Weeding on the Wild Side: July 2015

Friday, July 24, 2015

Hot Times and Vases, July 24, 2015

We had some hot weather for a few days but now it has gotten cooler again, we may even have rain this weekend. But hot colors continue in the garden.

Today I am linking with-

Orange You Glad it's Friday hosted by Maria

Today's Flowers hosted by Denise

Saturday's Critters hosted by Eileen

Macro Monday 2 hosted by Gemma and Mystical Magical Teacher

In a Vase on Monday hosted by Rambling in the Garden

Wordless on Tuesday hosted by NC Sue

For some reason my 2 red roses are blooming together, Red Ribbons, a ground cover rose-

And the climber Dublin Bay, which has very long-lasting flowers, note the dry grass-

This double Gaillardia from a mix is blooming-

A close-up of my cut flowers- gladiolas, fireweed, daylily 'fulva', Crocosmia 'Montbretia', and greens from yarrow, note the orange color echoes-

My entry next Monday for In a Vase on Monday, which will link up then, the tea pot sculpture was done by my artist daughter-

And for something cool, a Canadian thistle flower, which after many years I discovered has a lovely fragrance when it wafted in my direction, worthy of a perfume but to attract pollinators, I spend a lot of time every year cutting them off and preventing them from going to seed but they keep on trying-

A Painted Lady Butterfly, Vanessa annabella, isn't that a pretty name?

I'm picking plums and blueberries, a few raspberries, and looking forward to these-

What is ripening in your garden? Hannah

or cameras are macro

©Weeding on the Wild Side, all rights reserved. I enjoy reading your comments, and will visit your blog and leave comments there if possible, but I am not able to do so if google + is the only option.

I had a comment about problems with leaving a comment here. If you are having trouble commenting on my blog, you can send me an email at z8hannah8z@gmail.com to comment and let me know of your difficulties. Thanks! I looked up solutions on Blogger and apparently Wordpress has not updated their Open ID servers, so to comment on Blogspot blogs, you must select OpenID then enter your address to plain http://address instead of https://address.

Saturday, July 18, 2015

Foliage Follow-up Plus, July 18, 2015

Welcome to my blog. First I'm featuring some foliage in my garden for Foliage Follow-up, the backbone of the garden that is left after the flowers are over. Join hostess Pam of Digging for more foliage posts. One of my favorite foliage plants is the wonderful Daphne x transatlantica 'Summer Ice' for it's silvery edges, which makes a nice rounded shrub that laughs at drought, sorry about the flowers, they are hard to avoid-

Another foliage plant with gorgeous yellow variegated leaves, actually more yellow than green, is Jasminum officinale 'aureum'-

Last foliage for today is from the squash patch, Cocozelle, with silvery accents-

That concludes the Foliage portion of my blog. Today I am linking with-

Orange You Glad It's Friday hosted by Maria

Saturday's Critters hosted by Eileen

Today's Flowers hosted by Denise

Macro Monday 2 hosted by Gemma and Mystical Magical Teacher

Wordless Wednesday hosted by NC Sue

Here is what the Cocozelle produced, not only enormous but also tender and delicious-

My favorite squash for buttery taste is Crookneck-

Daylilies do well in the heat of summer-

The double variety 'fulva' is a triploid-

Clematis jackmanii was a river of blooms-

But now last Clematis to bloom is a NOID tiny viticella type that makes 1" / 2.5cm bells-

This is the closest to the real color-

But the heart of the garden for me is the edible plants and fruits. I was worried when the hotter spring temperatures made the plum trees bloom earlier than usual, because I wasn't sure the pollinators would be out there working yet, but an advantage of planning lots of flowers is that the pollinators are supported to do their job, Beauty plum-

Methley plum-

Critter for today is another grand-chick, now a pullet, a light Brahma, note the feathered feet-

What plants are brightening your day? Hannah

or cameras are macro

Saturday, July 11, 2015

Dealing with Drought, July 11, 2015

It seems the PNW is also experiencing drought. Considering how dry California has been, I guess it is no surprise. I feel I must respond to the changes in weather patterns with increasing heat and drought by seeking plants and strategies to deal with these circumstances. But dealing with our wet/dry seasons with summers with little or no rain, I have always favored mostly drought tolerant plants anyway.

Plants that are rarely watered in summer survive on our ramp- Rosemary, Oreganos, and Marjoram, now blooming-

Thyme, various Heathers, Lavender, and a LOT of Kinnickinnick, Arctostaphylos uva-ursi 'Massachusetts', which has been growing over many of the smaller plants, here with more Oregano-

It's hard to drag hoses to the ends of my 2 acres, so I decided to plant some Manzanitas (various Arctostaphylos) there, which are adapted to the west coast wet and dry seasons, so actually require NO summer watering, in fact they don't like it or do well with it. Another interesting thing about Manzanitas is that they have an edible berry, like some of the other well-adapted natives- Berberis nervosa (used to be Mahonia), also known as Oregon Holly Grapes, and Salal. I researched Manzanitas and found four for sale at Xera Plants that were a little hardier. I live at a little higher altitude and sometimes weather patterns have resulted in loss of supposedly hardy plants, like the year it didn't frost until December 20 then plunged to 6ºF in 2 days. My 10' Eucalyptus tree, supposedly hardy to 0ºF, died because it had not had a chance to harden off.

Arctostaphylos columbiana 'Parkdale East'-

Arctostaphylos columbiana 'Wolf Creek', note the berries which I managed to knock off when planting-

Arctostaphylos columbiana sonomensis

Arctostaphylos viscida 'Sweet Adinah'-

I love the leathery, often grey-green leaves and the reddish bark that is smooth and peels. I'm excited to see how well they can fill in. I'm counting on shrubs to cover ground and shade out the perpetual weeds.

Today I am linking with-

Orange You Glad It's Friday, hosted by Maria

Today's Flowers hosted by Denise

Saturday's Critters hosted by Eileen

Macro Monday 2 hosted by Gemma and Mystical Magical Teacher

I Heart Macro hosted by Laura

And joining in with Garden Blogger's Bloom Day, to see what is blooming in lots of gardens join hostess Carol at May Dreams Gardens.

Daylilies are still blooming, here is one with the double Fulva-

And some roses are still blooming, like the ground cover Red Ribbons-

Critters for today are my grand-chicks, the two silkies, you can see one as a small chick here-

The hot colors of various Asteraceae have begun in the garden, Gaillardia I started from seed-

"Red" Sunflowers (looks orange to me)-

"Red" Rudbeckia hirta 'Cherry Brandy', which doesn't look at all like the one I saw at a nursery, I hope it manages to get redder as it gets older-

Ursinia anethoides, 1" flowers, which is supposed to be heat and drought tolerant-

Crocosmia 'Lucifer' is blooming, hot blooms like fireworks. It is a reliable bloomer and I dug part up and spread it around the yard some. It flops so I tried to bury the corms deeper to prevent that.

A welcome surprise is finally getting some Eryngium flowers, 'Blue Glitter' I bought at Hortlandia, I just love the metallic blue and prickly flowers-

Also blooming are still clematis, coreopsis, Sweet William, Ageratum, beans, squash, red runner beans for the hummingbirds, and Laura Bush petunias in my containers, first time I'm growing them from seed, they have mixed colors. I learned about them from Alison at Bonney Lassie.

What flowers have you tried from seed in your containers? Last year I had a lot of Nasturtiums, they have lots of hot colors. Hannah
or cameras are macro

©Weeding on the Wild Side, all rights reserved. I enjoy reading your comments on my blog, and will return your visit and leave a comment if possible, though I can't if google + is the only option installed, so will comment here instead or email if a link is provided.

Friday, July 3, 2015

Hybridizing Daylilies, July 3, 2015

Hybridizing Daylilies, July 3, 2015

Welcome to my blog, today I am linking with-

Orange You Glad It's Friday hosted by Maria

Today's Flowers hosted by Denise Sorry for putting the wrong photo in my link, it was late at night.

Saturday's Critters hosted by Eileen

Macro Monday 2 hosted by Gemma and Mystical Magical Teacher

I Heart Macro hosted by Laura

I have a bed of daylilies that were all hybridized by me several years ago, one of the parents of most was Erin Farmer, which has rather clownish colors and a white midrib. This is the orangest-

This is probably my favorite for it's very productive flowers-

Some are a more spidery shape like Erin Farmer-

This one has pinched petals-

This one has a spidery shape too in a clear gold-

Hybridizing daylilies is fun, involving selecting 2 parents with characteristics you enjoy, and performing bee duties while wearing a bee costume (just kidding). I used to try to keep track of crosses but the years have passed.... Daylily seeds germinate better with some chilling so I would plant them in the fall and leave them in the cold garage or in a refrigerator a while until they started to sprout.

The native Spirea douglasii is blooming. Being a PNW native, it has very low water requirements and gets bigger every year. It is over my head.

Spireas are one of my favorite shrubs, since I discovered the deer don't bother them and they are drought tolerant and good bloomers. They range from light pink-

Can you see some kind of animal in this, maybe a camel with the hump-

Some are a deeper color, with yellower foliage-

I love variegated foliage, so this was a find, Pink Ice, I like the pink stems and new growth too-

And with the addition of something blue, Chicory, I will wish you a happy 4th of July celebration! The color came out kind of purple the but blue center has kind of a bursting fireworks effect.

The Cinnabar moth caterpillars from last week exhausted their food supply on this plant-

So I picked them all off, their reaction is to roll into disks, so they remind me of candy-

It's a little difficult to get them to grab on to the new plant so I drop them on carefully-

Where hopefully they will have enough food to mature.

Meanwhile in my vegetable garden I'm picking my first beans, the heirloom yellow wax Pisarecka Zlutoluske, cold tolerant and productive-