Wordless Wednesday: Visitors

 

All material © 2012-2026 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party

The itch to get moving

The itch to start my fall garden cleanup has already started.  I've begun cutting back and cleaning up plants here and there, even if it might be more prudent to wait out the worst of summer's heat.  One morning I decided to tackle a large clump of Coleonema album (also known as white breath of heaven).  I inherited several of these shrubs with the garden when we purchased the house almost fifteen years ago.  The clump in question sits to the right of the front door.  I pass it multiple times a day and it'd lost its shape.  I'd asked the gardener to cut it back but, while he reduced about a foot in height, it didn't look much better.  I decided to shape it up myself - and got carried away.

I was working under the false impression that there was a single shrub here but there turned out to be 2 badly gnarled plants.  I didn't manage to carve out even one well-balanced plant as I pruned more deeply into them.

The branches were badly twisted and mostly bare below the top growth

Both trunks were in similar shape

Despite the shabby shape I left them in, the two plants could spring back.  I cut another of these shrubs back several months ago and it doesn't look half bad now.

This is the refreshed Coleonema that sits 9-10 feet away from the clump to the right of the front door along the same wall

However, I already had some apprehension about keeping these shrubs given how closely they're planted to the house.  Interestingly, when I queried Google about the plant's flammability, the AI overview tagged Coleonema album as flammable due to the oils in its feathery foliage but the query concerning its cousin, Coleonema pulchellum, which I also have in my garden, stated that it "is not listed among highly flammable plants."  Both plants are feathery in texture and have scented foliage, although Coleonema album definitely has a heavier scent.  Perhaps that accounts for the difference with respect to their flammability but I don't yet have a lot of confidence in the AI assessments.  Still, there's only so much information available to work with.

The flammability of the Coleonema album presents a conundrum, especially given the placement of the plants and their very woody bases.  The two shrubs to the right of the front door aren't the only specimens of concern either.

This is the clump of Coleonema album on the left side of the front door.  It's also composed of 2 shrubs, although as a whole they look healthier at present than those on the right side of the door.

In addition to the two Coleonema album to the left of the front door, there are three more of the same shrubs around the corner of the house in front of our bedroom windows, next to two relatively fire resistant Pittosporum tobira shrubs.  

The 3 Coleonema shrubs and 2 Pittosporum form a mixed hedge of a sort here

This means I'm once again considering what to do with a selection of plants placed directly adjacent to the house.  At a minimum, I should probably replace the Coleonema shrubs near the front door.  I was initially thinking of replacing the four plants with two new ones that could be better maintained.  But, given their flammability rating, I'm considering abandoning Coleonema for Lomandra longifolia, a grass-like plant which is regarded as fire resistant.  There are two cultivars under consideration, both of which I'm already growing in my garden.

This is one of many Lomandra 'Breeze' plants in my garden.  It sits only a few feet away from the beleaguered Coleonemas under discussion.

This is one grouping of Lomandra 'Platinum Beauty' elsewhere in my front garden.  There are 5 of the plants here and I could conceivably relocate 2 of them.

My only hesitation is that I've got numerous specimens of both Lomandras.  But then repetition can be a good thing in a garden, can't it?  There are variegated Pittosporum tobira shrubs in place on the right side of the house already so I'm wondering if the solid green Lomandra 'Breeze' would be preferable to 'Platinum Beauty' there.

The area next to the Coleonemas is currently planted with a 6-7 foot long Pittosporum hedge and lots of Agapanthus, all of which also came with the garden

Other additions could include more Agapanthus, either transplants of overcrowded bulbs from other parts of the garden or maybe some of the newer varieties in darker blue colors.  Given the "zone zero" initiative in California that would involve removing any combustible materials within five feet of homes, there's little point in planting anything too precious.  I'm also inclined to add some stepping stones there (to facilitate pruning the back of the Pittosporum hedge) and a low-growing groundcover.  What to do with the three Coleonema album grown in front of our bedroom remains a quandary.

The plants in the front garden aren't my only concern.  Two days ago I was shocked to see dead foliage in the middle of the huge Leucadendron salignum 'Chief' growing in the dry garden on the northeast side of the house.  Big as it is, I love that plant and was immediately alarmed.

The foliage hadn't just turned tawny in the sun

I quickly found a large broken branch

I was initially relieved to find the broken branch but, when I stepped back and took another look at the plant, I saw evidence of more brown foliage.

There was a lot more dry foliage, although it wasn't everywhere

I usually cut back this Leucadendron in late spring but I failed to do so this year.  I'm hoping that the shrub just needs a good pruning to tidy it up.  However, that'll have to wait until we get cooler weather as maneuvering through the interior of that plant involves considerable effort and I've already soaked myself in sweat a couple times this week.  I'd rather handle it myself than add it to the list for my tree service in October or November.  It looks as though the majority of the plant's foliage is healthy.

Most of the plant still looks good

   

We'd expected cooler temperatures this week than we got.  We still hit 90F (32C) yesterday.  There were chances of thunderstorms in the forecast for days.  My husband got soaked going from the dentist's office to his truck following an appointment on Wednesday while he was in nearby Torrance and had to use his windshield wipers until he reached four miles from home so some people got a touch of rain, just not us.  I've taken the majority of my daily walks in the morning as walking in the late afternoon hasn't been at all pleasant.  Those walks provided several sightings of the local peafowl, though.  They're clearly here to stay!

I spotted what I think now was probably a juvenile male on a neighbor's front doorstep.  I didn't disturb him but I texted the couple a photo.  I can't say they were pleased to see it.

I spent one walk in step with another juvenile male.  The next morning I spotted one near the very top of a 40-foot pine tree but my cell phone didn't get a clear picture of him.

In contrast, the peahens remained on solid ground

Wherever you are, I hope your weather is good or at least getting better.  Have a pleasant weekend!

All material © 2012-2025 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party

It's looking like they're here to stay...

Peacocks, generally juvenile males recently kicked out of their family's nests, used to pay us brief visits on an infrequent basis on their way to settle in more peafowl-friendly areas.  Last year, a single peacock and a few peahens unexpectedly moved into the neighborhood to raise a brood.  They disappeared during the latter part of the year but they're back...

Mr Peacock knows how to strike a pose

I was surprised to see him at this particular home because the residents have 3 large dogs, all Rottweilers I believe

He travels fast on foot along the road when someone with a camera is following him

I caught him in action showing off for his harem at another house

His peahens generally stick close by and come when he calls them

The peafowl appear ready to settle in and produce another generation.  Although local regulations prohibit feeding the birds and the city may trap and relocate them if they become a serious problem in a particular area, the emphasis is on discouraging their visits where they're not wanted using deterrents and exercising care in selecting plants.  However, they can be threatened by non-human predators.  On Tuesday I woke up at 4am to the howls of what sounded like a pack of nearby coyotes.  Based on their cries, their hunting activity continued well past 6am.  Fortunately for the peacocks and peahens, both can fly.  They reportedly prefer to walk and generally fly only to escape danger.  According to one source, they can fly up to ten miles per hour for distances up to a mile.  They're also good jumpers and can reach heights of twenty-six feet to nest in trees.  In our neighborhood, they seem to prefer tall pine trees.  Luckily, my husband and don't have any pine trees.  The neighbors behind us do but they're thinned on a regular basis and probably less attractive that the fuller trees available elsewhere - or so I can hope.

All material © 2012-2025 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party

Deconstructing and replanting my cutting garden

Tearing my cutting garden apart and replanting it is one of my most labor intensive annual garden projects.  I'd thought I might put it off until early November but the Santa Ana winds brought my dahlia season to an abrupt end.  I started removing dahlias from the raised planters last Friday, moving on to the zinnias and other plants on Monday.

This was what the cutting garden looked like on October 19th, when the winds got started

All but the last 4 dahlias in containers have been pulled up.  I tossed 2 plants out but I still have more than I want to store through their dormant period.  Once I clean them up, I'll try to take some divisions and perhaps give away some clumps.

I had all the zinnias and coneflowers pulled up by Monday afternoon but forgot to put them out for neighbors until after dark.  However, there were just 5 bottles of flowers left when I went to photograph them the following morning.  The rest were gone before the end of the day.

After all the plants were removed from the raised beds, it was time to refresh the soil in preparation for replanting them.

I mixed in soil especially designed for raised beds, a bit of regular compost, and worm compost.  I worked around several anemones that came back from last year's crop.

Once the beds were ready for planting, I start sowing sweet pea seeds, before moving on to bulbs and plugs of cool season annuals.

It's generally recommended to start sweet peas in September here so I'm well behind schedule but then that was the case last year too.  I couldn't get hold of some of my favorites like 'Blue Shift' but I still had more seeds than I could possibly use in the raised planter reserved for them.  I soaked the seeds for 12 hours prior to sowing them.

I also soaked my Anemone coronaria for 4 hours prior to planting.  I invested in 5 varieties of Italian Anemones this year: 'Mistral Rosa Chiaro', 'Mistral Plus Rarity', 'Mistral Bianco Centro Nero', 'Mistral Azzuro', and 'Mistral Grape'.  They're more expensive but they put on a good show.

My Ranunculus corms are still in transit but I'm happy to be more than halfway done with the replanting process.

This is what the beds looked like late yesterday afternoon.  In addition to the sweet pea seeds and the anemones, I sowed Nigella papillosa and Consolida ajacis (larkspur) seeds, and added a dozen Antirrhinum majus (snapdragon) plugs.

Closeups of the 3 raised planters.  I've laid down pieces of hardware cloth in 2 of the beds in an effort to keep the birds and critters from foraging there until the seeds germinate.

According to the seller, the Ranunculus corms I ordered won't arrive until Monday so my projects for the weekend will be cleaning up the dahlia tubers to get them ready for storage and/or cleaning up the back slope, two of my least favorite tasks.  Of course, if it rains on Saturday, I may get a reprieve; however, the most recent forecast for my area shows that the chance of that happening has dropped to twenty percent.  It also now projects no measurable rain for us, which is disappointing to say the least.

Another recent disappointment is that the peafowl are back.  To my dismay but the cat's delight, three peahens showed up in our back garden Wednesday morning.

Meeko may be intimidated by stray dogs but, watching from my office window, she was fascinated with the peahens as they quietly strolled through the back patio

They turned around as soon as I went outside and began following them

Meeko enjoyed the show as long as it lasted

The peahens split up, choosing different escape routes, all of which landed them on my neighbor's roof a little while later

Meeko curled up next to the sliding glass door, anticipating their possible return.  They did show up again in the late afternoon, walking along the street in front of the house, making a racket as they heeded calls from a peacock in the distance.  It's looking as though they're intent on taking up residence here once again.

Even with the current rain forecast what it is, my fingers are crossed that we'll get a little.  For one thing, a bit of downtime would be much appreciated right now.  Have a nice weekend.  And, if you haven't already done so, VOTE!

All material © 2012-2024 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party

Making a start

I had all sorts of plans for work in my garden before I left to join the Puget Sound Garden Fling.  However, shortly after I returned, I was downed by a bout of COVID.  Once that was behind me, late summer's intense heat blossomed into a full-blown heatwave, sidelining my plans still further.  I managed to get in a few chores, like spreading mulch, but I've only made an impact in cleaning up two areas, neither of which was on my original list.  Still, it feels like progress in the right direction.

Before the heat soared, I took an initial stab at cleaning up my street-side succulent bed.

This is what the street-side succulent bed looked like in early July.  The mass of pink in the middle of the bed are flowers of Oscularia deltoides, a low-growing succulent with gray leaves and dark pink stems.

Sadly, by mid-August the plant was a mass of dead brown flowers.  When I examined it closely, there was more dead material than fresh foliage so I ended up pulling it all up, collecting a relatively small number of cuttings.

After the Oscularia and a couple of clumps of burned up Aeoniums were removed, work was suspended due to the extended heatwave.  I took this photo on September 11th, showing new sun and heat damage to the agaves.

Both the 'Blue Flame' Agaves on the right and the mass of Agave attenuata on the left had more damage than I was prepared to live with

Agave 'Blue Flame' doesn't let go of it's dead foliage willingly and conducting surgery on damaged foliage is even harder.  The dried-out leaves of Agave attenuata are easier to remove but the plant produces even more pups than 'Blue Flame' and these were encroaching on its neighbors so I ended up removing one large pup and three small ones.

Wide shot of the bed taken yesterday after I'd cleaned up the agaves

Closer look at the 'Blue Flame' Agaves.  The rosette hanging over the rock wall should probably go later this year before it falls into the street but I left it in place for now.

View from the back of the bed.  Removing 4 pups of the Agave attenuata gave the Yucca rostrata and the Aloe lukeana more room to spread out.

The largest Agave attenuata pup (left) is sitting in an empty pot to allow it to develop some roots before I give it away.  The smaller pups were damaged and I tossed them.  I potted the Agave 'Mateo' pups on the right after I rescued them from the pot containing their parent, which had been nearly buried under the Oscularia.

I'll plant cuttings of the Oscularia deltoides soon but it'll be a few years before the plant makes a statement like it did earlier this year.  I plant to remove and replace all or most of the remaining heat-scarred Aeoniums with fresher rosettes once I can be reasonably certain that the heatwaves are behind us.  Fall can't be counted on to arrive on September 22nd in our part of the Northern Hemisphere.

The other area I tackled was a bed in the northeast corner of the back garden.

This photo was taken in late June for my July wide shots post.  The area directly surrounding the smaller of the 2 strawberry trees (Arbutus 'Marina') was the focus of my efforts this month.

This is a view of the same area from the opposite direction, also taken in late June.  It may be difficult to see but there are 2 very large shrubs growing underneath the strawberry tree, both of which into its upper canopy.

Sonchus palmensis (aka giant dandelion tree, left) should've been cut back in late June when the flowers were spent but I never got around to it and I hate to think how many seedlings it may produce next year.  Melianthus major (right) develops tall branches and even taller flower spikes.  The photo shows its seed pods.

I cut back the Sonchus and the Melianthus to about a foot in height, lightly pruned the nearby Leucadendron 'Jester' and the Leucospermum 'Royal Hawaiian Brandi', and pulled up the ivy that relentlessly climbs into the area from the back slope.  The heatwave arrived before I had a chance to pick up more mulch to cover the bare soil and replant some succulents so those tasks remain on the "to-do" list.

"After" closeup of the area in question

Shot of the same area from the back patio

Given that the heatwave stretched out for six days, peaked at 108F (42C), and night temperatures barely cooled, I expected more damage than I've seen thus far.  I deep watered my cutting garden three times during the heatwave.  While a lot of blooms and foliage shriveled in place anyway, everything but a few recently planted zinnia plugs survived.  A few newly acquired plants in pots are in poor shape and a variety of annuals, including most of my Lisianthus (Eustoma grandiflorum), croaked.  But most of the trees and larger plants should be fine once they grow new foliage to replace what was toasted.

The small Agave attenuata 'Ray of Light' in a sunny bed in the back garden (left) looks like it'd prefer to be moved to a shadier location.  The leaves of the large Coprosma 'Plum Hussey' planted alongside our south patio (right) was burned on one side but I expect I can prune out the damage. 

 

Phormium 'Apricot Queen' received a bad sunburn but should recover

I've got a lot of self-seeded Polygala myrtifolia (sweet pea shrubs) so this one won't be missed.  I've already dug it up.

Large patches of the creeping thyme planted between the flagstones burned so I'll be looking for flats of thyme to replant the affected areas this fall

I didn't even notice that this Yucca gloriosa had a bloom stalk until 2 days ago.  Many of its buds are singed and it remains to be seen whether it'll look presentable when they open

In other cases of severe heatwaves, the lemon tree at the bottom of our back slope has dropped all its fruit, setting its production back a year or more.  I was surprised that there was so much fruit left on the tree this time.  I've yet to test the fruit's quality, though.

Some plants show no signs of heatwave-related damage whatsoever, at least thus far.  That includes all the 'Cousin Itt' Acacias, Leptospermums, Leucadendrons, Leucospermums, Callistemons, Coleonemas, and other large, well-established plants I can't bring to mind at the moment.  A couple even seem to have thrived in the heat.

While many agaves showed sunburn damage, the 3 'Blue Glow' Agaves shown above had their own sunscreen in the form of a Chondropetalum tectorum, aka a small cape rush.  The rush itself is flowering abundantly too.

And I'd swear that this Vitex trifolia shot up another foot in height during the heatwave

The heatwave also brought three unexpected visitors to our garden.  Although their visit was brief, it created something of a stir.

Meeko and I caught sight of the 3 from inside the house at about the same time.  By way of explaining the poor quality of this shot, I caught them in action through the window with my phone's camera.  All 3 appear to be juvenile peafowl but I can't be certain of their genders as their tail feathers haven't developed.  At least one appeared to be a female.

When I went out to chase them down, I captured Meeko watching them from inside the house, looking interested if possibly also a little peeved

I should acknowledge that, even though the heatwave stretched into the coastal areas this time, delivering six days of temperatures over 100F (38C), we got off much easier than people living in the inland areas of California, which saw record temperatures in many cases.  In fact, the entire US Southwest has had to deal with a difficult summer.  I'm hoping that the heatwaves are over for the summer season but I know we can't count on cooler autumn weather yet.  Although my fingers are itching to cut back all the burned foliage in my garden, it's probably best to wait awhile until we're sure the cooler temperatures are going to last.

My best wishes go out to anyone dealing with wildfires or smoke or flooding from hurricanes and tropical storms.  I hope everyone has a safe weekend.

All material © 2012-2024 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party