Opuntia . . Or Pigs Ears?

I love the strongly architectural look of the rounded paddles of prickly pear, especially when a nice mound is tucked in among other plants, peeking out from between them or in back of some lower plants.

They add such a distinctive form and contrast.

But the spines . . 

← This is cacanapa ellisiana, a spineless opuntia and if I ever planted one in my small garden, I'd want this. It's a smaller version at only 3 feet high, but it can spread out to about 6 feet.

Many opuntias are very winter hardy, such as the Opuntia humifusa that is native to New England and all the way up into Canada, but this spineless one is a zone 7 plant.

I have some zone 7 sages in my garden, and technically could grow this opuntia here. My garden is now zone 7.

But where would I put one? A container would be ideal, so I could move it where needed and bring it in the garage for winter. But the plant is so much more interesting as it spreads out in irregular shapes.

Planted on its own as a specimen, it isn't as interesting as it is tucked in with other plants. But the orange flowers are great. I love this color, especially as I use orange where I can in the back courtyard.

I could plant one in combination with the cholla out front, with the fernbush and butterfly bush. This shot shows how it looks with other things, including a cholla.

But I probably won't. I like the half circle of what is there now -- the cholla, the fernbush and the butterfly bush. It would seem stiff and crowded to add the opuntia perhaps. And in winter the prickly pear looks pretty awful. Not what I want in the front yard.

I'd really like to add the opuntia in the back garden to see the orange blooms and to have it tucked in with upright sages and agastaches. But there simply isn't room.

I had Opuntia humifusa in Connecticut. It was still a small plant when it succumbed after a couple years to winter wet or too much summer rain, I forget which, but it went. 

It looked great in summer but a mess in winter. I loved it until I didn't.

I keep coming back to pictures of the spineless cacanapa ellisiana prickly pear and I keep trying to think of ways to use it here.

One alternative might be a much smaller plant:

Cotyledon orbicular, or red edged pig's ear. 

It's just a small succulent and won't have the landscape impact of a spreading prickly pear, but it does have the cool blue round pads and I could plant one or two somewhere where I'd see them up close.

It only grows about 6 inches high and a foot wide at most.

High Country Gardens has this and I think I'll order it. I'll figure out later where to put one or two.

The flowers are odd looking, little bells held on high stalks but downward facing, looking goofy.

Here are some examples of pig's ears I saw in January at the Heritage Gardens in California at Pam's development.

It blooms in mid summer. But I'd grow a couple of these for the almost opuntia looking foliage pads, but in a much much smaller size. Maybe even tuck some in along the rock border when I add creeping sedums and speedwells.

Plants added by A.I.

Here's a sort-of idea of how that might look as Gemini A.I. thinks it could look.

Hellebores

I got a 'Spanish Flare' hellebore as a free bonus in a Bluestone Perennials order last year and ordered a second. I didn't know what to expect or what to do with them other than providing a shady spot, so I planted them at the back of the potting bench curve where it is shadiest in summer.

They want shade in summer, but good winter sunshine. Sources say they are drought tolerant but here that means I have to keep them irrigated. Both are next to an emitter. 

It's hard to find a picture of the plant -- most images are extreme close ups of a single flower. The few images of the 'Spanish Flare' plant that I could find show a lovely little plant with sweet flowers, just a single upright clump.

Mine have not bloomed yet (hellebores take two to three years to bloom, and in this climate likely longer) and the plants are still small but the winter foliage is a nice green. The first summer planted they crisped pretty badly but now both look good. Here they were in January:

I'll have to wait a season or two to see what they will look like full-grown, whether they'll survive without crisping in summer, and whether they will even bloom well. 

But they're in a spot I never see. The redtwig dogwood will eventually grow too large in front of them, although the winter combination of bare red stems and rich green hellebore foliage behind will be nice. 

The back edge of the potting bench curve is just not a part of the garden anyone really sees. 

I'm transitioning it to a more open space with just redtwig dogwoods for filler and Biokovo geraniums for ground cover. 

Here's an example of a naturalistic swath of hellebores in winter wandering through a rock bordered area. 

That might be nicer than just having a clump or two. 

If I add several more under the aspens, in winter an evergreen ribbon of foliage might add groundcover interest, especially mingled with the semi-evergreen geraniums.

So I thought about ordering more 'Spanish Flare' hellebores to the two existing. But I'll wait.

I'll see how the two plants I have perform, especially in summer, and I may want to keep that section of shady back garden under the aspens more open and shrubby.

Three Red Pots

I am going to unpot and divide the three blue fescue grasses this year and plant one division in the circle garden to replace the aronia that is languishing. I'll pot up the aronia to see if it improves.

The other two divisions will go somewhere in the ground as well.

Over the years I've liked the look of the cool blue fronds with the bright red containers, and I used them in different spots. That's the benefit of containers in the garden, they are easy to move about.

I liked them best arranged in a slight curve in the dining room window garden one year. They added height and form and a different color to some blank spots behind the red flowered Texas betony.

I also liked them in a straight line right behind the green trough of geraniums at the front door. The trough hid the containers, but enough red peeked out to complement the sturdy red geraniums, and the grassy look was a nice backing and contrast.

It's been several years and they've gotten big and seem to be constrained -- only one even bloomed last summer and they all looked too floppy.

I don't think grasses really like containers for very long -- but they looked good for the first years.

It would be nice to continue using the red pots in a threesome. They are a bright punch of color and a nice size to group together.

But it's time for the grasses to be rejuvenated. When I had planted them in the ground originally they struggled, but these three clumps are pretty big now and should transplant okay. I hope.

I think I will divide each one (grasses need to be chopped up and divided every few years) and that way I can have the three refreshed divisions to remain in the pots, and three to plant out in the garden.

I'll experiment and see how that works out.

Ceanothus

I think I want to try again with Ceanothus americanus -- New Jersey Tea.  The several I tried here before failed. I tried twice in 2018 with little plants from the Waterwise sale, but one got stomped on and completely broke when the installers put in the new windows, the other struggled with my inconsistent watering I think.

This did not survive

That was before I had irrigation. New Jersey Tea wants dry, rocky, lean soil but needs to get started with good irrigation. It's tricky.

In 2020 I tried again with a small plant from High Country Gardens but it arrived tiny and in poor shape and I planted it in too much shade and moist soil.

Now here I am again, wanting to try another one. HCG has it.

The reason I am so persistent is that I loved this plant in Connecticut. 

In my CT garden in late June and early July

It was truly beautiful although I lost it after a few years due to wet conditions and competition. It was in rich soil there, not its best conditions. It wants dry and poor soil.

On a whim I've added two Ceanothus plants to my HCG order. One might fill the small empty spot between the two stands of irises, right in front of the redbud trunk.

The New jersey Tea bloomed briefly in my old garden in late June and early July, so it will be after the irises flower and after the yellow pompoms of the small buckwheat flowers. It would be sited just behind the blue Texas mealycup sages and the red Mexican sage and those bloom well into summer.

There is no emitter right at that spot, although the redbud gets watered. The New Jersey Tea won't need extra irrigation if I can get it going at first.

It might fit that empty spot and provide a leafy backdrop for the taller spiky sages in the circle in front of it. 

IF it grows. If.

Why am I even thinking of trying ceanothus again after three failures?? This has all the earmarks of another disappointment. 

But it's winter right now and all things in the garden are possible.

What to do With the Serviceberry

I looked specifically for a single trunk Autumn Brilliance serviceberry, and got this nice one from Sooner Plant Farm in 2022. 

As a thin, skinny thing, it makes a delicate vertical accent next to the rain barrel. There are emitters right there, so it gets water.

It will be a lovely tree.

But as soon as I planted it I knew it was not in the right place. It is going to be far too big to be sited between the barrel, the fence, the house and the juniper.

It is just a couple feet from the house wall and the fence. It is smack under the canale. Right now the rainwater from the canale pours into the rain barrel next to it, but once the canopy fills in, the branches will overhang the rain barrel, and water will pour down on the tree.

I want to take it out. I need to take it out.

I should dig it up and transplant it -- it should still be small enough for me to do that myself. But put it where? Any other spot in my garden will present the same issue: no space for a tree with a 15 to 20 foot spread.

Yes, it's a small patio tree. Yes, it will be even smaller in my challenging conditions. But I don't have room.

Ideally it could go next to the deck and shade the patio alcove. But it would dominate that bit of open space, crowd the umbrella which we really need for specific shade in certain spots, and it would be hard to walk under to get around the deck, even limbed up.

It wants good moisture so it would have to be transplanted somewhere that the irrigation reaches.

My original goal had been to get some shade on the big window. The hot eastern sun in the summer is a lot.

And we look straight out the wall of glass to the driveway and the rise beyond, with no privacy when the blinds are up.

The road comes down that rise at an angle and allows cars and sidewalk traffic a view into the house. I wanted something tall to partially shade and partly block the window.

My gardening answer to landscape problems has always been: 

    🌳 plant a tree. 

But a tree in that tight spot under the canale isn't going to work, For shading and blocking to be effective, a tree would have to be sited a little further away, and the juniper and driveway are there. 

So, despite the cost and my plans and the need for screening at the window . .  I'll take it out.

But with three emitters there, I'd like to put something in to look at from inside the house. Nothing big, no tree, and it wouldn't even be seen from the driveway side.

It would only be visible from the windows.

I've struggled with the Jackmanii clematis under the rose in the guest room window corner, so . . . 

 . . .  I may move the small spiral tutuer from there to this nicely irrigated spot and plant another Jackmanii clematis (or transplant the struggler if it's worth it.) 

I'll have kind of a flowery scene developing in this empty corner by the rain barrel -- some hollyhocks if they ever do anything, and the Kintzley's Ghost honeysuckle and Red Cascade rose scrambling over the fence from the other side.

I've had trouble getting Jackmanii clematis to grow here in the spots I've tried (it was huge and rampant in CT). 

But if it does do well next to the rain barrel and with irrigation, and if it grows bigger than the small tower supports, which it did in my old garden, it can be trained to grow over and into the juniper.

A.I. generated

I asked Google Gemini to show me what it might look like. The result got close enough -- this is an A. I. mockup of what I'd see from inside →

One possibility is to replant the poor little serviceberry in the kitchen courtyard. 

It would still be too big for the space, almost as close to the house and fence, but with open room on the walkway side, and it could be limbed up enough to walk by under it. It offers more of an anchor there, and shade on the hot kitchen door.

I've long thought about something more substantial and singular in this busy flower patch between the gate and the kitchen door. 

I'd like to simplify the look. The tree would hide the Kintzley's Ghost vine somewhat , but the honeysuckle will eventually scramble over and along the fence top more.

The key will be to keep the serviceberry narrow and limbed up.

The butterfly bush in the corner needs a good hacking to give it a fuller, shorter shape.

A.I.'s idea of what a tree in the spot would look like

There's irrigation there, it's a little bit further away from a canale, it offers an anchor that this little spot is missing, and it would make a shady walk from gate to house if I can limb it up enough.

Another A.I. rendering if I can keep it pruned narrow

OR . . .

Another A.I. rendering if it ever gets this big and full

I do like this idea. But would it seem to cramped in that little garden spot?

Rock Borders - A Subtle Change

On a chilly winter morning I reshaped the line of moss rocks along the gravel strip and it was not hard to do. 

In fact, I loved being out on a sunny morning, in my garden clothes, on my knees, changing things.

The day was cold, barely 40 degrees but it was still and sunny. The top inches of dirt had frozen overnight, but the rocks were easily moved with a claw to pry them up, and leather gloves. 

In an hour I was done, happy with the result. Not even that dirty. 

I had rocks left over to extend the potting bench curve out along the bottom of the fence.

The result is subtle, just a slightly altered shape but it makes a difference in the visual flow of my tightly compact garden.

Instead of wrapping close around the crabapple, the moss rocks now skirt it and end at the lower patio. The vee between the flagstones now draws the eye from the circle garden down into the lower patio, no longer blocked off by rocks wrapped around to the side. 

It's a small change and just a little opening between the two areas, but it makes the two garden spots tied together. I still like the idea of planting creeping sedums and speedwells around the rock border to soften it, particularly at the endpoint.

I had rocks left over and made a simple border along the bottom of the fence. At first I placed them close to the foot of the fence, planning to plant outside that border, in the gravel. 

Then, in the afternoon I went back out and changed the rocks to come out away from the fence. That will allow planting inside the border.

(This is why I can't hire installers -- I change my mind and re-do things after a little consideration.)

There isn't much space in this curve for the agastache and Rocky Mountain penstemon and verbascums I am planning. They'll have to be placed right up against the rock border -- the vine grows way out from the fence in summer.

Now the corner where the peony is planted extends out in a bend toward the lower patio. 

The rocks had curved sharply in by the peony to the junction of fence and stucco wall. It's not so sharply defined now, and the wall and the fence tie together.

Still need to tinker with the placement of a few rocks
and the curve shape but I know it's easy to do now

This rock border and plantings won't hide the fence (my original plan for a long time) but it ties the abruptness of the fence and stucco wall to the ground. It visually brings garden and fence and gravel and patio together seamlessly.

And I really like how the sweep of rock border coming from the garage down to the patio stops, then picks up again in the same arc running toward the aspens. 

It's very subtle, but the feel of it is there.

I have so little space to work with for a design, and what I have is very long and narrow. My first impulse was to separate the length with defined and bordered "rooms". 

I bounded the upper circle garden between garage and patio, left the patio flagstone area as a little square, then the deck and the problem of looking at the blank wall of fence, then the planted area under the aspens. 

And finally the step down to the potting bench work area. All separate and defined.

But I like this better. A long arc of garden plantings running the length, interrupted at an angle by the open flagstone area, but continuing on.

I like the idea of tying it all together, narrow as it is. This very subtle reshaping of these rock borders makes a difference. Can I get some plants in there to tie together even more and have something to look at besides the rocks?

I had a lovely time outside doing some meaningful garden work. In January!

🌞

And because I am experimenting with A. I. now, here is an artificial photo of what the new planting between the lower patio and the potting bench curve might look like:

A. I. interpretation with Rocky Mountain penstemon,
Southern Charm verbascum and Black Adder agastache.
They won't all bloom at the same time though.

Really, I could keep doing this all day -- another iteration of the new border, this time with Hot Lips salvia included:

Salvia Hot Lips with the penstemon and agastache and some
Southern Charm verbascums. A. I. interpretation.

And here's kind of a cute idea:

More Thoughts on Rocks

My previous post dithered on about planting creeping sedums and speedwells spilling around the moss rocks in the border by the gravel walkway. 

I like that idea.

But what if I altered the shape of the moss rock border to more naturally mirror the gravel strip as it runs under the crabapple? 

It bothers me that the stones circle around and cut off the mulched area from the flagstone patio below. 

I had originally wanted two distinct areas -- a mulched garden and a separate flagstone square, but now I think it would flow better to have them connected.

It would eliminate the sharp curve and give the trunk of the crabapple just a bit more breathing room.

Like this, with the rocks moved over to terminate below at the lower flagstone square:

It's a job, but I can move those rocks over. I'd actually wind up with some extras, removing those that go all the way around to the fence.

The rocks that circle around behind the Japanese forest grass and lambsears as the rocks connect back to the fence would be eliminated. 

That area is raised up, so without the rocks it would remain a slightly raised berm, but would no longer be cut off from behind. I'd take out the gravel on the patio side, making that little raised berm all mulch.

I'd have those few extra moss rocks to do something with. I had moved several a while back to create the echo of a second circle and that has worked well. 

I could add to that, extending it for a little more impact. It would be easy enough to do.

Or . .  more complicated to do --- I came across an idea to end the small gravel downslope in a tiny fake pool of rocks. Could I use the several extra moss rocks to arrange a little dug out drop plus a circle of stones just where the gavel meets the flag patio stones?

That might be too fussy, too small and too hard to execute. But as long as I will be on hands and knees wrestling rocks anyway, I might try this.

The Circle and Rock Border

I wanted a central focus like this.

These were the inspiration ideas I had for the open area I created when the Spanish broom was taken out in late 2021. 

I wanted a circle with an upright hardscape element in the center and small but lush plants around its base. 

I used the birdbath to start for my central item, but then switched to a shallow white bowl in the center.

Then I wanted lots of spiky upright plants with lots of texture and color differences in an outer ring.

Kind of the idea.

I also wanted a moss rock rough chunky border, but I didn't have enough room to create the big outline of rocks defining the circle as this photo showed. But I wanted the elements.

I thought I could create a border that would nestle into the strip between the mulched new area and the bit of gravel lining the walkway, with plants spilling over them.

I considered having it look like the richly planted rock border in this photo below -- plants not only behind the rocks, but in front of the rocks and tumbling over them.

Wow.

That hasn't happened. So far my rock border is just a bare line of stones. It's been four years now.

The stone border element is there, but not integrated into the design.

I like the design, but when Jeronimo installed the new garden he didn't add much soil, so the planting area is sunk below the rocks a bit, not rising up behind them. 

Newly installed.

It's hard to create a draping effect with any plants when they are sitting below the border of rocks. And I haven't really added anything that could tumble around the rocks. My plants are arranged in a circle away from the border.

This line of single stones needs something.

I am in the process of adding more upright perennials behind the stiff little circle (and I simplified the center to be just a carpet of thyme and a white bowl), but I also need to jam some low growing things along the edge of the rocks. At least in places.

The outer ring of plants haven't taken off yet. I'm planning more.
The Chinese privet is gone now, replaced by a square patio table.

And I can do that. 

There are several pockets between stones 

I can add a couple handfuls of compost and dirt in the tiny spaces and let the creeping plants grow over and around the moss rocks and out into the gravel (just a bit . .  the gravel area is not big and I may have to keep after creepers that overtake).

I'm still waiting for things to grow in the circle and fill in. At the front edge near the rocks I have a Little Lemon goldenrod on one side and a low pineleaf penstemon on the other.

The idea was to have those plants spread out over the rocks and I still hope they will some day, but they remain tidily separate, away from the rock border.

Adding creepers to the rock border in some spots will help the more upright plants tie together with the border and perhaps look more natural. Here are three I could easily plant in pockets around the stones:

I have the blue spruce sedum and can plant cuttings, I can get Angelina sedum from HCG.
The blue woolly veronica is also from HCG (and I need to add one to driveway strip).

This beautiful photo below shows more depth to the rock border -- several rocks more randomly scattered together rather than just a line of single stones. But can I get the same effect?

Can I do this? Or something similar?

Okay, look at what Gemini A.I. showed me:

A. I. interpretation

Stiff and awkward composition, and photographed in January, but I like it!