Greenhouse

Jason built us a greenhouse for the plants to overwinter!

He's handy.

Season 5: lessons learned

The Mediterranean-type plants really took the record-breaking heat in stride:

• Artemesia
• Bush Germander 'Azure'
• Lamb's Ear
• Catmint

And of course my antique roses and my iris performed beautifully, as they always do. I need more of those.

Next season I'm going to try to work on repetition and continuity. Hence, I pulled out the red Daylily. All that's left are the peach/pink ones (Jolyene Nichole and Barbara Mitchell).

Our backyard retreat

We love our patio.

After the hottest freakin' summer on record

...the garden doesn't look too bad! The lawn is pretty much dead, but the flower beds look pretty decent.

Pachy is all growed-up!

Look how big it got in just one Summer!

Sunset Alley

I call this section of my garden 'Sunset Alley' because it has California Poppies, Red Yucca and orange Aloe Striata blooms in the Spring.

I love glaucous plants.

I added a new Aloe variety this year and for some reason it's blooming in the Fall! The shark-skin looking plant to the left is supposedly also an Aloe Striata but I'm not convinced.

Spooky garden!

Plant Resources

Here are the online places I've had good success with - plants arrived healthy and well packed.

High Country Gardens http://www.highcountrygardens.com/

Plant Delights Nursery http://www.plantdelights.com/

Schreiner's Iris http://www.schreinersgardens.com/

Oakes Daylily http://www.oakesdaylilies.com/supplier/home.php?id=s000

Here are some plants that I love and highly recommend. All are evergreen, pretty drought tolerant and require virtually no care. All require full sun unless otherwise noted.

• Artemesia - silvery, feathery looking foliage. If it gets floppy you can cut it back hard and it will come right back.
• Bush germander - gray/silver. My favorite is "Azure" for the blue flowers, but you'll have trouble finding that one in a nursery.
• Lamb's ear - silver, wide fuzzy leaves.
• Knockout Roses - red roses, no deadheading or trimming! Comes in pink varieties too. Double-Knockout is great and smaller than Knockout.
• Bicolor Iris - pale yellow flowers with slender strap leaves, more like a grass but does well in shade or full sun, excellent filler. (not really an iris)
• Bamboo Muhly - fluffy and large, no flowers. (Not really a bamboo)
• Catmint - lilac flowers, grayish foliage. Will likely find it online, not in a store. Will die back if lots of cold, but comes back quickly when it gets warm.
• Society Garlic - grasslike, lavender colored flowers
• Bearded Iris - varying colors, recommend the taller ones (Schreiner's Iris online is best)
• Dwarf Pittosporum - green, no flowers. This is the one I have by the front walk.
• Cast Iron plant - full shade!!
• Podocarpus Yew, aka Japanese Yew - tall, looks like a thicker fur tree, evergreen, awesome

Some care required (minimal, trimming in Spring and Fall) but worth it:

• Canna - requires water but not as much as you might think. Looks very tropical.
• Salvia May Night and Caradonna
• Salvia Leucantha (Mexican Bush Sage) - can find smaller versions online at PDN above, larger tend to flop but do well if planted behind smaller stiffer plants to prop them up
• Salvia Indigo Spires - can find smaller versions online at PDN above, larger tend to flop but do well if planted behind smaller stiffer plants to prop them up
• Antique Rose, The Fairy - pink rose with green foliage, lots of thorns but trouble-free and blooms all summer
• Antique Rose, Star of the Republic - peach rose with green foliage, tall. Can get some black spot but only if other plants have it, grows & blooms anyway!
• Antique Rose, Madame Berkeley - pink rose with maroon/green foliage, no pests, blooms a lot in spring.

The Pachy

Jason loves his Pachypodium Lamerei.

It looks pretty with the dwarf Indigo Spires and Ellen's Blue Buddleia.

The Center Bed

Did you know there was such a thing as dwarf Salvia Leucantha? Me neither, but I bought three! They're called Salvia Leucantha 'Santa Barbara' and I ordered them from Plant Delights Nursery.

It rules.

Passion Vine

I planted a couple of Passion Vine on the trellis hiding the AC unit.

I'm feeling good about this!

Succulent-Off!

That's right, a Succulent-Off! Jason and I had a competition to see who could do a better succulent arrangement.

Jason's

Wendy's

I think we all know who won, but he shows promise.

Season 5 Garden upsets!

Anthony Parker Salvia - GONE! I never even mentioned planting it, sorry. It sat around looking ugly-ish and raggedy except when it bloomed, which wasn't often enough to justify its existence in my garden anymore.

Caryopteris - GONE! They always looked half-dead no matter how much or how little water I gave them, so they got replaced by some Bearded Iris from the back bed that were grateful for more sunlight.

Buddleia Ellen's Blue - GONE, then BACK! It started dying branch-by-branch after a freakishly strong windstorm whipped it around like a rag doll one night, so I bought a new one this Spring and planted it where the old one was. It's kind of like when they replaced Darren on 'Bewitched', only this plant looks exactly like the old one. Except smaller. So really you'd never know unless you were paying close attention.