Shut Up And Plant: Spring Busy

'Windermere'  Rose

 I still haven't mulched, but some stuff has gotten done, despite a lot of time wandering around gawking at spring beauty.  Some weeks ago, I experimented with one of the volunteer lavenders that sprouted from seed on the front slope by grabbing the plant like hair and cutting off half;  it responded by pushing out fresh foliage and a fresh crop of flowers, looking full, tidy, and refreshed.  

Works for me.  I get a few new lavender seedlings every year in the location of their choice.  They grow for a while and get pulled when they start looking ratty.   Will cut off the top halves in the future, to see what happens. 

 Happy surprise:  the Aloe 'Moonglow' someone kicked over has sprouted four new rosettes from its broken-off center.  The broken-off piece has rooted, too.  This story could have a happy ending. 

 Macro lens fun with Sideritis cypria

 Macro lens fun with Eriogonum umbellatum v. aureum 'Kannah Creek'

 Leucadendron 'Cloud Bank Ginny' stems sometimes twist and loop;  at first I wondered if there was something wrong, its chosen spot too hot or too dry, but no, it's what this plant does, in contrast to the straight, near vertical stems of other Leucadendrons, like 'Safari Sunset'.  A cone looped around where I could photograph it easily.

 Huh.  Multiple cones here.  What's with that? 

 Nearby,  Aloe 'Fire Ranch' has flowers opening.

 A scrub jay has been battling a mockingbird for control of 'Hercules'.  The jay is winning.  He's bigger.  Today I scared him out of the fountain where he was taking a bath.  Soaking wet, he flew a short distance and perched to screech at me.

 Part of gardening at this time of year is admiring the roses.  
Pink Gruss an Aachen

I finally got around to bowl-floating some Hellebore flowers.  You haven't really grown Hellebores until you've floated some in a bowl.  Okay, I'm satisfied.  

 Another happy surprise:  the Magnolia stellata leafed out fully this year.  Last year, recovering from being transplanted, it had just a few leaves.   It looks good now. 

 A different "Dutch" Iris

 A particularly gorgeous 'Rouge Royale'.  This rose can often be misshapen or damaged, though the fragrance is always sumptuous and intoxicating. 

 I got some tomato plants into big pots for the summer. 

 The Agave I got for $5 a few months back, hoping against hope it wasn't A. desmetiana, turned out to be a variegated 'Blue Glow'.  Yessss!!!  Best bargain plant ever!
The gorgeousness is beginning:

 'Grevillea 'Superb' continues to be so.  A close up gives a hint at how bees must feel about 'Superb'--an intricate matrix of nectar at every step.  No wonder there is always a cloud of them, crawling through every flower. 

 The Fuerte Avocado is blooming like mad, getting the bee spillover from 'Superb'.  To its right, the neighbor's badly neglected (it's difficult to reach) unknown Salvia look much better---a few months back I grabbed it like hair and cut off half, along with removing some dead stems. It just needed a little love.  Next winter it can be cut back harder and will look even better. 

 Of course there was a little plant shopping this week.  I eyed the five gallon size of Centaurea ragusina very carefully twice in the past few weeks, but managed to say "no".  Spotted the one gallon size this week and went for it.  The San Marcos site has high praise for this silver-leafed plant.   If only it had blue flowers--can you imagine?  They are yellow. 

Also in the next photo is a lot of volunteer Alyssum, a bit of the poor Abelia 'Confetti' that I still haven't found a place for, and Lantana 'Cosmic Firestorm'.  The Monterey Bay site has a mad-passionate ode to this wild plant. Wow, and I thought I got besotted with plants.
Mmmmm, silver!

 The Centaurea got a place near the koi pond next to three 'Silver Stone' Leucophytum browniis.  'Silver Stone' is a very dwarf selection.  The original grows to the size of a tumbleweed;  'Silver Stone' to the size of a head of cauliflower.

'Cosmic Firestorm' is planted down in the gully garden near 'Springfire' Metrosideros.  I did plant things this week, not just buy them. 

'Springfire':

The 'Icee Blue' Podocarpus was getting to a plant-it-or-lose-it state, so it went into the gully, too.  

Getting tired in that pot.

 Okay, there you go, your very own dirt.  Good luck, baby.  This is a very slow grower, maybe 6" a year.  Slow is okay.  I'm good with slow.  The wall will shade its roots during the worst of summer.       

Another plant for the gully garden, another purchase:  Ceanothus 'Valley Violet' is a more compact plant than the usual shrubby Ceanothus, 3x3 or 4x4.  It called, and I answered.  

 It's said to be very tough.

 In the ground, behind 'Cinco de Mayo' and in front of the pond-cleaning hose. 

 'Valley Violet' is planted next to one of the 'Bishops Castle' roses.  Speaking of which,  first flowers of the spring.  This has proven to be the best performing Austin pink I've ever grown.  Quick repeat, very fragrant.  Big grower. 

All the Hippeastrum bulbs got moved to the edge of the bed in front of 'Cinco de Mayo', freshly moved to the gully, and 'Bishops Castle'.  Some are pushing flower stalks;  nearly all are pushing new foliage. 

 A 'Rose Rhapsody' nearby

 View from the top:

I moved a Quercus agrifolia volunteer seedling;  This one is down at the lower end of the gully.  I hope to shear it as a tall shrub for a number of years.  This can be done, thanks to evolution--in their natural (non-human-overrun) habitat, young Q. agrifolias are repeatedly browsed by deer, which is like being sheared. 

 I've not thought of it as the big 2018 "project", but rehabbing the back gully garden has been the "project".  

An uphill neighbor had the big Euc overhanging the gully cut down, I paid to have seven weed Palms removed, and the new neighbors in the back cleared out most of the rest of the weedy jungle back there.  That made working on it again worthwhile as large falling debris and shading out from the jungle is no longer a problem.  Most all of the plants have very low water requirements, and feed either native butterflies or hummingbirds.

Yet another gully garden inhabitant, the 'Red Splendor' Eremophila is finally blooming.  I caught a hummingbird sipping nectar from it.

The largest oldest Callistemon 'Slim' needed restaking, which I did with a tall aluminum pole that spent the first part of its life as a window shade rod in the living room.   'Slim' is at least 8 feet tall and was flopping.  It's also full of flowers, and now the bees, hummingbirds, wren tits, bush tits, and common warblers are in there.  It's a very bird-friendly plant.

   

In the veggie garden area, a new small Rhodanthemum 'Marrakech' as a companion for the new Gerbera Galvinea.

 A family member's Salvia clevelandii, the Tagetes lemonii 'compactum' that wasn't compactum, and an impulse purchase Phlomis also gully garden inhabitants, are all doing well.  I cut the Tagetes to nothing in order to move it.  They transplant pretty easily. 

 Still have plants to find places for, and yes, mulch, but spring is underway.  Must shut up and get back out there and plant.

Hey, got through a springtime post without a single photo of Leucospermum 'Yellow Bird'.  Well, almost...