1108 - Pink Lupine

Under a very shady tree decorated year round with Christmas lights, this pink lupine surprised us by blooming this summer, its flower stalk over a foot tall.

I vaguely remember planting here late last summer a seed from the one lupine in the gardens not purple.

I am keeping an eye on its seed pods and will harvest as many as I can.

090622 - Sweet Peas

Here are several photographs of sweet peas I took yesterday evening after watering the gardens.

It has been a nice June so far, a little windy in the evenings, but warm and sunny most days.

Most of these sweet peas came from one packet of winter sweet peas, my favorites the white ones with purple tips.

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 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.

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.

080428 - Gardens

I took several photographs of the gardens today to show how much they've changed in just a month or so.

In the winter, when it rains every day, I find it hard to believe the muddy beds will give way to such beauty.

07 Summer - Upper Terraces

These are two photographs from early summer, 2007, when the poppies to the right of the staircase were putting on a show.

The sky-blue sweet peas climbing the fence at the top of the hill were amazing, too.

06 Spring - Larkspur and Sweet Peas

Several weeks ago, I scattered larkspur seeds across the garden alongside the fence you can see in this photograph.

They should be coming up very soon.

You can see here that we had sweet peas and larkspur blooming together in the spring, 2006.

I hope this year looks as nice.

080306 - Terraced Gardens

I took this short video of the gardens this afternoon, when the sun was descending behind the evergreens southwest of our house.

I'll do a similar video in a month or so to show how rapidly the gardens change, as spring approaches.

070430 - Garden Stowaways

In April, 2007, I was sorting several flowers I'd brought in from the gardens, when I noticed these two stowaways on a kitchen table.

The blue delphinium is a dwarf variety that grows low to the ground and has flower stalks reaching three feet in length.

The purple lupine is a Russell hybrid. It was disappointing its first year, but in the spring, 2007, had nearly two dozen flower stalks longer than two feet.