Garden glimpses

Of all the plants in the garden, the princess plant looked the most parched upon our return from Rome. The flowers were all crispy and many leaves turned red. I've been watering it since we got back and it looks fine now.



Also upon our return, Dierama pulcherrimum that I grew from seed sown in 2006 or 7, flowering for the first time ever:



Most dierama is pink. The dark form was rarely seen back then, but it's become that uncommon in the intervening years.

I don't think the tarweeds have much more life in them this year (Madia elegans).



But I deadheaded a little and gave them some water too. The flowers bloom in the morning and expire by the end of the day. But there are so many flowers.



I deadheaded Tithonia diversifolia too. I don't know if it even makes sense to deadhead a giant shrub like this, but whatever. Pruning, deadheading--these are my favorite tasks in the garden. I could prune and deadhead all day long.



The buckeye leaves never turned brown this summer, just ragged looking, so I defoliated the tree. The bark usually so silvery is not such silvery this year either.



Some aloe I forgot the specific name of--ferox? reitzii?--got left in the shade most of the year due to my negligence. I moved it back into the sun. Doesn't seem to have minded the shade, but it hasn't grown much either.



I like my 'Black Adder' phormium so much I bought another one. I was strongly against phormium for a long time!



I think it does better in part sun. Full sun in my garden seems to give some of the older leaves a bleached out look. Although! the same thing happens with the cordyline and there's no way that gets too much sun. When do you cut the older leaves off cordyline?



The Beschorneria is becoming truly massive. I planted it out from a 1-g pot...two years ago already? It's accumulating a lot of dirt, dust, and leaf litter. I should probably drag the hose out back and give it a good shower.