Better Than The Historic Average

 

Leucospermum 'Red Sunset' 

Despite a hot, rainless March, we received a greater-than-historic-average amount of rain this past Fall and Winter.  It shows:  plants looking really happy.   

I don't have much to say.  Let flowers and foliage do the talking. 

Leucospermum 'Mardi Gras Ribbons'.   'Ribbons' pollen presenters have fuzzy tips:  

 With Aeonium 'Zwarzkop':

 xLeucospermum seedling of 'Yellow Bird'.  A volunteer Lavender has woven its way into it.  No fuzzy pollen presenter tips for 'Yellow Bird':

Leucospermum 'Red Ribbons':

An "Amaryllis" (Hippeastrum 'Christmas Star'(?)) with 'Mardi Gras Ribbons' as fuzzy background:

 The 'Fuerte' Avocado tree looks great. Last year at this time I pruned it as hard as I could.   Thanks to the good rainfall it has sprouted much healthy new growth and flowers:

A 'Sky Pencil' Ilex purchased last year did okay in a pot.  It needs either potting up or planting somewhere   ...soon....

I thought the holly might work, size-wise, to hide very unattractive piping by the front door (great place for it, builders!),  but fierce reflected heat from the stucco may toast the holly.  A 'Sticks on Fire' Euphorbia had that location for several years, and even a plant as tough as that scorched and bleached.

Away from the walls, rose 'Easy Spirit' does well: 

 It even looks hot here, doesn't it?  The sweet peas failed this year--my own fault for wallowing in glumness and not planting them promptly.  The Euphorbia's great virtue was as a support for sweet peas.

 The Euphorbia I green-wasted last week.   A hard wad of its roots is stuck in the pot.  Time will have to work magic, and this is why not to buy pots that taper inward at the top:    

 In the meantime, I stop and revel in the roses.

Many beautiful flowers from 'Darcey Bussell'.  I only wish she could hold on to her foliage: 

'The Poet's Wife' has a strong grip on her leaves.  An excellent Austin yellow--in SoCal, many of them are:

There are about a dozen Foxgloves in the garden, seedlings of ones planted in the winter of 24-25 that flowered in '25 and dropped seeds.  The seeds became plants growing in '25 and are blooming size now.  I hope they do bloom.

'The Hemerocallis always seem to start flowering just as the first flush of roses begins to wane.  

The Hems are a little early--still plenty of roses.

'Queen of Elegance': 

'Brass Band':

A Dudleya of unknown heritage, flower stems just emerging.  Dudleyas seem to do fine shaded in moist soil--not what I expected.  Shaded, anyway.  There's some moisture in this area, but not a lot.  

Another of Austin's fine yellows:  'Molineux':

 Fine, yellow, not a rose--Calylophus 'Southern Belle'. long lived, tough as nails, once-a-year maintenance, it sports constant lavish bloom from early April through October.  Even better with a recharge from good winter rain.

 With Agave 'Blue Glow' and Centauria ragusina:

But back to roses. 

 

 'The Ambridge Rose'

'Princess Alexandra of Kent'.  Opening...she's coral pink:

...and opened, pink:

This iris is late.  The others are finished for the year:

'Belinda's Dream' handles heat far better than any other rose in the garden:

'Golden Celebration', another of those fine Austin yellows, does not, but it has other virtues:

Beauty, fragrance...grace:

 'Pink Gruss an Aachen' with Alstroemeria 'Indian Summer':

''Silas Marner'

'Light Years Away': 

'The Endeavour' is another rose that drops its foliage all too easily.  However I'm pleased with how I managed to arrange its canes along the wall, and it repeats well, leaf-deprived or not.   A couple of Clematis--would that help hide its flaw? 

Okay, enough of roses.  I should mention tomatoes--purchased/planted three, each in a fifteen gallon pot.  The ones in five's last year didn't do great.  I'll put more effort in, this year.

Ah!  I managed a post!  Whew!  

Pelargonium peltatum: 

I wish you a spring filled with the peace and beauty and hope of nature's wonders, if nothing else.  If only our own species paid more attention to that, instead of to hate and greed and blowing things up.  If only...