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.