Waiting, Waiting...

Waiting, waiting for the heat wave to be over.  We've had terrible heat for nearly a week.  Monday will bring relief, say the meteorologists.  

I picked the 'Mini King' Protea flower and some Leucadendron stems and made a bouquet with them and some purchased purple Chrysanthemums.  Colors don't quite work, but we needed some flowers indoors, because going outdoors has been unbearable.

Oblivious to the heat, apparently, is Anenome 'Pretty Lady Emily', a souvenir of the 2013 Garden Blogger's Fling. 
   This Mamillaria gracillis 'Snowflake' was acquired at last weekend's Succulent symposium.  Eventually this solitary 3/4" (2 cm) plant will form a pile of these little globes 8 or 10" wide (20-25 cm). One internet comment says it can take considerable summer water for a Mamillaria, and considerable winter rain for--any plant. 
Last week, a day or two before it got hot, I had my mow-blow guy remove a half dozen roses.  Three were Rusters.  
Room for three new roses!  Maybe. 
As to the other three, one rose was in steep decline;  it had a wonderful root system and the soil was moist--so that's a puzzle.  Two more have never ever done well.  I assumed the root systems would be pitiful--no, they were big and strong and healthy.  Why they never thrived--no idea.  
We got three minutes of pouring rain on Wednesday when it was 95F.  The lens of my camera steamed up.  I wanted to go stand out in the rain like Andy Dufresne just crawled out of the sewer, but there was lightning.  
 'Souvenir de la Malmaison', like the Anemone also oblivious to heat and reduced irrigation.  She's been a champ all summer. 
Old ladies rule!    
 I harvested the pumpkins because the vines shriveled in the heat.  Their mission was complete, anyway. 
 A few plants have died, though not from the heat or drought.  Aloe broomii, after appearing to establish and growing more beautiful, suddenly showed rot at the center.  When I examined it closely, I saw gall mite engulfing the stem at the base.  Outta here.  One of the cherry trees has died.  Ant nest at the root system, apparently.  I checked its drip tubing, and the soil was getting sufficient moisture.  The ant bait I have put out where ants appear to nest did not help.
No more hedge for a while.  It was where the pink line was.
 
Another thing done right before it got hot--I removed the boxwood hedge around the empty fountain--either too much sun, too much reflected heat, or a disease.  They had a lot of dead areas mixed in with healthy.  The removal was done with regret--I liked that hedge.  Long-term, a Myrtus communis hedge will be far healthier and save water.  The Myrtus will be planted this autumn.  The black-foliaged Lagerstroemia would look mighty nice if that fountain was a planter.  I've tried a couple of times to get someone to break out the bottom so the fountain could be a planter, but no takers for the job.  I would do it myself but it's beyond me.  Do you ever get stuck?  You want to accomplish things but nothing goes right?  Maybe Monday, things will be better.  Cool weather makes everything seem more possible.  

Comments

  1. Ha! Both of us working on a similar post at the same time ... similar subject, too. Darn heat.

    Just some random remarks:

    NWS San Diego THERE IS A CHANCE OF RAIN IN MOST AREAS LATE MONDAY NIGHT
    Come on pull the other one.
    Like the raindrops on the pool
    Love the "pumpkins". How do you fix them to eat? What kind are they?
    Boxwood is seriously diseased in Britain and now on the East Coast. I hope it hasn't spread to here. I love my box hedges. Clean looking. Gold-edged.

    Common myrtle is a great plant. One of the best things about it is that you can prune it back and still have leaves. Even if you buy 'Compacta" it gets eight feet high. Mockingbirds love the fruit. The French make jam to go with cheese from "myrtilles". It's a great combination.



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    1. Dallas Raines was talking about a cold front meeting the dregs of Linda and giving us something, but at this point I don't get my hopes up any more about free water.

      Those are "Cinderellas Coach". There's a super big one still out in the garden but it's been too hot to walk out there and retrieve it. I cut them in slices like melons, steam the slices and peel, and put in muffins and soup. My culinary skills are primitive and mostly limited to microwaving.

      I have other box in mostly shade and they are so happy. Maybe it was the heat and sun. It was painful taking out that hedge. I had to focus on how good the myrtle will look (and smell--that foliage fragrance!). The tipping point was seeing bumblebees all over my solitary myrtle's flowers. Food for bumblebees is really A Good Thing, no?

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  2. I'm surprised to see the Japanese anemone in bloom - there's no sign whatsoever of the white form I inherited with the garden here but then, in my old garden, the dark pink was always the toughest of the clan. I'm stuck right now on what to do with my south side garden (aka the raccoons' favorite stomping grounds). I'm leaning in the direction of converting it into a succulent garden but I want to berm up the beds to improve drainage first, which means bringing in more topsoil, which I don't want to do until the remaining lawn is removed, which won't happen for over a week. It's a game of dominoes and the pieces aren't in place yet. Meanwhile, I'm going stir crazy in this heat feeling unable to get any meaningful work done.

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    1. The Anemone inhabit one of the few consistently damp spots in the garden, and appear to like it, as they've taken over. Surrounded by concrete, they will behave.

      Have you thought about excavating a small area to be what they call a "rain garden" or swale? Then that soil removed can become your berm, and you can have thirsty things in the swale.

      Stir crazy, you said it. I was stir crazy enough to wash the windows, and vacuum the walls. Monday, monday. They'd better be right.

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  3. I"m sorry about the heat. The fountain would make a great planter. We have come to refer to 'Devon time' since we moved here. If someone tells you it will be done "Dreckley" it is basically the opposite of 'it will be done directly'. A bit like mañana but with less urgency.

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    1. Devon is so beautiful (I went though it briefly, on a train) surely there is no need for urgency when there is all that beauty at which to marvel?

      Because of El Nino, the Pacific is not cooling us down at night as it normally does. The ocean water is abnormally warm. So the few hours of morning coolness we normally get, in which gardening can be done, have been absent. There is nothing to do but wait. I now understand the difference between living in the tropics and living in a more temperate climate--work just doesn't get done when it is so hot. "Dreckley"! I love that.

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  4. I hope you get some cool weather soon, I am dreading the Summer heat here. A shame about your hedge, they always look so green and beautiful when they are healthy and curiously mysterious if they are high enough to hide what grows beyond. Yes, I get stuck all the time, I'm not getting any younger and some chores in the garden like heavy digging and using the mattock to break up rocks are beyond me. This has been the worse year I have experienced as far as my health is concerned, the only worse year was 2003 when I had open-heart surgery.
    xoxoxo ♡

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    1. Nice to know I'm not the only person that gets stuck now and then. It's not as unusual as I thought. You are doing so well considering what you have been through!

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  5. I've been stuck all summer, and actually I'm sort of still stuck right now. I've pulled some things out of a bed I want to redo, but I really don't want to plant anything before our fall rains come back. I have to time it just right. I think I got that same Anemone at the San Francisco Fling.

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    1. It's a cute flower, and nice to have a souvenir of that SFF (besides happy memories, new friends, and 2,000 photos).

      The entire west coast is waiting for rain, I think.

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  6. Beautiful photos, I don't recall seeing this angle before. Maybe you could use a masonry drill bit to give the fountain drainage. What is the fountain made of?

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    1. It's reinforced concrete and tile. It needs to be broken up enough for really good drainage. I will have to try some more...someone out there wants to do it.

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  7. Old ladies rule? Does my heart good to hear that.

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  8. try a Concrete Cutting Service. May have a specialty tool for this application.

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  9. The fountain will be a great planter! What about drilling holes to the side instead and fill the bottom with gravel? Could be easier than putting cracks on the base.

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    1. I plan to work on a solution this week. Three days of relief from the heat is predicted, and then it will get hot and miserable again. Stuck inside, I'll have plenty of time to telephone.

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  10. I get stuck all the time! I consider a beautiful garden an aspiration because, honestly, we are rarely 'finished.'
    I used to have a souvenir de malmaison. I miss that one, beautiful flower! Love the pumpkins, I am putting those seeds on my list for next year.
    I'd love to see pics on the evolution of your fountain to planter as we have a fountain that I'd love to convert too.

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