10/25/08

Saturday morning garden

It's not even noon yet. It's gonna get hot today. [ADDED: Later in the afternoon, the 100 deg F float settled to the bottom.]

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I haven't been able to see these crocus flowers until now.

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I leave for work before they open, and they're closed by the time I get home.

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Crocus speciosus.

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They're all over the place.

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I even have a few white ones. I don't remember buying these at all.

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Looking up and around, the garden is pretty quiet right now.

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The Meyer lemon recently shot out a half-dozen new branches.

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This plant grows in bursts. People say you can grow it well in containers, and I know some of you do, but I have not found that to be the case for me. I tried several times in a container--varying the potting mix, the fertilizer regime, the exposure--always to poor results. Last year I decided to plant one in the ground and it's doing very well. People say the Eureka lemon is a better choice for San Francisco, but, well, whatever.

Indian summer will ripen the last of the tomatoes.

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You never really know when the season will end.

I pulled some carrots today to make room for Ocimum 'African Blue'. These 'Thumbelina' are good if you can't be bothered to prepare the soil.

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The Scarlet Runner Beans (Phaseolus coccinneus) are totally done, as you can see by the crispy brown leaves. Last year I ripped them out, but this year I'm going to let them overwinter. Hopefully, I'll get a jump on the season next spring.

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Cobaea scandens is still going strong...

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And Hardenbergia violacea has begun to flower.

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This plant keeps my Bloom Day posts aloft all winter. It's nice to see it again!

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You might not be able to tell from this picture, but Epilobium canum is winding down.

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Here tho' you can see it's making seed.

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What else...

Under the deck, some of the cyclamen have come back vigorously. Others have just started to send up a leaf or two. They're not any kind of special cyclamen. Just what I found at the nursery in the discount pile.

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Some dahlia I started from seed in May or June are all moldy. Next year I'll plant out whatever comes back.

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The spring wildflower starts are doing fine. Lots of seedlings coming up on their own in the garden too which is nice to see. Who knows, some of these might even flower before spring.

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(Note: Stylomecon heterophylla was the last to germinate--at least a couple of weeks later than everyone else.)

I don't have the fall color display you may have right now... I have two Acer palmatum, still quite green. I thought the grape was going to turn early this year, but it's still about 80% green. I have four tiny vine maples (Acer circinatum), and only one of them has a feeling of fall.

Acer circinatum

Tiny little thing.

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I'm going to plant the rest of my fall bulbs today. I have quite a few in the ground already, but they keep coming in the mail.

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It's rather comical, isn't it? Of course, you order these things several months before they come. You pretty much forget what you asked for. You certainly did not expect their arrival to coincide with a global financial meltdown making you feel like a profiligate spender in times of parsimony.

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Instead, try not to think about it.

Things will get better by next spring.

10 comments:

Les said...

I like your crocus, and I too usually forget what I have planted bulb wise. I hit the 1/2 price sales in late fall, put them in, forget about them and act completely suprised when they come up in the spring. "Who put those there?"

Annie in Austin said...

I love the way just a couple of crocus flowers peer at the camera from each nook - the individual blooms don't get lost in a crowd!

Chuck, I'm experimenting with two Meyer's Lemon trees - one in a container that can come in when the temperatures are below freezing, and one in the ground next to the house wall. So far the one in the container has grown some, and made more fruit and flowers, but the one on the ground has been less interested in blooming than in growing. It's 4 times larger than when I planted it.

Cobaea and Hardenbergia - never too much purple!

Annie at the Transplantable Rose

Anonymous said...

Hi Chuck, those crocus are not sativus,they have red stamens. They look like c. speciosus, I have those too and love the color. They are very happy to be photographed, posing nicely for the camera. I love hardenbergia, I bought a large plant of it as a hostess gift for friends we had that used to live in San Ramon, not knowing what it was and it filled in the fence surrounding their property. It is getting cold here.
Frances
http://fairegarden.wordpress.com/

chuck b. said...

Frances, as soon as you wrote speciosus, I knew you were right. Thank you.

Annie, Meyers love to grow in the heat. Mine made more fruit in a container too. But then it had awful die back and leaf drop. Best of luck to you.

Les, I try to hit those 50% off sales in the fall too. But last year, erything at my nursery was soft and moldy.

chuck b. said...

And, Annie, when I said I know some of you grow Meyer lemon in containers, I was thinking about you.

And, Frances, you got that Hardenbergia for your friend at the Smith & Hawken store in Marin County. And now that friend lives in Tennessee, I believe. It was one of the first comments you left on my blog last year.

Anonymous said...

Wow, I'm glad that I didn't write that part about Smith and Hawken again. Poor memory, leaving the same comment twice! Why don't I just write my life story on a comment. LOL
Frances

Anonymous said...

Egad, too much awesomeness to comment on all of it. Love the blue crocus against that blue grass. The violet vine. That plant going to seed. Not the 100 degree day though.

Christopher C. NC said...

My what a lot of bulbs you have. I have had reports of Autumn Crocus blooming on the ridge top garden and must go look at them today. These shorter days cut into my wandering about time.

CiNdEe's GaRdEn said...

I had the leaf drop with my lemon too. I thought it was because we had a hard freeze here a few years ago. When it gets real cold it drops its leaves but they come back again when the temps warm up. I had mine in a oak barrel but since it has been in there for 19 years or more it has grown into the ground. I have not had a lemon off that plant yet but the plant usually is very pretty(-:
I like your crocus they look very nice blooming now(-: Not sure where mine went.

Unknown said...

In that picture of you and the cobaea flower... did you take that with your left hand? It's an awesome picture--I'm going to be doubly impressed if you managed to DIY that one. Any time I try to take a photo of myself, I end up with nothing in focus, and thus a blurry shot of some indistinguishable part of my chin--and lots of hair. (My crappy Facebook profile photos attest to this.) *sigh*