Garden Activities -- Last Days Of May

Geum 'Totally Tangerine'.  '23 is their "Leap" year(?)

Time to start dead-heading roses and daylilys

Time to cut back the Callistemon which had a huuuge crop of flowers.  Three weeks ago:

Whew!  That took some time.

Pulled some Dutch Iris out front because their saturated purple-blue flower color looked dreadful next to the muted shades of 'Harlequin' Leucadendron.  The day lily in front of 'Harlequin' needs moving, too.   Several Catharanthus will replace the Iris to provide some summer interest.  In the foreground some Tritelia 'Queen Fabiola'  added last fall is about to flower, and a compact Lantana planted last spring is cut back hard and recovering from winter to flower again this summer.

Move Dutch Iris?!?? I never used to be so fussy about color 

  Replanted the Iris....

...there.  The Iochroma shades the area from late spring to October, but the Iris grow and flower in late winter to mid spring.  Should work. 

 Also pondering colors here.  Would a peachy Day lily be better than the red-purple?

Dug up and potted up some miserable plants in hopes of nursing them back to health:

Actually made the effort to create a temporary potting bench on the patio table.  It worked well for the unhappy plants and for Zinnias, too:

Saved the Aloe cameronii 'Red' swallowed up by a very happy Lotus hirstutus.  See it?

How about now?

Below, replanted (arrow) near two others red from sunlight (on the left). Burgundy Eucomis (foreground) is re-appearing after vanishing for the winter. 

Zinnias from seed--potted them on.  The seeds planted directly in the ground all sprouted quickly and were all just as quickly eaten by--something.  Hence, planted the remaining seeds in six-packs.  The bottom three six-packs 'Giant Purple' are six days ahead of the top 'Northern Lights Mix':

Potted up, bigger, some almost ready to pinch.   The plan is to pinch and fertilize more generously, to grow them better than last year (which won't be hard).

 Screening the gates was so worth it.  No rabbit damage to the plants inside the gates.  A little damage still--this stem got its foliage stripped:

At least the flower survived.  Grasshopper?  Katydid?  Still, minor compared to what rabbits ate.  

Spoke a little too soon.  Planted a few strawberry plants and screened them:

But despite the screens, something got that one:

Grrrrr!

Move that volunteer Trachelium...

...there (arrow, by potted Avocado tree)?   Where to plant the potted Avocado purchased last year?   I considered offering it to a neighbor who planted several this winter.  That's a thought.

Pot-up tomatoes one more time because the onions are not quite ready to harvest:

 but the tomatoes are growing fast and already have fruits:

 To do:  find places in the ground for Dahlias.  Lots of places.  The big pot can just be moved to an empty place in a garden bed among other plants. That worked pretty well last year.

The garden has been so beautiful this spring it's a  struggle to get anything done--still a lot of walking and gawking--even sitting under the pergola gawking for a few minutes.   

Clematis 'Wisley':

Finally, Larkspur!

 

Pretty!  I wonder if I could seed-in-place these beauties this fall, or if creatures would eat them.  They take up hardly any space--it's all vertical. 

Not bad.  Really not bad: 

Last autumn, rose 'Princesse Charlene de Monaco' sent up a strong, healthy 10 foot/3 meter cane with three flowers at the very tip.  I could not chop down the healthiest cane on the plant so I arched it over and secured it to the trellis on the wall.  Now it is breaking out new stems (I count seven) along its length, each with a flower bud or two or three.  Without all the rain the cane would have sun burnt and grown only a few leaves.  

 Same phenomenon on the two young 'Golden Celebration' roses.  Lots more flowers than they would have produced without so much rain:

Wonderful leaf imprints on a pristine Agave ovatifolia.  Sweet! 

Bit of a disaster.  We got so much drizzle (0.12") the masses of sweet peas flopped and turned into a mushroom cloud of flowers:

The ones on the tomato kennel collapsed:

Sigh.  Still, plenty to enjoy.  There's an 'Iceberg' rose in there...somewhere in there:

Green and white soothe:

And Itoh Peony 'Bartzella' peeks out through the drizzle.

What are you up to in the garden these last days of May?