Early Spring

The weather recently in the 909 has been beautiful and spring-like. I went to a class on rose care at Armstrong and found this is the time to move roses so I've been preparing to move 3 Spellbound roses that aren't doing well. One is overwhelmed by the giant lavender and the other two may not get enough sun. I moved one last year and it did better but not great. So far I have pulled all the bulbs from the front planter and dug out the sprinklers to replace them with longer stems. If it's not too windy today, we'll change out the sprinklers, move two azaleas to a shady corner in the back and add soil to the planter. I may save the actual move of the roses until next weekend as it's pretty windy today.

Moondance

I planted a new rose today; Moondance. We bought it driving through Santa Barbara at a nursery with a huge variety of roses. I had seen it in the Jackson Perkins catalog but this was easier than mail order. It replaced a Weeks rose that never did well. I also pruned all the garden roses and just have a few left to prune in the front yard.

I'm going to try moving 3 Spellbound roses next weekend. They are not doing well where they are so I'll try them in the front planter which needs to be redone.

The photo shows the Moondance rose just a few weeks after planting.

Hummingbird again

I pulled out some geraniums that were taking over the sidewalk and a rosebush whose buds continually shriveled. It has a Weeks tag on it and most my others are from Jackson & Perkins.

As I walked along the sidewalk to the patio a hummingbird flew past and hovered near one of the potted lavender in bloom. Then it flew to the large lavender. I must have watched it for a full 5 minutes. This bird was particularly beautiful with red markings on each side of its head. It's such a treat having the humingbirds visit the garden.

Hummingbird

It was rainy yesterday but between showers I looked out the kitchen window. There was a hummingbird feeding off one of my new potted lavender. I watched it for more than a minute until it flew to the trees behind our house. We haven't seen them in the winter, perhaps because there isn't much for them to eat in our garden. We'll have to think about installing a feeder.

Fall in the Garden

With inside home inprovement projects, vacation and work I haven't been in the garden much. Today I planted some bulbs I bought last weekend at Roger's Garden in Newport Beach. Wonderful nursery and gift shop. Two Holland Sensation narcissus are in the ground near the Double Delight rose tree and 4 pink Tulip Angelique are in the rose garden. Last year I had lots of daffodils in winter when nothing else was out so I may need to add more bulbs in the rose garden to create some color when the roses have been pruned.

One rose and perhaps two need to come out of the rose garden. This one is not a Jackson & Perkins and is cronically diseased or bugged. I am considering a Knock Out rose rather than a tea rose to see how it does, or Moondance, a white rose from J&P.

Bad seeds

Here's a list of good seeds that have gone bad in the garden in the 909:

Pride of Gibraltar--an interesting flower begun from seed that occasionally pops up again. Planted in 2007 and turned out not to be quite as attractive as they appeared on the seed pack. They get kind of rangy and brown but it could just be the heat here.

Verbena--planted these in a pot in Spring 2008 after seeing something similar in the Tuileries in Paris. Wind and rain spread them around the garden before I could transplant seedlings to back areas of the flower beds. They pop up every year all over the garden. I pull some and let others grow. They do well so I should try them again in the places I would actually like them to grow.

Poppy (Shirley Mixed)--bought for the name but nothing happened with them. I guess I should have tried California poppies.

Nicotiana--started in a pot but died upon transplant

Forget-Me-Nots--completely forgotten

Container Sweet Peas--hoping to bring back childhood memories but it was not to be.

Parisian Pink French Larkspur--supposed to grow in full sun and be 3 to 5 feet tall. I planned to put these near the back of the beds but again no luck.

Merveille de Quatre Saisons--should have been an ornamental lettuce that we could also eat but it was a bunch of nothing and certainly didn't look the vegetable garden at Villandry.

Foxgloves--tried in the front planter where they would have some shade. They did OK but not great. Perhaps worth another try.

Fine Leaf Chives--Started in February 2008 but again did almost nothing.

The garden continues to be an ongoing experiment.

Weeds!

This morning I spent quite awhile weeding the rose garden. I didn't get all of the weeds but made a good dent. We haven't seen hummingbirds in several days but I did hear them this morning while I was in the garden. I need to find more plants that attract them but I may wait until next spring.

The City maintains the area behind our back fence and some sort of vine has grown extensively and has begun working its way over the wood portion of our fence. It is doing some damage so I cut away as much as I could from our side. Mr. H. has trimmed it along the back and I think he was right to do so. At the time I missed the greenery but not if it is causing damage.

I also spread some Miracle Grow fertilizer over the area directly east of the patio. Need to do more of that.