What's happening in your early summer garden #2

ducbucln: Your Hollyhocks are really nice. Do they get rust?

KaperC may not "do water" but she makes a mean wigwam !

DH corrected me - the pond is about 11 x 35. I'm awful with numbers! JD, you're teasing.

Duc, I never even knew what hollyhocks looked like - they are pretty.

Thanks KaperC. I thought it looked pretty large. It is so pretty. I keep going back and looking at your picture. Next time I want a large one. In case your wondering why I am posting on CA garden forum..I lived there 49 years and I do miss the longer growing season there, but I do love it here too!

Well, I know why, Bea. You know my sis Sally_OR lives up there and I always enjoy visiting. If you look at the Round-Up photos from March, there are more pictures of the stream and pond. DH will be happy to hear you enjoy it - it's his favorite thing.

Kathleen, your pond lilies are looking gorgeous!

Thanks, Roberta! SingingWolf's presents went a long way to providing more coverage for the pond. That should help keep the algae down a little. Not to mention they are beautiful. We have several that aren't blooming yet - they might need some more heat.

Jasperdale, no rust. The only problem I usually have is white flies once in a while.
Kaper, your lilies are beautiful and love that pond!!

Kathleen;
As to your Palo Verde. The Blue PV will have a bluish green bark and leaves. The foothill variety tend to have a more yellowish green bark.

I'll have a look again when I can see the bark! lol
I thought it also had something to do with the size of the leaves.
Do you think if we prune it from the bottom it's going to grow any taller? It's dragging on the ground now and I don't like that. It seems to be spreading a lot, but it's hard to tell if it's getting taller.

It's not really the size of the leaves that are different, but the Foothill variety has more leaves than the Blue. If it's a Blue, it can get as tall as 40 feet, though that would be an incredible specimen. The Foothill will only get about half that. Raising the canopy shouldn't affect the height of it in any case.

Thanks, DP. I love that tree.

I do too. Yours is just beautiful. That's the state tree in Arizona, you know.

No, I didn't know.

Our Desert Willow (Chilopsis linearis) is finally leafing out - looking forward to that one, too. We got it on sale and it showed no green at all until a couple of weeks ago, so we were a bit nervous.

That one will get pretty little pink flowers on it.

Yes, they look a little darker than the Chitalpa.

KaperC--I'm in the same zone. I have a couple of desert willows, both in the ground a couple of years, and only 5 feet or so tall. One actually managed to leaf out a few ratty leaves and is blooming. It may have saved itself from the wrecking ball. The other one is just sad. Its days are numbered.

What a shame, Surf. Ours is still small, but very green with new growth. I deep water it every couple of weeks and will do so throughout the summer, then back off. Few of our other trees get much water once established, just in the summer. If you're in a more urban setting (we are rural) is it possible they get too much water?

Yes, I am in the suburbs, but I think it may be our clay soil, as opposed to water...or lack thereof (since they naturally grow in desert washes). Actually, I only water once a week by hand and have, relatively speaking, neglected these desert willows. I've been deep watering several other of my trees less often and they all seem to be doing better. I think maybe I'll put these willows on that deep watering schedule, too. Thanks for the suggestion. I got them mainly as hummer magnets.

I have them here in clay soil and they do fine. I have them in a couple different areas, some of which get more water than others. They grow faster in the areas that get more water (more water = once every 5-7 days depending on how hot it is), but other than that I haven't noticed too much difference in how well they do.

I'm going to have to look for one. Mine is a goner. Choked by the honeysuckle on the back fence. Sigh!
WIB,
SW

Calla lilies are blooming - after the first crop of the larger white calla lilies are dying back, the colored ones start up. A golden yellow.

Now those are pretty callas.

Thanks, KaperC. Here's a maroon one

Never had any luck with callas, but sure am enjoying looking at yours, soilsandup!
WIB,
SW

those callas are pretty, soil - the colored ones can be picky, too!

Thanks, Singingwolf and Redtootsiepop. Now the plants that I always have problems with are the asiatic and oriental lilies. They never seem to thrive no matter where I plant them - they do fine the first year, then dwindle to nothing the second or third year.

I have the same problem with asiatic lilies. Very disappointing. My computer is in the shop so I can't post photo right now but the daylilies are blooming like crazy.

Doss - do you think that it is the warm weather (either summer or winter) that we have in our zone that is the problem with the asiatics? I would plant some more daylilies, but since they don't hold up well as cut flowers and I have very limited yard space, I only have 3 of them.

I've no idea soils. I have some orientpets that have seemed to do a little better than the asiatics. It certainly makes sense that that's the problem though. Here's what I found on the net:
"In warm-winter areas, where freezing temperatures are rare, plant prechilled bulbs. After the first year, your refrigerator can supply the "winter" chill: just dig up lily bulbs after foliage dies down, shake the dirt off the bulbs, and refrigerate them in a plastic bag with damp peat moss or sand until roots start to sprout. Replant in January."

Too much work for my taste. If you want cut flowers though nothing compares to dahlias and they are very happy in our warmer climates where we don't have to lift them in the winter.

Thanks for the info, Doss. I agree - too much work to dig and chill. But, that explains the failure rate for me. I thought that chilling only applies to tulips, another plant I don't grow anymore because it gets too expensive to replenish every year. Trumpet lilies do well here.

I planted about 7 new dahlias this year - will see how well they do. I think many of them are dinner plates that need stalking - I would actually prefer the shorter, smaller flowered ones, but as long as they bloom, I'll be happy. There are a lot of northerners who dig them up religiously every year and overwinter them - so they must be worth the trouble!

I don't grow the big dinnerplates anymore because of thestaking. Also they tend to have fewer flowers per plant. I still grow some size A but no more the AA. They all need to be staked but it's not too bad a job. I just do it when I'm out appreciating the flowers. I just use an 8 foot stake, nothing too fancy.

lol @ soilsand up......I have 3 dinner plate dahlias, yellow, white and a new pink. Do you think they will do better if I 'stalk' them instead of stake them....lolololol

Just had to say thay as I was really laughing to myself when I read your post. :-))

Donna

Had two more visits from some DF's today. Here is the red one.

The black and white one would only land on the clematis behind the pond. Could not get a close up of her.

Hi Donna - I had no idea that I wrote that LoL. I do tend to "stalk" my plants since I try to go out and look at them once a day if I can...

Just an informal survey here - if you do grow the Asiatic and oriental lilies, do they come back for you year after year?

Soilsandup, I'm in zone 10 (Sunset zone 22), so I'm sure you get more winter chill and rain than I do here in Orange county, but my experience with asiatics has been so-so. I put three bulbs in a pot and they made a beautiful boquet for three yuears! The fourth year they didn't come back. The third year I tried it with another three bulbs...they didn't make the second year. I'm thinking that that was the year we had rain. I also planted 3 stargazers, 2 in the ground and 1 in a pot...The one in the pot came up the second year, then died. The 2 in the ground came back, but much smaller, only a couple of blooms. Those bulbs are back this year, but pencil thin, and only 1 bud so far. After reading everything I could on the lily forum, I'm thinking that with the asiatics, they don't need the winter chill, but will rot if they have to endure the winter rains. The Orientals seem to need the chill to perform well. Mine are still comming back, but we had a colder than normal winter here...and drier than the desert! I refuse to give up though! I have 2 new asiatic pots, 1 LA pot, and I found a white stargazer 3 weeks ago , and put them in a pot, and 1 of them has come up. I live in a mobil home park, so I have a very small lot, mostly on the north and west, so I am usually behind on my garden,but I'm sometimes amazed at what I can grow!
Carol

What thrills me today.......my philodenron is blooming. Just looked out the kitchen window and spotted it. One has opened, the other two not yet.....it will smell very cleanly sweet later on this evening. That plus the gardenia and jasmine make it nice to be out there in the evening.

Pictures of the DF's are amazing. Almost like they posed for you.

Calla lilies are beautiful. I have a couple coming up in a pot, no idea what color they are, just have to wait and see.

My rudebeckia herbstonne is doing nicely. Along with the calylophus, verbena bonariensis and my favorite argryranthemum in the world--Silver Lady!

Here's another view