Flowers Shrubs & Trees Archives – Page 9 of 27

Ladybugs Flowers Shrubs & Trees Gardening High Desert

Beauties Awake in Spring

By JM PerezApril 18, 20192 min read701 views

The weather is warming up, awakening and encouraging the plants to thrive. This is the Spring I love. When everyone and everything comes alive. When the old suddenly becomes news, when what was lost is once again found and when beauty is given for ashes. I love all the seasons, but I love Spring best for new beginnings in the garden.

Last Spring I bought two climbing roses (Yellow Lady Banks Rose) and planted them at each end of the second set of arches by the front gate leading to the backyard. By now, the arches would have been fully covered, but as you can see, only the climbing rose facing the front yard has covered half of the arch. Late last Fall, my neighbor’s cat was strangely attracted to that climbing rose and continuously peed on it for weeks straight. Of course, I could see the tracks, but I didn’t know at the time since all my plants run on drip irrigation. One day I saw that the rose was wilting, so I increased the amount of water thinking it was due to the heat. The next day, the plant died and I could smell the cat urine around the plant and in the soil. I would have made them replace the plant, had the cat (who has caught several times on camera) not gone missing. Yes, cat urine will kill your plants.

I had to wait until early Spring, when climbing roses were available in nurseries to get a replacement. I bought a White Lady Banks climbing rose and given that these are fast growing roses, I am pretty sure the arch will be fully covered by the end of the year. The Lady Banks’ Roses are beautiful and being thornless, they make training and maintaining painless. Also, they are drought tolerant and disease resistant especially when provided with full sun exposure.

After getting rid of almost all my rose bushes years ago, I decided to buy one more last month to replace one of the Blue Moon Roses which died. This one if called Kordes Perfecta Rose and bloomed for the first time yesterday. It’s quite a beauty.

My Rose trees are always infested with Aphids during this time of year. As I was about to spray the rose tree in the backyard with liquid Sevin® Insect Killer a couple of days ago, I was delighted and grateful to see a colony of ladybug larvae at the base of the plant while the majority were making their way up. Knowing the solution would kill them too, I surrendered and allowed them to do their job. As of today the rose tree is almost insect free.

A Painted Lady Butterfly resting on the green leaves of a Golden Arborvitae.

Happy gardening and I hope everyone is having a great day.

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By JM Perez

Flowers Shrubs & Trees Gardening High Desert

Busy in the Backyard

By JM PerezMarch 24, 20192 min read596 views

Spring break was wonderful. I slept a lot, ate a lot, and gardened a lot, just as I wished I would. My backyard looks amazing, it really does and I love how everything turned out.
We are redesigning parts of it, but as of now, we are working around the gazebo. I have been training a different set of climbing roses to make their way up the second set of garden arches by the side gate.

On Friday we saw a sun dog, (a little late as it was fading away). It was bright and quite a sight.

The Spanish Lavender I thought I had lost last Fall came back strong this Spring. It did poorly in a planter, so I planted it in ground, in a well drained soil and it’s thriving. I love the pleasing scent and vibrant flowers.

The Julia Rose Itoh Peony has tripled in size since last week and the delicate leaves will soon turn green.

A lone California Poppy plant.

Today was such a wonderful day and I decided to reward myself with a simple pleasure. For dinner I had a barbecue chicken pizza, a glass of beer (I hardly drink beer, if at all. But when I do, the only one I can handle is Stella Artois). I also enjoyed a delightful read (Didn’t My Skin Used to Fit?: Living, Laughing, Loving Life After Forty!) by Martha Bolton.

*BBQ Chicken. Stella Artois. Martha Bolton.*

I feel blessed in my garden after all the work we have been putting into it these past years.

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By JM Perez

Weeding Gratitude Flowers Shrubs & Trees Gardening High Desert

Transplanting Seedlings

By JM PerezMarch 19, 20192 min read765 views

It’s been a very busy weekend for us. We helped two neighbors get rid of weeds around their property. Although we are a little sore, it felt good and it brightened their day. We offer such physical labor once in a blue moon to neighbors who need it the most.

We were gifted a 3 year old, 8 and a half foot Elm Tree, which we transplanted on Saturday. The seed from the mother tree landed on my neighbor’s backyard, on the side of a sprinkler line and grew. We carefully dug it out and transplanted it in our backyard. We hope and pray that it survives and thrives.

*Young Elm Tree and clusters of fruits (Samaras).*

The weather has been wonderful since the beginning of the week and even though the ground is getting stiffer, it is still a good time to pull out those weeds before they start shooting their seeds (which remain viable for many years). It took me a few years of dedication and hard labor to eradicate those seeds and my yard is weed free today because I never gave those weeds a chance to sprout to begin with.

My Gaura plants as well as my Scotch and French Broom shrubs have spread their seeds all over my property. It’s insane, I could start a nursery with all the seedlings. Since it was a little gloomy in the morning, I spent over an hour digging out, transplanting and relocating the seedlings. I also transplanted a few Dwarf Cup Flower seedlings.

The Purple-Leaf Cherry Plum trees are now in full bloom. The Snow Fountain Weeping Cherry is starting to bud and flower.

*Snow Fountain Weeping Cherry Blossoms.*

I haven’t done much this Winter but read, drink tea and read some more. With the weather getting warmer, I am ready to redesign and expand parts of my backyard garden.

Happy gardening and Spring cleaning.

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By JM Perez

Butterflies Insects Weather Flowers Shrubs & Trees Gardening

Spring is Nearing

By JM PerezMarch 12, 20191 min read961 views

As Spring is nearing, bulbs are emerging out of the ground and buds are appearing on trees. The night seems to be getting a lot colder and we’ve had quite a bit of rain lately.

A lone Grape Hyacinth …

Purple-Leaf Cherry Plum trees have began flowering and leafing out.

*Purple-Leaf Cherry Plum (flowers and buds).*

Navajo Globe Willow are leafing out.

Julia Rose Itoh Peony is sprouting and looking healthy.

Butterflies and moths are out …
I found a Painted Lady Butterfly (also known as the cosmopolitan) resting on the driveway. I love its orange-brown wings with black and white spots on forewing. I didn’t get to see its undersides, which has a black, brown, and gray pattern with four tiny eyespots.

We are still enjoying our beautiful mountains covered in snow.

Wishing you all happy moments during these last days of Winter.

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By JM Perez

Weather Nature Flowers Shrubs & Trees Gardening High Desert

End Of Year Gratitude

By JM PerezDecember 21, 20182 min read475 views

The kids are out of school for Winter break and I am so happy to finally get some personal time to tend to my plants. Yes, it’s cold outside, but I have a few unfinished projects. The mountains are once again covered in snow, and the view from my backyard is breathtaking. All I need is a cup of coffee and a nice spot where I can soak up some (limited) afternoon sun.

So far the days of the week have been brighter than the previous week as we went through a few days without seeing any sunlight. We have beautiful sunrises and sunsets. For the first time in 12 years, the intensity of raindrops from the heavy, non-stop rain we had a couple of weeks ago created soil erosion here and there, and the ground in some areas is still soft.

*Rain (double rainbow), Fog and Frosty Roof.*

Heavenly Bamboo also known as Nandina, is a beautiful evergreen shrub, drought tolerant and a toxic plant too. This plant as well as Dwarf Nandina ‘Nana’, add dimension and color to the landscape as their foliage make them a great accent to the yard as they brighten and light up the grey, dreary days by becoming the focal points in Winter.

This summer we redid our 44 years old driveway and in doing so, we had to remove three of our mature Photinia Fraseri ‘Red Robin shrubs. There is still a gap next to the gate and as you can see, the ugly stumps in the landscape. The good news is that new growths are forming at the base of the stumps and they will continue to fill their place in the landscape as they regrow.

My Agave Ovatifolia has gotten really big. Five pups can be seen coming up from the larger mother plant (the 5th one is still breaking through). There is another pup that is not in the photo because it’s growing on my neighbor’s yard.

*Agave Ovatifolia ‘Frosty Blue’. Mother plant and pups.*

I went to Lowe’s last week to get a couple of fuses for the Christmas lights and I ended up buying a few Asparagus plants, including Plumosus, as seen below.

I am still collecting Antique cast iron patio sets. The arm chair is one of the new additions I got this year (the matching bench/settee can be seen in the first picture). I am searching for the extremely hard to find planter.

I am grateful that my yard is still weed free. I did well, the weekly maintenance if paying off. This is also a good time get outside and pull out those weeds, while the ground is soft and the weather is not too cold.