Monday, December 31, 2018

Salvia leucantha




I'm sure I've posted about this before. But I just love it when a plant tells you it's time to cut it back! Here is Salvia leucantha - Mexican Sage at a job. The first pic show all the spent flower stems. And if you look closely, you can see all the fresh new growth coming out of the center of the plant. So I cut off all that old growth and left the new growth that will bloom again. Yay, a fresh start for the plant just like New Years Eve.



 

Happy New Year!
Happy Gardening!

Saturday, December 22, 2018

A Vine That Must Be Tamed

 I love this plant so much that it is the lock screen photo on my phone. It's Antigonon leptopus or Coral Vine.  I've posted about it before.  It is beautiful in fall when it's blooming.  But it grows like a monster, about 20 feet per year! 


Seen in this photo below, the plant is growing from the right side.  It goes up and all the way over the arch. It would have trailed along even more to the left had I let it covering up many other plants.  I did have a climbing rose on the left side of the arch. But it got smothered and died.  I should have known better.    



Here it is from the street side partially blocked by a neighbor's car. All the pink that you see now is just seed pods.  


It is a plant that goes mostly deciduous in winter, which means it looks crappy then. It takes well to a serious whack every year! In fall I  kept trimming and tying it up so that the mailman didn't have to duck too much. At one point our primary mail carrier wouldn't go under it because of how many bees were working the flowers.  I hate to cut it when it's blooming! 


So today I did the big whack! We're having friends over tonight and I didn't want it to be too dangerous in the dark for our guests.  It filled up two trash cans! You can sort of see the plant cut down to about 12' on the right side.


Here it is mostly cleaned out. 



Here again are the beautiful flowers that make Coral Vine with growing.  

Happy Gardening! Happy Winter! 
Happy Holidays! 



Saturday, December 15, 2018

Sweet Pea Trellis

A few months ago on a walk I found a pile of rebar at a business. I asked if I could I have it and they said yes. I went back with my truck and brought that rebar home. We bent it and made 3 more garden arches. I decided to place the arches between the raised vegetable beds in the backyard. 




I usually plant my Sweet Peas in the other bed where I have a permanent fence for them to climb. But one can't have too many Sweet Peas so I planted more to climb up the new arches over the path between the beds. 



Today I used string just run across then diagonally looped around to give the Peas more support and a place to get them to go upwards. You can buy string trellises. But I'm cheap and like to use what I have. The plants are about 6-8" tall so far. I look forward to having them fill this new space that was just air before.



Today I used string just run across then diagonally looped around to give the Peas more support and a place to get them to go upwards. You can buy string trellises. But I'm cheap and like to use what I have. The plants are about 6-8" tall so far. I look forward to having them fill this new space that was just air before.

Do you grow Sweet Peas?
Happy Gardening!