Organic Garden Dreams

The spring flush in the front yard has been wonderful so far, considering that we are since four years in a severe drought here in California, have mandatory water restrictions and had already two heat waves.

I would estimate that the blooms of some rose varieties are one third smaller than usual this year and also the quantity of flowers is a little less, but it amazes me how much the roses are still able to bloom under these very difficult conditions.

It is certainly one of my favorite times of the year!

'Marie Pavie' has almost reached the peak of her spring flush.

The rose in the middle of the photo is 'Our Lady of Guadalupe' of which I am growing three specimen altogether in the front yard. Like every year this rose struggles with powdery mildew, but its ability to bloom seems to be not diminished by that. In the blue container to the left of 'Our Lady of Guadalupe' I have a geranium Martha Washington 'Regal Elegance Rose Bicolor' growing, which I almost threw away last year, because it was plagued by White Flies. Now I am so glad that I didn't. I think is goes well with 'Our Lady of Guadalupe' and I am considering to plant it into the ground in this location later this year.

I still like my two obelisks with the hummingbird wind chimes a lot. They are set up opposite to each other at the sides of the walkway to the house. The blue of the hummingbird is a nice contrast to the white blooms of the 'Climbing Iceberg' rose peaking around the corner in the background and to the off-white flowers of the 'Old Fashioned Girl' miniature rose in the foreground.

This is the view of our front door that you get, when you are standing directly in front of it on the street.

But you can't walk up to the front door in a straight way, you have to enter the curvy walkway that leads up to it from the side and this is what you see when you are about to do that. The white rose in front of the garage is 'Climbing Iceberg'. The white rose spilling over the decorative wall to the left is 'Marie Pavie' and the light pink rose in the middle of the picture is another 'Our Lady of Guadalupe'.

The Pygmy Date Palm in the previous photo above is underplanted with penstemons - sorry, their name has escaped me - which have become weaker and weaker over the years. I believe that the palm roots are suffocating them. Still some were able to bloom this year, again. They have such a pretty blue color and I love the bell shaped flowers.

When I open my front door looking down to the street this photo shows exactly what I see. This year I have placed four Martha Washington geraniums in the front yard either in containers or planted into the ground and I am very pleased with the color that they add in addition to the flowering roses. I think they complement them very well.

View of the flower bed to the left side directly by the front door. The rose to the very left is 'Our Lady of Guadalupe'. The rose in the center of the photo is 'The Prince', which barely had started to flower when I took the picture. To the feet of 'The Prince I planted geranium Martha Washington 'Regal Elegance Purple Majesty', which picks up the color of 'The Prince' perfectly.

Before you leave our walkway to the house to enter the street, you pass by 'Marie Pavie' and get a nice whiff of her myrrh fragrance, that is wafting through the air. The rose to her left is 'Pretty Jessica', which hasn't bloomed yet. On the right side of 'Marie Pavie' I took out a very garish alstroemeria this winter and replaced it by a lavender colored miniature rose called 'Lavender Crystal'. Unfortunately, the miniature rose is struggling after the transplant from the container into the ground, but I hope it will settle in and grow into a strong, floriferous plant. The lavender flowers of this rose are quite exquisite!

Writing up this post has made me a bit melancholic, because I wonder how long I still will be able to grow roses in my Southern California garden. The reason for this is, that as of April 1st this year California Governor Jerry Brown has imposed mandatory water restrictions for the whole state of California. He demanded a 25 percent cut in water use.

As I said in the beginning of this post, we have already mandatory water restrictions here in San Diego effective since the 1st of November 2014. But I fear, that with the latest announcement of the Governor, the City of San Diego has to increase the currently existing water restrictions even more.

Up to now I couldn't imagine my garden without roses, but the situation is very serious, so maybe I have to start to get used to the idea...

Wishing everyone a great new week!

See you in the garden!

Christina

Overall March was a difficult month for the roses. We had already heatwaves that early in the year, which led to many roses not developing their gorgeous big spring flower shapes that I am used to see in previous years. Also many rose varieties couldn't deal with these high temperatures and their petals started to crisp.

Besides that, thrips have been a huge problem. I don't recall having so much thrip damage on the roses like this spring ever. These sucking insects are causing the rose petals to show ugly brown spots, especially on the edges. Since I am not only gardening organically, but also don't spray my roses to prevent insect damage, I just have to live with things like this and usually I am fine with that, but this year thrips really have been a nuisance.

That being said, I still had many nice roses in March and some rose varieties weren't showing hardly any problems at all. Of course, for an organic rose gardener like me it is utterly important to find the rose varieties that do well in my climate and are even able to deal with especially difficult climate situations like we had this March.

If I would have to give a price away for the best rose last month, it would go to 'Pope John Paul II'. What you see on the photo above is just one spray on a new basal cane. This rose is just gorgeous!

The same spray a little bit more open. Love it! The fragrance is heavenly, too.

This was the very first bloom on 'Grandmother's Hat'. A very healthy Hybrid Perpetual rose with lovely matte green foliage.

You can see 'Grandmother's Hat' to the very right with her first bloom really standing out. The other two Hybrid Perpetual roses in this bed, in the middle 'Reine des Violettes' and to the left 'Yolande d'Aragon, are very much behind 'Grandmother's Hat' in terms of their flowering time.

The blooms of 'Grandmother's Hat' vary greatly in color. In cool weather they are a much darker pink than in warm weather, were the color of the flower fades quickly to a much lighter and paler pink. I like this rose in all color stages, though.

Here you can see that 'Grandmother's Hat' really got going and just a few days after I photographed her first bloom there were many more flowers open on the bush.

Depending in what stage you catch the flowers of 'Grandmother's Hat', they may show their warm yellow stamens, which I find quite charming.

Here is a shot of one of the first blooms of 'Pierre de Ronsard' taken early in the morning. This rose has such a romantic quality. I am always fascinated by it.

'Old Fashioned Girl' is a very reliable, floriferous miniature rose in my garden. On this picture she just started to bloom.

This is a relatively "new to my garden" Hybrid Tea rose that I am really excited about. I love lavender colored roses, but good ones are hard to come by. I bought 'Neptune' based on positive reviews that I read on an internet rose forum and have to say I am not disappointed. I like that the rose is lavender colored, but with a cerise blending. The reverse is cerise and the petals edging can be cerise as well. This coloration makes a very interesting looking bloom. The flowers have been big, very fragrant and of good form so far.

Here is the same bloom of 'Neptune', but fully open. The flower has much faded into a more clear lavender in comparison to the previous photo. When this rose was blooming, it was very hot and if you look closely, you can see that the edges of the rose petals are slightly crisped. The rose bush is still relatively small and hasn't taken the transplant from a two gallon pot to a big terracotta container very well. I am really curious what it will be doing in the future and can't wait for the next flush of blooms.

For a comparison: This is 'Sweetness', my other lavender Hybrid Tea rose. It is always a clear lavender color and is also very pretty in my opinion.

'Our Lady of Guadalupe' is blooming her head of, heat or not. But this rose can have a very elegant flower form, which wasn't the case in this year's spring flush due to the heat.

I started this post with a white rose and will end it with another (almost) white one. This is a cluster of 'Marie Pavie' hanging into my walkway to the front door. I always love her dainty blooms.

Hope all of you have a good week ahead of you!

See you in the garden!

Christina

If you compare photos of the White Garden Bed from the end of April with the ones from the end of March there seems to be less white color in the bed, which is due to the fact that two of the roses planted there ('Auckland Metro' to the very right and 'Chandos Beauty', second rose from the left) are done with their spring flush.

I decided to completely deleaf and prune back 'Moonstone', the rose between the two cycads, because it was so plagued by rose rust and powdery mildew that I thought this would be the last chance for it to recover. Only 'Pope John Paul II', the rose to the very left is gearing up for a new flush right now.

April 2015

March 2015

Here is a close-up of 'Moonstone' after my radical treatment. I don't have much hope for this rose though, because it has been notoriously sick with rust and mildew for at least two years now and that seems to have weakened the rose quite a bit. I think I would be better off to replace it with another more disease resistant white rose.

April 2015

March 2015

The biggest and most impressive change in the bed from March to April is the made by the cycad to the left though, that is producing a new layer of fronds. Watching this new layer grow is really fun, because it is such a quick and impressive process, a real spectacle of nature.

Here I zoomed in on the cycad. I wonder if the new layer of fronds will be able to reach its normal size, because of the ongoing drought and also the heat waves that we are having already. Today for example the highest temperatures have been 88 degrees Fahrenheit (31 degrees Celsius) and it is only spring! Summer with its real intense heat is yet to come.

The only new plants that I have been able to add to the White Garden Bed in the last month are a six pack of dianthus 'Floral Lace White'. These poor things have been sitting in my pot ghetto for one year. Isn't it unbelievable? They must be very tough little plants to survive this and I hope they really will take off now that they are planted in the ground.

After planting I watered the dianthus with fish emulsion and I think they have perked up and the green of the foliage looks a bit darker already.

One plant that positively has surprised me is the heuchera 'Venus', which I planted last month. It seems to be unphased by the heat so far. Only the snails have damaged it a little bit and it is time to put down some Sluggo, an organic snail bait, to protect the heuchera. I am still in love with its silvery leaves with the dark green veining.

April 2015

March 2015

Another plant that has been a delight is the alstroemeria Princess Lilies 'Claire' (right in front of the left cycad), which is flowering continuously since over a month now.

The Hybrid Tea Rose 'Pope John Paul II' is adding some dots of white color to the very left of the White Garden Bed. On the photos 'Pope John Paul II' looks good, but if you see the rose in reality you will recognize that it is badly ridden by thrips, causing the edges of the flower petals to become brown.

In all the years I am having this rose I only had that happen one spring flush so far. For that reason I hope, that the rose is able to shake of the thrips, when it flowers next time. The blooms of this rose are also substantially smaller than usual, which I believe is due to the drought and heat. But small blooms are better than no blooms, right?

Even though I am a day too late, I am linking my post to Helen's End of Month View meme at her blog The Patient Gardner's Weblog. Hope you join me in hoping over to her blog and have a peak at what other gardener's gardens look like by the end of April.

Wishing everyone a lovely weekend with nice weather and plenty of time to enjoy spring in the yard or somewhere else outdoors.

See you in the garden!

Christina

As usual I have taken tons of photos this spring in my garden, that I didn't get around to publish. So I thought I will just put a post together with at least a small selection of them.

The calla lilies, zantedeschia aethiopica, which are growing in urns by the pool, were flowering fabulously in early spring this year, when the temperatures were still relatively moderate.

I am always fascinated by the elegance and simplicity of a calla lily bloom.

Two new chartreuse/lime green colored heucheras with ruffled leaves (did I tell you that I have a weakness for chartreuse colored plants?), made it into my garden. The name of the variety is heuchera 'Lime Marmelade' and they are supposed to retain the chartreuse color well year-round.

Ajuga reptans 'Catlin's Giant', also called Buggleweed or Carpet Buggle, was blooming generously in a lovely deep blue hue, which you don't find that often in the plant kingdom. The green-bronze foliage is quite attractive as well.

My white bearded iris 'Platinum' reluctantly gave me only a few spring blooms, but at least it did. I was taking photos of the blooms in different light conditions. Here it is on a gray overcast morning.

Same variety back lit in the late afternoon...

... and hit by sunlight from the front. I think, it is amazing how different the flowers look depending on the changing light conditions.

The 'Lavender Crystal' miniature rose, produced blooms in an absolutely stunning bluish/lavender color. Apart from the color I also like the flower form of this variety very much.

I have transplanted 'Lavender Crystal' from a container into the ground last year November already, but the rose is still struggling, only able to grow into this spindly very small shrub. I guess, it is time for some pampering with fish emulsion and hopefully that helps.

Alstroemeria Princess Lilies 'Claire' blooms continuously and tirelessly since weeks and is one of my favorite plants in the garden right now.

My white cyclamen (variety unknown) in the blue container bloomed very floriferously this spring, which I believe is due to a good feeding with fish emulsion. This stuff can help some plants to achieve amazing performances. Martha Washington geranium 'Regal Elegance Purple Majesty' in front of the cyclamen just started to flower in this photo.

Here are some close-ups of the blooms of the Martha Washington geranium 'Regal Elegance Purple Majesty'. It was flowering very happily and still is, but right now needs a good deadheading.

I am really in love with the color of this particular variety.

It is very easy to grow in my garden...

...and the blooms are almost always perfect.

I have another Martha Washington geranium 'Regal Elegance Rose Bicolor', which seen by itself is pretty as well,...

...but the color is very bright and bold and not so easy to integrate in my cool color garden scheme. I seem to go back and forth by the week, if I really like it or not in the front yard.

Floriferous 'Climbing Iceberg' rose strutting her stuff.

'Grandmother's Hat in her full swing. This rose has a wonderful perfume...

...and the blooms can be outstandingly beautiful.

'Reine des Violettes' is a little bit of a diva in my garden, that requires extra attention and the bush itself so far is not a lovely sight, but the blooms and fragrance, oooh my...

My white camellias 'Nuccio's Gem' were a mess this year. I blame the drought, early heatwaves and the water restrictions for all the scorched, brown and balled blooms. But every now and then one opened to perfection. These camellias were so breathtakingly beautiful last year (here is the link to my post about them from previous year), so it is really sad to see them suffer like they did this spring. Even though the climate data doesn't give much reason for it, one can always hope for a better next year...

An unknown light green cymbidium orchid was blooming its heart out this spring. You see how many flower stalks it had and, as far as I remember, I had cut already a few to fill my vases indoors when I took this photo. The plant itself is not the most prettiest sight, though. I assume, that is was sitting in too much water, which can lead to the brown leaves. Maybe the drainage hole in the pot is clogged...

The blooms are so gorgeous, pure and perfect...

...and I simply love, love, love the light green color.

Before I leave you I just have to share that we had rain yesterday and the temperatures dropped down quite a bit to 56 F/13 C. Altogether we maybe got a little bit over an inch of rain (25.4 mm) or so (note to the gardener: I have to get a rain gauge!). For most of you this is probably not worth mentioning, but with the severe drought and heat that we are having here in California, it was really a reason to be happy for me and it looks like the plants felt the same.

See you in the garden!

Christina

April is usually a wonderful month for rose lovers in San Diego. The main rose spring flush happens around the second week of April and rose growing has been very fairly easy here so far.

Except this year, at least in my organic, no-spray garden. I had major problems with rust, powdery mildew and thrips last month and on some roses the whole spring flush was ruined. Others were soldering on no matter what. I suspect, that four years of drought and heat, plus the recently imposed mandatory water restrictions have finally taken a toll on my roses, but I refuse to be bogged down by that. I will focus on the rose varieties that will still survive and maybe even thrive under the current conditions and find out by try and error which roses that will be.

Maybe the ones of you, who are also garden in hot, arid and dry conditions can benefit from my experiences and I would be happy if you would share yours by making comments about which rose varieties do well for you in your garden.

I am starting out with a photo of a cluster of 'Heritage', a David Austin rose, that I planted into the ground about two years ago. The blooms of this rose can be incredible beautiful as this picture shows,..

..., but they shatter very quickly, when it is hot, sometimes within a day or two.

The bush itself wants to be lanky and big and the rose suffers from powdery mildew and rust.

Thrips have been a problem this spring as well, but not to the degree other roses got molested.

My conclusion so far is that despite the wonderful blooms I wouldn't recommend this rose for a similar climate based on the problems mentioned above. I most likely will give mine one more year, but if it doesn't improve it may have to make room for another contender.

The rose above is 'Pretty Jessica', another of David Austin's creations. Surprisingly this rose has been its best ever this year. Partly that might be due to the fact that I was fertilizing the rose more generously, which seems to be necessary because of the palm root competition that it has to put up with. The rose is planted in more shade than roses usually like, but despite of this, it is totally healthy.

As far as I can see by now, this is a great rose for my climate. Another thing that 'Pretty Jessica' has going for it is that the size stays manageable (2 - 3 feet/ 60 - 90 cm), which can't not be said of many David Austin roses in my climate.

'Mister Lincoln' is an old standby in my area. This rose likes a warm climate (but maybe not as hot as it has been here in the recent years) and flowers reliably.

The fragrance is absolutely wonderful on this variety.

As you can see in the photo above when it gets too hot the rose petals fry, but on days where very high temperatures are forecasted I simply cut the flowers for indoors and therefore don't mind too much.

The flower shape can be very classical Hybrid Tea and if you like that, this rose may appeal to you.

I can't say too much about the bush form since my rose is still growing in a five gallon container, which of course doesn't allow the rose to fully develop. Disease resistance seems to be OK so far.

'Nimbus' is coming up with the most interesting and pleasing brownish-pinkish hues on warm days. This rose is also suffering from powdery mildew, but its ability to bloom doesn't seem to be too much affected by that.

I caught a couple of blooms of 'The Prince' with the camera last month. This rose is not doing well this year. It suffers from powdery mildew and the blooms fry very easily in high heat.

The rose is approximately in its second year in the ground and has started to become a tall but narrow bush. The plant itself is not necessarily a pretty sight!

But when the blooms of this rose are good, then they are outstandingly beautiful and for that reason it will stay at least one more year with me.

'Iceberg' is another old standby in Southern California. This variety is often planted at gas stations or integrated into the landscaping of shopping malls, which indicates how little care it needs to do well.

Mine is planted in a big terracotta container, which I positioned between two huge Washingtonia Palms, because anything planted into the ground there would be just suffocated by the beastly palm roots.

My 'Iceberg' rose isn't even fertilized this year (bad gardener, I know!), but still managed to churn out a nice flush.

'Chandos Beauty' is a relatively new rose to me so I haven't made up my judgement, yet.

The blooms can be absolutely gorgeous and they are of a humongous size. Fragrance is very strong on this variety.

The plant got very lanky last year, but this year it seems to stay more bushy and mannerly.

This dainty little pink rose, which here is forming a posy just naturally by itself together with salvia 'Mystric Spires Blue', is called 'Pink Pet'. I like it very much and the plant is completely healthy in my climate, but the fragile blooms fry easily in the heat.

I have two plants of 'Charles Darwin' growing in containers to the right and left side of my kitchen door, which leads to the backyard.

This rose has produced consistently beautiful blooms of considerable size that last relatively long on the bush and in the vase. I like its particular yellow...,

...which fades out to a light pale yellow as the blooms age. This rose is definitively one that I would recommend for my climate.

'Reine des Violettes' has done its name justice and has given me some of the most beautiful violet blooms last month. Most of the times the flowers have a more ordinary cerise color,...

...but when the conditions are right it can grace you with these amazing violet rose flowers.

I hope you enjoyed seeing some of the roses that bloomed in April for me in my garden. This May the weather has been cooler than in the previous years and we even had some rain. You can imagine that the roses responded very well to this, but that will be the topic of the next May Roses post.

Wishing you lovely spring weather, wherever you are.

See you in the garden!

Christina

We were having an usual cool Memorial Day weekend here in San Diego (highest temperatures today were about 70 F/21 C and lowest temperatures predicted at 56 F/13 C) with mostly gray skies with very little sun and even a light drizzle from time to time, but unfortunately really not enough to water the plants.

I worked on Saturday, but had yesterday and today off and got at least some gardening done, like planting my last white dianthus (how many dianthus can one plant?) and finally fertilized all roses in containers on the terrace for the first time this year. I know that is way too late, but hey, nobody is perfect. I also weeded and cleaned out the Calla Lilies of spent flowers and yellow leaves. Since the weather was bad I didn't take any pictures this weekend, but was going over photos from the last weeks and would like to show you some of those tonight.

The decent rains that we were getting lately did wonders to the garden. And the rain drops look beautifully on some of the plants. Here is a photo of Stachys ‘Helene von Stein’, more commonly known as Lamb's Ear.

Close-up shot of Stachys 'Helene Von Stein'. Don't the rain drops remind you of diamonds? Who needs real diamonds when you can have something like this for free?

Zooming in even closer. Nature is simply fascinating!

My second alstroemeria 'Little Miss Sophie' has finally bloomed, after giving her plenty of fertilizer.

I think it is such a pretty variety and the best thing is, that the flower stalks don't flop over, because they stay short and don't become leggy like so many other varieties do.

I didn't have too many blooms on my Calla Lilies, zantedeschia aethiopica, but the ones that I got were lovely. Unfortunately, Calla Lilies are anything but drought tolerant, so their future in my garden is uncertain.

I went to the spring garden tour of the San Diego Horticultural Society. Besides the gardens that could be visited they had a big market place where many vendors were selling plants and garden related items. I came late and things were pretty much picked over, but these two beauties immediately caught my eye and I managed to get a hold of them. As far as I remember the vendor told me that they are miniature pelargoniums and he claimed to have bred these plants himself.

This one is called 'Linda Zee'. I really love the cheerful little flowers. Usually the color of the flowers would be a little bit too bright for my taste, but somehow it didn't bothered me at all. As a matter of fact I really find them quite charming exactly how they are.

The other one 'Cornelia O Plume' picks up exactly the color hues of a regular size Martha Washington pelargonium that I already have in my garden. I think these two are just the perfect addition to my small collection of pelargoniums. Now I just have to find a good place in the garden for both of them.

To my knowledge coleus are annuals, but I cut mine (coleus 'Wasabi') back hard in winter anyway and to my surprise it came back just fine. It actually stayed more compact so far than last year, which I like even better. The chartreuse color of the variety is just perfect!

My recently bought heucheras 'Lime Marmelade' got planted into the ground in close proximity to the chartreuse coleus mentioned above and are doing fine. For a heuchera you can call them almost vigorous, which is rare in my climate. And so far they hold their chartreuse color well, just as the label promised.

My white flowering bell flowers (unfortunately I lost the label with the name of the variety) are blooming for the first time since three years and have formed a nice ground cover around one of my Pygmy Date Palms. I believe that this is due to the winter rains that we got.

For many of you maybe not so special, but I just love the dainty white blooms.

First open bloom on my dark violet gladiolus (sorry, I have lost the label of this variety, too).

A few days later the plants looked like this. Gladiolus offer only a short show in my climate, but they are totally worth growing in my opinion.

My 'Iceberg' beaming in the morning sun!

Hardy geranium 'Rozanne' seem to be even more blue after the rain.

And now we come to the caterpillar.

I found two of these hairy fellows in my garden. One was happily munching the petals of my white Hybrid Tea 'Pope John Paul II' and therefore needed to be provided with another food source outside of my garden!

Doesn't he look fascinating?

For a better size idea we put him on the cuff of my husband's shirt.

The caterpillar was quite agile and quickly made it down to my husband's knuckles...

...and fingers. My husband tried to identify him but no luck so far. Does anyone of you have an idea what the name of this guy is? Does he become a butterfly or a moth?

Always interested in trying out tech things my husband put his Iphone on the concrete of our terrace and took this slowmo video of the caterpillar. At the beginning and end you see the real time speed of this little guy. I think he was impressively fast.

Just want to mention at the end that recently I passed 250.000 pageviews. That is a quarter million clicks on my blog! I find this a mind boggling number considering that I am not blogging that often. Thank you all for visiting and reading my blog, you made my day!

See you in the garden!

Christina

This month I didn't do many new plantings in the White Garden Bed, since I was very busy working in other parts of the garden. In general at this time of the year maintenance already occupies the biggest chunk of my garden time (gosh, how I wish I had more of that!), so planting new plants takes a back seat.

Nonetheless I planted six more white flowering dianthus 'Floral Lace White'. Besides that I cut back one layer of fronds on the left cycad and weeded the bed thoroughly. Other than that I just enjoyed seeing the plants grow and bloom.

To support my white gray/silver color scheme in this bed I placed a white terracotta sphere, that I previously had positioned elsewhere in the garden. I also put two new silver garden glass balls on wooden dowel rods and stuck them into 'Moonstone', the Hybrid Tea rose that takes center stage in this bed, to add a little bit more interest. I bought the silver garden balls, they are called Rosenkugeln (rose balls) in German, together with my mother when I was visiting her in Germany last year and, because of the memories that are attached to them, they are very special to me.

May 2015

April 2015

If you compare the photo from May to the one from April the White Garden Bed has filled out nicely, especially in the center. The teeny-tiny dianthus plants in the middle in the front of the bed have grown quite a bit. 'Moonstone', the rose in the center of the bed, which I had to defoliate last month because of a severe infestation with rose rust, has leaved out again.

Here is a closer look at the middle section of the bed.

To my own surprise after deleaving 'Moonstone', the new foliage came back completely healthy and the rose has now set plenty of buds.

I am really in love with these glass balls. They have an interesting finish which reminds me a bit of glass Christmas ornaments and it might be the same technique in which they are produced. They echo the silver gazing ball that is positioned on a white column more to the left of the bed.

May 2015

April 2015

Here is the second view that I always show in my End of the Month View post. I am quite happy with the way this part of the bed looks in comparison to last month. There is still more soil to see than I would like to, but I am working on that. By the way, alstroemeria Princess Lilies 'Claire', the plant in front of the left cycad, blooms profusely since two months now! It has given me so much joy already and I am so very happy that I purchased it in the first place!

Zooming in a little closer...

This picture shows the white terracotta sphere a little better. It has a nice ornamental surface, but could use a new coat of paint. One more item to put on the garden to-do-list. The plant next to it to the right is geranium 'Biokovo', which has really bulked up in the last couple of months.

I am a little bit concerned about the cycad. It has made a new layer of fronds, but they seem to be smaller in terms of the length and size than usual and so far they don't unfold properly. Hopefully that will still happen.

May 2015

April 2015

The third regular view of the month shows the whole bed seen from the left side over to the right. To the very left a white flowering agapanthus (sorry, don't know the name of the variety anymore) is just starting to bloom. The yellow leaves that you can see behind the white column with the silver gazing ball belong to amaryllis belladonna 'Fred Meyer Whites'. It is normal for this plant that the foliage completely dries up before summer, but of course it doesn't look that great in the moment. In an ideal world all four roses ('Pope John Paul II', 'Chandos Beauty', 'Moonstone', 'Auckland Metro') would bloom right now, but, oh well...

Here is the white agapanthus getting ready to bloom. It has a good amount of flower stalks this year and it should be spectacular when all the blooms are open.

Close-up of an agapanthus flower.

The rose that is blooming profusely right now is 'Auckland Metro'. Her foliage was also somewhat affected by rose rust and I had to pluck a few infected leaves, but overall the bush still looks decent...

...as you can see if I get a little closer. The flowers of this rose are huge and they have a good form.

Here I caught one bloom of 'Auckland Metro' with the camera that came close to perfection!

I leave you with one more shot from a different angle of my White Garden Bed.

Hope you enjoyed this entry. Please do pop over to Helen from the Patient Gardener's Weblog, who kindly hosts this great End of the Month View meme and take a peek at what other gardens look like by the end of May.

I would like to finish by extending a warm welcome to all my new followers. I am so glad you found me in the vast world of the internet and decided to visit me regularly!

See you in the garden!

Christina

Yes, well, you must be a tech guy/girl.

No, you are like me. Or like I was until three weeks ago. That was when my husband, who is interested in all new technical developments told me about Periscope, a live video broadcast application for your smart phone, that allows you to send live videos to anyone who knows your twitter user name. The live video streams are also available in the mobile application itself. My husband thought that it would be a great application that I could use to broadcast live and globally about our garden. First I dismissed it, but later changed my mind. The possibility that I could invite all of you for a garden tour, even though it is only a virtual one, was way to tempting.

So about two weeks ago I pulled all my courage together and produced my first live Periscope broadcast about the White Garden Bed that I also blog about monthly. You have to know that I am a pretty shy person and doing this is way out of my comfort zone, but I think it is good to try out new things and sometimes you need to push yourself a little bit beyond your limits.

I don't want to discuss the technical possibilities of Periscope here on my blog, since I feel that would lead too far and it looks like that even the experts don't know yet. Periscope is still very new and seems to develop itself further every day. If it will be top or flop, only the future will tell, but I thought that it would be interesting for gardeners, who want to share their gardens, plants and experiences with a broader public.

Surprisingly I discovered that I enjoyed the experience of doing the broadcast and for the very first try ever, I think it didn't go too bad. There are a couple of things that I would like to change: first of all my strong German accent (yikes, I didn't know that it was that bad); that I was mixing up words, because I was so nervous; that I could focus more on the content of what I was about to say and not be so distracted by holding the phone camera and lastly refine my overall camera skills. So there is lots of room for improvement, of course, but I believe with more practice it will get better.

Periscope only saves the broadcasts for 24 hours, but my husband uploaded the video on YouTube. If you would like to see it, please click on the video below.

Last weekend I gave Periscope a second shot. This time I was broadcasting about part of our front yard and I think, I was already doing a little better. I spoke more slowly and the camera movement was not so erratic anymore. Here is the video of the second Periscope broadcast:

I intend to continue with these live broadcasts from my garden and other gardens that I visit. They will later appear on YouTube, so that if someone missed the 24 hour Periscope window, one still can see them.

If you want to watch my next live Periscope entry, please follow me on twitter (@csgardendreams). Then you get a tweet when I am going live. In case you are not able to watch me live, you can see the broadcast on Periscope within 24 hours after you got the tweet. After that you can visit my YouTube channel and watch the video there.

I am curious what you think about this new media? I would be thrilled if we could have a little discussion in the comment section.

See you in the garden!

Christina

Powdery mildew and rose rust continued to be a serious problem for many of my roses in May. Rust was particularly strong in comparison to previous years, but despite that, most of the roses soldiered on and flowered beautifully.

'Rhodologue Jules Gravereaux', a Tea Rose, was my personal favorite last month. I just love the soft pink color and the elegant blooms with the edges of the petals reflexing backwards.

'Charles Darwin' stayed very healthy despite the high disease pressure.

A rose that makes a rare appearance on my blog is 'Stephen's Big Purple', a Hybrid Tea rose, with huge blooms. The plant is still growing in a two gallon pot and that might be one reason why it is not blooming that often. For my taste the color is a little bit too bright and rather a dark pink than a purple as the name promises. If I ever plant it out into the ground, I definitively need "to tone the color down" by companion plants.

'Belinda's Dream' is supposed to do well in hot and dry climates and it does in my garden. It is planted very close to a big 'Queen Palm' and I assume for that reason is not as vigorous as expected.

Here is another shot of 'Belinda's Dream'. I like the particular pink color of this rose very much.

'Marie Pavie', as usual, is outdoing itself with flowering.

'Our Lady of Guadalupe' is also hard to beat in terms of flower power.

In my opinion the silvery pink color is very pretty.

'Reine des Violettes' at her best! This rose has a very lovely fragrance as well, fitting for an Old Garden Rose.

'Georgetown Tea', as the name indicates a Tea Rose, has a beautiful veining on the petals. Unfortunately, the rose blooms fry very easily when it is hot in San Diego and a whole flush can be ruined within hours on hot days.

'Auckland Metro' continues to be a good rose in my garden, but even though the bush normally has been very healthy, this year it also got affected by rose rust.

The rose was still blooming strongly despite the disease present on the leaves.

'Heritage' was one of the worst mildewers and rusters! If the blooms weren't so beautiful...

...I would have discarded the rose by now, already.

The blooms of 'The Prince' continue to fascinate me with their dark red captivating color and their strong "Old Garden Rose" fragrance.

The bush itself (here you can see it in my front yard in the middle of the photo) is less delightful, though. The plant is tall and has a narrow silhouette, not necessarily a pleasing bush form to the eye. The rose also suffers badly from powdery mildew in my garden and seemed to be weakened by the fungal infection.

By the way, do you see my violet gladiolus behind 'The Prince'? They have been outstanding this year and I really like how they back up 'The Prince' and fit in with the blue color scheme of the front yard.

The flowers of 'The Prince' are one of a kind, no matter what the flaws of the bush might be, they are stunningly beautiful.

I am finishing this post with a photo of 'Sweetness', a Grandiflora, photographed under gray skies. The light brought out the clear lavender color of this rose perfectly that day.

Wishing you wonderful last days of spring!

See you in the garden!

Christina

Just a few hours ago I did another Periscope broadcast about some plants (mainly roses) in our backyard. I am featuring my Hybrid Perpetual Bed with two lovely chartreuse colored plants, a coleus and a heuchera. Then I move on to gardenia 'Veitchii', the Tea Rose 'Georgetown Tea', the Tea Noisette 'Madame Alfred Carriere' and 'Belinda's Dream'. Lastly I show you the Hybrid Tea rose 'Moonstone'. The latter is blooming incredible today! Maybe you would like to have a peek into my garden on this hot summer solstice day!

You can watch the broadcast on Periscope 24 hours after it was taken. My Periscope/Twitter username is csgardendreams.

The video is also on YouTube, just click here:

Wishing you all a beautiful beginning of summer!

See you in the garden!

Christina

My husband and I went for a mini-vacation to Portland, Oregon last week and, besides other things, visited the Japanese Garden there. I have to say that this was quite a memorable experience. We were very lucky with the weather that day, actually during our whole stay in Portland, and the light and the shadows were just so remarkable beautiful when we toured the garden.

It is said that the Japanese Garden in Portland is one of the most authentic outside of Japan. I don't know if that is true or not, but for sure this garden is of extraordinary beauty. My husband and I just felt instantly calm, peaceful and a strong connection to nature, in short, a sense of happiness. I think it is wonderful when a garden can affect a person that way and I am sure, we are not the only ones.

It was created by Professor Takuma Tono in 1963, who is obviously a master of this art, on 5.5 acres and contains five different gardens/garden styles: Strolling Pond Garden, Tea Garden, Natural Garden, Sand and Stone Garden, Flat Garden. To me this garden felt way bigger than it actually is, probably because it is surrounded by a typical Pacific Northwest forest, so you don't perceive where the designed Japanese Garden ends and the natural woods begins.

When we entered the Portland Japanese Garden this is one of the first scenes that we saw and I immediately knew that we were in for something very special.

I turned back to the entrance gate and spotted this beautiful simple bell.

Also close to the entrance to the right and left side were two Fu Dogs watching over the garden.

I was surprised to find some azaleas still blooming so profusely at this time of the year.

When I spotted this gardener hard at work, I assumed that she would pinch off spent azaleas blooms and was impressed that they paid so much attention to detail in this garden.

I asked, if I could take a picture of her and we started talking, and I was more than surprised to find out that she wasn't just pinching off spent blooms from the bush, but pinching off all flowers. That was of course a startling discovery, so she was quick to explain that this was a decision made by the "higher level" of the garden management. The reasoning behind it is, that azalea blooms are out of season by now and therefore didn't go with the authentic look that a Japanese Garden should have at this time of the year.

Anyway, I loved these mossy stones with the white sparse azalea blooms.

An especially beautiful pagoda.

I don't think that it is coincidence that the pagoda mimics the tall needle trees behind her.

This area is the Strolling Pond Garden.

I was fascinated by the moss hanging from the branches of this tree. So beautiful with the sunlight shining on it.

One of the many Japanese lanterns, scattered, or better said carefully placed throughout the garden.

Another gardener doing very detailed pruning on a shrub. I wonder how many people are working in this place.

Light dancing on this azalea bush.

A traditional Japanese Tea House, striking in its simplicity. Sorry for the bad photo quality, but I wasn't able take a better shot with the strong contrasts of bright and dark in this area and didn't want to skip showing you this beautiful traditional building.

Moon Bridge in the Strolling Pond Garden.

The gardeners used what looked to me like traditional Japanese garden tools. They are beautiful by themselves.

One last look at the Strolling Pond Garden, which was one of the most harmonious areas in my perception.

Mossy lantern, so pretty!

There were many Japanese Maples in the garden. This one had very delicate leaves that were glowing in a bronze color in the sunlight.

Scene that seems to come right out of a Japanese fairy tale.

The Zig Zag Bridge.

The area around the Zig Zag Bridge was planted with one kind of a blue flowering iris. Unfortunately, the variety is unknown to me.

Close-up of the lovely iris blooms.

In this area was a nice Koi pond, filled with many differently colored Koi.

It was lovely to see the fish eating algae at the egdes of the Koi pond. They made slurping gurgling sounds by doing so, which somehow was entertaining and calming at the same time. I found the yellow golden Koi especially attractive.

I took many more photos of the Portland Japanese Garden, that I think are worth showing. So there will be a part II soon. Hope you come back to see more of this stunningly beautiful garden!

Christina

My apologies for coming in very late with my monthly post documenting the development of my White Garden Bed, but work simply didn't leave me any time to blog prior to today. The photos that I used for this post were all taken on June 29th though, so what you see is really how the bed looked at the end of June.

I have to say that for the first time since I started to take part in this meme, I am truly satisfied with my White Garden Bed. The plants have filled in nicely, there are lots of white flowers and you can finally see that it is designed with a monochromatic white color scheme in mind.

The biggest change that I made last month, I planted a new rose, you can't even see in the first view of that bed, but I come back to that later. Besides that I bought seven plants of Gaura lindheimeri 'Belleza White', which are placed behind the white column with the silver gazing ball. I also took off another layer of fronds of the right cycad, because I couldn't stand to look at the sunburned fronds anymore.

June 2015

May 2015

I think it is justified to call the change between May and June quite dramatic. The Dianthus 'Floral Lace White' are in full bloom and all four roses (from the left to the right: 'Pope John Paul II', 'Chandos Beauty', 'Moonstone' and 'Auckland Metro') are flowering more or less profusely.

Here is a bud of 'Moonstone', the rose in the center of the bed, that is just opening. Very beautiful rose, but the leaves are starting to become infected with rose rust, again.

Mature bloom of 'Moonstone'. The flowers are undeniable very pretty, but I am never really happy with a rose, when the leaves are very sickly.

When I started to participate in the End of Month View meme, this white angle shot was my initial first view. Between the last rose to the left and the Pygmy Date Palm to the very right there was just a huge crater of a hole, which is now filled with a rose and plenty of soil. Unfortunately, you can barely make out the small leaveless canes in front of the dark blue post of the fence.

I had a little mishap with this rose, because right after I planted it, we went to Portland and when we came back all its leaves had gotten brown and most of them had already fallen off. I finished the job and plucked of the last leaves, in the hope that the rose would start to leave out again. I believe it was either over or under watered or it simply suffered from transplanting shock. Even though the rose looks like it is dead right now, I am relatively sure it will survive. I guess next month we will know more.

In this photo you can see the rose a little better. Initially I wanted to continue the White Garden Bed up to this area, but after much contemplation I decided that the White Garden Bed will become to big in proportion to the whole size of my backyard. So I decided to plant a pink rose ('Memorial Day') here to have a color transition to the area to the right side of the White Garden Bed. I am not entirely sure if this is the right decision, mainly because I have such a hard time to visualize anything. But the good thing is that if I don't like it, I always can change it.

June 2015

May 2015

In my second End of Month View it is very clear that the Hybrid Tea Rose 'Moonstone' has become the star of the White Garden Bed in the moment, but...

...'Chandos Beauty', the rose to the very right, can also produce very lovely blooms. At the time the photos were taken it had only two fully open flowers, but those were stunning.

I don't know why I am so crazy about this small plant, but I am really in love with Dichondra sericea 'Silver Ponyfoot' (it is the small plant in the foreground of the white garden statue). I think the metallic shine on the leave is just doing me in. For the longest time I thought the plant wouldn't make it, after it had been transplanted from a container into the ground, but now several month later it seems to have recovered and is growing actively. It is supposed to be drought tolerant, exactly what I need with the ongoing water restrictions.

My bearded Irises 'Platinum' surprised me positively. Both plants to the right and to the left of the rose 'Moonstone' in the middle of the White Garden Bed were blooming. Altogether I counted five flower stalks, which is unheard of so far. I think, Iris flowers are almost as pretty as rose blooms.

June 2015

May 2015

In my last End of Month View shot you can clearly see how profusely the white agapanthus is blooming. It is really fantastic this year. The leaves of the amaryllis belladonna behind the white column with the gazing ball have completely died back and I removed all the dried up parts.

Here is a close-up of the white agapanthus. Isn't this a beautiful flower? To me agapanthus in bloom is the substitut for the alliums that we can't grow here, because it is too warm.

Probably my most favorite rose in the whole garden: 'Pope John Paul II' growing right next to the agapanthus on the right side.

The flowers are hard to beat in terms of their beauty and for an Hybrid Tea Rose they come in great quantities and the rose has a quick repeat.

My husband cleaned up the dried up parts of the lamb's ears in the foreground. And they look so much better now. Behind them you see the Gaura lindheimeri 'Belleza White' more clearly. I haven't had time to plant them into the ground yet, but I think they will look quite nice there.

I am in love with the airy, butterfly like blooms. They are so dainty and seem to flutter if there is a light breeze. Best of all, Gauras are supposed to be really drought tolerant and planting them is another step to help my garden to cope with the drought conditions, but still look pretty.

Even though I am late, I am linking my post to Helen's The Patient's Gardeners Weblog, who kindly hosts the End of Month View meme each month. If you haven't visited her yet, please pop over and see how her's and other gardens looked by the end of June.

See you in the garden!

Christina

Following up my last post, I just want to let you know that I did another broadcast on Periscope about the White Garden Bed, which is now uploaded on YouTube. If you like to get a more vivid view of the bed, like as if you see it with your own eyes, please click on the video below.

One tip: The quality of a Periscope broadcast is very good if you watch it live or on replay on your smartphone, but it somewhat drops when you see it later on YouTube. For that reason I would recommend to watch the video not on full screen, but in a smaller window, which improves the perceived video quality quite a bit.

If you like to see more Periscope broadcasts that I have done or will be doing of my garden or other gardens that I visit, please follow me on twitter, username: @csgardendreams. You get a tweet when I go live on Periscope and if you are not able to join me then, the show will be saved on Periscope for the next 24 hours and you can watch it on replay. You can also go to my YouTube channel and see this video and other videos, that I have done so far, there.

Thanks for watching. Please let me know what you think and maybe see you next time live on Periscope!

Christina

Sometimes live has its own ways and this weekend it was taking me to a trip to Austin, Texas on short notice. Honestly, I love it when this happens, especially when I get to see a place, that I have never been to before.

As a passionate gardener, what first struck me is that Austin is much greener than I expected. I thought it would look much more deserty, but no, lots of green trees there, especially Oaks, some very mature and tons of Crape Myrtles. And lawns, vast areas of green lawns. One thing was as expected though, it was hot and when I say hot, then I mean hot. Highest average temperatures were around 97 F/ 36 C and lowest around 75 F/ 24 C. At 7:30 pm when we did a stroll through an East Austin neighborhood, where our accommodation was located, it was still 91 F/ 33 C.

I had the camera with me and would like to share with you some shots I took.

This beauty is 'Pride of Barbados', Caesalpinia pulcherrima, which was growing right in the front yard of the property where our cozy, self-catering cottage was located. This plant really seemed to enjoy the climate in Austin. We saw it growing and flowering prolifically in many places and it didn't seem to need much care.

I love how this front yard did go so well together with the house.

Same house, photo just taken a little bit more from the right side. The natural stones that they used for the hardscape looked great.

I guess this is a Rudbeckia growing together with a purple leaved plant, that I don't know the name of.

We saw this purple leaved plant quite often growing in Austin and each time I found it pretty stunning.

Thinking out of the box and growing tomatoes with the lasagna method directly on a regular lawn strip by the street. Seem to work well! Austin is proud to be weird.

I love how this shot turned out. I had to photograph directly into the sun, which usually ruins a photo, but here it is perfect how the sun is shining through the old Oak trees.

There were plenty of well grown Agaves to find in Austin.

Here is a bluish one.

A more modern style front yard.

The way the sun light hits the house and the stone sculpture caught my eye.

A white house I can never pass up without getting excited about it. Love the French doors!

Even sewer caps are decorated with the Lone Star of Texas.

My husband was longing for a cold local beer after a hot and exhausting day and we popped into the Thunderbird Cafe. Nice cafe with mainly a younger crowed of guests.

They had plenty of local beers there to choose from.

Returning back after a long day to our temporarily home the 'Pride of Barbados', backed up by a red Oleander, still fascinated me.

I can't believe how fast the time flew by in Austin. Now we are already on our way back home and the wait for our air plane to board is a good time to get this post out. Hope you enjoyed seeing some impressions of an Austin neighborhood.

We heard that San Diego got some good rain (unfortunately there was some flooding, too), while we were out of town, which is very unusual in summer and I can't wait to see how my own garden responds to it.

Wishing you a great week!

See you in the garden!

Christina

...and the handler, which is me, as well!

We had a fun dog training class with our rescue Doberman today in the morning. It was the first time that Skylar and I were trying us at agility jumps. Looks like I need more training than he does!

We have Skylar now for about seven months and he is doing great, admittedly after some initial hick-ups with mouthing and jumping, but some minor problems are to be expected when you take in a young rescue dog.

Unlike the vicious reputation of the Doberman Pinscher, Skylar doesn't seem to have a mean bone in his body and has never shown any aggression towards human beings or other dogs. As a matter of fact, he is a very sweet dog, with a temperament that is a little more on the anxious side. My husband and I really love him. Can you imagine that he could have been one of the estimated three to four million dogs and cats that are euthanized in American shelters each year according to the Humane Society of the United States?

Hope you enjoy the video done by my husband!

By the way, if you are looking for a great dog trainer in the San Diego area, I can highly recommend ours to you. Her name is Alexandra Gant (resultswithbehave). We are doing our dog training group classes with her and besides that she has helped us so much with any initial issues that we had with Skylar. For us as first time dog owners her advice was/is invaluable and the training classes with her are always fun for Skylar and for us.

Wishing everyone a nice rest of the weekend.

Christina

Sorry for not blogging for two weeks. My life went on overdrive again and there was simply no time to do it.

We are having a heatwave here in San Diego right now, with temperatures raising up to 98 F/37 C and it is very unpleasant to be outside. I can't take the heat very well and there is no way for me to garden in this weather except to do the absolutely necessary maintenance chores like deadheading and spot watering very early in the morning.

Nonetheless, today I managed to record another Periscope video, touring part of my backyard and showing two vases with roses from the garden. Skylar, our Doberman, had an unexpected guest appearance in there as well. Please have a look:

Hope you enjoyed the video and wishing everyone a nice weekend.

See you in the garden!

Christina

Work is still getting the better part of me, but I wanted to pop in with a quick post about roses that have bloomed this summer for me. Despite the scorching dry heat that we are having here in San Diego inland at this time of the year, some roses produced very lovely blooms in my garden.

'The Prince' outdid himself, again. This little casual arrangement brought so much joy to my heart.

'Auckland Metro' also delivered some outstandingly beautiful blooms...

...despite the adverse conditions of summer.

I am still fascinated by the lovely blooms of 'Lavender Crystal'.

This rose is planted in a very difficult spot, but is still able to gift me with its pretty blooms.

'Moonstone was doing great so far this summer.

This rose really loves the heat....

...and even needs it to bloom well.

'Yolande d'Aragon' surprised me with a decent second flush this year.

The fragrance of this rose is out of this world.

Another rose that flourishes in the heat is 'Pope John Paul II'.

The only red rose in my garden: 'Mister Lincoln'.

This is 'Climbing Devoniensis', a Tea Rose. It is a shame that it is still growing in a two gallon container and hasn't made its way into the ground, yet.

'Chandos Beauty' another rose that seem to like the heat of summer.

'Reine des Violettes' is one of my favorite roses in the garden.

This year the second flush was great for the first time that the rose is in the ground.

It seemed to be mature enough now that its ability to rebloom has increased.

To my eye the blooms of this rose are absolutely lovely, the straggly bush itself is another story, though. But nobody is perfect, right?

This is 'Captain Christy'. I am pampering this beauty in a container, but it is still not decided if this rose will be able to live in my garden.

It has very little vigor and even though it is producing blooms from time to time the little bush itself hasn't grown in size.

Hope you have enjoyed this post and my roses brought a smile to your face as they did to mine.

See you in the garden!

Christina

Two weekends ago I did another Periscope broadcast about my front yard and today I would like to share it here on the blog with you. I hope that you enjoy seeing videos of my garden as much as I do taping the Periscope shows.

In this one I focus on showing some roses ('Our Lady of Guadalupe', 'The Prince', 'Pretty Jessica') that were blooming in the front yard and also salvia 'Mystic Spires Blue', which is a show stopper in my garden. I am also featuring geranium 'Rozanne, dianthus 'Floral Lace White', flowering cyclamen and other plants.

Thanks for watching the video!

See you in the garden!

Christina

A few days ago I had the chance to visit the private garden of Peter Janke called HORTVS, located in Hilden, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. I have been wanting to see this garden for quite while now and I was very excited when the possibility opened up to me.

The property also contains a nursery and a garden and florist shop as well. In this post about HORTVS I start with showing you the area close to the garden and florist shop where some plants for sale were arranged in a very nice display. You simply had to buy plants there, or at least I would have if I would still live in Germany and not just visiting, as they were shown to their best advantage and you instantly got great ideas which plants would combine well with each other.

Since I love white gardens I was immediately drawn to this area containing white flowering and silver leaved plants. I was pleased to see that they made the effort to arrange the plants in beautiful, different and unusual mostly terracotta vessels.

The one plant that I really wanted for my own garden is this gem, called Eis Flockenblume, Centaurea candidissima 'Silverado'. The leaves were so soft to the touch. I have to see if I can find it in California as well.

Another one that I was smitten with was the Buschmalve, Lavatera 'Barnsley Baby'.

Aren't the blooms lovely?

Yes, these succulents were really this blue-gray color! Stunning!

These heucheras represent autumn so perfectly!

Actually, I could take all these plants and transport them to my own garden...

For me it doesn't get much better than these silver white leaves: Eis Flockenblume, Centaurea candidissima 'Silverado', again!

Most of the time I am not too keen on warm color schemes, but this display won even me over.

Lovely Dahlia, unfortunately I don't know the name of the variety.

I think the purple and red heucheras together with the yellow-chartreuse grasses just look so beautiful with the yellow and red flowering plants in the background.

Another display area focusing on grasses and green leaved plants. Grasses are a huge topic in this garden. They seem to be very trendy anyway in these days in the garden world!

Plants and vessels simply arranged with taste and love.

The metal structure that the climbing plants have conquered already is really cool.

Intriguing bowl with succulents.

They had a great selection of small succulents. I can't help but think that they are presented in the German way, neat and orderly! The one missing must have been just bought.

I just love their ability to arrange plants at HORTVS. Mouthwatering!

Again, dark purple heucheras together with chartreuse-yellow grasses. Just awesome!

Loved the Dahlia bloom in the flat bowl together with a very delicate water plant.

The entry to the garden and florist shop.

A new bust that is not kitsch like so many that you see in America. Unfortunately, I forgot to check the price tag.

The limbed-up trees to the left look pretty cool, don't you think?

I hope you have been as fascinated by their plants for sale display like I was.

In the near future I will be blogging about the garden itself. Let me tell you already, that you will be in for a real treat. Peter Jankes' garden is incredible beautiful in an understated, subtle and most unusual way.

Thanks for visiting my blog and wishing all of you a great start into the new week!

See you in the garden!

Christina

...baby pool that is!

This summer has been hot and partly surprisingly humid here in San Diego. A good reason to use our pool to cool down. Strangely my husband and I hardly hop in, but we thought maybe our beloved dog would like it, so we tried carefully to get him acquainted with the pool and slowly lure him in. But boy, were we wrong. Skylar was scared of the pool!

So my husband thought we start with baby steps and bought Skylar a baby pool. If you click on the video below you can watch Skylar's first four trials to explore the water.

I was surprised how quickly Skylar learned that there is no danger coming from stepping into the baby pool, but even up to today he isn't using it to cool himself down. He seems to be like my husband and I and simply isn't keen on pools. Well, he certainly fits into the family!

Christina

Rose Spring Flush in the Front Yard

March Roses

End of Month View - The White Garden Bed

More Spring from my Garden

April Roses

A Caterpillar and Some Random Garden Shots

End of Month View - The White Garden Bed

Ever heard about Periscope?

May Roses

Summer Solstice Garden Tour Video

Japanese Garden, Portland I

End of Month View - The White Garden Bed June

The White Garden Bed in June - Video

An Evening Neighborhood Stroll in Austin, Texas

Skyler, the Doberman is Learning Agility...

A Tour Through my Garden on a Very Hot Day

Summer Roses

Front Yard Garden Tour

HORTVS, the Private Garden of Peter Janke, Germany I

Skylar, the Rescue Doberman, is Loosing his Fear of the Pool...