What Will February Bring?

 

Ceanothus megacarpa

Another dreaded job completed--removal of rose 'Tamora' because the oak tree is now shading the area most of the day.  Removal was not as difficult as expected.  Temporary new residents in the emptied-out space are some Aloes that need re-rooting, A. buhrii and 'Rooikappie': 

I saved two chunks of 'Tamora'--if the root system looks healthy I'll pot them up so they can recover, and plant them in the ground next autumn, if they look good.  One of the chunks:   

Limbed up the 'Ivory Sheet' Pittosporum in the back gully.  This is a beautiful tall shrub--except, not in my part of California.  The summer is too hot and too long and too dry and the Santa Ana winds strip off a lot of the foliage.   It's not happy, and neither am I.  

Note oak seedling at the base of the Pittosporum:

The drought conditions of the past several years seem to be making P. tenuifolia a poor choice for Southern California.  I think I'll need to take it out.  Difficult to discern in the photo, but the Pitto is  mostly bare stems with just an outer covering of stems that still have leaves attached:

Best to grow plants that will be happier here.  Perhaps an Arctostaphylos , a Ceanothus 'Ray Hartman', or a Crape Myrtle to replace it.  An Oak will be too large for the space.

Another task: got the outdoor furniture all cleaned, and started on their oil finish.  I have a few pieces done.  

Cleaned but not finished:

Those were the tasks of the past few days.  We've had some Santa Ana wind events that made work outside impossible.  

Wandering the garden, what's to see?  Near the doomed Pittosporum, Trachelium likes growing in the DG on the back stairway.  They looks nice at a few inches tall but I won't be able to use the stairs if they stay and grow to their typical 3' height:

Surprised to see some cones on Leucadendron 'Chief'.  It's grown but seems etiolated--not enough sun?  I doubt it would survive a move. 

Arctostaphylos 'St. Helena' has not grown much, but looks happy

Front slope, sun splashed Arctotis, Agave parryi truncata, and the reddened leaf tips of Aloe cameronii:


The Hellebores seem much later than last year.  Just a few flowers so far.
Globularia x dubia is out of flower but the foliage looks so healthy and happy from all the rain we got, I had to stop and admire it.  We got a bit more rain Sunday night (0.22") bringing our season total to 11.5" (just over 29 cm).
Aloe candelabrum
 There were warblers at the flowers, licking nectar:   

 Townsend's Warbler: 

Aloe castanea:


Warblers at the Aloe ferox out front, too:

No warblers at the Aloe vanbalenii, but a hummingbird and the bees were at it, too speedy for the camera:

Gerberas:

Leucadendron 'Harlequin' getting red again:

What ever February will bring, it's beginning is decent.  How is your February looking?

Comments

  1. How nice to ease into early Spring. Groundhog day today and the prediction is for a late start to the season so we shall see here. After a cold week now entering into a warm stretch so looking forward to getting into the greenhouse to get some seeds started. Lots of great and satisfying tasks to look forward to .

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    1. A late start for Spring would be great for us here--better chance for more rain. How about early for you and late for us here? Deal? ;^)

      Seed starting--very satisfying indeed. Enjoy!

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  2. The white-flowered Ceanothus is lovely! The warblers are adorable. My over-achieving Leucadendron 'Chief' is also covered in "flowers." I cut it back by about one-third after its bloom cycle ends so it doesn't take over its entire bed as it seems to want to do. I've yet to see flowers from any of my hellebores, although they're putting up fresh foliage. Based on prior experience, they generally bloom later here but that may be due to the varieties I've planted.

    My rain total is 11.03". Weather Underground is currently showing a 43% chance of rain in the wee hours of Sunday morning here but AccuWeather is less optimistic, showing just a 25% chance.

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    1. The Ceanothus flowers have a delicate sweet fragrance--that was a nice surprise.

      11" is way better than last year! I don't expect much beyond a bit of drizzle this weekend, but NorCal is getting some real rain, and that's the next best thing to us getting some.

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  3. Love the 'Chief' Leucadendron...and the Hellebores...and the birds. Thanks for sharing the cheery, colorful, warm images. We are enduring another brief cold snap. A slightly warmer forecast ahead. Yay.

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    1. Warming up here a bit too--unfortunately. No jacket outside today--too warm.

      Happy you liked the pictures, thanks!

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  4. Oh your Aloes ! I was going to do an Aloe bloom viewing at the Ruth Bancroft garden last Sunday but it was too cold and windy-never got into the 50's. My garden looks pretty barren right now as I've started my spring cut back. All the grasses cut down and yesterday I tackled Sombreuil ---what a beast that rose is ! Raining today -an always welcome event even though it will slow down the weeding until it dries out a bit.

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    1. The Aloes are having a good year. The rain we got in October gave them help with their flowers.

      Thinking still about saying goodbye to 'Sombreuil' here. A beast she is. 'Snowbird' has very similar flowers on a much friendlier plant. 'Sombreuil's space may go to a new 'Valencia' orange tree. Happy you are getting some more rain. It sure helps!

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  5. Heh heh, as you can guess, my February looks nothing like that! The colors on your Arctotis photos are amazing as are the aloes. I have a small pot of aloe sending up flower stalks in the basement and wish they would wait just a few more weeks since I'd rather enjoy them outdoors.
    Hope the winds die down, you've earned a long gentle spring.

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    1. Aloe flowers can take their time opening, especially in cooler conditions--so you might get your wish! :)

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  6. Spring is just a rumor here in the Sacramento Valley. So good to see aloe flowers in your garden. Some of my stalwarts (like Aloe wickensii and Aloe capitata var. quartziticola) don't have _any_ inflorescences this year. What a wacky winter it's been!

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    1. Winter good: rain! None of my capitatas has any sign of a flower this year except the hybrid seedling, and my wickensii has never flowered. Does yours get a good amount of water? I keep wondering if mine is too dry.

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    2. I think my aloes got too dry this summer when it was 110+ degrees. But they should have caught up by now...

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    3. Yes, you got some good rain there up north--maybe they just decided to take a year off.

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  7. The tall P. tenuifolia has beautiful form, but is looking so sad. I try to imagine it in full glory. It seems almost inevitable that it'll have to come down unless it gets a lot of supplemental water.
    The "sun splashed" front slop is exuberant: I love the colors and patterns in that vignette.
    Lastly, the "Warbler on the Aloe" shots are the best!
    Chavli

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    1. Just not the Pitto's climate here anymore. 50 or 75 years ago, it might have been.

      The warblers on the Aloes are a sight to behold. One of the many joys of Aloes. Happy you liked the pictures.

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  8. Love your arctotis/aloe/agave combo and Leucadendron ‘Harlequin’ would look beautiful in an arrangement (as it does in your garden). Good on you with the furniture revival. Do you just give them a light sanding to clean them, or is there another technique you like to use?
    February here is weird. It’s usually our hottest month, but we’ve just had a week of wintery drizzle. However on Thursday is gets back up to 36 decrees C (97f). Poor plants must be confused 😐

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    1. The wood oil I'm using is paired with a cleaner, you clean, sand lightly, then do the oil which is supposed to last several years. Then when it needs it again, you re-clean and re-oil, but you don't have to sand anymore.

      Wintery drizzle in your hottest month--that must have been a nice break--but back to 97F---🤢

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  9. I am echoing everyone else's comments about the Arctotis, aloe, agave photos - beautiful. And, who knew about warblers and aloe flowers? That's really cool! I would love to see more warblers up here. New plants to me are the Ceanothus megacarpus and the Globularia x dubia. Never seen a Globularia get that tall before. Sadly, neither appear hardy enough for me, but it sure is a pleasure to see them in your garden.

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