Seeds

Did you start your seeds yet?  There are many good things about seeds; they are cheap, you might be able to find seeds when you can't find that plant, they're fun to watch, AND sometimes they come up by themselves(often in the wrong spot)!  I like to start some things in 4" pots before I set them out in the garden.  Why? Because I hand water my entire garden and I don't want seeds to get lost or forgotten.  This way I can watch them come up and then feel safe enough to set them out in the garden when they'e bigger-just like plants in 6-packs you'd buy at the nursery. But I do set out several to many seeds in each pot. You never know what's going to come up or not!  I've got Zinnia "Persian Carpet" and Zinnia "Pop Art", "Double Click" Cosmos, "Burgundy" Amaranth. My Snow On The Mountain Euphorbias haven't sprouted. I'm not sure they will :-( It's my first time with them.  I almost forgot to plant Tithonia and just did them last week. They are in the red cups because I ran out of 4" pots - too efficient on my recycling I guess ;-) 

I love how the different plants' leave look so different even from the beginning. 

LOOK at the pink/red Amaranths coming up. Cute, right?  I see now that there are WAY too many for my garden.  And they're going to get 5-8' tall!  I wish I could find one of those local plant swap events? Maybe I should start one? Or I'll take my extras to the San Fernando Valley Iris Society or SoCal Horticulture meetings.

What did you start?  

Happy Gardening! 

Happy Spring!

Just a bouquet of Alstroemeria to wish you a happy first day of Spring!

I just got plants of the cherry red one and the purple in the center this week. Do you grow Alstroemeria?

Linaria

I LOVE this little Linaria reticulata "Flamenco". Say LIN-air-E-uh. It's so cute like little Snapdragons and it's in the same family. It's an annual so it won't last through hot weather. But it sometimes reseeds itself. There are 100s of Linaria and the English call them Toadflax. Funny I think. Native to Europe, Northern Africa and Asia this one grows to about 12" and loves full sun. I was super happy to find them at Sunset Nursery in East Hollywood a couple weeks ago and I bought 8 of them.

Happy Spring(at least it is here) and Happy Gardening!

Always In Bloom

It rained here Saturday night and this morning. It was big awesome, loud, drenching, our street was a river type rain. Most of the garden is weeded. I put down horse manure mulch last week. The roses are leafing out and some are even budding after our warm February. So my garden is coming along fabulous!

There is a lot blooming even though the roses aren't yet. Here is a species Geranium -Pelargonium ionidiflorum. Say eye-oh-nid-i-flor-um. It is ALWAYS in bloom! Seriously! It grows like a groundcover; only about 8" tall and about 3' across. Of course it is native to South Africa where all the cool plants are from. I have 4 of them. They make a great pop of color. I think I need several more.

How is your garden? 

Honey Bells

I'm so happy that this little groundcover plant Hermannia verticillata is blooming and growing so well in my garden. They call it Honey Bells. I grew it in a container before we bought our house and killed it twice. I bought this and the previous lost plants at The Huntington Library. I've never seen it at any other nursery for sale.

It is reported to be fragrant but I'll have to get my nose way down there to tell for sure.  Native to South Africa said to grow in sandy soil to only about 10" tall. Mine is already 3' wide in one year! It blooms in late winter and early spring. It likes my sandy soil and I hope to be able to keep it alive for a long time. The flowers are so cute!