Hope Springs Eternal...

..in the human breast, said Alexander Pope.

He must have been a gardener.

This scrawny excuse for a lilac bush was planted in the front of Casa Grande more than 5 years ago. I've lost count of the springs I have waited patiently for a bloom or two, hoping for a whiff of that lovely and nostalgic scent known to all who have lived in a climate with a winter freeze. April is the cruelest month.

Alas! Alack!
And Eureka! My sorely tried patience has been richly rewarded. Meager though these blooms may be, the smell is one and the same of my childhood spent in a colder climate....not that I want to go back there, no, no. The scent of these few blooms will suffice.

Next year....

Hope springs eternal in the human breast.

Vision of Eden

Many years ago I visited Monet's garden in Giverny, France. Visited is not the right word... made a pilgrimage is more like it. The verticality in his garden inspired me to think about the garden as a full visual palette from ground to sky. In the book Monet's Passion by Elizabeth Murray, the author, who worked at Giverny for nine months as a volunteer, offers sketches, photographs, and wonderful advice about how that vision of paradise is maintained to this day.

Another favorite picture book is Visions of Paradise, by Marina Schinz (out of print). Many of the gardens depicted have strong vertical lines. My favorite is the laburnum walk in Rosemary Verey's garden. It must be a glimpse of heaven to walk beneath the arbor in full bloom.

Here at Casa Grande several sturdy Smith and Hawken arbors and trellises support my attempts to get color up into the air. The climbing Eden roses are stout enough after 8 years to no longer need external support. They are especially pretty this year so I wanted to share them.

The Edens got a heavy haircut last January, were doused with epsom salts at the beginning of March, and fertilized a week later.

They survived the 100 degree weather last week nicely with a little extra water and seem to be at their peak today at 65 degrees and overcast.

Suck it up

Did I mention my love affair with pea stone? Yes? The easy care, low cost landscaping material has many benefits. There are but two maintenance jobs, weeding and vacuuming. Weeding is done by hand unless it gets out of hand, then out comes the Round Up. The vacuuming is more of a pain in the neck, literally.

After raking up the fallen leaves, the shedding bark from the Chinese elm, and other debris into piles (did I mention raking? and untangling the annoying 100 ft. extension cord?) I put on a mask and protective glasses and strap on the Black and Decker. It's back breaking work for a vintage gardener, but the result is so worth it. Also probably qualifies for weight-bearing exercise, important for said gardener. Team that up with some sunshine and you've multi-tasked your way to better bone health. ( Be sure to wear the mask.)

Green Scene Booty

No, not that kind of booty! Think pirate booty, only for gardeners.

Green Scene at the Fullerton Arboretum looked to be another success judging from the number of members lined up before the 9 a.m. opening. I enjoyed seeing all those smiling faces full of expectation and willingness to spend their hard earned tax refund on more plants they don't need but must have.

Here are a few of my selections. The little aeonium was irresistible. It's flat as a pancake and needs shade.

Fullerton Beautiful's Annual Garden Tour is next weekend. You can get tickets by going to the Horticulture Dept. at Fullerton College to pay $10 and get a map of the houses on the tour. Proceeds benefit the arboretum and various projects in Fullerton.

99 Cents ONLY!

Biker Boy loves the 99 cent store. On a casual Sunday afternoon last fall he convinced me to take a break from autumn planting season and come along to check out the bargains.

One of my old colleagues and friends from grad school days told me he bought all his cactus and succulents at the 99 cent store. Just repotted them and left them out somewhere in his orange orchard to grow unattended. He had apparently scored hundreds.

When I arrived at the 99 cent store and saw a rack full of said plants, I bought some. Maybe more than some. Very rewarding! Cheap plants and some nice 10 inch clay pots also for 99 cents each. (Not pictured here.) Must return for more. The little guys are growing and flowering. One of my weekly mow and blow crew said he loves to pass by the mini-collection because it reminds him of home. (Arizona) (sigh)

These are but a few... Sadly, they did not come with name tags.

A Breakthrough with Wisteria

I've been dreaming of growing a wisteria arbor since I visited Monet's Garden in Giverny, France many years ago and read Wallace Stegner's book Angle of Repose. Stegner made his "wistaria" arbor sound so romantically early California, I thought for sure Casa Grande needed one. But for some crazy reason I have not been able to get one to take hold and flower. For most, the twining vine with the gorgeous purple pendulous blossoms are like Kudzu needing constant vigilance lest it take over the house. In Sierra Madre there is an entire house that was eaten by a wisteria vine.

I thought I had finally gotten one to acclimate and flower in 2003. The vine pumped out a few meager blooms, maybe three. But then we had torrential rains in January 2004. 15 inches in like a day and a half. The poor thing drowned. (Or maybe not.) So I planted another in the backyard on a new iron trellis and hoped for the best once again. Last year I got about a dozen blooms. This year, hallelujah!! and thanks to Pat Welsh by way of my sister, I have a vine full.
Constant pruning is apparently essential. Also sun. Also good drainage. And for insurance, in late winter, I dumped a bucket of epsom salt solution at its base. (Thanks Cindy McNatt!)


Here is some good advice from www.plantanswers.com:
Reluctance of wisteria to bloom abundantly is usually due to a lack of one or more of the following cultural requirements: full sun, good drainage, and light fertilization in the fall, not spring. Another essential is annual pruning, which can be done by shortening new shoots to five buds in summer. If a grafted or cutting-grown Chinese wisteria refuses to flower in three or four years after planting, or a Japanese wisteria is barren after about seven years, prune it heavily and fertilize with superphosphate. If this fails to produce blooms root-prune by driving a spade into the soil 24 inches from the trunk around the plant OR beat the devil out of the trunk!!!


So, guess what happened this year? A strong new wisteria vine has popped out of the ground where the poor drowned one had been planted previously. I guess they really are hard to kill.

A Kind Word About My Tree

At the far end of town where the grickle grass grows..."

When Jorge was a mere tyke his favorite book was The Lorax by Dr. Seuss. It was read daily for so long we had it memorized.

Eleven years ago during a major downsizing I fell in love with a wreck of a house with an 80 year old Chinese elm in the wreck of a backyard. The tree reminded me of The Lorax. The poor elm had been badly pruned, and then not pruned at all for some time. Though neglected, it exuded a regal air and a sturdy elegance.

Through the years and yearly pruning, the elm has taken on a lovely shape with sinewy long limbs that umbrella the entire backyard of Casa Grande in a cooling shade throughout the summer. It's too big to photograph in one frame due to it's shape and the tightness of the space around it. The trunk at it's base looks like the torso of a woman standing contrapposto. (I read somewhere that trees and humans share 50% of their DNA.)


The elm also provides a fair amount of privacy. With it's arms leafed out from March through November, the yard beneath the tree is not visible on Google Earth.

Groundlings, or, Standing Room Only

With very little money but an itch to see the newest play by that fellow Shakespeare, you would have purchased a ticket to stand in back with the other "groundlings" hoping to see and hear well enough to enjoy the show. In my garden, in spaces too small or narrow to do anything but stand and look, groundlings hug the dirt, adding color, charm and generally cleaning up the view as I pass from my car to the backyard.



These are not the "steppables" marketed as so by Armstrong Nurseries. They are shade tolerant, creeping and awfully pretty when they flower. Shown here are Lamium, Australian Violets, Nasturtium.

Stag Party

Many years ago, so many I cannot remember being without them, my mother or someone, maybe my dentist, gave me a staghorn fern...one Platycerium bifurcatum. Through the years, one plant has become many. Some were given away or sold in yard sales. The ones that remain have been either divided and mounted, or were given their very own structures to cling to. Some have become monsters taking over a goodly amount of Casa Grande's real estate. They are ridiculously easy to grow, acting as epiphytes taking their nourishment from rainfall, or whatever seems to come out of the air.

Occasionally, if I think of it, I'll spray some liquid organic fertilizer on them. I hear they like banana peels also. Southern California summers are pretty hot and dry, so I've planted these in baskets or on boards and mounted them to somewhat shady spots, but they can take an amazing amount of sun and abuse.



The brown on the tips does not indicate that the plant is dried out. Called sporangia, they hold spores which, when germinated, form new plants. Both basal and foliar fronds are covered to varying degrees, with small stellate (star-shaped) hairs giving them a silvery cast. These hairs provide some protection from insect pests and conserve moisture.

Staghorns: get some growing and soon you will have your own stag party! No joke!