Favorite Plant this week: Helianthus

My favorite plant this week is Helianthus annuus:

aka sunflower

Because how can it not be? These particular ones self-seeded themselves in one of the tubes. I planted some named varieties a few years ago, but I've long since forgotten which ones they're supposed to be.  This year, there are six plants growing. This one is the first to bloom, at about 2 feet tall.

According to Sunset, these annuals need a lot of water. In my garden, they've seeded themselves in the tube with the Opuntia pads, so they're not getting that much water. They're also not staked (lazy gardener!) but seem to hold up alright in our crazy winds. In the fall, the birds like to hang from them to eat the seeds.

They always look so happy!

I'm joining Loree at Danger Garden for her favorite plant meme - although I'm sure I won't be posting weekly! Her favorite plant is always worth a look, and the comments at her blog have more awesome plants to look at here.

Agave Pups

Agave - about 3 years in the ground

Pictured above is my Agave parryi ssp. truncata, planted in the ground about 3 year ago. It's gotten a lot bigger, but when I got it, it was described as "short, fat, blue and producing lots of offspring."  I wanted to have a small patch of these, so I've been looking for pups, but not finding any. As it turns out, I wasn't looking in the right place... As of this spring, there are 6 pups growing:

All the pups - the biggest is maybe 1.5 inches tall.

I was looking near the mother plant - the closest of these pups is almost 1.5 feet away. I'm still excited about having a colony of these - but maybe it will be slightly larger than expected. At least it's happy!

Hummingbirds!

It's been a busy few weeks. I finally gave in to the nice weather and started planting last weekend. While out weeding and planting, I was buzzed several times by the resident hummingbirds, wanting their picture taken, I think.

The first one looks like the one that has been hanging around my garden all winter, primarily feeding from 'Orange Sceptre'. It must be happy now that the sages are starting to bloom again:


caught at just the right moment!

right before it noticed me and buzzed off

 I think this might be an Anna's hummingbird although I'm certainly not good enough to be sure!

The next hummingbird that showed up is definitely a Rufous Hummingbird though:



because he's orange!

 According to allaboutbirds.org, Rufous Hummingbirds are "...are pugnacious birds that tirelessly chase away other hummingbirds, even in places they’re only visiting on migration". In my case, this one is also happy to chase away humans if they get to close to their nectar sources, apparently. Rofous's don't stay year round in the desert, so I will enjoy this one's visits while they last...

Yuccas All Tied Up

I didn't include this picture in this month's Foliage Follow Up, but it was too good not to share... even though the Yuccas probably wished that I didn't:

Y. rostrata in front, Y. louisianensis (according to the tag) in the back

This is what happens when I spend the whole day digging Bermuda grass (evil!) out of the planting beds, and don't want to get poked as I'm doing it! They were released from their captivity shortly afterwards, unharmed...

I'm still waiting for my Y. rostrata to grow a trunk or something, mostly so I can cut some of the old leaves off. It's only 2 years old though, so I might have to wait a while. And the Y. louisianensis doesn't really look like all the descriptions online (it has wide leaves?) I may have to wait for it to bloom to have a better guess at an ID, if the tag isn't right. It's very pretty though, and has grown a lot in the two years its been planted in the back garden.

Foliage Follow Up - March 2014

Pam at Digging is hosting Foliage Follow Up - visit her comments to see everyone else's contributions to celebrating foliage. As always, I'm late! But this weekend was gorgeous, so I spent all the time cleaning and pruning and planting...

One of my two rhubarb plants came back:

Rhubarb in the tube...

 Since this one is all the way leafed out, and there is no sign of the other one, I'm going to guess that it's done for... Do rhubarbs die when they bloom? They don't really like the desert much, but this is year three for this one, so I can eat some now!

The giant un-identified agave is showing off a variety of teeth colors:

also showing some tip damage due to the cold...

I'm going to have to dig that one out of its tube and liberate some of the pups soon... before they grow through the tube!

 Mangave 'Macho Mocha' is starting to bloom:

There are pups under those leaves too...

 For foliage though, this part of the garden remains my favorite:


A. Blue Glow (front), blue fescue, A. "Little Shark" (x2), and optunias

 All the optunias are putting out new growth - time will tell if these are new pads, flowers, or some combination thereof:

unknown Optunia - if these are flowers, that would be the first year it flowers!

 These Optunia basilaris pads are showing a lot of spring growth too:

interesting combination of green and purple-ish

Shortly after this picture was taken, they got dug out of the tube and planted out to the hill side. Hopefully they like their new home...

Thanks for visiting my garden... I'm off to look at other bloggers' contributions to Foliage Follow-Up!

Bloom Day - March 2014

I'm late, as always! But after seeing all the other beautiful flowers at Carol's May Dreams Garden, I wanted to share mine... Thank you for hosting Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day, Carol!

In my garden, these two are still going strong:

'Orange Sceptre' is still going... and still has bare legs

Senna artemisioides (ID confirmed now!) is still covered in little yellow flowers

And there are also some new comers:


My favorite blooming part of the garden right now

 This is a combination of Yarrow, Penstemon pseudospectabilis, Optunia and Agave... plus some left over daffodils. I like the cheery combination!

The daffodils are already past their prime though..

 These all-white daffodils bloomed later, so they still look good:

These came back with a lot of extra flowers! Hopefully that trend will continue next year...

 I really like this combination of A. ovatifolia and penstemon, and so do the hummingbirds! Although they mostly leave the agave alone...

the leaves on both plants have little "spines" - but very different sizes!

 There are also a few other spring bulbs still blooming:

Tulip in the front garden - which I still haven't cleaned up yet!

 Tulips do not reliably come back here... I'm thinking I may want to try species tulips this fall. But who can resist those colors?
Also, the cherry tree is finally blooming, about 3 weeks behind every other cherry tree in town. Cue gratuitous close ups of the pretty white flowers:

I can't wait for the cherries!

I think I take this picture every year - they looks so good against the blue!

Thanks for visiting my garden! I'm off to explore more blooms at May Dreams Gardens

Sunday in the Garden

Today, while cleaning up the last of the debris left over from cutting back all the scrubs, I noticed a couple of things to see...

one of my favorite combos in the garden right now

 This is Agave 'Little Shark' (also known as A. 'Royal Spine'), an Optunia microdasys that somehow miraculously survived the winter, and an unknown Optunia that I received in a plant swap with Loree at Danger Garden. They have all survived winter, and looked good doing it.

Speaking of optunias looking good:


O. macrocentra is busy making flower buds

This is going to be quite a show this year! I'm interested to see if this plant will grow taller this year. I'll probably have to prune some pads off if it doesn't.
Finally:

red color & teeth imprints on Agave 'Mr. Ripple'

Mr. Ripple demanded that I show off his red marks on one of the old leaves. I'm going to leave him in his pipe for this year, I think, so I can enjoy the details some more.

I keep having to remind myself that its only February, and still winter, and that I shouldn't be planting things yet! And definitely not doing things like moving warm-weather plants like the agaves and friends. So for now, I'm trying to keep myself busy amending the soil on the hillside, for planting later. It was a nice way to spend a few hours in the garden on this beautiful Sunday!

My Favorite Plant This Week: Buddleia 'Orange Sceptre'

For the last GBBD, I showed a close-up of the bloom on one of my favorite plants this whole winter - Buddleia 'Orange Sceptre'. Here is a picture of the whole plant:

Buddleia 'Orange Sceptre' wide shot

 Now, one thing you can see straight away is that this particular plant is not the most attractive ever, with the bare stems. Pictures online don't show this, but it is similar to what other buddleias do in my garden. I think it's a combination of the heat and lack of water, and the fact that they don't die back and I don't prune them. I have some ideas for combination plantings that will help cover up the bare stems.
But the point of this plant is the flowers - it has been flowering all winter! The flowers are really orange, and different shaped for a buddleia:

bloom spike just starting to open

Close up of flower

 When they first form, the blooms are covered with a white-ish/grey fuzz, much like the new leaves are:

Bud forming

Bud & new leaves

 The blooms eventually elongate to a foot or so, and bloom from the bottom up. Here are some more mature ones:

In the summer, more of the spike blooms at once - this was last week

 'Orange Sceptre' responds really well to dead-heading, sending out more flowers.

All winter, I've been watching hummingbirds fight over the flowers from the kitchen windows

I was hoping to have a picture of the hummingbird - but they really love this plant!

And it just keeps flowering...

 My 'Orange Sceptre' was planted at the end of March 2013, when it looked like this:

28 March 2013

 In my garden its a very fast grower - by the start of May, it looked like this:

4 May 2013

 I did some research about this plant. I got mine from Plant Delights (for sale here),  where they say this is a hybrid of Buddleia stachyoides and Buddleia tubiflora by  Dr. Jon Lindstrom of the University of Arkansas. I found the article from the University announcing the release. They mention the concern about re-seeding, and say you should remove the spent flower heads. I have not yet seen a seedling from  my plant anywhere, but that may be unique to the desert. Both sources say the mature size is around 8 feet tall, and based on its performance in my garden, it grows fast, if a bit leggy. It seems somewhat drought tolerant and adapted to the heat. We haven't had any rain this winter, so I've been watering the garden, but only about 1-2 a week. It is planted in full (afternoon, hot) desert sun, which is probably not helping with the leaves... This summer may be a true test of 'Orange Sceptre's' willingness to live in the desert.

While taking pictures, I noticed that there are new leaves growing on the bare stems, so I'm hoping the bottom of the plant will look better soon. I'm still going to find some plants to help fill in the gap, and maybe next year, try cutting it back to the ground.

new leaves growing

Loree at Danger Garden is sharing her favorite plant (in an orange pot!) this week, and you can visit the comments to see other people's contributions. There is such a variety of plants to see each week!

Foliage Follow Up - February 2014

This weekend didn't feel like spring (it was 80 degrees!) but it was the start of my spring clean up in the garden. It feels good to be back out playing in the dirt!

With the salvia's and Russian sages cut back, I noticed several signs of our earlier spring:

Rhubarb leafing out - this is year 3!

Year 3 on the rhubarb means I will probably try to cut some stems this year and eat them. Only one of the rhubarbs has popped up so far. The other, which tried to bloom last year, hasn't yet. I hope it's ok...

Sedum already growing

I'll have to remember to cut these back in the late May time frame (or earlier...) so they are not as floppy this year as last year. Speaking of future spring chores:

More agave pups...

I am not looking forward to digging that (unidentified) agave out and getting the pups off, but it's really starting to be time.

The optunias are starting to show signs of growth too:

Optunia macrocentra is making a ton of blossoms, as always

and it looks like Optunia basilaris might join it! Or are those pads?

The O. basilaris will be leaving it's temporary home in the pipe soon, to go on the back slope. Hopefully, it won't leave me with too many injuries when I move it.

I also noticed that several of my plants have put on a bit of growth. They stand out, especially with the normally large scrubs cut back:

This is Yucca louisianensis - about to enter it's 3rd year

Penstemon pseudospectababilis - I think. The plant tag is in there somewhere...

 

Artichoke plant

I was supposed to move that last one this spring- but it's already gotten big and put out a whole bunch new leaves. So I'm not sure whether I want to move it now. But it's definitely crowded in the back corner, and those leaves are so pretty, they deserve a better spot. It does seem happy though, so that's good!

If you go visit Pam at Digging, you can see everyone else's foliage contributions also! Thank you, Pam, for hosting this once again!

February Bloom Day

Every month, Carol at May Dream Gardens invites everyone to show their blooms for Garden Blogger's Bloom Day. Here is what is blooming on this (unseasonably hot) day in February in my garden:

daffodils in the front garden

I'm pretty sure the daffodils blooming this early is a response to the hot/dry weather we've been having... they won't last long this spring, I think. It was near 80 degrees today!
There are more in the back garden, growing between clumps of Mexican Feather Grass:

this display should get better in the next week or so - there are more daffodils hiding

 This combo was inspired by a display I saw (on a blog!) last year. If I get better pictures,  I'll do a follow-up post:

The fruit trees are also starting to bloom, here is the nectarine tree:

Pick blossoms - also a little early, I think

 While I was out weeding today, I noticed that the heat has not been kind to these blooms - they already looked shriveled. And I didn't see any bees yet... I hope they last long enough for the pollinators to do their thing!

And here's a little sneak peak of the plant that will be getting "favorite" status soon: Buddleia 'Orange Sceptre', bought last year from Plant Delights. This one has been blooming all winter long, right outside my kitchen window, much to the delight of the hummingbirds!


the orange flowers spikes start small, but end up almost 10 inches tall! 

Go visit Carol's blog to see what else is blooming in other people's gardens... I know a lot of people are still buried under snow - I wish we could trade some of our sunshine for some of that moisture!