Yellow Bird Magnolia

The prior owner of my house had a penchant for planting trees that would eventually grow much too large for the space in which they were planted.You will note that I recently got rid of one, a blue spruce, in my post titled “Double Arborcide.”

In fact, the departed blue spruce is one of three trees that have been murdered based on their poor locations as they grew to maturity. The others include a burgundy-leafed maple adjacent to the house and its foundation and green spruce abutting our fence.

A few weeks ago, I was contemplating my fourth potential arborcide (see below) while entertaining fellow gardening enthusiasts, Tom and Monique. Tom, a scientist to the core, correctly identified the species of magnolia in my backyard, which is planted too close to the house. It is destined, per Monrovia, to be a 40 ft. tall x 25 ft. wide tree. Curses!

“Don’t worry,” says Tom. “You can make any tree the size you want with proper pruning.” “What?” I ask myself, the lazy gardener. “Did I kill three trees needlessly? What is this magical task Tom calls pruning?” With tempting food and wine, I hope to lure him back so that he can help me perform this dark art on my Yellow Bird Magnolia.

Lewisia, Wisteria and I Can’t Keep Up

When I get obsessed with a new type of plant, and I often buy several of them. Sometimes their survival rate is meagre. My lewisia fared rather well. This Western native plant is named after Meriwether Lewis of Lewis and Clark fame. Out of the four I planted, two remain (see the first two photos below) and, of course, they were least interesting ones of the bunch. That rate of survival (50%) is less than my helianthemum (83%), but better than my heather (33%).

As for my wisteria, it can’t be killed, even when we hack at it to prevent our cats from using it to get around our completely non-effective cat fence. The half that we hacked at is not blooming though. Don’t ask why I stupidly insisted on fencing in our cats. I hear your laughter. I was trying to be a good neighbor. The cats mock me daily when I see them in the front yard having got past our defenses.

Keeping on task to photograph my garden’s blooms is getting more difficult as spring progresses. My Spanish lavender is going gangbusters, as is one of my wallflowers, and some phlox and lithodora. My lilac, helianthemum and Jupiter’s Beard are about to bloom, and the California poppies are developing into a full show. I’m not complaining though. I love to see the survivors of my neglect perform well in spite of my lazy gardening.

Plant Lust and Random Blooms

I ventured to the 13th Street Nursery last weekend, and found the statuesque plants in the first photo below. I can’t recall the name, but apparently you can find them all over England. I WANT THEM!!! They are like the ultimate spurge plant with wondrous purply crowns. They are also annuals costing $16.99 each. I couldn’t really justify the price because they would soon die under my care. So they remained at the nursery.

From my garden, I added some random blooms for your viewing pleasure.

Pampas Grass

As I stated in my last post, I’m not that fond of the act of gardening, though I love the aesthetics of lush and varied garden. An example of one of the worst tasks I must endure (a very First World problem of course) is cleaning out the dead leaves out of my very large pampas grass.

That s#$% is brutal! Seriously. Its blades will slice you to pieces like those ninja throwing stars. The leaves are razor sharp. See exhibit A, a photo of my arm below. A cleaning must be done at least twice a year, and each time I dread it.

I put up with this deadly beast because (1) I love the plumes it produces and (2) it is impossible to get rid of unless you torch it with a flame thrower or engage in some other drastic measure. So it stays.

My cats (see below) like the pampas plumes are fluffy and quite lovely to look at. They also have razor sharp claws. That is my lame attempt to tie the two subjects together…but I did promise more cat pictures. You’re welcome.