Pruning Goals & Mangave corner Part 1

One of my goals this year was to be better at pruning. What better place to start earlier this spring than this overgrown... area:

there are a lot of plants there

And that was after i pulled out the big Agave 'Crazy Horse' that the gophers ate.

This eucalyptus 'Moon Lagoon' needed a major chop, so i just held my breath and did it:

i hope it forgives me... and grows straight. 

I've also been scared to prune the acacia baileyana purpurea - it's from the Huntington! What if i kill it? Or make it look weird?

deep breath and just do!

Note to self - it already looks weird. At least now it also looks a bit more like a tree, although it's hard to tell from the next picture.

But this post is called the 'mangave corner' - why am i talking about pruning?

it looks a little bit less overgrown now?

On the other side of all these plants/trees/bushes, all of which got pruned, is where i keep a lot of my mangaves in pots. They are in pots because of the gophers, of course. (again - everything is the gopher's fault)

this is from earlier this spring, but it looks almost the same now

a bit of a close up

Doesn't it look like there's more room here? Maybe for some new mangaves? Hold on just a few weeks and let's see... I mean, i have to take new pictures to show how the plants recovered from my hack job, i mean pruning, right? Might as well get some new mangaves while i'm at it.

(yes, i have a problem! but it's a wonderful problem to have...)

Wednesday Vignette: Cacti Blooms Captured

I realized one of my torch cacti bloomed this year, and it was the first time i got pictures of the blooms looking good. So even though this happened back in April, i had to share:

pink-ish white blooms

I buy these plants usually when they are not in blooms, so it's always a bit of a surprise when they bloom for the first time...

they live on the top of the hill

They are perfect plants for living up there - i do almost nothing to them. Maybe some water every once in a while when it's hot, and that's about it.

and this is the reward!

I mean, how can you not love cacti?

Six on Saturday - Random pretty pictures

Most of these aren't even from June - but thinking back to this Spring (what a strange time!)

so pretty!

a jumble with easter eggs

I was very excited that Queen's Tears decided to bloom!

more cacti flowers

a few of the original ice plants are still hanging on

all the other random wildflowers that bloomed alongside the poppies!

Soon I'll get back to posting recent pictures of the garden!

The rocks are blooming?

This is my wednesday vignette for the week:

camouflage failed!

This was earlier this spring - i'm always impressed with myself when my random plant combinations work out like this:

the colors kinda match?

Obviously not the same plant, but this little cactus also deserved a highlight:

(from earlier this year - as evidenced by the poppies)

I did nothing to this plant since i bought it - i adore cacti that reward neglect like this:

cacti blooms are so pretty!

Happy Wednesday!

Roses Blooming in Spring 2020

Somehow, i've ended up with a number of pretty roses in the garden. This spring, they all showed off. I've also managed to plant them in such a way that they bloom at slightly different times... Here are all the pictures from this year!

'Livin Easy" blooms 2nd - there are two bushes in the front

I like this darker orange

I totally bought this plant because of the 2018 Garden Bloggers Fling in Austin

and it was totally worth it

Last to bloom is "Blaze" - on the north side of the house. There are three giant bushes, and while the blooms are smaller, there are a lot more of them!

one of the first blooms

They are a pretty red

'Blaze' is a climbing rose, but there's nothing for them to climb on, so I prune them into unruly bushes each year. I'm sure i'll have picture of the entire view during one of my weekend wrap up posts soon - they look gorgeous at the top of the bloom!

First to bloom is 'Mr Lincoln' - who also defies my ability to capture his color correctly

in real life, he's a very dark red

Mr. Lincoln's claim to fame is his scent - strong and very much like what you think a rose smells like

buds!

The plant itself is only about 3 years old, and i should remember to prune it better next year, so it looks less lanky.

but so many blooms this year!

This is the first year this particular rose has done so well for me, so i'm excited about that!

so perfect!

I convinced myself to cut a few blooms, and brought one inside. It made the whole room smell like roses. I also used some to make rose tea, which i then used to flavor kombucha. That worked great as well!

Now i'm thinking if there are other spots i could plant roses for next year...

Wednesday Vignettes: Rainbow / Violet

...continuing FINISHING the rainbow project! This started as a project during California's safer at home / shelter in place orders. Looking back at all the pictures i've taken of my garden, and finding a rainbow of colors. I was also inspired by one of my favorite artists, Philippa Stanton at 5ftinf and her book "Conscious Creativity", which talks about color collecting, texture and a ton of other things.

Inspired by her book, creativity, Instagram and with a lot of time on my hands, i went and found all the colors of rainbow in my garden. For today, here's VIOLET, the final rainbow color:

(that was legit the sky one evening... no filter!)

(dearly beloved and departed smoke bush)

Violet is red-purple, which i also had to look up.

And so, the rainbow project comes to an end. My apologies if the last few weeks of Wednesday vignettes were predicable... but i really wanted to find something positive out of the craziness these last few months. When i first thought about this project, i was hoping that by early June, we'd be on the other side...

Oh, Mr. Ripple!

Um.. what is going on here?

that's the top of Mr. Ripple

Earlier this year, I noticed some weird leaves on Mr. Ripple. He seemed to get it figured out... but now...

Oh!

A bloom stalk!

Cool! (also, Mr. Ripple is definitely king of the poppies)

Hm, that's growing pretty fast...

a few days later

For scale, Mr. Ripple is probably about 8 feet in width/height... before the bloom stalk.

close up - that's probably at least 10 inches?

Initially, the bloom stalk was curving sideways, but it seems to have grown out of that.

this was a week later

Another week, and it was higher than the 2nd story balcony:

cool cool

On 5/10, it's probably a good 10-12 feet tall... and shows no signs of branching yet

poppies mostly dead... 

Right. This is going to get interesting.

watch this space!

I'm excited that Mr. Ripple is blooming... and also wondering what i'm supposed to do with the giant bloom stalk later? And how he's coming out of that pipe. But those are problems for later! I wonder if i'll get bulblets or seeds?

An update will be coming later for sure!

(also, i deserve a gold star for not making any um... inappropriate jokes about Mr. Ripple, his stalk and his size. I mean, they almost write themselves by accident!)

Wednesday Vignettes: Rainbow / Indigo

...continuing the rainbow project! This started as a project during California's safer at home / shelter in place orders. Looking back at all the pictures i've taken of my garden, and finding a rainbow of colors. I was also inspired by one of my favorite artists, Philippa Stanton at 5ftinf and her book "Conscious Creativity", which talks about color collecting, texture and a ton of other things.

Inspired by her book, creativity, Instagram and with a lot of time on my hands, i went and found all the colors of rainbow in my garden. For today, here's INDIGO:

 You know, i had to look up what "indigo" actually meant as a color? It's a blue-ish purple. Turns out i have more of it than i thought. I really should grow those castor beans again... I'm going to post all the colors, so my apologies in advance if it gets boring... But i really wanted to find something positive out of the craziness these last few months. Up next: VIOLET