Facing the Climate Change Reality - New, Mostly Drought Tolerant Plant Purchases

With temperatures having been consistently over 90 degrees Fahrenheit (30 degrees Celsius) again this weekend and similar temperatures being forecasted for the whole upcoming week, I wonder if Southern California is hit by yet another heatwave or if this is the new normal. It almost doesn't matter if the first or the latter is true, gardeners are forced to look for more drought and heat tolerant plants whether they like it or not, in case they still want to have a garden in the future.

So I bow to nature and try to find new drought and heat tolerant plants for my garden that I can love. I have to admit there are many drought tolerant plants that I don't like. But in the last weeks I was making a serious attempt to find drought tolerant plants that still go well with my idea of a dream garden. And as always when you truly search, you are very likely to find something.

I recorded another Periscope broadcast today where I show my new drought tolerant plant purchases. Are you curious what plants I got? Here they are: Verbena bonariensis, Stachys monieri 'Hummelo', Liriope muscari 'Super Blue', Bearded Irises 'Best Bet', 'Rio Vista' and 'Clarance'. Please, take a look at the video to see them in person.

Thanks for watching the video! Would you like to share what drought tolerant plants work well for you in your garden? If so, please leave a comment. It can never hurt to get more ideas...

See you in the garden!

Christina

Late Summer Garden Tour

Last Sunday I broadcasted another video on Periscope that I would like to share with you here as well. That day, when I taped the video, it was still boiling hot in San Diego, but Tuesday we finally got a good amount of rain and the temperatures came down a bit and instantly the whole atmosphere in the garden changed for a brief time and it felt really autumn-ish. But we are back to hot temperatures by now, again.

In this video I am focusing again on plants that do well in my garden despite the heat, but also on plants that really failed in my climate. Your will see a few roses: 'Our Lady of Guadalupe', 'Lavender Crystal', 'White Meidiland', 'Neptune' and a few others varieties as well. I also touch on some other plants like for example the white flowering dianthus 'Floral Lace White', the daylily 'Siloam Double Classic Pink', alstroemeria Princess Lilies 'Claire' and dichondra sericea 'Silver Ponyfoot', a favorite ground cover of mine, and some more.

I am also talking about fertilizing roses with fish fertilizer and recommend a brand that works well for me in my garden.

I hope you enjoyed the tour and, if you are gardening in a similar climate, got some tips with regards to which plants could do well for you in your own garden and which ones may not. Thanks for watching my video!

See you in the garden!

Christina

A Tour Through my Garden on a Very Hot Day

Sorry for not blogging for two weeks. My life went on overdrive again and there was simply no time to do it.

We are having a heatwave here in San Diego right now, with temperatures raising up to 98 F/37 C and it is very unpleasant to be outside. I can't take the heat very well and there is no way for me to garden in this weather except to do the absolutely necessary maintenance chores like deadheading and spot watering very early in the morning.

Nonetheless, today I managed to record another Periscope video, touring part of my backyard and showing two vases with roses from the garden. Skylar, our Doberman, had an unexpected guest appearance in there as well. Please have a look:

Hope you enjoyed the video and wishing everyone a nice weekend.

See you in the garden!

Christina

The White Garden Bed in June - Video

Following up my last post, I just want to let you know that I did another broadcast on Periscope about the White Garden Bed, which is now uploaded on YouTube. If you like to get a more vivid view of the bed, like as if you see it with your own eyes, please click on the video below.

One tip: The quality of a Periscope broadcast is very good if you watch it live or on replay on your smartphone, but it somewhat drops when you see it later on YouTube. For that reason I would recommend to watch the video not on full screen, but in a smaller window, which improves the perceived video quality quite a bit.

If you like to see more Periscope broadcasts that I have done or will be doing of my garden or other gardens that I visit, please follow me on twitter, username: @csgardendreams. You get a tweet when I go live on Periscope and if you are not able to join me then, the show will be saved on Periscope for the next 24 hours and you can watch it on replay. You can also go to my YouTube channel and see this video and other videos, that I have done so far, there. 

Thanks for watching. Please let me know what you think and maybe see you next time live on Periscope!

Christina

Summer Solstice Garden Tour Video

Just a few hours ago I did another Periscope broadcast about some plants (mainly roses) in our backyard. I am featuring my Hybrid Perpetual Bed with two lovely chartreuse colored plants, a coleus and a heuchera. Then I move on to gardenia 'Veitchii', the Tea Rose 'Georgetown Tea', the Tea Noisette 'Madame Alfred Carriere' and 'Belinda's Dream'. Lastly I show you the Hybrid Tea rose 'Moonstone'. The latter is blooming incredible today! Maybe you would like to have a peek into my garden on this hot summer solstice day!

You can watch the broadcast on Periscope 24 hours after it was taken. My Periscope/Twitter username is csgardendreams.

The video is also on YouTube, just click here:

Wishing you all a beautiful beginning of summer!

See you in the garden!

Christina 

Ever heard about Periscope?

Yes, well, you must be a tech guy/girl.

No, you are like me. Or like I was until three weeks ago. That was when my husband, who is interested in all new technical developments told me about Periscope, a live video broadcast application for your smart phone, that allows you to send live videos to anyone who knows your twitter user name. The live video streams are also available in the mobile application itself. My husband thought that it would be a great application that I could use to broadcast live and globally about our garden. First I dismissed it, but later changed my mind. The possibility that I could invite all of you for a garden tour, even though it is only a virtual one, was way to tempting.

So about two weeks ago I pulled all my courage together and produced my first live Periscope broadcast about the White Garden Bed that I also blog about monthly. You have to know that I am a pretty shy person and doing this is way out of my comfort zone, but I think it is good to try out new things and sometimes you need to push yourself a little bit beyond your limits.

I don't want to discuss the technical possibilities of Periscope here on my blog, since I feel that would lead too far and it looks like that even the experts don't know yet. Periscope is still very new and seems to develop itself further every day. If it will be top or flop, only the future will tell, but I thought that it would be interesting for gardeners, who want to share their gardens, plants and experiences with a broader public.

Surprisingly I discovered that I enjoyed the experience of doing the broadcast and for the very first try ever, I think it didn't go too bad. There are a couple of things that I would like to change: first of all my strong German accent (yikes, I didn't know that it was that bad); that I was mixing up words, because I was so nervous; that I could focus more on the content of what I was about to say and not be so distracted by holding the phone camera and lastly refine my overall camera skills. So there is lots of room for improvement, of course, but I believe with more practice it will get better.

Periscope only saves the broadcasts for 24 hours, but my husband uploaded the video on YouTube. If you would like to see it, please click on the video below.

Last weekend I gave Periscope a second shot. This time I was broadcasting about part of our front yard and I think, I was already doing a little better. I spoke more slowly and the camera movement was not so erratic anymore. Here is the video of the second Periscope broadcast:

I intend to continue with these live broadcasts from my garden and other gardens that I visit. They will later appear on YouTube, so that if someone missed the 24 hour Periscope window, one still can see them.

If you want to watch my next live Periscope entry, please follow me on twitter (@csgardendreams). Then you get a tweet when I am going live. In case you are not able to watch me live, you can see the broadcast on Periscope within 24 hours after you got the tweet. After that you can visit my YouTube channel and watch the video there.

I am curious what you think about this new media? I would be thrilled if we could have a little discussion in the comment section.

See you in the garden!

Christina