Observations on a Post-Rain Cleanup Weekend

 It has been an unacceptably long time since I had the opportunity to see what is going on in my own garden. It either has been raining (and raining and raining) or other commitments pulled me away. My garden viewing has been pretty much limited to the short distance from the mailbox to the front door. Those brief trips were enough to tell me I have a serious weed problem. In fact  I can't ever recall an early spring this bad. I believe the seeds of these damnable things must have been laying around waiting for the torrential rains we've experienced in the last couple months after years of drought.The ground is so saturated that pulling them is still impossible ; they either bring up a tennis ball sized blob of mud with them that won't shake off, or they break off at the soil level. I need two weeks of dry weather and 3 yards of mulch. This weekend has been splendid, warm temps, no rain and I spent most of it trying to get  a handle on the rose pruning and fall/spring cleanup.


 Geum 'Totally Tangerine' was purchased last summer and never bloomed . It has remained evergreen over winter and many flower buds are emerging. Hoping for a long bloom season-I only bought one but will get more if the flowering progresses as promised.

Unfortunately, it and many other plants in my front garden are completely surrounded by shotweed, which is what you see in the upper third of this photo. My garden has never looked so unkempt.

 This is Clematis 'Arabella' . Every Clem in my garden is budded . None have been cut back except for 'Rooguchi' which I did today. I had actually planned to move Rooguchi because of the shade it casts, but I decided to leave it where it is for the present and instead try to manage it's size with in-season clipping. We'll see how that goes.

 All my Fuchsias are leafing out, but I'll wait til March 1 to prune. Late frosts can still be an issue here , though they are all in protected locations and it's unlikely that we will experience temps in the 20's at this point.

 And what is this Daylily thinking ? At least a month ahead of schedule.

Leucodendron 'Pisa' just laid itself down, the whole plant is on the ground. Not dead, so I cut it back to 3 feet. I think it's too close to the fence , ergo too much shade .

Agave weberi 'Arizona Star' was liberated from it's container last summer , only to suffer the ravages of the rainiest winter in several years. Looks pretty crappy with slimy stuff in the center-never a good look on an Agave.

 Many things are emerging:

 Teuchrium 'Purple Tails' sometimes shows up where you would prefer it not too, but can always be dug and moved . The criss-cross twigs  are last years growth yet to be cut down.

   All the Persicarias are shooting up , and luckily this is one of the few plants I actually got cut back in fall before it started raining. As you can see there are old branches in the photo- I do the half-assed trim in fall and refine it in spring.

 I left my Artichokes to provide winter interest. Said winter interest is long gone. They keeled over at some point , hit the ground and sprouted. This would be exciting if I had an acre or two. A-chokes are gargantuan  plants and I have room for one and one only.

The beloved Lobelia tupa. Excited to see what this will do in its second summer.

 This one has put a big-a frowny face on the gardener. Echium wildpretii which was pristine  and fabulous, sailed through the frosts of early winter and now looks awful. A blob of black linguine tops it off.

Geranium pyranaicum 'Bill Wallis' has colonized my pot of Yucca rupicola . In fact Bill has made himself at home everywhere. Just make sure you really really like this plant before you buy it. I will likely spend a full day digging up seedlings this month.

On the plus side, Tulipa 'sylvestris' a new favorite since seeing it on Tangly Cottage Gardens blog. It blooms early and there are at least two blooms per bulb in my experience and the bulbs are relatively inexpensive.