Yellow Clivia

My Yellow Clivias are blooming. I love them.

Rose pruning season is coming to a close. I'm basically finished. But I still need to prune the 8 or so climbers at one big job. And I won't get to that for 2 weeks. I'll have my final number then.

I pruned 86 bushes this week for 2369 for the season.

Happy gardening!

Rebar Arches & Rose Pruning Update

Last weekend we made arches to cover our two walkways.  Our house is on a corner which means we have two walkways on either side to get from the streets to our house.   We have no sidewalks in our neighborhood.  Often cars park directly in front of the paths to our door which makes it difficult to figure out how to get to our door other than step all over my plants.  I thought maybe by making arches to delineate where our walkway entrances are, it might be easier. It would definitely be prettier and I'd have places for more climbing plants!   So I bought 4 pieces each of 20 foot long 1/2' rebar.  It wasn't easy strapping them to my truck and getting home from Home Depot.  We used 1/2 metal conduit cut into 2 foot long pieces and pounded them into the ground with a little sticking out.  The two of us bent the rebar around a tree trunk and together bent them more on the driveway to get just the right(or close to) arches.  They're actually fairly flexible! Then we set the rebar in an X into the 4 metal holes.  Then  the top of the X was wired together.

On this, the south side I transplanted my Coral Vine that was such a beautiful monster elsewhere too close to the house last year. You can catch up on it here. Coral Vine   I really want to plant an EDEN climbing rose on the other side of this arch but haven't been able to find one yet.  A trip to Otto & Sons Nursery is in order in a couple weeks.  In the meanwhile I'll work on the weeds.  

On this side I planted a Kennedia prostrata with pretty pea flowers that I bought at The Huntington Library & Gardens last week. It was so beautiful that my friend Mitzi and 2 other ladies each also bought one!  I've found that I have to buy the unusual thing or I'll pine for it and it'll be gone when I return!  I haven't yet decided what climbing rose to plant on the other side of this arch. 

So, I finally finished pruning MY OWN roses this week.  Yay!  Now there's so many weeds.  

My totals are: 133 roses pruned this week.

 2283 total bushes pruned so far. 

And I still have maybe one more week to go of pruning jobs.  Happy pruning!  

Orange & Pink

I've probably posted about this plant before. But it's blooming now and so beautiful! It's Chorizema cordatum. The common name is Bush Flame or Australian Flame Pea. It likes my sandy soil and I love that it blooms in winter! And of course it's from Australia, where all the cool plants are! 

Things have been a little lighter this week with my pruning jobs. I've made progress on my own roses. I think I'm 3/4 done in my yard. But OH, the WEEDS!!!

My rose pruning totals are: 
207 this week makes 2150 total rose bushes pruned this season.
 Happy pruning!

Mini-Flora Rose

I don't grow many Mini-Flora roses, just a few. Mini-Flora is a class of roses that are bigger than Miniature roses that was adopted by the American Rose Society in 1999. Sometimes they are as big as a Floribunda. This one is called Whirlaway and it is blooming today in my garden. I got this plant from my friend Kathy. It is a little persnickety because thrips love it. But I love how greenish it becomes in hot weather.

I'm exhausted from rose pruning this week!
 My totals so far are 321 this week. 
And 1903 total this season. 
Ugh, I need a vacation! Happy pruning!