May is one of my favorite months in the garden in spite of the fact that watering tasks typically begin at some point in the month. Sometimes we get lucky and are gifted with some measurable precipitation but the paltry 1/10th of an inch so far did not prove helpful. Hose dragging has commenced .
The spring bulbs are all done for the year but the spring annuals are still pumping out blooms -I've pulled about half of the pansies up to make room for all the summer color I started from seed.
By far the most impactful flowers of the last several weeks have been the Foxglove. Mostly in the Camelot series from Johnnys Seeds and started indoors in late September and planted out in late November. I started a total of 24 and shoehorned them in among the dozen or so I planted last spring. There are 2 more clumps besides the two I've shown here. I haven't grown Digitalis in at least a decade and this is the first time I've ever grown them from seed .
Achillea 'Moonshine'
Leucospermum 'Helena'
Leucospermu
A. 'Moonshines' little sibling Achillea 'Moondust' . Stays shorter than 'Moonshine' but is likewise tough as nails.
Yucca gloriosa 'Colorguard' is sort of blooming-not quite open yet.
Leucospermum 'High Gold' . This plant looks like hell due to it's captivity in a container for 2 years-which it did not care for. Nevertheless it still has managed to pump out 6 flowers (also the number of branches) it spite of my pulling it out of the container(which required the tip container on it's side, sit on the ground, feet on the rim and pull method ) with formed flower buds . I'm hoping my phosphorus levels aren't high . I use only fertilizers with no or extremely low P on the rare occasions I fertilize at all. So far the plant seems healthy.
Climbing rose 'Sombreuil' .
Climbing rose 'Eden' aka 'Pierre de Ronsard' .Eden is the most disease prone rose in my garden. I keep it anyway.
David Austin rose 'Lady Emma Hamilton' .
I rooted around for the tag on this Cuphea to no avail. I hope it didn't disintegrate. It's a nice little Cuphea, stays about 2x2 and blooms all summer. It either reseeded or layered itself (I suspect the latter) so I was able to plant another to give it the coveted 'repeated element' status.
Euphorbia 'Silver Swan'. This is the best Euphorbia in this color category that I've grown . Both 'Tasmanian Tiger' and 'Glacier Blue' were short lived in my garden. I was worried about the plague of cultivar disappearance that seems to be prevalent so after a few years with my original plant I took cuttings and grew 3 healthy plants two of which you see below. They are both nearly 5 ft tall. The original plant is finally starting to decline after many years of faithful service so I will take a couple cuttings this year and replace it with a fresh plant.
Nicotiana alata 'Lime', purchased from Annies , now reborn as Curious Flora . Last year I decided I wanted to have a little grove of these and I found seeds at 'Select Seeds' and grew 12. I have several grouped around this original plant and made another grouping with the rest.
Sambucus nigra 'Black Lace'.
David Austin rose 'Happy Child'
Sidertas cypria
Eryngium planum 'Blaukappe'-maybe I'm cheating a little on this one -flowers are still green.
Alstromeria 'Indian Summer' with Carex testacea.
The excellent Clematis 'Arabella'.
That does it for this month . Happy spring to all !
Your garden is looking splendid, Kathy! My foxgloves have been disappointing this year, at least thus far - I'm threatening some with eviction at the moment to make way for the dahlia tubers that have begun to sprout. I love that Cuphea! If you figure out what it is, I hope you'll pass along its name. Your roses are of course outstanding - I always regret largely giving up on them in my own garden at this time of year.
ReplyDeleteI'm pretty sure that Cuphea came from Emerisa Growers-my mind see's one of their tags. I'll see if I can find the name on their website. At one time I had almost seventy roses in my garden-that was back before I started collecting so many other types of plants. Rose pruning was a lengthy process ! I think I'm down to about 12ish now.
DeleteBeautiful! The Leucospermum 'Helena' and Sidertas cypria are my favs. You know the other day it occurred to me that you are my only California blogger friend whose garden I have not seen IRL. Hmmm.
ReplyDeleteYou are always welcome Loree !
DeleteI am jealous of your green nicotiana. My lime nicotiana reseeds and blooms every year, and every year seems to lose its 'greenness', turning more cream-colored over the years.
ReplyDeleteI like N. langsdorfii too, mine never reseeded but sometimes it would overwinter. It's faded away now-I should get seeds for that too.
DeleteThat same euphorb performs like a shrub here, just astonishing presence. I like the bounty of growing from seed too -- it really beats bringing home expensive one-off plants from the nurseries, tho I still do that too!
ReplyDeleteAnd it looks good all year too. Definitely a bonus.
DeleteI love your foxgloves. Mine are just starting to bloom and missed Bloom Day. And your roses are gorgeous!
ReplyDeleteThanks Candi-Today I started the big roses deadheading . The first spring flush is always the best though.
DeleteOops, sorry if I'm commenting twice - I can't tell if my first one got lost in nowhere land! The grouping of foxgloves is just fantastic, I really need to remember to plant more in a group as you've done. I'm off to find some Sidertas cypria, what a cool plant!
ReplyDeleteOff course I planted extra Foxgloves so I could cut them for arrangements, but of course when it came down to it I couldn't bring myself to take any out of the garden. I guess that means even more for next year-I've got plenty of seed left ! I got the Sideritas from Annies/Curious Flora. The only other place I've seen it is the UC Davis plant sale this spring -and they didn't have many as I recall.
DeleteTry Cuphea cyanea var subhirtella (https://xeraplants.com/plants/cuphea-cyanea-var-subhirtella/). April, May, and June are definitely my favorite months for gardening. Once summer hits its stride, everything browns up too much here in the West. I miss summer rains.
ReplyDeleteThat sure looks like it Jerry- I'm pretty sure mine was grown either at Emerisa or Annies. I'm seeing a blue label in my mind. Wouldn't it be great if we had even one inch of rain a month in Jul, Aug and Sept ?
DeleteBelated visit--sorry. I'm struggling to catch up still feel like a year behind.
ReplyDeleteLovely lovely foxgloves--I have volunteer seedlings from seeds grown mid '23 and flowers spring '24--they are perfect to stuff into18"x18" spots here and there. Yours look wonderful. I got rid of 'Eden'--the Rust was like a sack of Doritos thrown around. Still, the flowers...
I have your photos of 'Arabella' to thank for buying 'Arabella' myself--it's blooming now and I love it. Hope you have a good summer. I hope for a mild one for us all. Best wishes, kayess!