I've been bad about keeping up, and know I will regret not having a more blow by blow of changes this season, as I am always amazed looking back to see how much the plants have grown and changed (or in some case suffered) over time. Here is a quick update and visual of what's happening today in the garden:
I finally succumbed and extracted the long-suffering Grevellia 'red hooks' from the western wall. I replaced it with the Abutilon 'nabob' that was languishing in the western planter next door, and a nice Altissimo rose behind it that will hopefully scale the back fence and flash it's lacquer-red blossoms through spring and summer.
On a whim I finally pulled out the Trachelospermum jasminoides (star jasmine) on the northern wall that seemed to do nothing but take up space and look diseased. Even the empty space looked so much better in that corner. I replaced it with another Altissmo rose, and found one, single sproutlet of Trumpet vine slowly, quietly making it's way up the trellis. I was so happy as I'd though I'd lost this plant for good, or didn't have any in my garden when I cleaned out the clipped vines from the neighbors pruned trumpet vine. I just left it there and hope it will coexist with the rose.
I've transplanted the poor, tiny mail-ordered Atissimo sprout to the Dahlia bed, and it seems to finally be flourishing, though it was way too small to have planted when it arrived in the mail.
The Canna Lily is pushing up leaves, and I just got some great advice from the new Flora Grubb garden center that opened down the street on how to divide it now so that I can move the shaded stalk to a sunnier spot.
Other new additions include the Lotus bertholii that is spilling down the western planter from where I pulled out the Abutilon Nabob (seen here to the right), three new succulents I used to underplant the Leucadendron after pulling out the overgrown fern.
Deciduous plants and bulbs that have come up include the Japanese painted fern, Canna Lily and other Asian Lilies.
I had an arborist come by to give the final call on the Grevellia, and he recommended nitrogen ammendments for my abutilon hybrids that I though were root-bound in the southern planter. I used the prescribed dose of blood meal on the package and will see if that does the trick. I fed the Abutilons (yellow hybrid and megapotamicum), the Red cestrum, and the Aniganothus.
