Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day - March 2016

Honestly, I can't remember for how long I wanted to take part in Carol's (author of the blog May Dreams Gardens) Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day meme, which takes place on the 15th of each month. Never got it done so far, but the stars seem to have lined up properly, so today is the day!

I am completely enchanted with Narcissus papyraceus or more commonly known as Paperwhites. Aren't the little flowers incredible charming?

I have forced Paperwhites indoors before, but never put the bulbs in the ground until this year. They are supposed to be planted in autumn, but I didn't get around to do it and only planted them in February, fully prepared to see never ever anything of them, again. But to my big delight four have come up so far and gifted me with these lovely wonderfully fragrant bloom. 

My Martha Washington geraniums just started to bloom. This is the variety 'Regal Elegance Rose Bicolor'. They really brighten up my front yard.

A post about my garden wouldn't be a post about my garden without roses. I simply love roses! Many varieties are just opening their first blooms. Here you see 'Climbing Iceberg'.

My trusty white cyclamen is in full bloom. Each year it flowers that prolifically. In the foreground you see another Martha Washington geranium. I think it is a seedling that mother nature planted there, it wasn't me for sure.

Here is a close-up of the blooms of the Martha Washington geranium plant shown in the photo above. I think the color of the flowers is very pretty!

'Old Fashioned Girl', a miniature rose.

I really love the blue flowers of Ajuga reptans 'Catlin's Giant'. Despite its beauty, so far it has proven to be a pretty tough, no-fuss plant for me in my garden.

These flowers of rosa 'Marie Pavie' are hidden deep in the bush, but there are many more on top of the plant that just seem to wait for a warm day to spring open. 

My favorite alstroemeria Princess Lilies 'Claire'. The snails have damaged many blooms, but here I caught one cluster that is not touched by them, yet!

Rosa 'Pierre de Ronsard' has produced some blooms of a giant size. The relatively cool March days enabled the rose to do that.

Another bloom of 'Pierre de Ronsard'. They are just gorgeous!

My favorite rose at the moment: 'Madame Alfred Carriere'. Because of the cooler days she has taken on a very muted apricot hue, usually she is plain white here in summer. Just love the color and old fashioned bloom form of this Tea Noisette.

 

'Georgetown Tea' flower bud unfurling.

\

Iris 'Platinum' kissed by the spring sun! I had trouble growing irises for the longest time in my garden, but now it looks like that I have finally gotten the hang of it. Acidifying the soil slightly around the irises with soil sulfur and fertilizing them with organic rose fertilizer seem to have done the trick. 

I am curious to see what flowers others have blooming in their gardens at this time of the year. So I will pop over tomorrow to Carol's Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day meme and have a look at her and other bloggers gardens. Why don't you join me? Just click on the link!

See you in the garden!

Christina

I am linking to

May Dreams Gardens

Rose Garden Malevik

Bernideen's Tea Time, Cottage and Garden

Garden Tour through the Backyard: There are still some Roses blooming!

Here is the latest of my garden videos. It is done a little while ago, but not much has changed in the garden and it looks right now almost like you see it in the video. So I thought I will publish it.

It is a narrated tour through my backyard and I am featuring roses that were blooming at that time. You will meet besides others 'Stephen's Big Purple', 'Snowbird', 'Rhodologue Jules Gravereaux', 'Scepter'd Isle' and 'Mister Lincoln'. I am also visiting other plants like for example coleus 'Wasabi', iris 'Platinum', my camellias and alstroemeria Princess Lilies 'Claire'.

Thanks for watching! I really appreciate that you took the time to have a look.

Before I leave you, I have to tell you that it is raining right now in San Diego and the weather forecasts predicts that it will continue to do so all day long with short interruptions. That is certainly an early Christmas present and it makes my hope grow that I will have some lovely roses blooming next year, too.

If you celebrate Christmas, I hope you enjoy your Christmas preparations and that it didn't get too hectic for you! And just in case I don't get to blog anymore: I am wishing you and your loved ones a very Merry Christmas!

See you in the garden!

Christina

I am linking to 

Rose Garden Malevik

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

End of Month View - The White Garden Bed

This month I didn't do many new plantings in the White Garden Bed, since I was very busy working in other parts of the garden. In general at this time of the year maintenance already occupies the biggest chunk of my garden time (gosh, how I wish I had more of that!), so planting new plants takes a back seat.

Nonetheless I planted six more white flowering dianthus 'Floral Lace White'. Besides that I cut back one layer of fronds on the left cycad and weeded the bed thoroughly. Other than that I just enjoyed seeing the plants grow and bloom.

To support my white gray/silver color scheme in this bed I placed a white terracotta sphere, that I previously had positioned elsewhere in the garden. I also put two new silver garden glass balls on wooden dowel rods and stuck them into 'Moonstone', the Hybrid Tea rose that takes center stage in this bed, to add a little bit more interest. I bought the silver garden balls, they are called Rosenkugeln (rose balls) in German, together with my mother when I was visiting her in Germany last year and, because of the memories that are attached to them, they are very special to me.

May 2015

April 2015

If you compare the photo from May to the one from April the White Garden Bed has filled out nicely, especially in the center. The teeny-tiny dianthus plants in the middle in the front of the bed have grown quite a bit. 'Moonstone', the rose in the center of the bed, which I had to defoliate last month because of a severe infestation with rose rust, has leaved out again.

Here is a closer look at the middle section of the bed. 

To my own surprise after deleaving 'Moonstone', the new foliage came back completely healthy and the rose has now set plenty of buds. 

I am really in love with these glass balls. They have an interesting finish which reminds me a bit of glass Christmas ornaments and it might be the same technique in which they are produced. They echo the silver gazing ball that is positioned on a white column more to the left of the bed. 

May 2015

April 2015

Here is the second view that I always show in my End of the Month View post. I am quite happy with the way this part of the bed looks in comparison to last month. There is still more soil to see than I would like to, but I am working on that. By the way, alstroemeria Princess Lilies 'Claire', the plant in front of the left cycad, blooms profusely since two months now! It has given me so much joy already and I am so very happy that I purchased it in the first place!

Zooming in a little closer...

This picture shows the white terracotta sphere a little better. It has a nice ornamental surface, but could use a new coat of paint. One more item to put on the garden to-do-list. The plant next to it to the right is geranium 'Biokovo', which has really bulked up in the last couple of months.

I am a little bit concerned about the cycad. It has made a new layer of fronds, but they seem to be smaller in terms of the length and size than usual and so far they don't unfold properly. Hopefully that will still happen. 

May 2015

April 2015

The third regular view of the month shows the whole bed seen from the left side over to the right. To the very left a white flowering agapanthus (sorry, don't know the name of the variety anymore) is just starting to bloom. The yellow leaves that you can see behind the white column with the silver gazing ball belong to amaryllis belladonna 'Fred Meyer Whites'. It is normal for this plant that the foliage completely dries up before summer, but of course it doesn't look that great in the moment. In an ideal world all four roses ('Pope John Paul II', 'Chandos Beauty', 'Moonstone', 'Auckland Metro') would bloom right now, but, oh well...

Here is the white agapanthus getting ready to bloom. It has a good amount of flower stalks this year and it should be spectacular when all the blooms are open. 

Close-up of an agapanthus flower.

The rose that is blooming profusely right now is 'Auckland Metro'. Her foliage was also somewhat affected by rose rust and I had to pluck a few infected leaves, but overall the bush still looks decent...

...as you can see if I get a little closer. The flowers of this rose are huge and they have a good form.

Here I caught one bloom of 'Auckland Metro' with the camera that came close to perfection!

I leave you with one more shot from a different angle of my White Garden Bed.


Hope you enjoyed this entry. Please do pop over to Helen from the Patient Gardener's Weblog, who kindly hosts this great End of the Month View meme and take a peek at what other gardens look like by the end of May.

I would like to finish by extending a warm welcome to all my new followers. I am so glad you found me in the vast world of the internet and decided to visit me regularly!

See you in the garden!

Christina

End of Month View - The White Garden Bed

If you compare photos of the White Garden Bed from the end of April with the ones from the end of March there seems to be less white color in the bed, which is due to the fact that two of the roses planted there ('Auckland Metro' to the very right and 'Chandos Beauty', second rose from the left) are done with their spring flush.

I decided to completely deleaf and prune back 'Moonstone', the rose between the two cycads, because it was so plagued by rose rust and powdery mildew that I thought this would be the last chance for it to recover. Only 'Pope John Paul II', the rose to the very left is gearing up for a new flush right now.

April 2015

 March 2015

Here is a close-up of 'Moonstone' after my radical treatment. I don't have much hope for this rose though, because it has been notoriously sick with rust and mildew for at least two years now and that seems to have weakened the rose quite a bit. I think I would be better off to replace it with another more disease resistant white rose. 

April 2015

 March 2015

The biggest and most impressive change in the bed from March to April is the made by the cycad to the left though, that is producing a new layer of fronds. Watching this new layer grow is really fun, because it is such a quick and impressive process, a real spectacle of nature.  

Here I zoomed in on the cycad. I wonder if the new layer of fronds will be able to reach its normal size, because of the ongoing drought and also the heat waves that we are having already. Today for example the highest temperatures have been 88 degrees Fahrenheit (31 degrees Celsius) and it is only spring! Summer with its real intense heat is yet to come. 

The only new plants that I have been able to add to the White Garden Bed in the last month are a six pack of dianthus 'Floral Lace White'. These poor things have been sitting in my pot ghetto for one year. Isn't it unbelievable? They must be very tough little plants to survive this and I hope they really will take off now that they are planted in the ground.

After planting I watered the dianthus with fish emulsion and I think they have perked up and the green of the foliage looks a bit darker already. 

One plant that positively has surprised me is the heuchera 'Venus', which I planted last month. It seems to be unphased by the heat so far. Only the snails have damaged it a little bit and it is time to put down some Sluggo, an organic snail bait, to protect the heuchera. I am still in love with its silvery leaves with the dark green veining. 

April 2015

March 2015

Another plant that has been a delight is the alstroemeria Princess Lilies 'Claire' (right in front of the left cycad), which is flowering continuously since over a month now. 

The Hybrid Tea Rose 'Pope John Paul II' is adding some dots of white color to the very left of the White Garden Bed. On the photos 'Pope John Paul II' looks good, but if you see the rose in reality you will recognize that it is badly ridden by thrips, causing the edges of the flower petals to become brown.

In all the years I am having this rose I only had that happen one spring flush so far. For that reason I hope, that the rose is able to shake of the thrips, when it flowers next time. The blooms of this rose are also substantially smaller than usual, which I believe is due to the drought and heat. But small blooms are better than no blooms, right?

Even though I am a day too late, I am linking my post to Helen's End of Month View meme at her blog The Patient Gardner's Weblog. Hope you join me in hoping over to her blog and have a peak at what other gardener's gardens look like by the end of April.

Wishing everyone a lovely weekend with nice weather and plenty of time to enjoy spring in the yard or somewhere else outdoors.

See you in the garden!

Christina

End of Month View - The White Garden Bed

And finally the spring blooms of the plants, mainly the roses, have brought some much needed white color into the White Garden Bed! There is quite a bit of change to observe between the March and the February photos and I am so happy about that.

March 2015

 February 2015

Besides the fact that some plants have started flowering recently, I made some small changes to the bed as well. I placed my white statue that was formerly beautifying the Hybrid Perpetual Rose Bed into the White Garden Bed and like it there quite a bit. I also planted four new plants, two heucheras 'Venus' and two dichondra sericea commonly called 'Silver Ponyfoot', in the center of the bed, which albeit tiny also make big difference to me.

Here is a close-up of the white statue. It was made by an artist friend of us and was a house warming gift when we bought our first house here in California. Needless to say that it is very dear to me!

This photo offers you a closer look at the heuchera 'Venus'. I am completely in love with this small plant because of its silvery-white foliage and the beautiful veining on the leaves. It is supposed to produce creamy-white flowers in the spring, which would also go well with my white color scheme. The plant label said, that the heuchera would like partial sun or partial shade best, so it is planted in ideal light conditions, but I wonder if our climate is not too hot and dry for a heuchera to be happy. Time will tell! For now the plant responded to the transplant from the container into the ground well and I enjoy it as long as I can.

Both dichondra sericea 'Silver Ponyfoot' are struggling after transplanting them into the ground and that is mainly my fault. These plants were sitting in pots for over a year and when I removed the black plastic container the roots were completely pot bound. To loosen them up I serrated the root balls in various areas with a knife, but I might have over done it a bit.

The other one, looks much worse, leaves are even dying in the center of the plant. My gardener said that this plant is growing like a weed in his home town in Mexico, so I hope that indicates that it is a tough plant that will come around and survive.

Here is the trio of the newbies to the White Garden Bed: The white statue and the heuchera and the dichondra sericea. I love how the silver color of the dichondra is picked up by the heuchera and vice versa.

March 2015

February 2015 

The photo of the center of the White Garden Bed shows, besides the flowering roses, two more things that are standing out by the end of this month. One is the flowering alstroemeria Princess Lilies 'Claire' in front at the foot of the left cycad (Sago palm). And the second is that the left cycad is producing a new layer of fronds. 

Last month I was still wondering what exactly the color of the alstroemeria would be and I am very pleased about this creamy white nuance that the flowers have been taking on. The plant blooms obviously profusely and could take the heat wave that we were having recently in a blink of an eye. I am starting to get the feeling that this one is a real gem. 

  

Zooming in even closer, the beauty of the flowers is even more evident. The little dark "freckles" on the blooms are so charming!

This image shows the center of the cycad, and you can clearly spot the layer of the new fronds in the middle of the plant. I can't tell you how glad I am about that the cycad is able to produce a new top layer of fronds, because I think the plant hasn't done it for about two years and the older layers of fronds have become quite ratty looking and are badly burned by our hot sun. This is not so obvious on the photos, but trust me, it is truly the case. Can't wait to cut the lowest layer of fronds off!

March 2015

 February 2015

The last wide angle shot of the White Garden Bed taken from the left side looking over to the right. The roses from the left to the right are: 'Pope John Paul II', 'Chandos Beauty', 'Moonstone' and 'Auckland Metro', all Hybrid Tea roses. The one that truly stands out is 'Chandos Beauty'. This rose has been doing fabulous this spring and just looking at it makes my heart leap. 

That being said, 'Moonstone', the rose in the middle of the cycads, really sucked this month. It got infected with rose rust so badly that I decided to partly de-leaf the rose. The new shoots were then severely plagued by powdery mildew and have been partly removed as well, including the flower buds. Therefore there are only a few blooms on it. That 'Moonstone' can get rust and powdery mildew in my garden is nothing new, but getting it in spring this badly is. I am seriously considering to remove it, since it is taking up such a prominent position in my backyard and I am sure, that I am able find a more healthy rose for my organic non-spray garden.   

Here is a close-up of 'Chandos Beauty'. This rose has been almost completely healthy this spring, despite the fact that it is living in the same conditions like 'Moonstone'. 

from the left to the right: Pope John Paul II, 'Chandos Beauty', alstroemeria Princess Lilies 'Claire'

Writing this post has made me realize, that besides one little glitch, I am just saying 'Moonstone', how satisfied I am with the White Garden Bed in the moment and I will enjoy it as long as it lasts. Of course, I still do have some plans to improve it, though. Please stay tuned! 

This is my contribution to Helen Johnstone's End of Month View meme at The Patient's Gardener's Weblog. Thanks for hosting it, Helen! Please click on the link and find out what other gardeners have to show at the end of March.  

See you in the garden!

Christina