“As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.” — John F. Kennedy
Nature has blessed us with snow today!
Happy Thanksgiving.
It’s been so long since it has snowed this much in the High Desert, with some areas seeing more snow than others. The neighborhood is alive with children and adults building snowmen and engaging in snow ball fights. It is such a beautiful day and I am thankful for Nature’s gift on this Thanksgiving day.
Snowy Mountains.
“Gratitude turns what we have into enough.” – Anonymous
Fridays are for touring nurseries and possibly plants shopping. Today was a good day as I finally found some gorgeous Rose Of Sharon trees/shrubs from the enchanting Chateau™ series which will survive in my climate zone. For years I tried variety Hibiscus, none of which made it pass Winter. Today, I am hopeful that I can enjoy these Roses of Sharon for many years.
Chateau De Versailles Rose Of Sharon.Aphrodite Rose Of Sharon.
Also, how beautiful is the Rose Cherub Daylily below? This is yet another cold-hardy plant with dark-green leaves and graceful ruffled rose-pink flowers with chartreuse-colored throats. It will be a great companion plant for the other variety of daylilies in my garden and humming birds and butterflies alike will love it.
Rose Cherub Daylily.
Wishing you all a fantastic weekend and happy gardening.
It has been a busy day around the backyard garden. The weather has been cool lately, allowing us to trim most of the dead Pine Tree branches which were on our side of the property. Summer is another synonym of fire season and it never hurts to remove any fire starters around a home. That part has been completed on our side, the neighbors just have to continue working on theirs and it will be perfect.
On Friday morning we picked up a Vintage wrought iron tripled plant stand from a local store and the set of 3 cobalt blue glazed ceramic planters I bought last month look beautiful on it. The planters are filled with a variety of Echeveria succulents. Going forward with the cleanup, I have been trimming and shaping the Japanese Boxwood as well as the Common Broom shrubs, which are hosting the Genista Caterpillars, the larvae of the Genista Broom Moth, LepidopteraPyralidae . Yes, it’s that time of year again. I will be using a solution first thing tomorrow morning to get rid of the pests before they completely damage the plants.
The first Donkey’s Tail Succulent also known as Sedum Morganianum,blooming.
Donkey’s Tail, blooming.
Yesterday we spent the day in Crestline, CA, shopping, sight seeing and of course, eating. It is such a beautiful and friendly little city that you can’t help but fall in love with. We stopped at a nursery and almost took the stunning Black-eyed Susan home, when I remembered that we have too many yellow flowering plants. I will be ordering the Rudbeckia “Cherry Brandy”, a new addition and different color to the garden.
I just realized that it’s the first day of Summer and we are already half way through the year. A couple of months ago I couldn’t stand the cold and here we are, getting ready to brace ourselves through some incoming heat waves of the season.
We have not been able to enjoy the outdoors as much as we would have loved to. The weather has been quite unpredictable;we enjoy those Santa Ana winds, just not when combined with heat and humidity.
Not much is happening in the garden. Unlike the other Daylilies, Siloam David Kirchhoff Daylilies are now awakening with beautiful blooms. The Gauras are thriving with vigorous growth and hosting the Caterpillars of the White-lined Sphinx.
Siloam David Kirchhoff Daylily.
Earlier this month I dug up the perennial bulbs and got rid of them all, except the Allium Drumsticks which I relocated. I love their eye-catching oval shaped burgundy blooms.
By JM Perez
