1011 - Delphiniums

Delphiniums remain one of my favorite flowers.

If you are a regular reader of this blog, then you know by the preponderance of their images that I favor the deep purple ones.

The one featured in these photographs is the Pacific giant that has done very well at the base of the terraces in the backyard. This year, it was in bloom in mid-October, when I took these images; and, again, in late December, while we had a warm and sunny late fall.

I cut and brought indoors a few days before Christmas a flower stock from this plant almost three feet long.

In one of these photographs, you can see California primroses and the chimney bell flower fading as the nights grew longer and colder.

100711 - Terraces

Yesterday, I took a few hundred photographs of the terraces before cleaning up the beds and seeding cosmos for late summer through winter.

100518 - Cactus in Bloom

Almost overnight, this cactus went into bloom.

At about fourteen inches tall, it doesn't seem to have grown much in the year or so that we've owned it, but now there are many more flowers than the two or three that typically bloomed at any one time.

The flowers last only a few days and are somewhat larger than teacups.

091231 - Cactus

Here are three photographs of the cactus that finally kept the raccoons from trudging through this level of the terraced gardens to bathe in the fountain running along the staircase.

This cactus easily weighed thirty pounds last year when we bought it from a nursery. It has grown several young plants up its center, and I look forward to seeing how large it becomes in 2010.

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 - 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.

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.

07 Late Fall - Waterfall Views

These are three photographs I took of the waterfall on the same day late last fall.

Phil thought growing nasturtiums over the waterfall would look nice, especially when they were in bloom. But he's recently pulled up whole sections, since the plants grew very densely, blocking the view from the stairs of much of the terraced gardens.

I think the cacti were especially happy to say Bon voyage! to the nasturtiums, which had grown over them and blocked their afternoon sunlight.

In January, 2008, we had a terrific winter storm with hurricane-strength gusts. The wind shoved through that fence at the top of the terraces the huge cactus in its container, shattering both fence and container. It also bent upward the copper sconce draining water into the waterfall's blue basin.

We transplanted the cactus into a larger container and put it to the far left of the stairs, but left the shattered fence where it dropped. We're going to build a trellis there later this year.

The copper sconce hasn't worked properly since the storm, so Phil recently took it apart and is re-foaming it later this spring, when he plans to rework one section of the waterfall that has had a slow leak.

080209 - Terraced Gardens

I took this photograph today from the top of the terraces looking down at the gardens to the right of the staircase.

You can see past all four terraces to the row of cala lilies edging the dirt pathway alongside the terraces.

Today, it was sixty-five degrees and stunning. The anemones and crocuses were in full bloom, while the ranunculus continue to charge up out of the ground. I cannot wait for them to bloom, too.

The cacti and succulents have definitely perked up now that the sun is drying out the gardens.

Next to the the hot tub is the white Pacific Giant delphinium I've staked several times to support its flower stalk almost three feet in length. I hope it blooms before the next rainstorm, since flower stalks this long typically collapse under the weight of wet blooms.

I planted poppy and larkspur seeds in the gardens today. The relative barrenness of these winter gardens won't last.

070701 - First Cactus Flower

This cactus flower came into full bloom in the summer, 2007, without being noticed for several days.

The cactus itself is a surprisingly small plant and sits in a container, which spent a year and a half mostly hidden under a massive Pacific Giant delphinium.

I think I actually gasped the day I was plucking dead delphinium leaves off the Pacific Giant and stumbled upon this flower.

The cactus has since been moved to a more prominent location in the gardens.