Cypress Spurge, Bonaparte's Crown, Graveyard Moss (Euphorbia cyparissias)

Cypress Spurge, Bonaparte's Crown, Graveyard Moss
Euphorbia cyparissias

Euphorbia in a dry creek - Iris, Statice, July

What a beautiful color combo you have there with the peach iris and purple statice. If the spurge was in bloom, it would be even more dynamite with those colors. I am going to have to watch this spring, and see if I can get some of that same effect somewhere. I have the spurge and some iris that color, but I can't recall if they ever bloom at the same time.

Is that a Meyeri asparagus in the back on the left?

I call it Foxtail fern. It's evergreen and is that lovely yellow green color all year around. This picture was taken in July. The Iris Lenora Pearl (an intermediate) is a rebloomer and has bloomed three times this year for me. So yes, it is in bloom with the spurge is in bloom too.

This is on the path to my front door. I think that people ask me about the Statice as much as the Gaura and Correa. (both not in the picture.) The Statice blooms for me from mid summer until.....Well, it's still blooming. It's with a bright yellow rebloomer named "Harvest of Memories". The Statice unfortunately blooms later than the spurge. I'm sure that you can find something blue or purple to come in the spring.

Both of these Iris are fragrant, the Lenora Pearl being the more subtle of the two. the Lenora pearl has bright orange beards.

I also grow Ajuga and miniature pomegranate here, in addition to narcissus and tulips in the spring. It is next to a fairly large Mugo Pine and two large japanese Maples. You can sort of see some of the grasses to the right. They really aren't weeds.

I see that Foxtail Fern is Asparagus densiflorus, syn Asparagus meyeri:
http://davesgarden.com/pdb/go/31438/index.html
So I learned a new common name today.

Is your statice perennial there? It is really outstanding, and I bet the garden looks great all year. Thanks for the ideas!

This is really the first year for the statice to go through the winter. They are still blooming now and if we have a mild winter they might stick around. Of course the spurge goes away but it hasn't yet and the rebloomer lenora pearl is still blooming - and Iris "Harvest of Memories" Bright yellow. Right now the Ginko turning gold, the Japanese maples are blazing - . The Sansanqua's are blooming right now. Oh, and the daylilies too

All the grasses, Ajuga, the mugo pine, 3 birds nest spruce, a raphiolepsis tree, and a groundcover "Davis Myoporum" stay too. I also have some prostrate juniper here. So this part of the garden does have pretty good "bones" - plus of course the rocks. And of course the Asparagus meyeri (see I'm learning too.). and some miniature pomegranites ( Punica) are fun all year.

funny story, My daughter decided she wanted some of "Those Plants" pointing to the Statice. We got to the nursery and I put some on a cart for her. She said that she didn't like those plants. They only had tight buds on them and she didn't recognize them!

What's going on in MO right now?

I guess it is springtime already. All of this year's flowers are finished and most of the leaves are off the trees. BUT I have a forsythia, a rhododendron, and a primula that are blooming 6 months early! We had a long cool spell followed by an unusually warm October, so the plants don't know what to think. Supposed to get down in the 20's this weekend, so that should give them a clue to go dormant and stay that way a while.
I would love to have daylilies blooming this late.
That miserable zone envy....gets me every time.

Ah, but lilacs, crocus, allium, etc. and everything else you mentioned you can grow. Can't even really grow good Rhoadies here except a few. It's too hot. Also, you can grow evergreens better than we can and I love some of those small trees. I guess we make up for it with Redwood trees - but they really need a place of their own. Always shedding. Back to Mondo grass and ferns again under the trees - oh that's another thread. Oh, then there are those big bushes with the big camellia like flowers in the spring. They have just fled my mind. Ah Peonys. There are a few that grow here, but they'd be a little cooler.

Things do tend to wilt in the heat here . Our roses get diseases because our tempatures vary so much from day to night. But I can't say anything else but I love it here and I love being able to garden in a great zone. The weather is just about perfect and I have lived in California all of my life. Fuschias seem like any other old plant :-)

Feel any better? Hope so.

Thanks for trying but I feel worse! You wrote:
"But I can't say anything else but I love it here and I love being able to garden in a great zone. The weather is just about perfect and I have lived in California all of my life."

You just can't fathom what it is like to have awful weather for about 4 months of the year...seems like a big part of my life is put on hold...wasted...waiting for the warmth and flowers and leaves to return.
So why don't I move???? DH does not want to change jobs at his age.
Maybe for retirement, if there is such a thing. Thank goodness I do have my greenhouse to give me some measure of happiness.

Enjoy your wonderful climate. I hope to get out to California and see the redwoods and Big Sur some day.
Susan

Susan, Lived in Massachusetts for about 3 years so I have some idea - but you're right not in the long run. Sorry I made you feel worse. You really are a passionate gardener aren't you? I spend a lot of time in bed since I have a long term illness and I just baby myself with gardening books and make long lists and sketches. I haunt the Bearded Iris sites and the Dahlia ones too. And plant delights nursery. Well, I can wander through their website for hours. I order my Dahlias in the fall and my Iris in the spring. Oh and then there is Chalk Hill Clematis. I can dream a lot more than I can plant. I only have 1/2 acre and the house and pool take up a lot of it. (plus the huge walnut that little will grow under. - can you believe that loquats do well?) I could fill a small country if I had the land, energy and help. LOL

I hope that you get out here and see those things too. And Yosemite, San Diego, ..... I'd love to go to Seattle again and visit the Buchart gardens and to Portland's rose garden. The world is a beautiful place.

I've never really been to the midwest except passing through driving from here to the east coast. Many years ago when I was young and still thinking that was an adventure :-)

So sorry that I stepped on your toes. I really meant that I was complaining too much. I guess it just came out wrong on paper. Forgive me?

Oh doss, please don't feel badly!
I am a tough cookie. And I am the one who has been complaining too much.
I am sorry that you have an illness that keeps you somewhat confined. I have some arthritis (wonder what caused that?) and dry eyes. I hate the dry eyes because it limits my time at the computer, TV, reading, etc.
Like you, I love to peruse the plant books and dream of other gardens. If I could have a dream come true, it probably would be touring gardens all around the world while getting paid for taking pictures of them.
Thanks for your comments about the beautiful west coast...surely next year I can see something on my list!

doss, I'm sorry you have a long term illness that keeps you slowed down when you would rather be out in your absolutely beautiful garden. I have lived here in my area all my life, have also been in all but 3 or the 50 states and lots of foreign places, i still prefer to live here. I'm not crazy about winter, but actually rather enjoy not going out to work in the yard. My gh gives me much winter pleasure. Donna

Thank you both. It is something that I have learned to live with but sometimes- well, i'd just like to pull one more weed!

One thing thay has really helped me this year are the colored pavers Didn't realize that the concrete has such a glare.

That arthritis - well getting old is not for sissies, is it? And I have dry eye too. There's a new gel eye drop that works much better than the old drops. It's called refresh liquigel. Have you tried it?

And Ruth Olive, how did you manage to miss those three states? LOL You from a military family?

Susan - Sign me up for that trip. Can't wait.

No, I have not heard about the new refresh liquigel. Sounds great. I will have to look for it next time I get out of this rural area I live in...I am assuming it is over the counter?
The doctor has me on Restasis...a new treatment that is terribly expensive but might arrest or even reverse the dryness. So far, no improvement for me but I have not given up hope yet.
The arthritis is the pits...sometimes I feel pretty good and get in a real working fit and then pay for it with weeks of pain. I am slowly learning to pace myself and to give up on the new projects in my head that I no longer have the joints to carry out. I used to double dig the entire vegetable garden in a day or two and then plant and mulch it, too...in between spring rains. Now I do well to fire up my little Mantis tiller and do a small patch.
Donna, you are right about one thing, we do have a break from gardening chores during the long wet winters.
Here is something I did in a couple of days year before last that made my hands swell for weeks:

That was kind of silly. You probably wondered what I meant.
I cleaned all of these old bricks that had algae and concrete and dirt on them and laid all of them in a bed I had formed of 2X8s (DH helped me fill it with granite dust first), and I dug and poured the foundations for the walls and laid and mortared all of those bricks.
The greenhouse was already there, lol.
I think I rested a bit before planting the beds.

Gee whiz toxicodendron, I'm exhausted just listening to you. You must have been just non-stop before the arthritis slowed you down. Love the big tropical planting right in the middle of MO. And yes, the gel is over the counter. You can probably get it on line at Drugstore.com. I rarely go anywhere else. Drugstores have gone downhill since the big chains took over and they never have what I want anyway.

Your standards are way too high you know that LOL You just keep doing what you can. I don't know anyone's who aren't. It has been really hard for me to let things go - the house isn't quite right - cupboards don't get cleaned, things don't get straightened. In fact there is a white Dahlia flower in the garden that has fallen over and I usually take them in then and put them in water. Three days and It's still hanging there. You feeling any more energetic now?

teehee - not competing - don't think there's really any point. But I have my 2 pups and my great hubby, a darling granddaughter who comes over after school everyday. And I do have help in the garden. Really couldn't do it without help and it keeps me sane! Plus that I love to grow perennials, dahlias, clematis, grasses, camellias.... Things that need care, feeding, dividing, staking,.....My eyes are bigger than my energy.

The greenhouse is beautiful. If I lived in MO, it would be a dream.

Thanks, doss. I do feel better.
Your other picture (with the cyperus in it) shows off some more of your lovely well-designed garden. We have 4 acres that fade off into wilderness and I have made the error of spreading out my plants near and far...therefore, nothing ever looks really stunning (to me anyway, ha). I tell new gardeners to go for a small, finished "garden room type" area with good paving, sitting areas, focal points for winter as well as summer, etc. Quality, not quantity. It looks like you have grasped that very well.

I have about half an acre including the house. In the photo forum, a meditation place, there is a thread with a lot of my garden. You are right about rooms. I don't know what I would have done without that concept.

i live on a corner and the setback is large - 24 feet. Our house kind of "wanders" so there are a lot of "nooks" to work with and we have amost no really flat space except where the pool is. So the picture above is on the path to the front door and is part of a dry creek that runs around the front, past a ginko, some birch trees and the Oak trees that are at the end of the property. Above the driveway i have a perennial garden with a blooming maple 'galaxy' (dark pink) and then farther up the street in front of olive trees I plant Bearded Iris. In the back we have a pool and then the yard is terraced. When you walk around the next part of the house there is a gazebo with several Japanese maples down the hill from Redwood trees. There is also a big walnut and an orange tree in the top terrace. The path at the back of the house has Sasanqua camellias, azaleas, gardenias, hosta, betula pendula 'crimson frost'.... and turns the corner at the big Live Oak trees. One more turn and the garden has a patio with a larger fountain, bronze herons and a more asian feel.

You're right, when you see the pictures, I think that you see that I have followed your instructions exactly. 3 acres if I had to do the digging myself? Well, you're over the top again!

That sounds like a lovely place, and I bet you get lots of compliments on it.
Here, the soil is rocky, poor, clay hardpan. There used to be a road here, and I still dig up old horseshoes, broken dishes, square nails, etc.
The big problems with all the acreage is watering during our dependable 6 to 8 week drought in July and August, and all the shade from my mature trees keeping the light down for sunlovers.
We have a year round creek and the last 2 years I have thrown a sump pump in the creek and watered from it. The water is much warmer than that from our deep well, and of course the pump is much cheaper than the one in our well, also (if I wear it out). But the hoses strung all over the place don't add anything to the landscape, and I have to water almost all the time somewhere or the other. The tree roots, rocks, and amount of space preclude the possibility of in-ground automated irrigation lines.
So....in the next life, I will go with a much smaller but better garden.

We also have clay. I don't know what hardpan is but it sounds bad. I've been ammending for 30 years now so it's getting better. I go through compost and soil bags like it's going out of style. Between that and the Sluggo you think i'd be broke. unfortunately in ca, it's dry from april to oct. (they call it the golden gate because the hills here are gold (read: not green) all summer. So we have to irrigate, but the space is smaller so it's possible to keep up. i hear you.

Hardpan is soil that has been compacted with heavy traffic over time to the point that it is almost a solid. Very difficult to get through, even with a pickaxe in springtime. I have it here because of the old road. When I first starting planting here, I picked a spot for a pear tree. When I got done with making the hole, I had a huge pile of rocks and a spadeful of soil. My dad said that it was formerly a mudhole in the road, and that was the way they fixed them...with rocks! Since then, I have encountered several other spots packed with nothing but rocks. But I never gave up gardening; just learned to remove the rocks and hardpan and replace with $$$$$$ worth of peat moss, humus, cow manure, etc. like you have. We have been here on this rockpile since 1977.

But all those beautiful rocks to put in your garden! LOL

You truly love gardening when you're willing to dig up a whole road to do it.

It's an affliction, for sure.