08 New Year's Eve

Around Christmas, Phil and I finished terracing the backyard by constructing two garden beds at the top left of the staircase. We were pounding six-foot-long fence posts into the ground, when we noticed a hawk had landed on the fence behind our house.

It sat there for an hour or so, before swooping down into a neighbor's yard. It returned to the fence to eat its catch. We were not only surprised by its size, but by how quietly it dropped into the neighbor's yard and, later, vanished without either Phil or me noticing.

The blue anemone was the first anemone to bloom this winter, and the red is the second. I photographed the red anemone just as it was starting to close its petals for the night.

08 November - Garden photographs

Here are three photographs I took on the same afternoon in November, 2008.

The white and pink cleomes were over four feet tall, but are now
closer to five. They continue to bloom despite it being nearly winter now.

The hollyhock is against a fence that only gets partial sun in the fall and winter. It is the oldest and probably the happiest of all the hollyhocks. The long stock next to the flower in bloom is close to ten feet tall.

And the columbine surprised us all when it went into bloom around Halloween. It still looks great as we approach the middle of December, 2008.

08 Fall - Toad Lily

The night I took this photograph, raccoons walked over this toad lily, breaking off its flowers the size of quarters.

This photograph is one of the few I have of it in bloom. There are four other plants nearby, but only this one has bloomed to date.

08 Fall - Chimney Bell Flower

Over the long Thanksgiving weekend, I pulled out this chimney bell flower (campanula pyramidalis),
which had finally faded after being in bloom for several months.

Phil and I planted it in spring, 2007. Based on the information we found on the internet on this slow-growing, short-lived perennial, we certainly expected a spectacular show when it started going into bloom mid-summer, but I have to say we were stunned by its beauty.

I put these photographs together to show you the purple flowers and to give you some perspective on the plant, which was supposed to reach six or so feet tall, but fell down from its own weight and doubled in size as it outgrew its garden bed, scaled a tree dahlia and climbed up a fence into a cactus.

08 October - Rose and Forget-Me-Not

I took this photograph near the end of October.

Phil hacked down the rose bushes between the garage doors in early July, when our cold and foggy summer was causing them to drop their leaves.

I thought for sure they wouldn't be back until next spring, but as soon as our Indian summer started near the end of August, the roses sprang back to life.

Beneath this rose, you can see a forget-me-not in bloom.

08 October - Portulaca

We planted several portulaca mid-summer, and they have done quite well during our Indian summer.

I think I bought ten or twelve six packs from the nursery off Ocean Beach. I'll buy twice that many next year, as they do surprisingly well during the cold and foggy summers, though I'm sure they'd've preferred we lived anywhere in sunny, hot Sonoma County.

081026 - Heirloom Asters

Here are several photographs of the asters we had in the gardens this year.

Before this spring, I had never forced seedlings inside and had great success with these. I placed some soil in the bottom of a plastic cheese container with a clear lid, sprinkled seeds over the soil, splashed some water into the container, sealed the lid, and set the container on a table in the dining room, which gets great afternoon light.

Within a week, I had dozens of seedlings. I let them grow to half an inch, then transferred them into six packs in the gardens.

Unfortunately, during our cold and foggy summer, most died.

The bottom three photographs show rare heirloom asters I purchased online. They grew to about a foot tall, and the flowers were about the size of quarters. I preferred these over the other asters you see in these photographs. Those were very squat and had stringy-looking flowers that didn't last long.

I'm going to grow more of the heirlooms next year and start them indoors a little later in the year, so that they can take advantage of our long Indian summer.

081026 - Amaranth

I took these photographs today of our two amaranths.

Earlier this year, I read online that a university in Minnesota planted their amaranths in May; and since our calendar summers are so cold and foggy, I decided to follow their lead.

I planted several in six packs in the nursery at the top of the backyard.

Unfortunately, the nursery became overgrown with the red dahlia and buddleia before I knew it. I was only able to save one six pack's worth of seedlings, and these are the only ones to have thrived once I planted them in the gardens. The flowers are up to eighteen inches long and feel disturbingly like a cat's tail.

Next year, I'm going to do a better job caring for the seedlings and hope to have a dozen or more in the gardens, especially since they've shown they do so well late in the year.

08 September - Salmon hybrid Asiatic poppy

This was the second time this year that our salmon hybrid Asiatic poppy went into bloom.

This last summer, the flowers were massive on very short stems.

These flowers were much smaller atop very long stems, making them more graceful and beautiful.

08 September - Red Dahlia

Here's another photograph of the red dahlias.

This summer, the plant surpassed all our expectations by growing over seven feet tall and producing dozens of massive flowers.

08 September - White-and-Pink Lupine

Phil and I planted this lupine in early summer and were happy when it bloomed out of season.

It is the only one without purple flowers this year. Our red one promptly died when I relocated it from a shady spot at the top, right of the gardens down to the side garden.

This lupine's flower stalk reached almost two feet before going to seed. I plan on harvesting the seeds and growing more lupines this color next spring.

08 September - Queen Cleome

Here are two photographs of the queen cleome that has gone into bloom.

Almost three feet tall, it is supposed to double in size.

This is the healthiest of the half dozen or so I planted in the gardens. I started them from seed in six packs in the nursery, which was heavily overgrown with dahlias and sweet peas before I knew it. But even after I moved them down to the porch by the chairs, the seedlings floundered throughout the cold, foggy summer. At the end of August, when the sun and heat finally arrived in The City, these flowers took off.

I'll add photographs of the others once they've gone into bloom.

080831 - Passion Vine

The passion vine has recovered nicely from last year, when I think I was under-watering it. Not only does it now cover the fence I initially started it on, but it is also climbing across the fence behind the side garden, up the tree between the two fences, and even through the fences into the neighbor's backyard.

The baby tears volunteered last winter to make a nice backdrop for the passion vine.

080831 - Prairie Mallow

We bought three prairie mallows last year. One died as soon as we planted it. Another is at the top of the hill on the right and is barely surviving under a shade tree. The third is this one, which has taken over the garden bed at the bottom right of the stairs.

I think it's gorgeous, with dozens of flower stocks. Phil thinks it's a little too successful. He wants to pull it out and donate it to the public staircase near our house. I suppose he's right, but I want to wait until late fall, when the rains come and we can rebuild the bed for spring.

080831 - Clarkia

The clarkia has done really nice throughout the gardens this year, though the ones in the backyard near the lemon tree have performed especially well.

This particular plant is almost two feet tall, with its trumpet-shaped flowers about one-third the size of your hand.

As I likely mention in another post, this is the second year I've had great success reseeding this rare native of Mendocino and Humboldt counties.

080831 - Ranunculus

This ranunculus went into bloom the last week of August, when summer finally came to The City.

I planted several dozen late last spring and assumed they would bloom next year, so I was really happy to see half a dozen or so tempted by our cold and foggy summer to put on a show now.

080831 - Dahlias

The dahlias came up when the calendar said it was summer, but they did not really put on a show until the end of August, when The City finally heated up.

The magenta dahlia is resting on a Hawaiian sedum, which will send up in a month or so tiny, pink flowers with a scent very much like that of honeysuckle.

080831 - Sweet Peas

Most of August was exactly like any other August in San Francisco: cold and foggy. Many of the summer plants, like these sweet peas, stopped growing and even started to wither and die.

But the last week of August saw the arrival of summer at last in The City, when the days and nights heated up. Dahlias, hollyhocks and these sweet peas sprang back to life at the same time six or so ranunculus bloomed out of season.

080727 - Hybrid Asiatic Poppy

This poppy started blooming mid-summer, sending up one or two short-stemmed flowers before growing dormant for several weeks.

Then, beginning about two weeks ago, it sent up a succession of very long-stemmed flowers the size of your hands cupped together to catch water.

080727 - Love-in-the-Mist

We planted this annual earlier this summer.

It grew to about two feet tall by eighteen inches wide, with bluish-white balls the size of gum balls appearing on its tips after several weeks.

Then, over the last few days, the balls opened up into flowers, which turned dark blue as they expanded to their full size of about two-inches wide.

They are one of the most unique flowers in the garden and deal so well with the ocean winds that I'm hoping the plant readily reseeds itself for next summer.

08 June - Water Iris

We purchased two water irises from a Sonoma County nursery specializing in water plants.

The raccoons immediately took to them by digging them up and tossing them out of the waterfall.

Phil put cinderblocks in the middle of the two larger levels of the waterfall, then carefully wedged the irises' containers into the cinderblocks.

That did the trick.

A few weeks after the irises had settled in, this one went into bloom while the other continues to send up new growth.

08 June - Purple and Pink Poppy

This cabbage poppy bloomed one or two months after the others began blooming with the winter salmon sweet peas.

It grew to about three feet, its flower a stunning, electric purple and pink nearly as large as your hands cupped together to catch water.

Now, a month after this photograph was taken, the flower has long faded away and its seed pod continues to dry in the sun.

This last weekend, I collected several hundred cabbage poppy seeds from ten or twelve seed pods.

08 June - California Wild Flower

We purchased this annual Californian native flower from a nursery based out of Richmond, California.

The plant was tiny for several weeks, then grew about a foot tall and branched out before suddenly going into bloom.

The bunches of flowers grow at the tops of the plant, the flowers opening in the morning and closing in the evening.

Now, about a month after this photograph was taken, most of the flowers have fallen away, leaving prickly balls at the tops of the plant, which eventually turned into more bunches of flowers.

080615 - Lupines

The lupines in the side garden put on a spectacular show in June, their purple flower stocks nearly two feet long.

Above them and growing over the old truck door is a passion vine we planted in March, 2006. It was beautiful its first year, but looked dried out for much of 2007. I started watering it more frequently this spring and built a rough rock wall around its base to keep its roots moist. This seemed to do the trick.

The tree dahlia is growing up the right side of the truck door amid sweet peas.

Farther to the right is one of two perennial foxgloves we have in the gardens.

080626 - Magenta Dahlia

We relocated this magenta dinner-plate dahlia late last fall, after it and a yellow dinner-plate dahlia had grown into each other.

This dahlia is the first to bloom this year. Yes, its flowers are as large as a dinner plate.

The Mexican salvia rapidly went into bloom the last few weeks, while the lupines, foxglove, hollyhocks and white Pacific Giant delphinium have been stunning for several months now.

080615 - Red Hybrid Lily

Here you can see two red hybrid lilies in bloom. They bloomed a few days before the white ones described in an earlier post.

These flowers are a little smaller than the white ones, though the plants are about the same height.

The red lilies are growing alongside lupines, sweet peas and a perrenial foxglove, which produces larger and more numerous flower stocks each year. The pink flowers of this foxglove are about three inches long.

080615 - White Asiatic Hybrid Lily

This is the first white Asiatic hybrid lily to bloom in the gardens. I planted this and another late last fall.

The plant is about two feet tall, its flowers as large as your hand.

Those are lupine leaves it's growing through.

080608 - Cactus Flower

One of the little cacti next to the waterfall has gone into bloom.

080601 - Pink and White Cabbage Poppy

Several pink-and-white cabbage poppies have shown up in the front gardens this year, some well over six feet tall.

During last month's heatwave, the flowers bloomed and the petals fell off all in the same day.

But now that it is cool and foggy again in San Francisco, the flowers last several days. They are about as large as your hand.