Weekend Gardening - Hot!

This weekend was the start of our next crazy heatwave. It was 101 deg F today, and supposed to get up to 110 deg F tomorrow. So here are some pictures of my garden... we'll see what it looks like next weekend!

One of my favorite foliage combos has flowers all of a sudden.

After years of no Aloe blooms, this is the second soap Aloe to bloom this year!

California Fuchia should be ok with the heat - little silver leaves and all

 I visited the Arlington Gardens for the first time this weekend, thanks to a blog post by another SoCal blogger. Even though it was hot (only 96 deg F) and I'm sure the garden wasn't at it's best, there was a lot of inspiration to be found!

I love this combo of wild flowers to give a meadow like effect... I want something like this!

 I may post more pictures later, although most of them didn't come out very well due to the harsh light.

Before visiting the Arlington Gardens, i stopped by the Huntington. It was hot there too (there's a trend...) which meant that the gardens themselves were quiet. As long as I stayed in the shade it was nice. I also found a few more orchids as inspiration for mine:

This fuzzy bloom stalk was cute!

this flower had fuzzy parts too! I see why people get so into orchids now..

Hiding in the same at the Chinese Garden with a great view

and hiding under the trees near the Lily pond

 It was a great weekend, filled with plants, even if it was hot. I hope everyone has a way to stay cool this week!

Orchid Blooming!

I'm excited! For the first time ever, my (one and only) orchid rebloomed! Perhaps it saw that I called it out in this post and also got some inspiration from the Huntington orchids. On that post, Helene and Hoover Boo were kind enough to offer advice on getting my orchid to rebloom, so maybe that helped too!

It turns out I was wrong - mine wasn't white, but pink-ish instead:

The first flower opened about 2 weeks ago.

 Is it just me, or does it look like it has a face? Weird...
There were 5 buds on the bloom stalk - 4.5 have now opened.

Two are on one side

and two on the other side

the last bud is also starting to open - so cool!

the closest I can get to seeing all of them at the same time.

It is pretty cool, even if it is pink. I've probably had this plant for 2 years, and it's still in the same pot. Maybe after this stalk is done blooming, I should repot it? Hopefully I won't kill it then, but I should be able to enjoy these for a while longer. I have no idea what kind of orchid this might be (other than that it came from Trader Joe's) but i am happy it finally rebloomed!

Weekend Gardening - It's summer!

It's the first weekend in June, and it's been ridiculously hot here. So there hasn't been much gardening happening, much to the sadness of any new plants (which need daily watering, still) and to no detriment to the weeds (how can they grow with no water?!). Here are just a few pictures from this weekend, taken after it cooled off some on Sunday....

This bed is turning into a texture feast with Opuntia, Callistemon and Epilobium canum

The agave appreciates its new gravel mulch...

This is part of the bed I showed before here - thanks to the suggestions, it's now a lot better looking!

Daisies (Tanacetum niveum) and Yucca rostrata

This particular corner of this particular bed has turned out really nice - it's one of my favorites throughout the year! And the heat seems to bother none of the major players.

The first of the Yucca louisianensis flowers - there are 3 bloom stalks this year!

The heat hasn't stopped the Myoporum parvifolium from breaking out its tiny white blooms.

This plant is busy taking over a big part of the hill side... once I can deadhead some of the other spent flowers, I'll take some wider shots. 

I'm not sure whether the heat or something else is making this Aloe bloom stalk point all funny...

Hopefully it will stay a bit cooler next weekend, because the front garden desperately needs to be weeded... I hope everyone else is finding ways to stay cool, dry or avoid whatever other crazy weather you might be having!

Bloom Day: May 2016

Every month, Carol at May Dreams Garden hosts Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day. She has quite a few beautiful blooms, and links to gardens from around the world. I gave myself an assignment to go out this morning and find all the flowers in my garden. Here is a look at some of what is blooming in my garden this May:

Salvia microphylla 'Hot Lips' with almost all white flowers

Clematis Jackmanii with mostly 4 petals this year

Rosa 'Blaze' is still blooming

Oenothera speciosa out in mass

Lantana camara Miss Huff, the only one that comes back every year

the yellow form of Hesperaloe parviflora

Parkinsonia x 'Desert Museum'  in the front garden

the blooms on Senna phyllodinea seem to never stop

a tiny Eremophila is pushing out flowers (hopefully it lives!) 

Centaurea gymnocarpa flowers match the opuntia next to it

Orange poppies!

Manfreda undulata Chocolate Chips is sending out alien flowers again

Poppies with yellow

Buddleia davidii 'Black Knight' smells amazing

Callistemon citrinus 'Little John' showing off

There is more, because it's spring and, as Carol says, May is when dreams come true. But i'm going to go explore other people's blooms at May Dream Gardens! Happy GBBD!

Weekend Gardening

For some reason, the garden is making me really happy this Spring. This weekend it was overcast, and even a little bit of rain, and I did a lot of weeding, and still found some snap shots, most of these from the front garden. 

Cherries! Don't tell the birds...

some of these were sweet enough to eat... i tasted!

still haven't figured out what to put in the planter...

Bright!

this yucca has finally stopped resembling a pineapple

 It got pruned last year during the front garden re-do, without my asking! I'm glad it's back to actually being a focal point in the garden. 

The first of the 'Black Knight' flowers is opening!

All the bloom spikes going up!

 This is my one snap shot of the back garden this weekend... trying to figure out what to do with this area. It needs mulch? more plants? something else? I have been digging holes to catch gophers, but now i'm trying to think of what to do with it...

any ideas?

I hope you enjoyed your weekend!

Monthly Favorites / April

For fun, I'm joining Loree at Danger Garden in looking at some of my favorites for  April. The garden is making me so happy right now!

(Almost) all the opuntias are blooming. As a whole, they get voted this month's favorite!

O. macrocentra always has a million flowers

This one i got from Loree in a plant swap a long time ago! It has the hugest yellow flowers

The prettiest pale pink. I think this is o. basilaris hyb. 'Baby Rita'

this one (o. ficus indica) makes little yellow flowers 

o. basilaris continues to pump out hot pink blooms

While the optunias are this month's favorites, this is currently my favorite view of the garden:

I'm very excited about the Aloe bloom, and all the colors!

 Pulling back to see a bit more:

I'm pretty sure no garden design book would put all those colors together, but to me they look like joy.

Visit Loree's blog post for her, and others, favorites for April, and enjoy the start of May!

Weekend Gardening

Just some pictures from the garden this weekend... while i take a break from figuring out what to do with the tree I accidentally bought at the Huntington Plant Sale on Friday (oops!)

Our native Opuntia basilaris has started blooming

My new Trichocereus cactus has yellow flowers

 I bought it with buds on, but the fact that it matches the yarrow is pure coincidence...

the roses (i think this is 'Blaze') are blooming too 

 The oenothera speciosa is more white than pink because it's in the shade. I really shouldn't let it grow in the gravel path, but it's too pretty to pull right now...

the iris that's been weirdly happy on the slope is blooming again

the other side of the slope continues to be pink and orange

the first of the opuntia macrocentra blooms are starting to open

this is exciting - my first ever aloe bloom stalk!

 I think this is soap aloe (aloe maculata). I've tried to get pups from my parents' garden to grow for years, but we're right on the border of them being hardy... this one seems to be happy.

Also exciting - the first of the new roses bloomed!

This is a hybrid tea rose, Rosa 'Mr. Lincoln'. It's on the southside of the house, but in the shade of some other plants. The first bloom doesn't look like much yet, but i'm just glad it's not dead!

Now to get back to figure out what to do with my plant haul... I hope everyone has a productive (or lazy!) weekend in the garden!