090528- Candy Tuft

I don't think I have a favorite flower - They're all my favorites! - but if you asked me right now which one am I the most excited about, I'd have to say the candy tufts.

In the photo showing the staircase and waterfall, you can see the candy tufts have taken over the bed with the flowering cacti.

At the bottom right of this photo, you can see part of a long, narrow bed just above the lemon tree. It was here where I first encountered candy tufts, which sprang up spring, 2008, from a mixed-seed pack I tossed into this bed when it was clear the pocket gophers had decimated the gladioli.

I love the intricacy of the flowers and its color range from white to pink to dark purple, and I must say I was thrilled and Phil was annoyed by how massive the plants grew when started in early winter, 2008. Phil was annoyed because we literally had to wade through the plants to spot the anemones and ranunculus also in this bed.

090528 - Cactus Flowers

Raccoons find water sources like fountains irresistible, so Phil and I have learned to live with their noise and digging at night.

What we couldn't get used to is their wandering through the garden beds on their way to the waterfall, so we placed nearly two dozen cacti as a barrier between the waterfall and the beds.

Ever resourceful, the raccoons soon found a way to dig up the cacti and toss them into the water, where they let them float and soak up water like sponges for a day or so before eating them from the bottom up.

So, Phil and I saved up and bought a very large, very heavy cactus from a big box nursery. To our amazement, it has bloomed during our cold, foggy spring, its flowers the size of teacups.

090528 - Delphiniums

Here are six photographs of three delphiniums at the bottom of the staircase.

All winter, raccoons persistently dug around and eventually killed the white one that had grown massive and sent up dozens of flower stocks during its blooming cycles over the last two years or so.

I was really disappointed, but these dark purple and pale purple delphiniums have nearly made up for the loss.

In the photo I took at the top of the stairs, you can see the new white one I planted a month or so ago to replace the one wiped out by the raccoons.

Sometime in summer, 2008, I planted the dark purple and pale purple delphiniums. They were unremarkable until late this spring, when they grew massive, their flower stocks almost three feet long.