SPRING IS HERE AGAIN!

 It seems the arrival of spring flowers has jogged me into writing a post. This, after an absence of 11 months. I don't know what happened. Maybe it was being away from my garden for 3 months last summer, or the daily walks and hikes which take up most of the morning. Maybe it was the long breakfasts after the morning exercise... they certainly eat into your day, or maybe it is my shortening attention span for everything I do. Could it have been our purchase of a new trailer and the planning it takes to book campsites. Or was it quite simply the ease of posting a few pictures on Instagram and the scrolling that goes along with it. Sheer laziness?

So here we are, our third spring in the desert. It has been a magnificent winter with lots of warm sunny days but no rain all winter long. My newly acquired rain barrels filled up during a rain in November. I emptied the contents into 50 gallon milk jugs and used the rest. Since then not a drop. And no rain in the desert really means no rain and no spring wildflowers. Of course we have a drip irrigation system but it has been very difficult judge how often to run them. I fear not often enough. Even with all that warmth the budding of leaves and the opening of cactus flowers did not happen earlier. It has been right on schedule. 

For any gardener seeing that first green leaf begin to unfurl brings enormous relief. Relief that the lack of rain did not kill it. The first to break were the two Wonderful pomegranates, purchased for $5 each from our power company. The one from the first planting produced one tiny pomegranate last year, too late in the season for it to mature. This year I have counted 14 flowers on that tree and one is starting to swell. Undoubtedly I will have to protect it from birds and wandering javelina. This morning I noticed 1 flower bud on the second pomegranate, planted a year later than the first. 

The next, of the deciduous trees to begin leafing out were the desert willows. Similarly purchased from TEP. I have 4 of those all of which are coming along nicely. We removed a Texas olive from this spot in favor of desert willow. 

And another deciduous Sonoran tree is the Arizona wild cotton, Gossypium thurberi. Growing to about 10' 

this tree was nearly eradicated because of a fear of the boll weevil which had attacked the cultivated cotton fields. It turned out it was not the same weevil and the cotton tree is now returning. I first saw it growing at Tohono Chul garden and was able to buy one from their garden shop. I look forward to its pretty white blooms later in the spring. 

   

                                                                Arizona cotton tree

                                                               Cotton tree bloom from last year.

And then the cactus begin their spring routine. They sit quietly all year until the first buds start to appear. At this point they need to be checked every day as if you blink you can miss them. 

Yesterday the first bloom on the ladyfinger cactus, Echinocereus pentalophus, followed today by two blooms on another plant. 

And then a cluster open on another plant.

When we moved here I brought a number of plants with me. One was the Myrtillocactus geometrizans, or

bilberry cactus. I had planted it alongside the garage, far too close to the wall. Unfazed it began to send out arms and last year produced a pup and yesterday I noticed flower buds. This morning when I took David over to show him one of the buds had opened. It is not showy as many cactus flowers are but certainly welcome. 

A purchase last year at Tohono Chul plant sale. 

                                                           Echinocereus engelmannii

It is a great time of year for the aloes to bloom and for the first time in its life the Aloe vera, I brought with me in a pot and planted in the ground, is blooming. I found the perfect place for it alongside the fence where there was another Aloe vera clump. Both have produced many pups. 

The large stand of giant aloes in the back garden have bloomed with one side taller than the other. I can only assume that the uneven growth is due to the lack over overall watering provided by rain and one side receiving some irrigation water. I would love to divide this aloe but it looks like a daunting task which would likely damage the symmetry of the plant. 

It is visited by the hummingbirds and Gila woodpecker. 

New blooms on the mammillaria open in tiers every day for several weeks. 

There is sure to be something new every day and it looks as though tomorrow it will be the first flowers on the Gymnocalcium baldianum.

Ah!! BREATHE. THE GOOD TIMES ARE HERE

 The weather has been a horrible tease this past few weeks. Those of us who live in the desert are anxious for those cool, clear desert mornings and warm afternoons to follow one of the hottest summers on record. We were blessed with a few cool mornings and high temperatures in the 80s and then right back into summer again. Thankfully those 100° days were short-lived and fall is here. I know because my Philippine violet, Barleria cristata, is blooming. The bloom is more to do with shortening days than temperature but the two do go hand in hand.

The Philippine violet is my miracle plant. It was a small seedling from my Austin garden which I potted up in a 4" pot and brought with me. I planted it in the ground 2 years ago tucking it in underneath a Texas Mountain laurel. I thought there it would be spared from the worst of the summer sun and I was right. I wish it had a little more room as it does tend to lean to the east. From one small stem it now has three sturdy branches. every leaf is perfect and a deep shade of green. It does have a drip line to itself so was well watered through the dry summer. 

 

The stapelias are blooming. This one is Stapelia grandifolia with its rather offensive smell of rotting flesh. Did something die out there in the desert? This is another one of my successful transplants from Austin and it has been having one of the best blooming seasons it has ever had with no fewer than 12 blooms over a period of only two weeks. Who can deny the beauty of the bloom and enjoy for at least a couple of days. The plant hails from South Africa and I was surprised to find it belongs to the milkweed family. Several Tucson gardeners have posted that they grow it outdoors allowing it to scramble along the ground. Away from the house would be a good place for it.

This one is Stapelia leendertziae, also from South Africa. The flower never truly opens but is open enough to emit the familiar odor which attracts flies. Although mine are in pots I think that next spring I will try to establish some cuttings outdoors although I feel they might attract something more than flies. 

Above is my third carrion flower which is  Huernia schneideriana. Also from South Africa and related to the stapelias. It prefers a similar location being able to scramble along the ground and sending out roots wherever it touches the ground. I have it hanging in pots where it does fairly well although eventually reaching a point where the stems can no longer carry the weight and they begin to shrivel. 

 

All these plants are propagated easily and can make a great houseplants...until they bloom. 

Some of the aloes are blooming. They are generally the smaller ones grown more for their leaves than flowers. 

The flowers are borne on long slender stems and are rather small. Nevertheless hummingbirds find and visit them.

For gardeners in the desert this is the time when nurseries are bursting with all manner of plants to tempt the gardener. To help them get established we will be praying for our second season of rain, winter rains.

THE NEW CREVICE GARDEN

I found the perfect spot to make a small crevice garden. It would give me the practice I need before embarking on the much larger one I plan for the front. I already had collected a small pile of suitable rocks and all I had to do was to carry them around into the Secret Garden. That was the hardest part of the whole exercise.

In a corner of the garden, underneath a small Anacacho orchid tree, there was enough space to create the small crevice garden. The ground was already mounded so it was easy to pull apart the soil to push in the rocks. This was one of the fastest projects I have ever done and was complete within a half hour.

I am giving some thought to continuing around the corner replacing the aloes.  I will wait for winter to be over before tucking succulents into the crevices. Corsican violets, Viola corsica, I have grown from seed should do well in this area.

 A garden friend, who was leaving town, gave me this attractive speckled aloe which just completes the color of the little bistro set and umbrella.

Time for a cup of coffee.

MANY THINGS ARE SENT TO TRY US

Years ago a garden acquaintance was walking around the garden with her husband. "And what's wrong with this plant" he asked, "too much sun? too little sun? too much rain? too little rain?" Of course this is Texas and what else do you expect. You might add to that list, a late frost, hail, devoured by snails, slugs and pill bugs, plants mounded up by fire ants, attacked by aphids, mealy bugs, scale, bagrada bugs, harlequin bugs and leaf footed bugs, tomato horn worms and deer.
My garden has been visited by all of the above and for one second I throw my hands up in the air and say "I'm giving up gardening" It never lasts. Whatever you call it, passion or addiction,  I can't keep my hands out of the soil. And with all that frustrates me about gardening in Texas there is always a reward around the corner.

The agarita, Mahonia trifoliata, never produced a single berry last year because it was hit by hail but this year it is putting on a show and I am hoping this will be a fruitful year.

The hellebore I bought in 2011 and hasn't bloomed once since then is blooming this year. Do you remove the leaves from your hellebore? I read that many gardeners in England do.

Among many orange California poppies I have a white one.

When I picked up , on impulse, a bag of freesias in the fall I had no idea that they would put on such a show. Planted in pots as well as in the ground their strappy broken foliage may not be much but the flowers are heavenly.

Two of my lemon trees and the lime all filled with flowers. But where are the bees? The few I have seen have been on the alyssum although I saw two solitary bees on there yesterday feeding on pollen.

And the ever faithful chocolate daisy, Berlandiera lyrata, is back for its 10th year.

The Aloe X 'David Verity' has produced a successful bloom as a result of our mild winter

And despite the fact that we were away when my Texas mountain laurel, Sophora secundiflora, bloomed. I am so proud that I grew this one from seed.

And when the fire ants start mounding their soil around my succulents I just shrug my shoulders and get on with hosing them off.

 Not that they need any more rain after the 4" we received over the last 3 days.

WHAT A DAY

It has just been a month since my surgery and for the first time I am getting back my enthusiasm for gardening. This morning I worked outside for an hour, walked 1½ miles around the lake, ate tacos at Whole Foods, shopped for paint at Home Depot, bought some 2" succulents and a clematis, popped into Lowe's for a small fountain for my stock tank, came home and sanded down the little table in the front garden. By 5pm I treated myself to a sit down on one of the new chairs and under the new umbrella in the front garden.

The Lady Banks' rose is starting to send out a few blooms on some of the higher arching branches.

It will be another week before the whole rose is in bloom. The Aloe 'David Verity' in the large pot by the front gate made it through the winter. No sign of any blooms though.

This is one of my favorite views in the whole garden, particularly on a clear sunny afternoon. Everything looks so fresh and green with new growth.

Tucked in the corner the Mangave, Macho Moca seems to have overcome the snail damage of last summer and is making lots of new, healthy growth.

Tomorrow I have those little succulents to plant, stain the little table, begin cleaning out the stock tank and dividing the plants, more cutting back and did I hear someone today say it was time to plant beans.............

WHAT I DID TODAY

I was surprised....... by flower on the crinum lily, Crinum procerum 'splendens' in my water garden.

I emptied......... the three outside water tanks, filled the rain barrels in the garden and watered all the plants. It's going to rain this weekend!

I watered.... the flowers growing between the pavers in the potager.

I collected.....seeds from the red spider zinnia.

I potted up.......snapdragons and violas from their 6 packs into 4" pots. They will spend a couple of weeks in the greenhouse until they have made new roots, making them easier to transplant.

I noted.......that the wonderful, fragrant Felicia might need a trellis on which to twine next year.

I jumped over...... the narrow leaf zinnias growing in the pathways between the vegetable beds.

I decided........ that the Philippine violet was at the peak of its bloom.

I resolved ..... to  thin the baby pak choi for tomorrow evenings dinner.

I gave.... the Aloe marlothii a new pot.

It is so happy.

I realized....... that it is time to take lots of cuttings to save for next year.

I did a lot of other things too. Like tackling the fire ant problem and weeding and sowing but the fun bit is always just walking around with the camera.
What did you do today?