Gardening in the Valley of Heart's Delight

Miscellany


June		July
Revisiting the purple flowers from last month, I was surprised and delighted to see the changes from the June picture to the July picture. The verbena and lobelia in particular are thriving and spreading.
Pictured here are two poinsettias from last Christmas. They nearly died several times in their pots while patiently waiting to be transplanted, so the lushness of their growth now is amazing. Will they turn colors? Will they survive the winter outdoors? I'll let you know as soon as I know.		Poinsettias
Rose Sterling Silver	Continuing the parade of roses is Sterling Silver, one of my all-time favorites. Its delicate, silvery-lavender color still makes me sigh with pleasure. Its fragrance is sweet, maybe slightly lemony. The growth habit for Sterling Silver is typically described as slender, so it's not the most vigorous rose in the world. Still, I had one in Minnesota that survived year after year, so it's tough, even if it's not as prolific as some. If I find a spot, I may try planting another where it would be sheltered from the afternoon sun, because the delicate color seems to fade rapidly under our hot sun. I took this picture on a rare, overcast day, which is how I got such lovely color on a fully-opened flower.
One of Mike's experiments last year was a 'blue garden' mix of seeds. The statice, to the left, came from that mix and has proved to be a very durable plant. I'm not fond of dried flowers particularly, so I never harvest them. Still, it's always out there, blooming away. And sheltering snails, unfortunately. There are certain plants that snails don't seem to damage but really like to hang out on, and this is one of them. So I just think of it as a really attractive form of snail bait.
	Living near the statice is our latest garden inhabitant. This rather astonishing frog migrated to our garden via the Los Altos Art & Wine Festival. He must have found plenty to eat, because he's still hanging around.