When It's Too Hot To Garden

Serious current plant-crush on the seedling Clematis

Serious! Plant! Crush!

We suffered our first real heat wave of the year starting last Thursday.  Friday was 98F (36C), and it cooled down by a few degrees each day since.  Lots of tender new foliage and lots of April flowers left plants vulnerable.  So mostly I watered, using up all the collected rainwater from our generous April rain, and misted during peak heat, and deadheaded toasted roses in the late afternoon, as the sun dropped behind the hill.   
Some of these are toasted:

My miscellaneous gardening tasks mean a miscellany of thoughts and pictures.
Then-and-now #1...
Podocarpus 'Icee Blue', April 19, 2018:

Two years later:  April 19, 2020:

It grew!  And grew more blue!

Happy with it.  

Then-and-now #2.  I found a December 2005 picture of the front slope planting originally done in 2000, the one the landscape architect did.  Baccharis, mostly.  The much-loathed Cercis occidentalis, winter dormant in the picture.  I dug out the Cercis in 2008 and I'm still pulling seedlings.

The boxwood hedge was supposed to go elsewhere but I nixed that and the LA had it planted it on the front slope because the plants were non-returnable.  It was actually the best looking plant on the slope.  Some of the Baccharis and two Bougainvilleas died on the right side of the slope in the photo, so I filled the space with Lavender 'Goodwin Creek Grey' which was in bad shape by 2005.  The Baccharis looks fairly filled in and green in the photo, but it wasn't.   Lots of dead areas. 

The LA's plan was a big mass of Bougainvillea flanked by two areas of half-dead Baccharis. Now I think about it,  there was also an edging of Euonymous japonicus; a shrub that typically grows 10-15' tall.  We were supposed to keep it trimmed at 1' tall.  No, really.  The LA was not a plant person.  My enthusiasm for plants beyond the standard ones threw her off.  She'd wanted to plant Trachelospermum asiaticum instead of Baccharis.  She planted the Trachelospermum next door, where it wasn't much better than the Baccharis.  20 years and lots of big water bills later, the Trachelospermum finally filled the neighbor's slope somewhat--in places.  We asked for some California native plants and the Baccharis was the LA's answer.  Perhaps her plan was to have the entire street all planted with the same shrubs and trees--not sure if it was a unified vision for the street, or if she just always used the same half dozen standard shrubs and of course lawn on every job.

The Euonymous thankfully all died--too hot and dry for Euonymous.  Too hot and dry for the Baccharis, too.  The sole surviving plant is a lone Bougainvillea, which I cut to the ground every few years so it doesn't form a big mass of rat habitat.  The lawn on the flat areas is long gone.

Now, for better or worse, quirky and personal, not much less of a mess, but not bland. 

 The front slope needs work.  The front slope always needs work.    I've started re-arranging/adding plants, but the broken arm delayed that. Lately with the broken arm functioning again somewhat, I removed the smaller of the two clumps of Aloe x megalacantha.  Moved two Aloe buhrii to form a triangle with a third Aloe buhrii.  There are several Aloe 'Moonlight' in a pot waiting to form a new group in the empty area Agave marmorata once inhabited.  And some other stuff.  No pictures until mulched.  I am hoping to do a lot come May Gray/June Gloom time.  

Speaking of broken arm,  this was what I was working on when I broke my arm,  an experiment to hide that pond pipe. 

Heh.  Good idea, very poorly executed.  Try again.  Don't break arm!! 

More 'Yellow Bird' amazement.  You almost need sunglasses to look at it.  I've seen passersby take selfies with it.  
Better than Baccharis:

Speaking of Aloe buhrii, first flower from the first Aloe buhrii, planted several years ago.

Early morning of Friday, the first heat-wave day, I picked some flowers that were sure to be toast by noon.

All the Hippeastrums in the back gully are opening.  I counted 31 flower stems, but there may be a few more yet to emerge.  They put on a good show. 
Good old 'Apple Blossom'

 These orange-y ones are actually seedlings of 'Rilona'.  I planted some seed pods and they are old enough to flower.  The seedlings have shorter stems, which is fine. 

 Tulips?  Who needs tulips? 

Rose 'Easy Spirit' was new to the garden last year.  Wow.  Really perfect spiral-centered flower.  Me like!

Clematis 'Wisley' now blooming. 

Because of the dry heat, it was the perfect time to wash the pups.  A bath loosens up and helps them drop their winter coats.
Mom!  Make her quit sniffing my behind!  

Life is easy when you are gorgeous and have a brother to tease.  

 And the first Itoh peony bloomed!  In this heat, brief but glorious. 

Living in the moment.