A Garden Grows in California

14 May '09 2:56 pm

The Prince is a rebloomer.

14 May '09 5:01 pm

Hmm... I've been comparing photos to a certain plan (or two) which I printed out... makes life so much more interesting Smile

The Prince is one of my all-time favourite roses. It reblooms quite nicely for me despite not getting enough sun, and despite my neglect, for it is in the Rondel Garden with the old-fashioned roses and that garden kind of shuts down from midsummer on... Sad

19 May '09 9:07 am

Here are the latest photos from the older parts of the garden. It's been a week since our big party and now it'll be four more weeks before school stops for the summer. I think I'm just about ready for that.

19 May '09 4:44 pm

Hi, Mark!

Loved the latest pics! What's the hanging cactus in the last one? Is it an "orchid cactus" (I don't know the Latin name for them)? And what are the little blue flowers in the one of Fletcher beside the raised bed with the Palo Verde tree in it? To me they resemble Forget-Me-Nots, but I'm sure they're not!

Once again, I really like your garden! In some ways, I think it's somewhat like mine, but at the same time so very different!

Thanks for posting again!

Cheers!

gordonf

20 May '09 1:34 am

and thanks for the kind words. The blue flower belongs to a morning glory relative. Its called Convululus ... I'm forgetting the second word of its latin name. The flowering cactus is popularly called "Rat Tail Cactus". I'm not sure of its botanical name.

I'm posting more to flickr now since it serves as a way to back up my photos att the same time. Posting here feels like sending a post card back home. There is a lot of impersonality on flickr,, a byproduct of the numbers I guess. There is a large number of gardeners and an even larger number of garden lovers. One benifit of the larger numbers is that I've been able to meet fellow gardeners where we've traveled. Like in England a fabulous garden photographer who had given us such useful advice about which gardens to see also arranged to take me to his favorite private garden, a real stunner. Then we made contact with family which made the Four Season garden. There's was the last one we saw, just north of Birmingham. They wanted to offer us a ltlle refreshment which turned out to be more lavish than anything else we experienced in England.

But Moosey's is still 'cyber-home. So it is always nice to return.

20 May '09 7:46 am

Wow! Your hard work is very clear to see. The place is immaculate! I love the entrance garden with the huge Aeonium (?) flower pointing up like a sulphurous arrow. The step to the look out are a perfect balance of rustic and safety. And yes indeed, the blue pot/flaming succulent flower combo is arresting to say the least. Don't you just love it when a pairing comes off as well as that?

Gordon - Not wanting to jump in on behalf of Mark here, but I think the blue flowers are a type of convolvulus (C. mauritius or sabatius). I have the much less common white version (not the silvery leafed C. cneorum). Well it is a weak representative of this strong, pretty plant. The flowers are fewer and the growth retarded. Often the white flowers are streaked with pale blue or entirely blue. The one Mark has is by far the best type and doesn't it look great next to Fletcher?!

20 May '09 1:15 pm

Both for the strokes and for cleaning up my naming mess for Gordon. (I actually wrote that without my reading glasses and I've really become Mr Magoo without them.) Elsewhere I also grow the Convolvulus cneorum. I agree with you that the flowers are better on C mauritanicus. But I think the foliage on C cneorum is better, nice and silvery. Both do very well in my dry island bed garden with no supplemental water. Actually both are fairly long lived too as I think about it. The blue flowering C. m. is really a wide spreading ground cover for me, able to suppress a lot of would-be weeds and extending to cover a pretty broad area. I'm pretty sure I have had to pull it up in places to keep it from taking over too wide an area.

It was a lot of work to clean it up so thanks for the applause!

20 May '09 3:47 pm

for the info. on the plants. I'm familiar with the Rat-Tailed Cactus as a houseplant here, but I've never heard of that variety of Convolvulus before. We have a white-flowering and a mauvey-coloured one that grow wild here and they are both hated weeds. I suppose that your variety is too tender to thrive here, so it might be safe for me to try, especially since I'm planning to erect several new trellises to hide the neighbour's wall. Maybe I could try it since I like the blue flowers so much!

I had my first barbeque in the new patio today with one of the friends who helped me tear down the deck. Even though it rained, we had a great time both under the huge evergreen tree and beneath the umbrella which both kept the rain off of us! I'm really loving the new space; it's much more private than the old deck was, so you see that it's true that there's a silver lining in every dark cloud!! Very Happy

Cheers!

-gordonf

24 May '09 3:43 am

It was the Abutilon flowers glowing in the low rays of the sun slicing in under the persimmon tree's canopy that sent me looking for the camera. Then I hauled it around to see what else I could shoot. Here's what I got.

24 May '09 11:41 am

What a wonderful Abutilon picture, Mark! My abutilons are just leafing out after their winter dormant period. The leaves they had when i put them outside have all been blasted away by the ultraviolet light and the wind, and new, little ones are emerging. But the plants won't bloom until later in the summer here. Yours is BEAUTIFUL!!

I also really like the Marmalade tree, but I guess that I'll have to admire it from afar. Sad

I also like the statue of Gandalf - he's so cool!!

Cheers!

gordonf

A Garden Grows in California

The Prince

A May morning in the garden, 2009.

Hi Gordon.

Holy Moly!

Thanks a lot, Kerole.

Thanks, folks

Just before sunset, May 2009

Oh, Boy!