Tuesday, September 22, 2015

End of Summer

Tomorrow it will be official: Summer is over and to be quiet honest with you, I am glad about it! This year summer was a torture for the garden with in general very high temperatures, a couple of heatwaves on top of that and the toughest water restrictions since I garden here in San Diego.

Because of the heat I hardly did any gardening since the end of June, except the most necessary maintenance chores. And when I did try to plant something in the last two months, it is very likely that I have lost it again by now. Lesson learned: Avoid planting new plants in the heat of summer.

I hope that temperatures slowly will come down from now on, even though in San Diego it is very likely that we will have some very hot, arid and windy days caused by Santa Ana Winds in September and/or October.

Besides my complains above there was of course a lot of beauty happening in the garden and I would like to share some photos with you that I have taken this summer.



On the first glance you could think that this is a rose, but no, it is an exquisite gardenia 'Veitchii' bloom.



This gardenia actually seemed to welcome the heat...



...and was blooming as profusely as never before.



And the fragrance of a gardenia, what can I say, it is simply out of this world.



'Neptune' has been doing well since transplanted into a big terracotta container on the backyard terrace. 



The blooms of this rose have a beautiful lavender color and the fragrance is equally pleasant.



The agapanthus were also liking the summer or at least putting up with it...



...and some were blooming generously.





'Yolande d'Aragon' had a good second rebloom.



I somehow like this shot quite a bit of the same rose.



The beautiful blooms of 'Cymbaline', an older David Austin rose that you don't see too often, were another nice surprise to me this summer. 



The plant with the tongue twister name Plectranthus ciliatus 'Mona Lavender' had wonderful blooms, but...



...couldn't withstand the heat and sadly I pulled it out about a week ago, since I have come to the conclusion that it is unsuited for my climate.



'Chandos Beauty' is one of the few roses that really likes the heat. The blooms are always gorgeous and the rose bush itself is very healthy.



'The Prince' fries easily in the heat,...



...but who can resist those flowers?



My bearded iris 'Platinum' also surprised me positively this summer and rebloomed not just once but twice for me. 



And I almost had thrown it away because it wasn't doing anything for quite a while. Now I am so glad that I didn't!



Hardy geranium 'Rozanne' is unfazed by the heat as long as it gets some supplemental water and is fertilized. 



I am on the fence, if I should keep the Mini-Flora rose 'Moonlight Scentsation' or not. I love the off-white blooms with lavender or even brown undertones, but the rose mildews on a regular base, which really bothers me.



It is kind of the same situation with 'Captain Christy': Beautiful blooms, but ugly powdery mildew. This rose is an heirloom rose that is hardly available in the nurseries anymore, so for that reason I might give it another year.



Here is a shot of 'Our Lady of Guadalupe' taken around 4th of July. This rose amazes me regularly with her profuse flushes of blooms. 

How do you feel about the end of summer? What ever your feelings are, I am definitively wishing you a lovely autumn!

See you in the garden!

Christina



12 comments:

  1. Summer was nice but a little bit too short, time went so fast, but actually it´s not my favourite season. Spring is on number 1, autumn 2, summer 3 and winter 4.
    Love your Gardenia, I can smell it in my imagination. Last year I bought a tiny Gardenia plant with 4 flowers, just for the heavenly fragrance. I was so glad it survived winter in the conservatory and it has grown quite a bit, but I had only one flower this summer. Hope to be able to keep it healthy to next season and try to get more flowers.
    Lovely series of photos of your wonderful roses during this summer!
    Regards, Janneke

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  2. 'Neptune' is a beautiful rose.
    I can understand how you feel about the heat. For us it has been the opposite, a very cool summer and I feel somewhat cheated going into winter without enjoying much in the way of warmth this year!

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  3. You had some lovely blooms dear Christina is spite of the awful heat and drought conditions.

    I love the scent of gardenias and the lovely blooms, they are one of my first memories of Florida as a young girl. My grandmother had a huge bush that would be covered with blooms.

    I am really looking forward to cooler weather and am so glad fall is here.

    Happy Fall to you ~ FlowerLady

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  4. Me encanta la gardenia y las rosas y se ven tan lindas. Besitos.

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  5. Your garden has produced beautiful blooms despite the miserable heat, Christina. I wish my Iris, not to speak of my roses, performed half as well as yours. I know the calendar says it's fall but summer still seems firmly entrenched in my area. Maybe the current warm spell will be our last this year - we can hope so anyway.

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  6. En dépit de la chaleur et la sécheresse, les roses produisent encore et toujours de belles corolles bien juponnées accompagnées d'un feuillage que je trouve luxuriant. ton géranium Rozanne lui aussi apprécie la chaleur pour fournir autant de fleurs. Cette variété est formidable, j'apprécie aussi sa floraison tout l'été.
    Belle soirée Jocelyne

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  7. Your filled roses so beautiful! I think they like your hot summer without rain. Hopefully you can receive some rain. And otherwise, next year try again! Groetjes,
    Hetty

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  8. Wonderful Gardenia, and beautiful roses and other flowers too! My agapantus certainly did not enjoy our "summer". Now it is your turn to cool down a bit :)

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  9. I am also happy to see summer go! Autumn tends to be wonderful here. Nevertheless, there are always plants that do well in the summer, as your lovely garden demonstrates. I love your "Our Lady of Guadalupe."

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  10. Beautiful! Your gardenia is really awesome. Love the roses!

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  11. Wow, liebe Christina,
    bei uns ist der Sommer schon vorbei und
    bei dir blühen noch die Gardenien und
    Rosen so herrlich!
    Ganz viele liebe Grüße
    zum Wochenbeginn sendet dir Urte

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  12. Hey Christina,
    Beautiful flowers and I've been beaten by the love for roses after visiting your blogs often (in 2014; 2015, I was hardly in blog world and trying to be more regular now). So, I planted quite a few roses since last year. And the two David Austen roses (forgotten the names) and another floribunda -- their fragrance just out of this world. And, I'm finding that rose is a plant which can survive the worst drought, it seems.

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