There is good news from the garden today. As many of you have visited here know, our garden is surrounded by walls. Some of the walls of the houses are very high. The hail storm blew in from the west and those plants in the lee of the walls were miraculously unscathed.
At the front door, protected by a porch overhang and a 20' wall to one side the yellow star jasmine, Trachelospermum asiaticum was untouched. It is a little different from the Confederate jasmine, although closely related and said to be a little hardier. The center of the flower is tinged with yellow.
On the pool wall the Confederate jasmine, Trachelospermum jasminoides, was similarly spared. Both are now blooming with their heady fragrance.
You can see that the flowers on this one do not have the yellow center.
2 out of 3 isn't so bad. The third one on the potting shed wall wasn't so lucky but knowing how vigorous these plants are I know it will be back again.
I wasn't planning on staining the hail-blasted trellis this year.
The Mock orange, Philadelphus virginalis 'Natchez' is planted on the east side of a 20' wall and was similarily protected. But just 8' away on the other side everything was flattened.
Other plants were saved because they were sheltered by larger plants above them. This little cactus, one of a group, beneath an agave at the foot of the steps from the English garden took no damage. This week it when the sun came out it opened a flower.
And the Lady finger cactus, Echinocereus pentalophus, on the steps was not affected as the hail came through the arch.
More cleaning up for me this weekend. Hope you have a bright and sunny one.
I've always admired walled gardens -- this is just another reason to keep singing their praises. :)
ReplyDeleteAh ha! It's been making crazy to identify that yellow star jasmine. Thank you! I'm so glad it, the gorgeous mock orange and the others hunkered under cover ease the pain a bit
ReplyDeleteI'm glad to hear that some of your plants made it through the hail from hell experience intact. I hope others are resilient and recover as well.
ReplyDeleteYay for walls! They're good for so much.
ReplyDeleteGood for you, putting a positive spin on things. Amongst all the destruction I'm glad it wasn't all bad.
ReplyDeleteThat is so like you to (as the song goes..) "ac-cen-tuate the positive, and e-li-minate the negative". The lyricist said he was inspired by the phrase coming from a sermon heard by his publicist about how to have a happy life. Happy garden, happy life, here's to the protection of walls and arches and overhanging limbs!
ReplyDeleteI'm imagining a time in the future when some of us will be spinning yarns about that time, back in '15, when the hail was SO hard...
Yet another reason to love those walls! I'm glad that there are unscathed spots for you to enjoy. Hopefully everything else bounces back more quickly than you expect!
ReplyDeleteThe walls of your garden are lovely! Happy to hear they gave shelter to many of your plants. We have had such strange weather this spring! I love the beautiful red flower on the little cactus.
ReplyDeleteI was afraid to ask when I saw you earlier today, not wanting to reopen the wound. So glad some things were spared and I've no doubt it'll be beautiful again soon.
ReplyDeleteJenny, I've got a small desmettiana, 4-inch pot, that would ship easily. Let me know. I had some light hail this year, very unusual for us, so I had no idea the damage it can do. Now I know! Thank goodness your walls provided some shelter.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the offer Denise but I am seeing some pups underneath the ravaged ones so I am hopeful for new starts from them. I know how expensive it is to ship as I have done that a few times myself and found how much. I'll be checking this week when I finally get round to taking out my big ones.
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