GardenBook

 Earlier this week I made a  brief but  mentally required road trip to the California central coast area . The central coast is an obvious transition  between Northern and  Southern California; for the plant-centric among us the differences are easy to see. Our hills began to shed their green winter finery and don the golden brown of summer the further south I traveled. Thanks to a recommend from the Mulch Maid , I booked a few nights at the Back Bay Inn , a  small casual establishment  on the quiet south end of Morro Bay. Besides the attraction of being right on the water , this inn had a lovely small garden with a compelling plant palette that framed the view of the water from my 2nd floor balcony.   This Agave has seen better days .  Looks like there is some new planting to do !  The little boardwalk takes the stroller past the resting Kayaks and through the garden.   Some nice well-grown specimens; cacti an

  At this late date I'm not going to attempt to make this an 'official' Bloomday post. Instead I have been taking the odd rose shot as time permits this month . This morning I was up early getting a few more photos and a camera malfunction (which turned out to be operator error) obliterated my shots. So I'm going with what I've got !  At one time I  had over 70 roses in my garden. I collected them and when I wanted another I ripped out whatever I had to to make room. My collection has been edited for various reasons; duplicates, disease, and modern roses that sometimes decline or sucker so heavily that Dr Huey takes over.I think I am down to about 30.  Last year I considered removing one (Honey Perfume) that had become so attractive to rose curculio that most of the blooms were ruined. I gave it one more year and used a very draconian method of control that involved sacrificing an entire spring bloom flush. It seems to have worked.I haven't planted a new rose