White Cymbidium Orchids

My white cymbidium orchids have bloomed recently and even though they are already only a faded memory by now, I wanted to blog about them because they have been so pretty.

Here I have cut only two flower stalks for the house, but what an impact they have. White perfection!

I really can't get over, how beautiful and blemish free the blooms are.

Two years ago I bought this white flowering unlabeled cymbidium orchid for a very reasonable price at Traeder Joe's.

The blooms were almost spent when I got it, but I couldn't resist the white beautiful flowers.

 Last year it was just sitting in my garden doing nothing, but this year, with no care except one dose of fish fertilizer prior to the winter time, it decided to produce four lovely flower stalks.

The individual blooms are marvelous. 

The cymbidium (two stalks were cut for the vase already) was still growing in its original ugly plastic container...

...and it was more than time to pot it up into a much nicer terracotta container. I think it also needed a little bit more space to grow, even though I remember vaguely that I have heard that orchids bloom better when they are pot bound.

Usually cymbidium orchids last a long time on the plant and in the vase, but this variety is an exception. Its blooms were spend much faster than my other two varieties. Still, it is well worth growing, don't you think?

After enjoying the vase from the opening photo of this post for a few days in front of the fire place in our family living room, I was ready for a change and placed it into a niche located in our formal living room.

I really like the still life effect with the orchid blooms in front of the vintage mirror, that I bought in Albuquerque, New Mexico a few years ago. The large candle stick was a lovely birthday gift from a dear friend and the handmade clay vase, that looks like a cow horn, lying to the feet of the orchids, was a souvenir that we brought back from our last trip to England. So many lovely memories...

If you got into the orchid mood and want to read a previous post that I had written about a different variety of cymbidium orchids earlier on the blog please click here.

See you in the garden!

Christina

Garden Activities

January is the month where I am mainly busy with rose pruning in the garden. Since my roses have grown significantly over the last five years and I have planted more and more of them, it has become quite a bit of a task that feels overwhelming to me at times. Therefore I intended to use the holiday week at the end of last year to get a head start, but the weather was just nasty, cold with a lot of rain, so hardly anything happened. On the photo below you see the beginning of the pruning. The first rose I tackled was 'Our Lady of Guadalupe', which looked like her twin in the foreground before I pruned and deleaved it.

Consequently I have to get all my rose pruning done this month as usual. I seem to be more behind than ever, but I will just focus on the rose in front of me and not think of the rest and see how far I come. It always feels so satisfying when I finished one rose and I am filled with anticipation of the new fresh spring growth and beautiful blooms to come. 




Besides that I am working on another garden project. My husband and I cleared the bed between the two giant Strelitzia nicolai. That was not too difficult, since most of the plants have been in containers and just had to be moved. To the very right was a hydrangea 'Endless Summer' planted into the ground, which died for some unknown reason and had to be discarded.

 Then the gardener installed sprinklers in that section and dug big holes for us.

My husband and I planted an unidentified hydrangea to the very right, which looks like nothing at the moment to replace the dead one and...

...put in a repeat blooming hydrangea 'Penny Mac' in the hole to the very left to replace a Geranium maderense, that is a binial and had died as well.




Not much visual change is achieved by now, but I hope when we have planted two more camellias and most likely a gardenia in the middle of the bed it will be more appealing. By the way, we are basically repeating the planting scheme that was there before. Now that we have irrigation in place I assume that the plants will grow much better and I am definitively relieved that I have to water one area less by hand. If you want to see the bed how it looked in January 2011 after we tried to do a "quick fix" until we could get to re-do it properly, please click here.

Unfortunately I haven't made much progress in the White Garden Bed. But at least I found the silver gazing ball that was still hidden in a moving box. I am pleased to say that the amaryllis belladonna bulbs 'Fred Meyer Whites', common name N---- Lady's, that I planted in April 2012 have filled in nicely. Even though the lamb's ears in the foreground are not looking at their best right now, I am happy that I am finally getting the layered look that I always wanted to achieve.

It is amazing to me, how clearly the gazing ball reflects large parts of the backyard. Each time when the sun hits it in the morning it lights up and is a real eye catcher. I just love it!

We had unusually cold temperatures lately and I covered my Cymbidium orchids and other tender tropical plants with bed linens trying to help them survive a possible frost.

The orchids and even their emerging flower stalks came through the cold spell just fine, but I got it done to break off the tips of two flower stalks when I removed the bed linens one morning. I was really mad at myself and thought the orchids would probably have done better, if I wouldn't have covered them. Oh well, at least I tried!

 

In the bed by our front door there was a gap between the cycad and the small decorative wall, which always bugged me. So I decided that it was finally time to change that. It is a little bit of a shady place for a rose, but I decided to plant one anyway and see how it does, because I don't have too many spaces left were I can plant a rose, but many more roses in my pot ghetto. If it doesn't work I can always move it. Even though I have to admit, I hate doing that.

When the gardener dug the hole, we were in for an unpleasant surprise. Plenty of pipes! Luckily he didn't cut through any of them with the spade while digging. I still decided to go ahead and follow through with my original idea to plant a rose here. I think, the roots will not be strong enough to damage the pipes and I hope they can grow around them so that the rose can root in firmly and be happy.

Now what rose should I plant? My choice fell on 'White Meidland', which has been waiting to get planted in my pot ghetto for quite a while already. This rose is supposed to be somewhat shade tolerant, so I hope it will thrive in the chosen area. I think, it will look great with 'The Prince', the deep crimson colored rose to its left and the blue flowering geranium 'Rozanne' in the foreground. 'White Meidiland' doesn't impress right now, but I think it could be a winner.

After I deleaved it, it looks even more puny, but I think it will take off once it is in the ground.




Again, not much visual change right now after the rose is planted, you almost have to get a magnifying glass to find it, but at least the hole is filled. I hope in a few months this part of the bed will look much nicer.

That summed up the garden activities that have taken place here lately. It is not too much, I know, but I am happy about every step that I am able to make to maintain and develop our little green paradise even further.

See you in the garden!

Christina

This and That

Even though it is winter my Southern California garden never sleeps. Of course, certain plants take a brief break, but something is always blooming or at least actively growing. That is one reason why I love living here so much. Come, have a look what is going in my yard!

I have two of these urns since about a year or so and liked them the way they were, plain and without anything growing in them. But suddenly this winter I had a change of mind and decided to plant them with annuals. I have chosen white pansies 'Delta Premium Pure White' and dusty miller 'Silverdust' to evoke memories of ice and snow, which, of course, we don't have here.

Here you can see the top of the urn a little closer. The pansies have grown in quite nicely and so did the dusty miller. I am really pleased with this plant combination.




A few days ago my banana-shaped rose bed in the front yard looked like this. The roses were more than ready to be pruned. Yes, I know I am late for my climate zone, but I simply don't have as much of a chance to garden than I would like to and my yard and I just have to put up with that fact. I guess nothing bad will happen because I pruned late in the season, except that the spring flush will be a little bit delayed.

This is how the bed presented itself after I was done pruning the roses. I actually enjoy doing this chore, but here in Southern California we have not only to prune but to de-leaf the roses, too, which can be very time consuming, depending on to how many leaves the rose is still clinging on. I am happy to report that now I am almost done with pruning my roses that are planted in the ground. I don't talk about the ones living in containers, though!

Now that the roses are pruned you can actually see how big the alstroemeria 'Little Miss Sophie' has become. What I really like about it, is that it has formed a nice mound. Many alstroemerias become very tall and leggy here in SoCa and besides the lovely blooms don't look that appealing as to me as a plant, but this one acts differently at least so far. If you look closely you can see that it even tries to bloom through the winter. The alstroemeria is surrounded by four penstemons 'Pinacolada Violet', which also want to flower. Unfortunately they are a favorite of the slugs and snails.

The verbena 'Aztec White Improved' is looking pretty good in the moment. It just started to bloom a couple of days ago and this way brings a little bit of life into the relatively bare bed right now.

Close-up of the white verbena blooms. They are tiny, but because they come in masses they do have quite an impact. I planted lavender colored verbenas last year and had no luck with them at all, but the white ones look promising so far, don't they?

Some pruned roses appear almost like sculptures, like this 'Our Lady of Guadalupe' in the front yard. I have to admit that for a brief time I like this sparse look. If I wouldn't know better it is very hard to imagine that this rose bush will transform itself into a dark green leaved beauty with many lovely silvery pink blooms soon. For me that is almost as much of a miracle like a hatching butterfly.

In the back yard my cymbidium orchids are in full bloom now. I especially love this greenish-white variety.

Here you can see my wine red/pink cymbidium in the foreground shadowing the green/white one. Too bad that I don't know the names of the varieties. I have these orchids since many years now, they even moved with me from the Bay Area down to San Diego. Despite their exotic extravagant flowers they are "no fuss", easy to grow plants for me here in San Diego. They just need to be watered regularly and fed once in a while. Last year I thought about dividing them, but in the end didn't have the guts. So I just potted them up and they seem to be enjoying that. Actually the wine red/pink one had six more flower stalks then you can see on the photo, which I cut off to take indoors and to give away to friends. This orchid is blooming so prolifically.

Close-up of the wine red/pink orchid flowers. Aren't they beautiful?

This is my Hybrid Perpetual Rose Bed, which I planted last year. The roses have grown quite a bit in less than twelve months and this spring I expect them to bloom significantly more than in their first year. From the left to the right you can see 'Yolande d'Aragon', 'Reine des Violettes', and 'Grandmother's Hat'. These were the first roses that I pruned this winter. I think I did it the last week of December. To me it is pretty amazing how much the roses have leaved out already, especially 'Grandmother's Hat'. I can't wait for the gorgeous Hybrid Perpetual blooms to reoccur, again. They were so incredible beautiful last year! I planted two 'Giant Blue' Scabiosa Hybrids (Pincushion Flower) in between them and I am astonished that one is already starting to bloom.

Here you can see the very first bloom of the 'Giant Blue' scabiosa as a close-up! I just love the pale lavender color. Despite their delicate appearance they also make quite good cut flowers. In the front yard in a very prominent space close to the front door I have a scabiosa caucasica 'Butterfly Blue', which has much smaller flowers. It is pretty and flowers a lot, but at the same time it is a pain in the neck to deadhead and when not deadheaded it looks unkempt and unruly. Scabiosa 'Giant Blue' has less blooms than scabiosa 'Butterfly Blue', which means less deadheading, but they are bigger and have therefore the same of even more impact. With limited gardening time I am thinking about how to make the maintenance of the garden simpler in the long run, so I am contemplating to replace scabiosa caucasica 'Butterfly Blue' with another 'Giant Blue' scabiosa.

To the left side of the Hybrid Perpetual Rose Bed I placed an Elephant Foot plant in a terracotta container in between two giant Washingtonia Palms. Nothing, absolutely nothing can survive the root competition in the ground between those palms, for that reason the only way to have something growing in that area is to plant it in a pot. There is nothing wrong with this plant but the Elephant Foot never won my heart. I wanted to give it away like I did with its brother, but it didn't work out, so I left it where it is and still try to decide what to do with it.

The pansies 'Colossus Pure White' that I planted in the terracotta containers briefly before Christmas have grown in nicely and by now completely fill out the pots. Two years ago I planted pansies, too, and lost maybe half of them. I think I planted them too late in the season and it was already too warm, so the tiny root balls of six-pack pansies didn't survive the extreme conditions. This year I was planting them earlier and I was also absolutely diligent with the watering, which means watering them every day a little bit over the first couple of weeks. It worked. I am so glad that I made a second try!

I do like the blue whiskers a lot!

See you in the garden!

Christina

Winter Solstice 2011

Today is winter solstice in the northern hemisphere and besides that this is the longest night of the year it is also the official beginning of winter. I am always in a happy mood on winter solstice no matter what the weather is like, because I know from now on the days are getting longer. But on this day in particular there can be no complains about the weather here in Southern California. At 1:00 pm it was sunny, only slightly windy, and the temperature were 68 F/20 C. Typical California dream weather you might say. But we are getting chilly at night (at least for our circumstances). The lowest temperatures are expected to be 34 F/1 C tonight.

So how is our garden doing on winter solstice? I went out with the camera early in the morning and then again briefly around noon and took some shots to share with you.

I am starting my tour in the backyard looking to the left side of the garden. This is the bed in which I grow only acid loving plants like hydrangeas, gardenias, and camellias. My two 'Nuccio's Gem' camellias want to start blooming early this year, but unfortunately they are having trouble to open their buds. I have no real idea why, except that I am thinking they might have simply outgrown their containers. For now I will try to water them more to see if this helps.

Here is a close-up of one of the camellia buds trying to open.

The 'Queen Anne Palm' - group with 'Georgetown Tea' planted in the middle. To the right in the container an 'Iceberg' rose is growing and then you see 'Zephirine Drouhin'. 'Georgetown Tea' is not blooming through the winter as I had hoped. I guess the rose is getting too little light in the location where I have put her. I am still happy that she is filling out this spot nicely. Looking at this picture I think this area would really benefit, if I would plant something light flowering like impatiens, or cyclamen at Georgetown Tea's feet. Hmm...

From the left to the right: 'Iceberg' in the container, 'Zephirine Drouhin' and 'Pierre de Ronsard'. There are a few blooms on 'Pierre de Ronsard' and 'Zephirine Drouhin' was surprising me with...

... a few blooms, too! What a welcome sight! I was complaining that this rose didn't rebloom in autumn, now she tries to please me in winter! We had already some decent autumn rains and I am wondering if this has helped.

 

Looking further to the right the 'White Bed' comes into sight. The 'Iceberg' roses are still blooming and I love how the 'Dusty Miller' growing under the cycad has filled out the space.

In the backyard also lives 'Moonstone', which I recently transplanted into a bigger container. It is squeezing out just one bloom, but what a great one. This rose is so beautiful when flowering, but it is suffering from rust badly right now, sigh...

Looking to the right side of the backyard you see this bed containing my second 'Pierre de Ronsard' rose (on the left of this photo), which is not blooming at all but at least the leaves are relatively healthy. That cannot be said of 'Baronne Prevost' which is growing to the right side of 'Pierre de Ronsard'. This rose is looking plain ugly and is suffering from powdery mildew big time. 

 

See this beauty instead? This is 'White Meidiland'. I just love the blooms of this rose and her leaves are relatively healthy. 

Before we leave the backyard, please have a brief glance at my cymbidium orchids. The first one (it is a little hard to see, but there are two containers with orchids standing in a row behind each other) is a dark red flowering variety and it is full of flower stalks. I think, I counted twelve and I can't wait for them to open.
 

Moving on to see the front yard. We slightly enlarged the banana-shaped bed since I have shown it on my blog the last time and I planted two white verbenas to the right and left side, which you hardly can see, but I hope they will stand out more in spring when they have some blooms. I also added four penstemons to this area. The alstromeria in the middle of the bed has filled in nicely and is even trying to bloom at this time of the year. I am really happy that this bed is not "a plain rose bed" anymore, as it has been in earlier times.

This photo shows the entrance of our front yard to the opposite of the banana-shaped bed. I am very pleased with the blue container and its plantings placed on the column. It just gives the area a nice color splash. The rose in bloom is 'Marie Pavie'. It has been a great rose here so far. Strong, wafting fragrance, a good bloomer with completely clean leaves.

Close-up of the cheerful blue lobelia blooming in a container seen in the photo above. 

My other alstroemeria has produced one blooming stalk, too. Her colors are much more saturated then the one in the banana-shaped bed. I actually like them both a lot.

On the left side of the walkway to our front door 'Our Lady of Guadalupe' seems to pretend it is spring instead the beginning of winter. This rose is such a good bloomer, but it was badly plagued by powdery mildew in the last few weeks. I am so glad that we got some rain lately, which took care of the powdery mildew problem somewhat.

This is 'Sweet Chariot' growing in a container in a very protected corner close by our front door. He also seems to assume it is spring. I am so curious to see if all the tiny buds really will open. Notice how clean his leaves are?

This nemesia was sulking not too long ago. I fertilized it and put out soil sulfur and it sprung back like crazy. I certainly could have more of this plant in my garden.

Because at lunch time the containers close to our kitchen door leading into the back yard were bathed in sun light I slipped out and took some more photos. Couldn't pass up this opportunity! Our small 'Meyer Lemon' tree is packed with lemons as you can see and we can start to harvest them again. They are so good, not too sweet not too sour just the right combination of both tastes.

I spoiled myself with planting some white pansies, which I truly love. Each time when I look out of the kitchen door into the back yard, I see this container (there are actually two of them flanking the kitchen door) and it brings a smile to my face.

Another one of my roses that seems to think it is already spring again: 'Old fashioned Girl', a Miniature rose.

This is it from here on winter solstice day. How was winter solstice in your garden?

Most likely this will be my last post before the Holidays so I don't want to miss wishing you Happy Holidays and if you celebrate Christmas Merry Christmas! May you have a joyful and peaceful time!

See you in the garden!

Christina