and 40s. Can this be winter and it's not yet even Halloween??
Leaves are not yet down off the aspens, so their golden yellow glow is strange against gray-black skies and white snow on the ground!
October 24 - spitting snow
Cold, windy, and cloudy, with off and on spitting snow all day and temperatures in the 30s. Sheesh -- it's October. Like last year, my fall chores are very suddenly abbreviated. I simply can't get out in the bitter cold to do much. We went from hot summer to chill winter with no real fall.
Tonight will be a low of 22 degrees. I have the hoses disconnected, but wonder if I should still be watering things, especially the new boxwood and other new plants I just put in (Kannah Creek buckwheat, some dark hardy geraniums, the new lavender, etc. etc.)
October 22 - a cold wind
We've had three hard freezes already in October, with overnight temps in the 20s. The gardens are pretty much done now. Today I tried to go for a short walk around the neighborhood -- the temperature was in the 40s but the wind was so cold. Face-chapping cold! Heat is on in the house now. This seems too early.
Of the three sumacs in a line by the garage wall, the leftmost, which gets a bit more sun than the others, is a brilliant red. The other two are coloring up, but slower.
The one by the honeysuckle below the railroad ties is again a very deep wine color.
October 14 - Virginia creeper is a mess
This is the third October we've been here and every year the Virginia creeper has had an early and ugly demise.
The first year I thought it was due to drought, the second fall I thought we just had an unusual cold September and early October, and now I realize it just gets brown really fast every fall. Ugh.
It is supposed to have glorious red fall color, and how great that would have been all along this fence. But it doesn't. No color whatsoever, just brown in early autumn each year, and then the dried mess is the background for the whole back yard until early May.
October 11 - a hard freeze!
It got down to 24 degrees overnight, and not just for a brief dip, but for hours. It's expected to be below freezing again tonight.
The annuals (zinnias, geraniums, thunbergia, pansies) all made it through totally unscathed, but both butterfly bushes are limp and crisp and the Virginia creeper vine is ugly brown now.
September 28 - a slight redesign
I'm not happy with this tiny strip by the driveway. The center plant is a blanketflower 'Mesa Peach' but it's clumpy, the peach color turned out to be very washed out, and although it bloomed continuously all summer it just didn't;t look like much.
'Neon' sedum to the right is okay, bright but not very flowery. The 'Sinning' agastache seemed perfect for here, but it hasn't bulked up at all. I have hopes for the future, though.
I added tiny spreading Veronica pectinatas to drape over the metal edging, but we'll see. One is not taking.
The oblong planters are there to fill the space, but I decided instead to plant some tall blanketflower at the back -- Firewheel. It's Gaillardia aristata, and it is tall, with orange tinged colors that should provide more structure and deeper color.
September 23: Patience!
I need to remember how many years it took for some plants to fill out. Specifically, the Hakonechloa fountain grasses and the 'Oklahoma' redbud. I have my extensive pictures & inventory from Timothy Lane and I can see how the little redbud took a full four years to go from the size my Santa Fe redbud is to the full, leafy beautiful tree it became. Mine is right on schedule, looking even a little fuller than the one I planted in CT. Three more years . . . patience.
And the fountain grasses I remember took three years at least to bulk up. Mine look great right now -- only two more years to go!
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| Not bad for second year -- 'Oklahoma' redbud and Hakonechloa fountain grass |
Did the Jackmanii clematis look so spindly in the first several years in CT? My pictures show it did -- barely covering the iron tower before overtaking it a few years later. My clematis here is so tiny and fragile looking -- but in a few more years . . .
And the 'Blue Ice' amsonias took at least a couple years to fill in and then another few years to spread out. Mine look healthy but small, but they are bulking up a bit. Patience.
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| 'Blue Ice' amsonias are looking nice - second year. |
Deutzia 'Nikko' plants were such small little things for several years in my old garden until one day they weren't.
I got so used to seeing these plants in my old gardens as full, nice specimens, and forgot how starting out they were small, skinny and spindly. I need to remember that.
September 16 ⛈ Rain ⛈
A gentle soaking inch of rain last night. I have a new rain gauge but it is small and flimsy and I'm not sure it's accurate. But still. Cool temperatures and lots of cloud cover. Without hot temperatures and blazing sun, everything looks utterly refreshed. Everything looks good.
No matter how deeply I soak the plants during consecutive 90 degree sunny rainless days, I can only get them to perk up a bit for a day. When it rains and the temperatures go down and the sun hides, it's such a different world in my gardens. Not green and lush -- this is still a brown rock gravel sandy dry looking place. But revived.
The dry lovers love it. The plants that need water thrive. The new starts plump up. Old rangy things get renewed. Limp shapes perk up.
Ahhhh.
September 11
Rain last night with thunderstorms that passed through. Not a lot, but a little bit of a soak. My rain gauge was sitting on its side on the patio table, waiting for me to fix it. So I didn't get a reading, but it must have been no more than a tenth of an inch. But that's good.
September 9
Bone dry. After a cold damp spring and a good start to monsoon season, we have had no rain at all since the end of July. For weeks now we've had no rain and endless very hot (90s) afternoons. Plants look wilted or stunted and I am watering almost everything literally every day. Every day. The kitchen courtyard especially -- it looks great in the cool mornings and by 11 it's limp and sad even though I watered the day before.
Even the dry lovers want water now. The Gaura by the rain barrel looked like it was done for the summer, but then I gave it some water and the blooms came out again.
The Parrotia by the guest room window gets watered every few days, but not every day. The other day I looked at it and it was so diminished and the leaves were small and limp and browning. It looked awful. I watered, and it did pick up -- everything wants frequent deep water now.
If the soil doesn't wick it away, the aspen and cottonwood and butterflybush roots take it all. Whatever water I get down into the soil gets wicked away or taken by roots or burned off as the mulch dries out in the hot afternoons.
The Splendens heucheras under the aspens need daily soaking as do the little Weston pink heucheras in the potting bench curve.
I'm keeping the redbud deeply watered every other day, and the sumacs too. They all look so much better if I water frequently. The strip under the kitchen window looks nice -- but it too wants water at least every few days, even though these are dry lovers -- a little Russian sage, rosemary and grasses.
The air is nice, though. Lovely breezes, cool mornings, pleasant evenings. Just so hot in the afternoons, and so damn dry!!
Labor Day 9/2/19
Still uncomfortably hot dry afternoons near 90 and no rain for a while now. But it's the end of summer, so soon, too soon.
Mornings are nice, very cool and refreshing, but the day heats up, the a/c is needed, and it's still so dry I have to water constantly.
Crocosmia 'George Davison' is finally blooming, very late, but I hope that's just because it is a first year plant -- I hope these pretty orange flowers come out earlier next summer.
They are late, and not the full display I was looking forward to, but with another year to bulk up and with some fertilizer, this pot holds promise for next summer.
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| First year growing in a pot --- but I hope for the fullness and color of the picture on the right! |
The whole kitchen courtyard looks bright and nice, although everything there is clumpy and random (some annuals, some zinnias, a basil and some peppers). Next year I want this to be more cohesive -- keep the color in the Black eyed Susan, the purple veronicas and the pot of orange crocosmias, but add herbs, add a white daisy chamomile and a dark colored dwarf lavender. The dwarf red peppers are a nice pop.
By next year maybe the Kintzley's Ghost honeysuckle will have its funny white bracts and yellow flowers climbing up the fence!
'After Midnight' lavender is the only one blooming of the three in the blue pot, but boy, it keeps going.
It made such a difference this year to have the soil drench for aphids applied in spring to the Rose of Sharon. There are lots of flowers, although the plant is still rangy, unpruned for years. And the bloom is not as full as I'd want, but still, an improvement.
Gro-Low Sumacs by the garage wall are doing well, once I figured out that these dry loving plants want a lot of water. These three are more open and branchy than the denser one at the foot of the Major Wheeler honeysuckle on the other side of the yard. All are in quite a bit of shade.
The 'Oklahoma' redbud is doing well now. Its first year it really struggled, but lived. This year it looks better, but it does get limp leaves and yellow leaves in the hottest part of the summer. Now, with cooler mornings and with the tons of water I give it constantly, it does appear to be growing a bit. The leaves are green and glossy. Flowers next spring?
I lost the red 'Hot Paprika' threadleaf coreopsis right after it bloomed. Sigh. The yellow one, 'Curry Up' looks great, and rebloomed after I sheared it. A nice color complement to the small black-eyed Susans on the other side of the tuteur.
The 'Arp' rosemary looks (and smells) just fine -- a nice tidy, green shrub growing nicely.
Now in August and September, the plumbagos are blooming a very pretty blue. They are doing well but not spreading. Each is still just a small separate clump. Will it take several more years for these to colonize? How nice the blue will look with the shell pink 'Robustissima' anemone -- if that ever bulks up! Both the plumbagos and the anemone are so slow to get going.
August 26 - hot dry
Lots of hot, lots of dry. We've had decent monsoon rains, but they are occasional and sporadic. Everything looks so refreshed and good for a day after rain, but then the intense sun and the 90 degree afternoons quickly dry everything out and we'll go for weeks until the next rain.
I water. I water deeply, soaking the soil, using the force stream setting to get down into the mulch. A day later in the hot sun plants wilt. I don't want to water every day, but if the soil isn't wet when the day starts, it is bone dry by noon. So I end up watering much of the garden every single day. There is simply no reserve moisture below the six inches I can wet.
The butterfly bush (which looks great and is so tall and flowery this year, overtopping the fence by a lot) takes all the water I put down in the kitchen courtyard.
The aspens and cottonwood take all the water in the other gardens. When it is so dry below, it doesn't matter how much I water -- the perennials only get a few inches of water for a few hours before the big roots drain it away.
I am losing one of the three Mojave sages I planted despite watering a lot. The other two look good.
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| Mojave sages blooming at the Botanical Garden in August. There were many of them throughout the garden. |
I lost one of the coreopsis plants I just got at the Waterwise sale in August. The yellow one is fine and reblooming, the red one is dry sticks now.
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| The red coreopsis did not make it. |
August was busy with lots of visitors for 2 solid weeks. Loved it all -- especially having Tom and Z and Greg here. All admired the gardens, but no one looks at each individual plant, they really just take in the floweriness or leafiness of the surroundings and the lovely set up of the deck and patio.
I'm the only one obsessing over each and every plant's performance!
August 10 - summer
The sun still gets hot and blazing at mid afternoon, but the nights are cool, the mornings are humid and plants don't look so miserable.
I don't remember that first and second year plants were so puny in my old garden -- were they? They must have been. Did it really take 3 years for most things to grow?
- The Kintzley's Ghost honeysuckle looks good and healthy but has put out no additional top growth or length all season
- The Robustissima anemone is still just a few leaves, but it is green and healthy looking. Small, barely a hint of the big plant is is supposed to become.
- The Jackmanii clematis is puny, very spindly, but it bloomed a bit and seems fine, just skinny.
- Blackeyed Susans struggled so this spring, but look good now in August and are flowering. But they are tiny, just 6 inches tall!
- The plumbagos are robust enough, but remain tidy small clumps -- will they ever start to spread and make a patch?
- Caryopteris at the front walk corner is a little twig. It's grown a bit, though, and seems fine, just very small.
The Blue Ice amsonias and the golden Japanese forest grasses are plants that I do know take more than 3 years to bulk up --- mine seem to be adding some size here but I know to expect several years for those. Mexican hats got big and tall and weedy looking, blooming well.
The faster growers in year 1 and 2: Major Wheeler honeysuckle continues to add length all summer and is growing quickly. Lambsears are big and full already. Columbines and blue fescue grasses bulked right up in the shady dining room window garden. Gro-Low sumacs are filling out well and Raydon's Favorite fragrant aster is not yet big but is growing more and more.
Gaura bulked up right away, even the one in deep shade by the potting bench.
End of July
🌧 July 25 overnight we got a full inch of rain. Not flash flood monsoon downpours, but good, steady nighttime rain for a long time. An inch!
Everything looks so, so good. I can water and water for hours and get things to perk up but they never look the way it all looks after a soaking rain.
The giant stalks of the hesperaloes are now going to seed in late July, forming those big heavy seedpods. The red flowers looked pretty eye catching during the hot dry part of July.
The tall urn on the front porch looks good -- the rich red cosmos is blooming and the thunbergia vine is going crazy. Love the wild tangle spilling from the narrow top. BUT. . . because it's in so much shade all day the flowers are scarce. I really wanted a very flowery orange and wine colored mix here and both plants can be very showy in full sun. Too much shade here, though.
Mid July
🚰 THIS IS SO MUCH WORK.
I like to water but doing it for hours every day is wearing. And no matter how much I put down and how deeply and frequently I water, when I dig things up (I just dug up the struggling obedient plants) their roots a few inches down are dry. No wonder the obedient plants looked so bad. I thought I was over watering, and the ground just below the gravel mulch is soaking wet, but it does not penetrate.
I'm keeping things alive, but nothing looks great and nothing is growing right now. Ugh. We went away for 5 days. Just 5 days and when we got back the Mojave sage had died out. Other things looked terrible, but the peony and the plumbago did perk up with water. I did run soaker hoses in the potting bench curve and the dining room window garden while we were gone, and that helped a bit, but the hoses don't reach all the areas and are unwieldy.
It's crazy that we can't leave the house for less than a full week without all this angst about the gardens. Talk about tied down. It's too much to ask a neighbor to water all the varied spots where I have transplants -- Joan came over and checked pots I had put in the shady front entry, so that was nice.
Having to be here to water at least every other day all summer long is nuts. I want beautiful gardens but I want a life too.
And I just don't have the hang of it -- no matter how deeply I water it appears that it is not enough to reach the roots! I need to up the soaking by a ton . . .
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| I put pots in the shady entry while we were gone, where Joan could water them and they would be out of the sun. Hmmm, I do like having pots of varying sizes scattered about the front entry and on the bench. It fills in the area. I need to find the right sizes, and I need container plants that can take all day shade here. |
Fourth of July
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| Obedient plants 'Crystal Peak White' are browned |
I dug down in the kitchen garden a bit after watering really, really well, and not far below the compost / soil was clumpy and crumbly. This has happened before, where I think I'm soaking the soil but when I dig up a plant it's quite dry below.
Oddly, it's the dry lovers (sumacs, agastaches, Black eyed susans) that show decided wilt and thin limp leaves in the dry conditions. The neomexicana rosy agastache by the patio table just droops over until a soak and then it perks up. Black eyed susans are always limp until they get water, then decline again the next day.
The orange globe mallow needs way more water than I thought, and the Mexican hats too. They need a lot.
Nothing much going on with the 'Robustissima' anemone. Still very small, just a few leaves, and the soil in that very shady spot really is quite soggy all the time.
The kitchen courtyard looks terrible. I watered and watered, trying to make up for what was too little before, and I added lots of Super Thrive root stimulator. None of the new plants is hanging on, much less thriving. All are pretty much goners.
In other news, the shrub I cut back hard last year is a Spanish broom, and is in full flower now.
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| Spanish broom blooming in July |
June 23 - drying out
Now that the cool cloudy and somewhat damp spring is over it's hot dry June. Very dry, no rain, a LOT of constant wind, and high solstice sun. I CANNOT get the hang of watering. Everything is looking wilted now, and the newest transplants are half dead. I water and water, deeply, and the next day all is dry and things are wilted in the restless wind. I can't tell how much is too much watering (surely every day is too much) and how much is insufficient now. Plants just look stressed.
Disappointments:
- Black eyed Susans are not blooming -- they start to and then the petals are eaten. They are limp and need water every day. 'May Night' salvia (now in the kitchen courtyard) looks a tiny bit bigger, but it also goes limp whenever I look at it and isn't doing much. No blooms.
- The 'Gro-Low' sumacs get wilted all the time and need a lot of water to perk up. The ones along the garage look healthy enough, but are open, with branches showing through, not very full. The one in shade by the potting bench is much fuller but wilts quickly even though I water it a lot.
- What's left of the campanula in the potting bench curve had nice purple flowers in spring and greened up well, but in the dry wind it has declined and looks like small wilted rags now.
- The new Monardellas aren't taking. I've just about lost all three. The 'Crystal Peak' obedient plants are crispy, struggling, have yellow and brown leaves and look awful. Scutellaria 'Dark Violet' planted there is also looking bad. It had nice purple blooms in spring, but got sheared in half in the winds a few weeks ago and looks like nothing now.
In fact the whole new garden at the kitchen courtyard looks awful. All the new plants look like they are not going to make it.
June 10 - nice
Everything looks good, but still so new and little . . second year plants are bulking up but have a long way to go, and the new things planted just this year are tiny. Patience.
The established shrubs, though, are so full and heavy looking -- the Spanish broom and the Chinese privets are lush this year with all the cool wet winter and spring weather. Last year they looked fine, but this year they are so big and noticeably full. Yes, the winter-blasted foliage of the Chinese privet filled back out nicely.
Roses are blooming, both the Red Cascade, which is full and bushy but not yet climbing, and the Peggy Martin which is tall and spindly and putting out some small pink flowers.
The Coates fertilization of the pines in front finally has produced results, and they look so much healthier and green. The sickly aspen in back also looks green and healthy this year after fertilization & iron treatments. Success.
Design thoughts:
The Russian sage has to go -- move it out to the common area where its invasive spreading will be ok. It's going to be a maintenance problem in the corner of the front yard. Replace it with Salvia pachyphylla -- Mojave sage. beautiful gray foliage, (magenta purple flowers that I don't like, but okay, it's colorful and eye catching). The ones at the Botanical Garden are nice mounds of pretty foliage. That open corner just needs a filler, and Mojave sage would be nice.
(Found a nice Mojave sage at Payne's 6/12/19 but it died out when we were away for five days in July. Replaced it with 3 in a semicircle -- got those at Payne's too. Very nice big plants.)
Mojave sage - Salvia pachyphylla
Get more of the Heuchera 'Splendens' -- its rich red spike really adds something to the yellows and greens of the dining room window garden. Much needed color. Get 4 more to make a big impact.
(Found several big, full 'Splendens' heucheras at Agua Fria nursery 6/12/19.)
June 1 - no more
Today I dug up the struggling
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| They only looked like this one year, in fall, 2017. After that they declined. |
I replaced them with three 'Blonde Ambition' grasses.
I need to take out the pink flowered rock rose from the front triangle -- it just doesn't show up against the red rock mulch or with the red flowered fine foliaged penstemons there. I will move it to the back yard, next to the wild seeded hairy goldenaster growing out of the low rock wall. I'll plant it right into the gravel. It's a sunny, infertile sit, which will suit, and the little flowers will be seen close up.
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| I'll plant the rock rose right into the gravel here at the foot of the low stone wall. One of the few really sunny spots I have for it! |
I couldn't really find any other sunny dry spot for the rock rose, but this will be good, and look 'naturalized" I think, and allow its pretty flowers to be seen when sitting at the table.
I'll replace the rock rose in front with a bright yellow flowered sedum kamschaticum 'Weihenstephaner's Gold' if I can find it. I loved it in my old garden, tidy, bright, with a beautiful low ground cover profile.
Also want to put a couple of the sedums next to the 'Blue Ice' amsonias at the foot of the Peggy Martin rose. Loved the way the blue amsonias and yellow sedums looked together.
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| Early June in my old garden, blooming together. Love the combo. I can put these together at the foot of the Peggy Martin rose. |
End of May
It's still only May, so I have to remind myself that things that are still coming out are still in the early stages! The big hit is the 'Swallowtail' columbines, which continue to bloom prolifically, since the end of April!
Everything else looks good -- but losses were the NJ Tea and the poor 'Sweet Sunshine' witch hazel, which has green life under the thin bark when I scratch it, but which never leafed out. I took it out of the pot. Dwarf chamisas look terrible but are coming back, nevertheless I'll replace them.
Oh, the cold. Still chilly with only occasional warm sunny days. It's been eight straight months of heat on in the house, needing to wear socks and layers each day, gray skies more often than blue and nippy air. Since early October it's been winter clothing weather, and only a few days where we can sit outside in the afternoons or in a sunny spot in the morning.
'Pink Chintz' thyme is blooming now, all exceed the fuller spreading plugs that have filled out a bit -- they are not flowering at all.
Amsonia 'Blue Ice' is just opening its dark blue flowers. Ajuga has gone by. the orange globemallow is tall and blooming, so sweet (but wind knocked it over) and the rock rose and pineleaf penstemons are flowering now together out front too.
Iris pallida is blooming a very pretty lavender.
A lot of the garden is looking fine at the end of May! So different than last year's too-warm, too-dry beginnings when everything newly planted struggled so much.
Spring pansies in a bowl:
Mother's Day May 12
Everything looks so fresh and green after rain -- we had a good steady rain (and some snow) last week. It all sparkles and it all looks so good.
Ajuga has been blooming since early May and it looks fantastic, spreading out nicely.
The Spanish broom is in full flower, but the tulips and the viburnum have now gone by.
I am still worried about the witch hazel, it has leaf buds that look good but no leaves have opened at all. ???
New windows are in, so yesterday I finally planted up the dining room window garden: replaced the disappeared NJ Tea with an 'Iroquois Beauty' aronia which looks great. Put in more columbines (both 'Swallowtail' and the tiny red 'Little Lanterns').
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| May 12, 2019 |
May 1, 2019
- Japanese maple 'Seiryu' - fully leafed out and looking fresh
- Virginia Creeper almost fully leafed out, it's nice and green but not lush yet.
- Witch hazel 'Sweet Sunshine' - no leaves at all, leaf buds are still tightly closed. Did I set this back when repotting it in March?
- Redbud - no pink flowers, well just a few tiny ones. The very cold winter zapped the blooms, but it is starting to leaf out.
- Burkwood viburnum finished blooming (started April 15)
- Spanish broom just starting to open some yellow flowers -- later than last year.
- Parrotia has been in full, leafy green since mid April
- Aspens are leafed out now, cottonwood just starting.
- Tulips still look great, the Swallowtail columbines (and the red Little Lanterns Columbine) area flowering now.
- Blue fescues have sent up flower stalks.
- Nepeta still blooming its head off, since mid April.
- Gro-Low sumacs now show insignificant yellow flowers on bare stems
- Desert willow (Chilopsis) - nothing yet. Absolutely no sign of buds. David Salman says (I talked to him at the Waterwise plant sale) the first year it may have died back to the roots, let it send up new shoots. And he says it is very, very late, nothing shows til late May!
New Jersey Teadid not make it - nothing coming up, no branch structure survived. Gone.
4/26/19:
All plant orders have arrived and I shopped the Waterwise sale when it opened 4/25. Lots of plants!
On 4/26 I put in a few more thyme plugs, three more Veronica oltensis plugs around the pavers under the patio table (the originals are looking very god, spreading out), and added three Dark Towers pentstemons out front under the pine (but I need two more!)
The Lady in Red sage seedlings did not come up (non viable seed, it was over year old from when I got it last year), so that front corner of the potting bench curve now has four Red Midget Mexican Hat plants in it. That will do for a red pop at the front corner.
The struggling St. Johnswort came out -- only a few branches leafed out. It's in a pot now. Hmmm.
Easter Assessment (4/21/19):
All the tulips came up and all have fat buds and I can't wait to see the whole effect.
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| 4/20/19 |
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| 4/20/19 |
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| 4/20/10 |
And the Burkwood viburnum is full of flowers in late April. They have opened and they actually are fragrant. Strongly scented in the still of early morning, and then I catch it during the day at times. The flowers are mostly on one side for some reason.
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| 4/20/19 |
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| 4/20/19 |
The late emerging plants are coming up (Amsonia 'Blue Ice' is just barely peeking up from the ground and the Ceratostigma is showing tentative tiny leaves in places.)
Winterkill:
> The 'Honeycomb' butterfly bush has just two or three leaves at the base, none on the entire upper structure, so I cut it to a few inches high and we'll see if it regrows well. Barely hardy here.
> Not a smidge of life to be seen on the desert willow, Chilopsis. Not a bud, nothing. It iffy for hardiness here and winter was awful. It leafs out late, but even so, no sign of anything yet.
> Chinese privets are alive and well but still so winterburned and looking awful even in late April.
Greening up:
> Aspens and cottonwoods are greening. As of April 20 the cottonwood is sending up shoots everywhere and each time I turn around I pull more up. They're everywhere.
> The Virginia creeper is showing a few leaves opening. Can't wait for that brown mess to turn green.
April 16, first hummer, first tulip:
Saw the first buzzy hummingbird at the feeder tonight on the 16th -- they may have been visiting earlier, but this is the first I saw. A nice day, in the 60s and pleasant.
A first tulip is open, more to come. The spot is awfully shady along the garage wall until mid afternoon, shadier than in summer. The twiggy sumacs won't leaf out until mid to late May, so this succession of tulips works well. Can't wait to see more!
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| 4/16/19 |
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| 4/21/2019 |
April 11, cold:
A couple nice days with some sun & clouds and temps in the 60s, close to 70. Nice. Now, April 11, finger numbing cold, very windy, stay-indoor weather like the middle of winter. Overnights below 30, maybe some snow.
The 'Vanessa' parrotia has leafed out. Three of the festuca grass clumps are full and blue and sending up flower spikes; three are brown and small with no flower stalks. Hmmm.
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| 4/11/19 |
Tulips are bigger every day, and some flower shafts and buds have appeared out of the green scapes. The viburnum's tight bud clusters are turning reddish and starting to open a bit.
Only the barest of a few leaves are appearing in the aspens. There are tight purple buds on the redbud. The Red Cascade rose is very green and leafy and full.
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| 4/11/19 |
April 6, a work day in the garden:
I made a new garden today where the bbq grill had been -- laboriously scooped up stones (3 bucketsful and half a garbage bin full) and dug out watermelon sized rocks and amended and sifted and mixed in all the chopped dried leaves (a bagful Jim left me from last fall) and two 2 liter bags of soil builder compost. I'm ready to plant! And I 'm so tired.
It was a nice enough day but not hot. I also hooked up the hoses (Tim fixed the leaky faucet) and watered most things. I see more greenery every day, things filling in. I need to remember to unhook hoses if night time temps go below freezing.
Purple plums are blooming. Neighbor's forsythia burst out today, bright and golden. All the cushions are on the outside chairs. The deck got stained, the vigas caulked - Tim was here all last week.
Early April Assessments:
April 3 already. Even the peony shows a bit of life. Even a sole spike of Hosta in the dining room garden. I see buds on trees, everything seems to be coming back!
But the late ones don't look like much:
- Ceratostigma plumbaginoides shows nothing, but it will be late to come out.
- Desert willow is a very late one to show up, nothing showing yet.
- Amsonia 'Blue Ice' not a bit of green anywhere -- I don't remember, were they late in spring? All of them look like nothing at all. (Update April 4: I do see a bit of life just below the mulch coming up!!)
No sign whatsoever of NJ Tea re-growing from the roots. It got lopped off at ground level over winter and I don't see anything coming up. I might get an Aronia melanocarpa at the Waterwise sale to replace it.
Winterburn:
Oooof, the Chinese privet by the fence looks horrid. Very burned out and skimpy as of the first week in April. Here's hoping it re-leafs and greens up over the month. The one by the garage is also winter burned, but not as bad. They are zone 6b for hardiness, and we didn't get down to the absolute minimum temp for 6b (minus 5 F) but we did hit zero and we did have teens every night for long periods . . . . they really had a hard winter.
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| Early April, winter damage on Ligustrum sinense |
It's April!
We made it to April, but it's cold and it snowed on the eve of April 1.
I planted seeds in pots to get started -- some Nicotiana alata (and I ordered 5 plants from Select Seeds too), and I also planted salvia seeds 'Lady in Red'.
March 23 -- Planted pansies in pots today by the kitchen door and violas (Johnny Jump ups) in the trough at the front portal. Anxious for spring, but we still have to get through all of April . . . .
3/23 - I see many plants greening up at the soil level. Too soon to tell what's been lost over this long and bitterly cold winter, but most seem to be showing signs of revival.
3/23 - I hung the hummingbird feeders today for the early scouts to find -- one over the patio in back and one in the front portal. Last year I think I saw the first hummingbird on April 7, but can't find documentation -- why don't I write these things down!
March 20 -- First day of Spring 2019:
I noticed that the viburnum by the deck steps has a ton of tight buds. The first year the shrub was a stick with a few leaves. I brought it back with lots of water and pruning and last year there were a couple flowers. Just two I think. This spring -- buds!
And the green shoots of tulips along the garage wall have emerged through the soil.
Mid March 2019:
❆ ❆ It's just so cold. All the time. Mid March it's in the 30s and snowing and spitting and the skies are gray. This is such a dreary and long winter and I am always bundled up and cold. I don't want to be somebody who complains about the weather but . . . I am. We've had only a day or two respite from this awful winter for six months now. Since early October it's either very cold, or it's snowing, or it's raining or it's just gray skies all day. Even sunny days have clouds mixed in. And now, in March, it's windy. Ugh.
March 2019:
There is still so little to see in my new gardens, and winter hasn't let go yet. I don't know what died out over the winter, or what changes are needed. No idea where to start. I need a full year of growth and emerging design behind me to get excited about how to add or tweak anything. But . . .
. . . . Here's what I am ordering from HCG (and only HCG, no orders from other online catalogs this year. I'm only getting plants locally or from Waterwise and HCG. I want only what is thought to do well in this climate):
Obedient Plant -- really! Crystal Peak white, for the back of the dining room window garden
Oregano libanoticum -- for the herb bowl. Don't think Kent's Beauty made it thru winter
Veronica oltensis -- a few more to fill spots between the pavers under the patio table
Penstemon Dark Towers -- to add to the two in front under the pine
California poppy seeds -- for the common area by the garage
Apache Plume -- three plugs for the common area bare spots
Grass seed mix -- for the common area bare spots, we'll see if any take
Monardella macrantha -- for under the bbq grill, no idea! But red flowers, groundcover
Maximilian sunflowers -- to add a few more by the garage, and they'll all re-seed quickly
Also:
Aronia melanocarpa 'Iriquois Beauty' -- replace the NJ Tea that probably did not make it.
Salvia arizonica 'Deep Blue' - takes shade, darker impact plant in dining room garden?
Scutellaria 'Dark Violet' - tidy skullcap for where May Night was in the potting bench curve
Mid February 2019:
Cold and gray all winter. Relentless. A lot of gray overcast days, frequent snow, although only a few storms at the beginning of the year had much accumulation.
Low temperatures are consistently, night after night, in the teens or twenties, with some stretches below 10 degrees too. I am really worried about the new little zone 6 chilopsis and the potted 'Seiryu' Japanese maple. It's not the absolute low temperature, its the months and months long periods where temps never get above freezing that has me concerned.
The terra cotta pot holding the witch hazel has cracked in the long deep cold siege. It's blooming beautiful yellow happy flowers in February!! Outside faucets froze and burst the regulators and now spew water when turned on. Ack. Our handyman Tim will come in spring and replace them.
Very little respite. Only a day or two with sunshine here and there, and only a few days with afternoons in the 40s. This winter is so very different than our first warm sunny (drought) winter in Santa Fe!!
He put together a plan (expensive) to fertilize the pines, pump iron into the aspens, prune the privets, and do some aphid treatments --imidacloprid unfortunately -- on the Rose of Sharon.