GardenBook

 When the arrangement is as big as the lamp.. Not a hotel lobby arrangement but still, much bigger than my usual ....It bothered me that the lamp and the flowers were so similar in size , so I moved this vase elsewhere.  My experiment this week was the Cotinus. Never used in a vase -for some reason I assumed it would not hold up. Where do these ideas come from ? So far it is holding it's own .  The vase is Bauer , a  chartreuse high gloss probably from the 1950's. It's 12 inches tall so I can ony use it if I have very long stemmed ingredients. I also have the 8" version of this vase.  Our thanks to Cathy at Rambling in the Garden for this weekly vase fest !

 Fortunately I remembered it was Garden Bloggers Bloomday before the always coveted  marine layer burned off this morning and added some photo-taking to my agenda. This is the time of year when the sun, heat and no rain for months have taken their toll on the garden and the slide into dishevelment has begun. All manner of plant growth management apparatus has been active today. Still, there are blooms to be had !  The Lilys continue to unfold. I have managed-quite by accident-to have at least one clump in bloom since May. This variety gets two photos, and there will be more on the Lily shopping list for 2019. Carte Blanche  Conca d'Or Montego Bay Lost the Tag Never Had a Tag  The Lily above was a freebie from my order last year -it was labeled as a dark pink variety which it clearly is not.   Phlox paniculata season is here, and though short lived it's always nice to have some blowsy flowers in the middle...

 I haven't grown Zinnias in a couple of years, and the last time I bought 4" plants instead of growing them from seed. and the results were not impressive. I went back to seed-grown again this spring , sowing them in 4 very large containers on my patio since I was in the process of renovating the only garden bed where I had enough room and enough sun to put them into the ground. This has been such a success that I am going to add two more pots next summer.  I also picked some of the almost flopping Shasta Daisys-might as well head that behavior off at the pass, though I have to say the removal of a very large tree in early spring improved things significantly and the flopping is minimal this summer.   Also stuck in some Trachelium 'Hamer Pandora' , a couple pieces of Angelica stricta pupurea and some Nigella seedheads.  The vase is Bauer Ringware, manufactured in Los Angeles from the late 1930s to the very early 1960's . The color is much mor...

 The edge of the garden bed is an element sadly neglected in my garden, and all too often descends into a collection of  plant debris, hollow snail shells and of course oxalis. Last summer I started paying more attention to the edge, but attention didn't always result in action. Often it was a matter of standing gazing down  morosely and thinking to myself  "that looks like crap, I need to plant xxxx " and then I would  wander off to be quickly distracted by the next thing my eyes fell upon; a de facto puppy/kitten.  Last week I spent a few days out on the coast and found I came back with quite a few photos of the edges of the garden beds at Mendocino Coast Botanical Garden. I've taken hundreds of images here in the last few years, and who knows what prompted me to look closer at the small details.  I've used golden Oregano as an edging, but it likes it here way to much, and I ended up digging it out. But I did love this combina...