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.

09 Winter - Hyacinths

I ordered at bargain prices 40 or so hyacinth bulbs from an online nursery.

I wasn't sure any of them would come up, but Phil assured me that lots of plants are cheap when they are not in bloom, as most customers are only willing to spend money on flowers when they're in bloom.

All of the hyancinths came up. These are photographs of only a few of them.

09 Winter - Bert

After more than a year, I finally broke down this last winter and started feeding the feral cat living in the trees over our hot tub.

Phil named her Bert, short for Roberta, since that sounds like the name of a street-smart, tough girl.

I suspect she's eliminated the pocket gopher population in our backyard, as the few remaining gladioli have flourished this year, while in past springs, they steadily vanished one by one from below ground.

This photograph shows Bert hard at work the first afternoon I fed her. I told Phil the caption should read: "Garden patrol makes me sleepy," while he more aptly suggested, "Smooshed iris are cute."

09 Spring - Erysimum Franciscanum

Here is a photograph of a rare wall flower native to San Francisco. It is about four feet wide and two feet tall, with flower clusters about an inch wide. The flowers are long lasting when cut and smell vaguely like canterbury bells, whose potent aroma I describe to everyone akin to freshly baked tortillas.

We purchased this plant from a nursery across the Bay in Richmond. They say this plant is endangered and was once found along the coastal bluffs from Santa Cruz to northern Sonoma County.

In the background of this photograph are several red anenomes.

090330 - First Ranunculus

Here are photographs I took yesterday of the first three ranunculus to bloom this spring.

I think the nice weather we had last week really made them pop.

I planted them late last season and was really surprised when they came up and bloomed. This year, they are much larger and as stunning as I'd hoped. You can see the purple one is growing alongside alyssum, violas, a massive carnation plant, and a succulent almost in bloom.

09 Winter - Canterbury Bells

At the start of March, Phil bought these canterbury bells from Trader Joe's on Masonic.

They were in full bloom, wilted a bit in the kitchen while I waited for good weather to trudge out into the gardens, then sprang back to life as soon as I planted them near the base of the terraces. The plant is about one foot tall and twice as wide with six nearly identical flower clusters.

In the six pack to the right in the nursery, you can see several tiny canterbury bells I started from seed in mid February. The dry weather over the last year or so has been hard on the delphiniums, so I plan to distribute these throughout the front and back gardens where the delphiniums have died off.

09 March - Anemones

Here are two anemone flowers from the fride (FRont sIDE) garden.

The winter rains seem to have ended around the start of March, and the gardens are now cranking.

This plant sits against a brick wall between two perennial bushes. At first, I thought it wasn't getting enough light, but then I noticed the massive flower buds coming up soon after the rains ended.

Not only do I like the droplets of water on these petals, but the little insect, too, which is seeking protection from the morning drizzle.

Nursery

Here you can see growing inside the nursery Phil made for Christmas, 2007, six packs of canterbury bells, winter sweet peas and stock. The columbines planted in the six pack to the far right haven't come up yet.

The bottom row has two pots with clarkia, which readily reseeded itself from fall, 2008. Out of view are six little pots containing a red echium each. These are the descendants of the nine-foot-tall mammoth, commonly called "Tower of Jewels," which grew in the fride (FRont sIDE) garden in 2008.

The second photograph shows the view of the terraced gardens from the nursery. Everything's pretty much dormant or growing steadily for a spring show. The fountain works rather well now, though there's still a leak somewhere.

Phil loves the cala lilies near the blue base of the waterfall.

The tinfoil you see hung from string is the most effective way I've found to scare birds out of the yard. It's a bit unsightly, but not nearly as bad as bird netting I used to string up like beleaguered tents across the backyard.