Mums!

Chrysanthemum time is starting in SoCal! Mums are a wonderful herbaceous perennial for us. You pinch them back through the summer. They bloom in Autumn. They get cut back to the ground after blooms fade(usually in Dec). And they start to grow back soon afterwards.

Most mums that you buy in nurseries bloom short when you get them. If you don't plant them in the ground, you might as well chuck them. They look crappy and snails will eat them.

I had 2 mums that I bought at the Chrysanthemum booth at the LA Co Arboretum plant sale about 4 years ago. Special Mums just aren't sold in nurseries around here. Last March I searched online and found Kings Mums. kingsmums.com/ They custom root cuttings when you order them. I placed my order and in a month they sent them. I potted them into 4" pots for a month and set them into the garden in early May. I pinched them and am now getting my first blooms. I am still waiting for the fancy weird brush like ones to open.

There is a Mum show this weekend at Descanso Gardens. Maybe I'll have a bit of time to go on Sun. I'll be at the Santa Clarita Valley Rose show on Sat. I am missing a cactus show this weekend at the Arboretum and a family thing on Sat. Busy Autumn!

Hummingbird Moth

Sorry that I haven't posted very much lately.  We just got back from a vacation trip to TOKYO, Japan! It was my first time out of the US and it was amazing.  So a lot of October was spent planning the trip and getting someone to water my garden while we were gone(THANK YOU GREGORY & JOEY!).  Now I am working on the 1400 photos we took together on 4 devices(2 cameras and 2 phones) .  It's a BIG job.

Anyway this might not be exotic to you if you live somewhere other than SoCal.  But when we were in Tokyo, near Ueno Park at this one shrine we saw hummingbird moths!  I have never seen one before because we just don't have them in dry SoCal.  

It was flitting about another thing that we don't have in SoCal called a Toad Lily or Tricyrtus which is native to Asia.  I know this has nothing to do with SoCal Gardening.  Just a little exotic interlude!

Sweet Pea Time!

Just a note of reminder that it's time to plant Sweet Pea seeds in SoCal! I planted mine about 10 days ago and a few are sprouting! I hope all of them sprout. But they seem to be finicky the last few years for me. Last year I had to try seeds 3 times! So don't wait! We have to wait long enough for flowers!