2/21/09

Saturday morning it's going to rain later garden

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Some more daffodils have opened.

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And I'm still impatiently watching the buckeye leaf out slowly, day by day.

Aesculus californica

Spring came early for some kind of digging creature/varmint that comes around at night to vex the garden. This is an anti-digging strategy I came up with. People sometimes stick plastic spoons in the ground to deter squirrels and such... I cut up some unused nursery stakes and poked them in the ground around recent additions.

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(I'd apply Critter Ridder, but I suspect wet, rainy weather renders it ineffective, and it's expensive.)

These Ipheion uniflorum do not come back for me from year-to-year like they're supposed to. I buy a bag of them from time to time instead. They're okay. Buying a bag of them for $4 once a year is kind of a habit now.

Ipheion uniflorum

Calif. native geophyte Zigadenus fremontii is new to the g this year. I very much hope this one will come back again next year.

Zigadenus fremontii

The red-flowered Delphinium cardinale from Southern California sure did! I'm very happy about it. All three of them have come back this year in fact, and I recently added a fourth.

Delphinium cardinale

Unfortunately, however, I might be losing Leucospermum. Or at least half of it. This half looks terrible.

Leucospermum

This half not so terrible.

Leucospermum

I'll just have to wait and see, I guess.

Speaking of waiting and seeing, in the seedlings department...

I divided these Rudbeckia triloba today. My first Rudbeckia. I saw this plant with flowers still on it in November in Berkeley and I thought that would be nice for me too.

Rudbeckia triloba

Echium pininana--these have come a long way since you last saw them on Feb-4. These grow into 10' spikes, straight up. Straight up is the hope anyway. I wouldn't want them to lean. Not sure when I should plant them out, but if this rate of progress continues, I guess that question will answer itself.

Echium pininana

Any idea what this could be? I remember throwing some seed here... I hate it when I do that.

Argh

These are its seed leaves:

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And I planted out all this Symphotrichum chilensis from a pinch of seeds I collected in Big Sur last November. This could very well turn out to be an invasive plant in my garden--both by spreading underground parts, and future seedlings--so I'll have to keep an eye on it.

Aster chilensis (Big Sur)

[Not] texas bluebonnet, from Christopher C.

Texas bluebonnet

It was looking very yellow in the pot, so I thought I better plant it out in real soil. It's always possible that Texas bluebonnet would be happier in Texas than San Francisco. I guess we'll find out. [But this is Lupinus polyphyllus, so that theory is meaningless.]

Solanum lypersicum 'Mountain Princess'. This is my furthest-along tomato, a 45-DTM variety from Baker Creek.

'Mountain Princess'

Tomatoes I'm also growing this year: '4th of July', 'Gold Nugget', 'Early Cherry', 'Stupice'.

Soon enough, everything will get planted out in the vegetable garden. For now, I still have a few winter snap peas.

snap peas

I love the emergent chaos in the garden this time of year.

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9 comments:

S said...

I planted Echium, Pride of Madeira last fall, and I left the outsize (z8b) all winter, maybe watered the small plant twice in 3 or 4 months, and it's doing beautifully. I am glad it is drought tolerant (they are about 6 -8 in tall right now, and as wide. I am excited o see if they bloom this year

CiNdEe's GaRdEn said...

Wow your starts are really off to a great start!! Everything looks very healthy and thriving!!!(-: It is going to rain here starting tonight.

Gardeness said...

Fantastic blooms. I had to go to the NW Flower & Garden Show to find that much color. And your starts are looking great.

Christopher C. NC said...

Chuck I sent you the Lupinus polyphyllus, the Perennial Lupine. The Texas Bluebonnet, Lupinus texensis might actually like California better with your wet dry cycle and mild winters, thought the L. polyphyllus will like your moderate year round cool temps.

Could your unknown seedlings be the Clematis stans? They look a bit like them, particularly the seedling leaf.

chuck b. said...

Oh! I must have misunderstood at some point. Or subconsciously confabulated. Thank you for the correction.

Adriana said...

OOh how I love love LOVE your garden!

Critter Ridder doesn't work very long. I have the same problems with feral cats and now my new pup. I think I’m going to use rebar like any punk girl would do in her garden =D

Annie in Austin said...

When entered into Google, ChuckB comes up as the expert on Symphotrichum chilensis. It this plant proved to be a brat, you'll get calls for help!

The unfolding buckeye leaves are beautiful and good luck with the not-Texas bluebonnets. Mine don't reseed so I buy a few started plants every year, as you do with the Ipheion. Bluebonnets seed so abundantly at Zanthan Gardens that MSS has to weed them out! In-con-ceive-able!

Annie at the Transplantable Rose

Beau said...

Any idea what this could be? I remember throwing some seed here... I hate it when I do that.

Me too...and I always think I'll remember. Looks like Rudbeckia to me.

Fab blog.

lisa said...

Hey, could those mystery plants be the clematis seeds i sent you? I'm enjoying your emergent chaos, too! :)