FAKE IS FINE....SOMETIMES

 I have had a few fake flowers and plants in my time but these days I am very selective in my choices. Gone are the days when I had the fake ficus in that dark corner. And gone is the lovely azalea basket. A friend once told me he was surprised at me for having such a thing. Me a gardener. 

They have some very fine metal agave in our neighborhood and the club house has a beautiful art sculpture which looks real from a distance and even up close. I actually had to touch one to be sure. They actually fit well into the landscape and the agave create a uniformity in a series of of planters in the center of the road as we enter the neighborhood. 

 

I had been toying with the idea of putting some such metalwork in a very difficult place in the garden. We inherited a tall planter to the left of the front door. Open to the sky the space is narrow and receives sun only in the late afternoon. The previous owners had never done anything with it and it had become a depository for discarded water bottles. Wouldn't it be so much easier to put a metal agave in there-if I could just find one. Last week while visiting a nursery and having nixed a number of pieces David beckoned me over to see the perfect one.

 It was a saguaro. What could be more perfect and I did not have to balk at the price. A good sized plant and soil would likely cost more. I'm not sure whether  should treat it but for now we went ahead and 'planted' it.

 

We had to rack our brains as to what we were going to fill the pot with as well as how best to secure it. In the past I have filled pots with plastic and bags of mulch. They didn't seem stable enough. It was our son who came up with the idea of using masonry blocks. We headed to the local store and purchased 2 blocks and a tile to make a platform. We robbed our dry creeks for the rock to secure and cover the base.

The added bonus is that we now have something to look at through the window just inside the house.

THE NEW PAD

When it comes to the garden that is exactly what it is, a pad of concrete on which I will garden for the next few months. It is a new experience for me and I am 'digging in ' with the enthusiasm of a die-hard gardener. Years ago, as I steadily added more cactus and succulents to my collection, I realized that my future probably held more of this kind of gardening, be it on a patio or in the desert itself. My cactus should be happy because now I can give them my undivided attention. I'll try not to over-water! 

 

They had a respite over at a neighbor's house. Some were under a car port some were under a persimmon tree where they were rained on during a deluge and then had leaves and dirt blown over them by a gas blower! One was blown out of its pot and across the driveway where my neighbor found it. Of course I told her not to worry as I apologized for landing her with so many plants. She is now taking quite an interest in growing succulents as she has been privy to several of mine flowering.  This one today, Stapelia gigantea.

 I told her how it attracts flies to its rotten meat smell and as soon as I see a fly has visited and laid eggs, witnessed by the small white wiggling larvae, it's time for me to snip it off and put it in a bag and dispose of it.

I also have one blooming over here but it is rather different. Not so showy but certainly very stinky. David was standing on the grass about 12' away when he said he could smell a foul smell. Is it dog poo, I asked, because everyone here has dogs and sometimes two, and most of them get a short walk to the grass while their owner checks their cell phone. We see it all the time. Once in the morning and once after work! 

 This is my stinky bloom, Stapelia leendertziae, black bells. It comes from Tanzania and Northeastern South Africa. To us its smell is vile but to the blow fly it smells like rotting meat and although it may be disappointed at not finding a dead rat it is a good place to lay its eggs. A stem was given me by a friend who had visited the area and I waited patiently for many years for it to produce a bloom. I will admit that I was mildly disappointed in the bloom but if it was the smell I was interested in there would be no disappointment whatsoever. It is much stinkier than the gigantea. Having learnt that it grows low to the ground I decided to put the pot on the ground so the flower would be turned up. As I put it down a fly flew out and a huge waft of foul odor reached my nostrils. That was it. Off with its head and in the bin.

 The patio has a wider section off the dining room doors and then this narrower section, which I have yet to fill with plants. We sold all our teak patio furniture at a consignments store  keeping only this small green plastic table and chairs and a couple of small teak chairs. We may be sorry some day in the not too distant future when we try to replace them and find the tremendous back-log of container ships goes on well into the future.

 I also managed to find a couple of pieces of metal art which I was able to fasten to the railing. Glad I kept those little green grocery store ties. They came in handy.

In the corner by the little table there is a shaded spot perfect for the house plants. 

It makes me feel more at home to have my plants around me. More to be added this weekend. Meanwhile back to the boxes.

A M0RNING IN THE GREENHOUSE

 "I'll just spend a little time in the greenhouse this morning while it is still cold outside" 

That little time turned into a whole day. If only I hadn't let it get so out of hand. I had good intentions when I started to take things inside last fall promising myself that I would keep plenty of space between each pot and nothing on the ground. Suddenly every bit of shelf space was filled, above and below and then the floor started to get crowded out. That pot of dwarf papyrus, the two branches of plumeria, a box of agaves which I had planned to take to Phoenix at Christmas, a bird of paradise I dug out from the edge of the path. Empty pots, pots of soil. No room to move in there. The first job was to move everything outside so I could work on the shelves.

Next was to organize the shelves moving a few things around. There is shade cloth and a cross vine growing over the greenhouse so the only really good sun is at the end. That is where I need to have my winter blooming cactus. Some have already started blooming and some are now making buds. I think they are going to be earlier this year than any before. 

I have several pots of lady finger cactus, Echinocereus pentalophus. All are beginning to make buds. If you aren't familiar with this plant the flowers are the most wonderful Thai-silk pink. But it will be a few weeks yet.

And more and more mammilarias.

I moved this plant up from the lower level and into a more sunny spot when I saw this bloom stalk.

And a euphorbia blooming. You know how tiny their flowers are and if it weren't for the fact that they are yellow you might even miss them.

Finding more scale on some cactus I broke off tidying and got the paint brush and alcohol out. I was not expecting to do that but it seemed like a priority.

I was sad to see I had almost missed these sprays for flowers on the copper Sedum nussbaumerianum. I felt rather badly that they had been under appreciated being on the lower shelf. The plant is rather straggly and needs a complete pruning. Not a job for today.

When I got down to moving the last pot which was on the floor by the door I discovered that the ants had come up through the bricks and into the pot. What next! It was the newly potted bird of paradise which I quickly removed and took outside far away from the garden. Then I put the kettle on to boil. I'll make their life unpleasant. 

I only have 3 orchids left and they are in much need of attention. I heard on a gardening program that an orchid needs at least 4 good strong leaves in order to bloom so there is a good chance that this one will soon send out a bloom stalk. One has a small stalk and the other only 3 leaves. Some nurturing is needed. I knew that orchids like to grow in clear pots. Don't they all come that way from the nursery. Their roots like light as they photosynthesize through them. I don't know why I was anxious to put the other two in clay pots even though they were so-called orchid pots. From now on its clear pots for my orchids. 

I have a couple of hanging baskets. The first is the Huernia schneideriana, which spent the summer hanging in the live oak tree, totally under appreciated. It will probably go back there again next year but will need some trimming as eventually the longer stems start to fail. In Arizona I saw this plant creeping along the ground and it will set down roots easily along the length of the stems.  

Finally a quick wash down hoping to make the ants more miserable and the greenhouse is ready to receive many plants that will have to come in during the upcoming inclement weather. 

Now a week later we begin to feel the start of the weather. It is 43° out there and for us bone chilling and damp. Tonight will probably be the first night of 7 nights of freezing temperature with some possibly in the single digits. Freezing rain is also in the forecast followed by snow next week. The heaters are on in the greenhouse and I have brought even the foxgloves inside. I have been nurturing these since they were 4" pots. You can't take the English out of the girl. She has to have her foxgloves. 

It will not be good as the garden is so far ahead. I have already picked daffodils and many of my vegetables that will not take even those low temperatures. Shiver , Shiver! I don't want to think about the possibility of a power failure due to this unusual weather. 

IF I SAID

If I said "not so many pots this year" then I am not doing very well. With my greenhouse and potting shed stacked with plants over the winter it was impossible to get in there to care for them and with a mild winter and lots of sun they suffered enormously from the lack of water. But, cactus and succulents are amazingly resilient and many clung on doggedly to life. Then again there is nothing I love more than bringing plants back to life. So, once again I seem have almost as many post as last year. One change I have made though, in an effort to simplify my life, is to the wall planter and the hanging basket.

Tired of the impossible task of watering through the summer I decided to plant up with succulents. And in one fell swoop I managed to empty 7 small pots of cactus and succulents. They are filling in quickly with our recent rains. Every one of them is cutting from another plant- my weakness has paid off.
The same with the hanging basket on the dining patio.

What on earth was I going to do with the long trailing branch on the Pereskia? A hanging basket seemed to be the perfect solution. Planted in a very gravelly mix I hardened off some Sedum nussbaumerianum cuttings and planted beneath. They play off the copper-colored new leaf growth on Pereskia.

New growth captured at sunrise

And then there are the ones on the fireplace. I ended up nursing them back to health and they all seem to be making it.

There is nothing particularly special about these plants And they propagate readily so there is always another pot to fill. I have found that it pays to use good cactus and succulent soil and last year I did splurge on a couple of bags of soil from East Side Succulents. It's expensive but the plants love the pumice incorporated in the mix. We all know how expensive that product is.

On the lower level more pots and even going up the steps in to the English Garden.

Pot placement is not an easy thing to do and, one day while sitting in the shade and looking at this area, I realized the area had a decided untidy look. I needed to relocate some of the pots. As those who have visited the garden know I have a place outside the garden which is well suited to receiving the extras. Maybe it is unfair of me to call it the Gulag but that is what I have called it in the past. If a plant survives and does well then it may return to the garden. It really isn't such a bad place to live.

And finally the Cactus Theatre in the front garden. I used to have a hayrack here until 3 years ago when I saw a miniature hosta Theatre at Holehird Gardens in the Lake District in England. The perfect solution. Of course once again the plants are mostly cuttings from what I already have. Time for a few treats once lockdown is over for me.

SOMEONE LIKES 92°

Having worked outside all morning, in the ever increasing temperature and humidity, I told myself I could take it easy this afternoon. But isn't it true that a gardener always remembers something else that needs to be done. I had forgotten to fertilize my orchids ( they deserved a treat for blooming so well) and needed to get rain water from the tanks. Then I remembered how I must pot up the begonias that have been growing in water and move them and another potted one to an outdoor spot in the shade where they would be on a periodic watering from the drip system during my absence. That job took me out into the front garden at 2pm where I spotted this. I wouldn't have missed this moment for the world.

The balloon cactus, Parodia magnifica formerly Notocactus magnificus, was putting on a worthy show. It had bloomed with one or two flowers already but this was a crown of flowers. Splendida.

Native to Brazil and Uruguay, its native habitat is hilly grasslands where the summers are warm and winters cool but well above freezing.  In the USA it must be protected in zones below 9 so I take it into the potting shed or garage for the winter to keep it dry.
In previous years it has suffered the visits of cactus bugs that suck the sap leaving behind rings of lighter green. When I became aware of this last year I took precautions to check the plant regularly and remove the invaders.

As well as periodic blooming through the summer season babies are forming at the base but I don't have plans to remove them at this time.

THE FIRST THOUSAND MILES- AUSTIN TO PHOENIX.

To stay I am addicted to gardening would be an understatement. I garden, I read books and magazines about gardens, I visit gardens, I visit nurseries everywhere. I search them out when I visit foreign countries, although I know I can't take any of those plants home, and I listen to podcasts about gardening,  When I leave my garden I do all of those things except the gardening part, although there have been times when I have taken plants with me. When we drive out west my eyes are constantly searching the roadsides for plants and even rocks!
The drive from Austin to Phoenix takes us through some interesting country; from the rolling Hill Country of the Edwards Plateau, into Chihuahuan desert areas of west Texas and New Mexico and finally the Sonoran desert in Arizona.
Our timing happened to coincide with monsoon rains so I was pleasantly surprised to see wildflowers on the Air B&B ranch, in Alpine, where we spent our first night. It was raining when we arrived so there was no chance to look around that evening but in the morning the air was clear.

We ate breakfast outside and then I walked around the area by our cabin. There was no garden just the scrubby ground you see here but the wildflowers growing there were amazing.

How exciting to see chocolate flowers, Berlandiera lyrata, growing in their native habitat. I grow this
plant with great success in my garden. One plant, growing in the sunken garden is more than 12 years old. There is no irrigation in the spot although I do occasionally pass the hose over the area. It has never reseeded in this area although that could be because I cut it back several times a year to prevent it getting too straggly.

Although I have never grown this plant I believe this is snake herb Dyschoriste linearis. I remember seeing it in an Austin garden once but can't recall seeing it in the nurseries. I like its compact nature and clearly this would be another good plant for the rock garden.

Here's another native I have never had in my garden and would love to have. Scarlet musk flower,  Nyctaginia capitata. Another native missing from our nurseries.

I had to call on Texas Flora on Facebook for an id on this plant. What a great resource for identifying unknown plants growing in Texas, although it is not exclusively for native plants. This is the Woolly paper flower, Psilotrope tagetina. According to my research it does grow on the Edwards Plateau and would make another good low-growing plant for my rock garden....if I could find it.

And wild gaura was plentiful.

Our second night was spent in Mesilla, New Mexico, in a delightful adobe casita.

The owners had built the small casita with traditional adobe bricks and lived in it while renovating the original adobe house that was on the property. That was where we spent the night.  Between the two was a shady courtyard where we sat in the evening to have a glass of wine.

I was rather left wishing we had a similar tree under which we could sit on summer evenings, although I know they are rather messy trees.

Continuing on our way we stopped at a rest area and I hopped out of the truck to take this photo of, what I thought was, a lovely tree. Great structure with gnarled bark and hanging purple blooms. I later learnt that it was the tamarisk, an invasive tree with a long tap root which enables it to live in these desert conditions. There have been ongoing attempts to eradicate this tree using a bark beetle and herbicides.

Then on to stop again at Texas Canyon, actually in Arizona, an area of precariously balanced rocks formed 50 million years ago when magma pushed up but didn't quite break through the earth's crust. Eventually both weather and chemical weathering produced the scene we see today.

And on into the Sonoran desert with the appearance of ocotillo, fully in leaf, and stately saguaro. Then we pulled off into the foothills of Tucson to visit my friend, Syd Teague, who had just relocated to Tucson last year. Syd created a beautiful garden in Austin in which it was abundantly clear to see she was a lover of desert plants. Over the past year she has created a new desert garden in the desert. While she may not need to worry about freezing temperatures and excessive rain gardening in the desert does not come without its challenges. For one many plants would not survive without some additional irrigation and then there are the desert critters.

Syd is holding a saguaro 'boot', a thick cork-like callus that forms within the flesh of the saguaro after the Gila woodpecker or flicker have excavated a nest. The 'boot' is so sturdy that it will survive on the ground long after the saguaro has rotted away to dust.

 

Although the property came with some trees and cactus Syd has added hundreds more as well as bringing in tons of rock and sculpting the land to form berms.

One large addition was this Texas ebony tree, Ebenopsis ebano. The tree is native to south Texas but I wonder how it would do here-or have I ever seen it at the nursery.

In a side courtyard area a familiar face soon to be cloaked in bougainvillea rather than fig ivy!

and the lovely green man I remember from her old garden. I wonder what he thinks about his new desert home.

The property backs to the golf course and makes full use of a borrowed landscape with a backdrop of mountains and green spaces.  Let someone else water and mow the grass!

If you look closely you will see that those tall cactus are not cactus at all but stone disappearing fountains. The tell-tale area of wetness on the rocks below is the only indication that they are not the real thing. There are three in all. Shortly after we left Syd sent me a photo of a bobcat drinking from one of them. It doesn't take wild life long to catch on. Just as long as they don't attract the javelinas!!

And finally a row of pots I remember from her Austin garden.

Thanks Syd for a wonderful visit to your new garden and for lunch. We needed to press on to our final destination of the day; our son and family in Phoenix. We had completed 1000 miles of a summer that would put 5000 miles on the clock!