3/9/13

Back in the garden again.

My garden is still a thing. It's getting to be springtime so it's fun to take pictures again. All the plants are getting so big. I prune and prune, but you would never know.

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The buckeye, pruned every winter to keep it shrub sized, is leafing out. Some flowers would be nice. It has never flowered. It's my curse to want flowers and get foliage, foliage, foliage.

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Well, here are some flowers, on Cestrum elegans. I've tried many species of cestrum, and this one is the best for me. Good growth, lots of flowers. Two thumbs up.

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I forget the name of this Annie's Annuals plant. I think it's a eupatorium now. The leaves turn purple when the sun shines on them for any length of time, as it's starting to do now. I think the catalog says part shade is best, but in foggy San Francisco that means full sun.

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The strappy, floppy leaved agave-looking beschorneria over there is getting much bigger than I expected based on specimens in the San Francisco Botanical Garden, which is where I know it from best. One day it will let out a huge, towering inflorescence. Until then it's all leaves poking at my face when I walk down the stairs and tripping me up when I try to walk around it.

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My crazy/weird neighbor is finally having some work done on his house. He had workers remove all the bamboo from his backyard (so just remnants of it pop up on my side of the fence now and then), cover the whole thing thing with black plastic tarp, and then he went on a plant buying rampage-- hydrangeas, rose standards, boxwood topiaries, cyclamen, ferns, heathers, some aeoniums, just all kinds of stuff. It's like a whole nursery over there. ALL IN POTS. NURSERY POTS. Then, after he filled the whole back yard COMPLETELY FULL OF PLANTS IN NURSERY POTS, he had a guy come over and rebuild his back deck, the previous one having completely collapsed on itself due to rot, neglect, and a vigorous wisteria. But his new deck is quite nice. I can only imagine what the contractor who built it is thinking though, because the rest of the house is quite visibly falling down. What a mess.

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Anyway.

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Omphalodes cappadocica, a great great plant for dry shade!

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3/3/13

Winter in retreat at Filoli today

It's March. Are you sick of daffodils?

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Well, we were a little too early for tulips.

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Tho' we did see a few.

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I rather enjoyed the remnants of winter.

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The remnants of winter. Winter is going

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Too soon for tulips. Right on time for magnolia.

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Magnolia and camellia. Oh, the camellias...

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Ah, there you go. Summer

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