Fall Project 2015

Above: the "anchor" of the space is an Aloe 'Hercules'.
I've been removing and moving roses.  I want to make this area look more...I don't know...something with agaves and aloes instead of roses.  The roses in this area looked dreary most of this year.  Too many heat waves.   Or it is just time for a change.

Maybe something like this, sort of--the desert garden at the Newport Beach civic center. 




A lot of Aloes need a home in the ground:  suzannae,  'Always Red', betsileensis, claviflora, tomentosa, aculeata, alooides, pilansii, harlana, petricola, capitata var quartzicola...
Agaves, too.  A dozen 'Joe Hoak' offsets, for example. 
  
Hopefully I can come up with a design of some sort by the time I pull out/move all the roses in this section.  It feels like it's time for a change. 

Comments

  1. Can't wait to follow the progress on this. The Newport desert garden is nice -- yours (a dozen Joe Hoaks [swoon]) should be wonderful. Will the ground cover (dymondia?) stay?

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    1. The Dymondia is doing a great job holding the slope very firmly in place. Much of it I think will stay. My plan is still all too vague.

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  2. Wow, that desert garden looks wonderful, I should say give it a go, you have already a nice collection of Agaves I see.
    Wish you happy planting!

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    1. Thank you Janneke. I hope it at least ends up looking as good as it did before!

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  3. Your ambition in the garden always impresses me. This area, like all of your garden, will look stunning with your overhaul.

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  4. Can't wait to see what you come up with! What's the groundcover plant there?

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    1. Thats Dymondia margaretae. See: http://www.smgrowers.com/products/plants/plantdisplay.asp?plant_id=536 A treasure of a plant.

      I can't wait to see what I come up with, too. At this point I'm still clueless.

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  5. Dear Gail, thanks for leaving comments on my blog!
    It always makes me a little melancholic when I am reading that someone is removing roses, but you write that you are also moving roses, so hopefully you don't discard too many if any at all. But I can understand that the climate change and the water restrictions make it necessary that we change the way we garden. Some roses in my garden can also not deal with the new conditions and look plain ugly most of time. Those need to go as well.
    Anyway, I like your new design idea. I think the desert gardens at the Newport Beach Civic Center look absolutely terrific. If you are able to create something similar it will be great! Good luck with your progress!
    Warm regards,
    Christina

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    1. It is far past melancholic, it is heart-wrenching removing a rose. I am having a hard time with it. By treasuring the ones that remain--it will eventually be okay.

      I enjoy your beautiful garden blog, (what fabulous flowers PdeR/'Eden' gave you recently!) though I don't comment often.

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  6. I know what you mean when you say that maybe it's time for a change. I feel that way, too, about my own garden.

    You have a huge thing going for you: you have space. Enough space to create a miniature version of the Newport Beach Civic Center desert garden if you want. Maybe the easiest way would be to remove everything except the plants you know you definitely want to keep. That would give you a clear slate to work with.

    Are you tempted at all to add a few columnar cacti?

    Note to myself: You must visit the Newport Beach Civic Center :-)

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    1. Yes I am tempted by the thought of some columns. Plus along the wall it is especially dry...

      The NBCC is just a few minutes off the 405, and only a few more off the 5, if you are on the way to SD.

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    2. Keeping my fingers crossed my older daughter will be accepted to (and choose) San Diego State starting next fall...

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  7. Oh...this is going to be epic! Can't wait for process photos, well, and then of course the after.

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    1. I'm feeling overwhelmed, hope it will turn out okay.

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  8. Your inspiration photos have the look of a sculptural exhibit, orderly but also artistic with the tall cactus adding drama and the larger agaves contributing a sense of movement. I look forward to seeing the transformation. It's good that you're giving yourself time to think it through. When I started changing out the shrubs and perennials in my south side garden bed for succulents, I did so haphazardly and now it's a big, incoherent mess. It's so much easier to start with a clean slate than it is to modify an existing scheme...

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    1. It sure seems easier to work from a clean slate...

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  9. I think that is a lovely space - so much potential ! I am struggling right now with a decision to remove 'Duet' . I would love to keep it but I have nowhere to move it at the present. A similar decision looms for 'Sunsprite' and 'Fair Bianca' .Sigh. For many years I collected roses and now I collect many other plants-only so much real estate.

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    1. I'm feeling the same way. Most of the roses I've removed have crown or root gall, which gives me permission to discard them--they've given me an "out", poor darlings. It's all part of the learning journey, a painful perplexing part.

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  10. Agaves, Graptoveria and perhaps some variegated flax would look great here. It was 42degrees Celsius here today and Summer has yet to arrive, unbearable heat
    Happy weekend dear Hoover.
    xoxoxo ♡

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    1. Our summer ordeal has just ended, yours is just about to begin--42C--I feel your pain!

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  11. Are there xerix shrubs that can soften the wall, if all the roses along there are going? Thinking that a tiny bit of the sparse kind of shade wouldn't come amiss at the back. Just a thought.

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    1. There you go, I was thinking about that, yes. The 'Moonlight' Grevillea has (roughly) the same effect (airy, silvery) as the scary-invasive Euphorbia in the background of the "inspiration" photos, and blonde flowers that repeat the same blonde color found in certain Agaves ('Ivory Curls', for example). Foliage color also agrees with the Dymondia ground cover...

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  12. That's great that the dymondia is in place already as a unifier. Some verticals to draw the eye along like those fence-post cacti? What I miss about growing roses is all the anticipation they generate, first bloom, flush, second flush, new leaves, etc. -- it takes a while to change that mindset. Aloes have their own brand of anticipation too! I can give you a half dozen baby Agave mitis Multicolor for more repetition to fill that space. Let me know.

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    1. The roses have their events throughout the year and create a rhythm. Aloes have their events too. Thanks for the offer--I'm trying to think what to do still, thanks for the kind and generous offer, I will reply.

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  13. The civic league planting looks like they are sculpted from some sort of metal. Good luck with your fall project.

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    1. Early morning autumn light and shade made for a lovely effect. Thanks, I'll need it!

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  14. You chose some mighty fine inspirational material. It should keep the adrenalin up to fuel CHANGE...equal parts scary and exciting.

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    1. The inspiration is so well done, it may be far beyond my talent. Best to aim high, tho?

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  15. I love the civic center garden! Is it mainly the cost of sizable specimens that prevents more people from creating this (or the sea garden tapestry) style gardens?

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    1. It certainly is really expensive to do a large area with sizable specimens. I think there will be more of this style in So Cal eventually, but it is not to everyone's taste. (I love it.)

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