esrosedotblog

Spring pruning this morning.

It is a lot easier than it used to be. Our little condo plot has one bougainvillea at the garage, another at the gate to the patio. No one does those except me.

Inside, a few bushes which, so far this year, do not need work. There is a red flowered tree of unknown origin along with some hibiscus. Maybe later this month.

And that is it.

I still have my shears and clippers I used at the large house in the Mesa. It takes about twenty minutes here. Two hours there.

Here is obviously a lot easier. But it is also satisfying.

That lopping off.

And it is good for the plants too.

Labels: horticulture

The desert willow at the corner of our courtyard is wildly in bloom.

Gorgeous.

It is a bright yellow, not pink like the photo of another tree.

These trees are desert trees. They do need water but they do not wilt in the heat. They thrive.

There are some other trees that work. Acacias, orchid trees, cascolote (wildly yellow round blooms), Mexican bird of paradise, palo verde and some others. All have a lot of flowers.

This flowering tree thing was a big surprise to find. But there are a lot of trees that are possible in the heat.

There are even a few that don't need much water. They are all some form of cactus that look like trees.

The blooms will stay there for quite a while. When they are done, we will have other places to look for flowers. Our mexican fire birds are already going strong.

Spring is just as big an event in the desert as it is in the northeast. Only different.

Labels: desert, horticulture

NAKED

The guys came today to prune our palo verde tree. It is in the courtyard, therefore "ours" and not the condo association. They also trimmed out the California oleander which has gotten very leggy.

Now we have sunlight.

We have a view!

This works perfectly for the seasons. Hot in summer, the palo verde grows abundantly. Thin leaves but so many there is a kind of translucent shade. Then in winter we get the full south sun which, of course, warms us directly. This being the desert.

I use the crew from the association after hours. Which is a little off the rules as they use the truck to take our branches away.

I await some kind of letter or objection. But no one has said anything for two years.

Doesn't that put us in some kind of precedent furrow?

All our plants are drought resistant now. The oleander is in a sort of built pot and, for a lot of the summer, I actually forgot to water it. Not a problem. It still produced. Of course it has deep roots. It has been here for decades.

I have a cactus garden which takes a little water once a week. Succulents which in the winter are the same once a week. Summer twice.

In the back we have some stuff the guys before us put in and they take some water but the lantana does not.

I have to admit the hibiscus all along the front need to be watered. But I am careful. There is always something out of line with the PC gospel. Those are it.

Labels: desert, horticulture

PERSPECTIVE

I have always admired the jacaranda tree.

From afar.

Close up, they are about the messiest tree you ever saw. In someone else's yard they are magnificent. Awesome.

Don't know what it is? Not surprising. They are a kind of subtropical to tropical tree indigenous to the Southern Hemisphere.

They thrive here. On the condo complex, built in the '80's, they line the drives and are of considerable size. We have one in front of our unit. Far enough in front that we get no mess from it at all.

The tree has big multileaf stems which shed in two stages. First, all the little tiny leaves on the stem and then the stem. The stems are about a foot long and blanket the lawn. The little leaves all go into our fountain. Every goddam one of them.

Then, the flowers. Gorgeous purple all up and down the big branches which tend to grow vertically in the desert. I think this may be a result of the heat. All trees develop quickly here and tend to grow up versus across.

These blossoms also drop. The grand finale. You do not want your auto under these. Particularly white vehicles. Purple spots anyone?

Almost all the trees on our evening walks are in bloom now. Beautiful. The tree out front has been a little late but that seems to be the story of fauna in the northeast corner of the estate.

We are happy we do not have to pay the price in raking stems or worrying about purple spots on the Volvo which is safely in the garage. And the fountain is only a little bit messy and easily remedied.

Jacarandas.

Labels: condo, desert, horticulture

FOOD AND WATER

When we moved here, there were a bunch od scrawny hibiscus bushes along the courtyard wall. We actually considered tearing them out but, mostly out of inertia and a feeling that tearing out stuff is a terrible waste, we decided to try feeding and regular watering.

It is a bit like a rescue animal. Tired, traumatized, hungry and wary, they responded very well to a "cure". Tender loving fertilizer, some careful pruning here and there and regular watering. There was an amateurish sprinkler setup but it didn't work very well. I pulled the plug and water them every day along with all the other newer stuff we put in the courtyard area.

The care has paid off. The hibiscus are blooming extravagantly and with plate sized blooms. Well, saucer sized ones. That is sort of a plate.

There is even an old, gnarly bush in the back which is only in sun for 6 months. It was shaded out by a grapefruit tree, messy, and so I trimmed that back and it took awhile but the old guy is beginning to show some life especially since the sun has come up to him with regular full day coverage.

The blossoms on a hibiscus plant only bloom for one day but each stem has up to six and more buds. They only appear on the ends of new growth. That is why pruning needs to be regular and in a way that will keep the new growth on the outside. A kind of random prune every six weeks or so.

We have red, pink and gold. Very nice.

Labels: condo, horticulture

DESERT SPRING

The mountains are green. The desert floor is filled with little buds. Flowers. Thousands. Tiny.

It rained enough this year.

At the condo, things are breaking loose. The cacti pots are still going nuts with the little flowers getting bigger and other cacti just budding now.

The succulents are getting into gear as well.

In the regular garden that we put in last fall, the garlic is blooming and the lavender is going great guns.

Outside the wall, a series of big shrubs turn out to be spring flowering and the blooms are quite pink. Very nice. This is new for us. We haven't been here for spring before and so every development of the prehistoric plants is a nice surprise.

Hibiscus are coming too.

Soon the Palo Verde tree and the Bird of Paradise bush will be starting. By summer they will shade the patio.

It is warm. It is beautiful. It is spring.

Labels: condo, desert, horticulture

DESERT SPRING PLUS

Big developments today.

There are blossoms on a few of the cacti that I bought for our courtyard last summer.

A way to dress the area up without tearing up the concrete and also a way to use several high benches that we had gotten.

It never occurred to me that there would be flowers.

But there are.

Suddenly!

Mostly wildly pink blossoms on two of the barrels and some green with red and yellow teeny little buds on another cactus that doesn't really look like a cactus.

If that were not enough, we have white flowers showing on the very large pot cactus that was here when we arrived.

I have never ever been interested in pot gardening before. No potted plants anywhere unless they were huge.

So this is an unanticipated pleasure. Very nice.

I guess my cactus are emulating the cactus outside the walls which have a spring and flowers and some fruit.

I don't expect fruit.

Then, if that weren't exciting enough, today I realized that the orchid plant which I have been watering and fertilizing post-blossom has finally after 6 months (as they said on the tag actually) added two stems. I found the one and tied it to the stake and then, my god, another one. So now, two stems.

Did I mention that I am excited about this?

The orchid lives inside. Maybe I will get a couple more.

The three pot garden benches are, of course, outside. The cactus bench, a high table of succulents which are always doing something and another hot, full sun planting of prostrate rosemary. Prostrate because it doesn't bush up but, well, lies down. And because it is up in the air on pots, the stems will eventually flow over the side and down towards the ground (concrete). It is nice to have all these babies to take care of.

One more step toward puttering, the universal business of geezers.

Labels: condo, gardening, horticulture

GREENERY

We added greenery to the east wall today. Rosemary. Prostrate Rosemary.

I only had a small hand in this project.

John found a neat table which is just right to sit on the odd piece of concrete that they put along the wall between two useless ground spaces.

He wanted rosemary in it but I could not find anything at Lowes or HomeDepot. I am giving them up.

So he went to Mollers and found just what we want with boxes and instructions from the house expert on rosemary.

The prostrate rosemary will not bush but lie on the ground as groundcover but, in our case, it will drop off the side of the boxes. Cascade.

Two of the little bushes are flowering. It looks pretty good.

My part was the planting.

They say that it will take the heat and that is our experience. We had it at the old house in mounds and it sat 100% in the sun. And some of it spilled over on hot rocks which would be similar to the hot wall.

We will see. In the desert, everything decides for itself whether it will make it or not. We are often the last to find out.

Labels: condo, gardening, horticulture

INSANITY

I wasted near an hour this morning going to Lowes and then Homodepot for small pots of rosemary.

John got a nice table to put against the eastern wall of the courtyard to hold some greenery and break up the vast space of the wall there.

Rosemary seemed the answer as we had a great trailing set of plants at the old house which endured weather at its most extreme.

So I figured, as it is an ubiquitous desert plant, I could pick some up at one of both of those places.

Two scrawny pots at Lowes and a big 2x2 flat at HomoDepot which was even scrawnier.

So I guess that I am headed back to Moller's which is down valley and has not only high quality plants but good advice if we want to think about an alternative summer pot that isn't rosemary, or cactus.

Right now, I predict that we are going to end up with another cactus table. But perhaps not.

Getting plants for and in the desert is a hazardous business. If you are lucky, they will tell you what will and will not endure the summer.

Most don't. Most don't know.

Of course, as usual, I am expecting too much. It is the new age in service and inventory knowledge. In the name of discounts we have traded out expertise. The people are paid poorly and even when they do have the answers they are not very well motivated to find you what you need or want.

The Wal Marting of America. At least I am sane enough not to even try there.

Labels: garden, gardening, horticulture

THE LEAVINGS

I brought home two pretty maple leaves tonight from Booker and my walk.

The trees are in the western section of our complex along a walk that goes behind, between the back yards of units.

These are not your red and golden leaves. They are more a nice ruddy brown and yellow. But they are autumn leaves and the only ones that I know about here except for a stand of maples way out by where we used to walk on Sunday mornings. Near our old house.

But those dropped in January and the leaves were little. These, here, dropped almost on time and the leaves are huge.

So much for the excitement. It is nice to find a touch of back east in such a different climate.

I don't know what we will do with them. Look. Touch. Smell.

I might burn them. I was writing to my son about the smell of burning leaves the other day. Maybe we will have some here.

Labels: horticulture, seasons

FIRST RUN THEATER

Today's movie as a live event.

We three had lunch at Panera outside and then proceeded to Moller's nursery in Palm Desert to review the options for our 3x8 garden in the courtyard. The little plot up against the house.

When we got here at the condo, we had some anemic horse tails and a poor bird of paradise. I cut the horsetails down and they have come back but they are not going to prosper. The soil is not verdant enough for them and the sun too strong.

So, I am going to leave them as they are and we bought plants to fill in the plot. The horsetails can fend for themselves.

We bought a variety of summer plants that will stand the heat, love the sun and let us have a lot of green and a little flower all year long.

A lavender, two heathers, two garlics (purple flowers), a bottle brush (red) and two clumps of a horsetail like plant which will offset the old strugglers against the wall.

I haven't really put them in yet but the pots on the plot look pretty good. They will all grow to eventually fill the plot. Or not.

If not, then we will not have a general death as one would with only one kind of plant. We might lose one or two but then we can put in something else that is more adaptable to the little miniclimate.

Here in the desert, miniclimate is all.

Labels: condo, garden, horticulture

DUST STORM

This is scalping season.

The annual grass here is Bermuda. By default.

It was planted on all the golf courses and it is like a weed, a plague for everyone else as it is a prolific seeder.

So, in defense, everyone plants Bermuda grass. More seed.

The advantage is that it loves heat. The disadvantage is that it doesn't like cold.

So every year, they scalp. They basically scrape the grass down to its roots to air and to reroot. Then they plant an annual rye grass on top of it. The rye comes on fast and stays until the Bermuda grips again in the warmth of the spring.

Scalping raises a shit load of dust. We are sneezy and runny for a few days.

Here in our new condo complex, we wondered if there was scalping as it was getting late to do it.

But, of course, there is scalping. And they have just done it and we are awash in dust. It will be cleared away soon and we will have new grass but for a few weeks everything looks dead.

There is also a lot of controversy in the HOA about how to best handle the scalp. This is on top of a complicated and historical division about a lot of things.

We knew that our HOA would be like everyone elses. Divisive. Filled with competitive and angry assertions.

Fine.

It is democracy in action. Messy.

We are keeping out of it. At least I am. I am out of the "contention business".

Besides, I have no idea what the best scalping technique is. Or if there is a need for actual scalping at all. Or whether we ought to do away with lawns entirely.

The various sides of the many issues have the activists storming. it will all settle down soon. Or not.

Labels: condo, home, horticulture

SHOOTS

I cut all the horsetails down out front.

The former had planted them against the house and the courtyard slab.

By the time that we had gotten to them, they were scraggly and unkempt. Someone had, incorrectly, sawed many of them off at the top and the stalks had dried down to midway.

I want the bed to be full and I could buy all new ones and start over but I have plenty of time and so do they.

So I cut them down to the ground as recommended in a gardening site that I found.

Then, I began to water the bed. They need a lot of water. Not to be submerged or anything but probably wetter than they have had for a long time.

There was a sprinkler on them but it had a tube spreader, the tubes had come off. The bed was getting wet fitfully if at all.

The only people who lived here for three years were leasers who can hardly be expected to take interest in the horsetails.

Now, I water the bed every day.

Now, the payoff.

Just when I was beginning to think that the whole deal had collapsed, there are new shoots. Maybe six of them in the whole bed.

But it is six more young, healthy ambitious stalks that were not there before.

I am pysched.

I hope the horsetails are psyched too.

We shall see.

Progress.

Labels: garden, horticulture

FALL PLANTING

I went and got some more cactus today.

Three to fill an empty pot that sat/sits on the entrance corner to our front courtyard.

I put three different tall babies in with some stones.

They don't attract a lot of attention on their own but they balance a big pot of a many stemmed cactus on the other side corner near the AC stall. And, of course, the table of cactus that we put in a few weeks ago.

I also found a few little cacti to fill out the table.

Out back, on the patio (the courtyard is front, the patio is back) there have been two empty pots on either side and I bought lantana plants for them. Yellow.

They are in bright sun six months of the year and bright shade the other six.

Flowers need sun. We will see how this all turns out.

That about completes the planting we will have here. Of course, there will be replacements and if present projects, like the horsetails, fail then we will have to fix.

But for now, the only thing that needs to be done is the pruning of the big palo verde that sits in the middle of the courtyard and the California oleander that looms over the new little cactus.

That will be done when the visitors, who are due on Thursday, depart. I don't want them to see stubby trees.

Labels: garden, home, horticulture

UNPOTTED

We have two pots on either side of the back patio.

I want to put something perennial in there.

Problem is that three or four months out of the year the sun peaks over the roof there so the pots are in bright shade half the time and sun the rest.

There is always the two plantings a year solution.

But I am looking for the flexible plant that can handle both things.

So far the ficus is the only thing that comes close.

Any ideas?

Labels: horticulture

ABBREVIATED HORTICULTURE

I didn't mention that on the trip to the nursery and thence to Lowes, I did not get two things I wrote about.

No petunias. No Bird of Paradise.

Sometimes the Universe cancels my vote for me.

In this case, it came about that it is still too hot for petunias. October. I fail to remember this every year. I was also reminded that petunias often fail in the winter when and if it really gets cold. And finally, John fessed up to not liking petunias. We have "always" had them.

So it is chrysanthemums which Lowes had for 3 bucks today and they looked great. I didn't get any though because I was at the end of my gardening rope for the day.

I will go over Monday and fetch them.

The birds? No. The woman at the nursery suggested I not plant in the bed of horsetails but let them be. Maybe even take the bird that is there out.

They had some magnificent horsetails that were six feet tall!

Man, I would like to get that way. But probably not in our scope. She says "lots of water". OK.

This is a lousy photo. They don't ever photograph well.

Labels: garden, horticulture

BOTANICAL EXCURSION

My husband is going to call in a few minutes to let me know he is on his way.

He will pick Booker and me up and we are going out to lunch at the local Panera which is in a failed shopping center and, therefore, under-attended. It is one of the few fast food places that I will go. The food is healthy and good and the service is fast. They bring the stuff to the table. You can sit outside. Which means that Booker can be with us. Did I mention that the people are nice too?.

Then we are going on down Valley to Moller's Garden Center to pick up some plants for the courtyard (front) and patio (rear) of the condo.

Mollers is an upscale nursery which has a larger variety, healthier specimens and all around more enjoyable surroundings than the other alternatives. Lowes. Homo Depot.

And they are locally owned.

Sure it costs more but it is worth it.

We need a bevy of small potted cacti for a table that was given to us in the courtyard. And another collection of "regular" plants for a second table that we brought with us and has always been meant as a potting table because that is what it is.

I won't be potting on it but there will be potted plants.

I am also going to get two bird of paradise plants to match the one that sits smack in the middle right of the horse tail bed against the house.

I cut down all the scraggly horse tails. To the ground. I read that will encourage rooting and new sprouting and the new stalks will not try to be gargantuan. Merely tall.

The bird plants will help fill in the empty space which now yawns there although not too badly. We could almost leave it alone.

For the patio, remember, in the rear, there will be plain old petunias for pots, big ones, that were already here for us to use.

I have been doing a lot of pruning and cleaning up. It is now cool enough that will not stress the plants.

I cut away a huge encroaching grapefruit limb from the neighbor's side which had all but overcome an old, beautiful hibiscus.

I am waiting for the HOA gardeners to drag the limb away. I called and feigned ignorance about the policy. You are supposed to dispose of your own cuttings in the trash. The Super bought it or, more likely, granted me a one-time wish and says they will take the limb away. It is still there but I am patient.

OOPS! John just called. We will finish this later.

OK. We have been to Panera (very hot today and had to ask for the misters to be put on) then to Mollers where we got succulents and cacti.

As it happened, we didn't have enough cactus so I went to Lowes.

You really cannot tell the difference and they are the same price. Maybe Mollers isn't really worth the drive except that you get great advice and help.

Here are the two tables. Left and right.

And that is the whole afternoon.

Labels: condo, garden, horticulture

INHIBISCUS

We have been looking for a white hibiscus to replace our old, old half dead one out front.

It was a sort of centerpiece of the home's entrance.

They don't make white anymore. Not many. Not easily available.

What we wanted was a bush/tree big enough to take over the space from the first day.

The other day, I thought, John should go to the local high end nursery and just find a replacement. Which he did. Two replacements.

Yellow. Hula Girl. Imagine.

There was not Hula Boy.

So, today they were delivered (they were big) and our gardener Paul came with his guys and supervised the planting.

It was/is a professional job. Right depth, proper fill of dirt and water. And so on.

The entire production was John's except for the managing the planting part.

They look pretty good huh? The big one with a single trunk could go to 7-8 feet and the little one which branches out would be a bit lower but wider.

Labels: garden, horticulture

PEAK

I just trimmed the roses. They are at their peak. It is one of the most rewarding parts of what little gardening I do.

They will go dormant when the real heat hits and then recoup in the fall but then winter will slow them down before they get luscious again.

So we get two seasons. But this one is the best.

I have to watch the watering. The buds will droop if there is even a bit too little water. If there is too much I believe they do not do as well. Too much foliage.

My theory is that they will bloom if you keep them a little worried about survival. Too much water and they get all fat and happy.

Labels: garden, horticulture

ABLOOM

Our yucca plants out front have burst into bloom. And not just one per plant. This year we have three bloom stems for each yucca.

The blooms do seem to burst. The first indication that they are coming is a stem that shoots out of each branch over just days. Then little branches grow on the stem and, before you know it, flowers all over.

They go as fast as they come but while they are here they are showstoppers. People ooh and aah. So do I.

In the same patch, we have the ocotillo doing its annual show.

It started green leaves about a month ago and then slowly put out blossoms at the tip which soon burst into bright orange color.

Another short show.

Somehow the infrequency of the bloom on this cactus (hard woody stems, long and tough) add to the excitement of its arrival. Something about the less we have, the more we want.

Neither of these plants actually belong in this elevation of desert. They are more high desert plants. The yucca has done well here. When it first came, we had asked for and thought that it was a joshua tree.

The joshua trees are also yuccas, but we are told that the joshua tree would not grow down here. It likes the cold weather too much to give it up. Besides, the space the plant would have had is too limited for the reach of the tree.

Labels: desert, horticulture