Sweet Summer Love on a Slinky

It's fragrant up close. Blooming beautifully. Cool purple in the shade, hot cherry red in sun.

From a distance it doesn't look like much -- blooming only at the top and the dark purple magenta disappears into the greenery somehow. It didn't reach the top of the shepherd's crook, so the overall effect from afar is small, hard to see and receding.

But up close it is delightful and looks delicately cheerful.

Getting Roses Settled

After an inch of soaking rain, it was nice not to have to think about watering anything. I can get up, go about my day and not have to fret over what needs water, what looks okay, what might need water later. 

It's not the actual task of hose watering things, it's the mental work of thinking about it every day. Nice to have a day or two off. But the June sun dries things out quickly even on these pleasant, not too hot days after the rain.

Pretty red petunias

The deep red petunias I picked up at Lowe's in spring are really doing well. What a rich red.

'Playboy' in the ground just planted

I planted the 'Playboy' orange rose today. 

It looks good, it has three emitters right at its base, and after transplant adjustment it should be okay.

It was a big, healthy, sizable plant from Sooner Plant Farm. 

With the rose planted forward a bit and the birdbath a little closer with pots surrounding it, this area below the patio is starting to look like a garden, rather than a strip along the bottom of the fence.

And from inside the living room there is something to look at, composed and interesting.

Something to look at from inside

It's still a big green wall, but the plantings bring the eye forward, which helps. Still, it's a long green flat wall and needs something more, even with the rose eventually gaining some height in the foreground.

I put the hummingbird feeder there. It's easier to access and lower to get to, and it's something . . . something . . . against the green vine.

Still a sold wall of green

The knockout blushing pink rose has finally perked back up after moving it to the pot, and is now putting out healthy new leaves and buds. 

'Blushing Pink' growing well now                                         First transplanted

It had several pink blooms when I moved it, but lost them and dropped some leaves. It's back in form now. It should bloom most of the summer, pretty much nonstop now that it is settled.

Refreshed

After the ¾ inch of rain Tuesday night we got another quarter inch last night. It was again a gentle rain, and everything looks so refreshed with the sun out this morning.  

This June has been unlike others. Usually it's rainless, scorching and awful until July brings some relief. This year has been generously wet and cool except for the few days I was just away in California. 

I'm still waiting for really hot weather, particularly warm nights, so the thyme will spread and fill holes and the petunias will perk up.

Rain When I Returned

These guys!

Jim kept the pots and some of the gardens watered while I was away in California. I had such a good time out there with the cutest grandkids ever.

When I got back only a couple tiny zinnia starts and an obedient plant were wilted, everything else looked fine. The irrigation ran, but it was hot and dry.

I watered well the morning after I got back, including the field. Then it rained that evening. A lot.

We got ¾ of an inch of steady gentle rain. This has been a wet and early start to monsoon season and more is forecast over 4th of July weekend.

The new orange rose arrived while I was gone. It's big. It is in transit shock now, with yellow leaves, but should be fine after it settles in when I plant it this weekend.

Finally Ninety

Well hello, Salvia darcyi 'Vermillion Bluffs'

After a long cool start to June, we have hot dry sunny weather today and the thermometer is up above 90 in mid afternoon. 

Although most plants won't like it and I need to keep everything even more well watered than I was doing (daily soaks plus irrigation), there are a few things that will start to bulk up now:

The yellow petunia, for one. It's been a tiny hail damaged thing with two small stems and two little blooms all spring. It's growing now. 

The strawberry and the basil in pots will get going now too. And some newly planted little things like the Mexican sage -- Salvia darcyi Vermillion Bluffs -- are finally starting to settle in and put out some growth.

The few sticks of Vermillion cuphea in the white bowl are showing new leaves sprouting from below.

But the real benefit to this hot weather will be seeing the thyme carpet fill in under the white bowl. It's been waiting for hot weather.

It has greened up nicely and now just needs to spread into the open dirt patches.

I think it will do that now with hot dry weather. I hope.

Long Lasting

I've always loved how the early morning rising sun slants in through the gate and lights up the ground level area in the circle garden.
 

This season it is directly shining on the little pineleaf penstemon, which is going and going, lasting for a long time in bloom.

The other, newer pineleaf penstemons aren't blooming at all, I think it takes several years before they do. But this more mature one, transplanted by the rocks, is flowering beautifully and is keeping at it.

Peggy Martin rose is lasting a long time in bloom too. It usually goes by quickly. June so far has been cool, with cold nights, so that may be the difference.

The sunny yellow Coronation Gold yarrow by the driveway is also lasting a long time, very bright and sturdy looking, easily seen from afar. Last year I overwatered, and it got floppy and did not bloom very long. 

This year it gets drip from an emitter at its base, but no extra hand watering. It's still a little splayed, but better, and has been in bloom forever.

Red Cascade rose looks great, and the blue Royal Candles have opened their vivid spikes.

Cascade is a good name for this scrambler rose. I want it to either get taller to train up over the door canopy nearby or spread out more over the fence. So far it isn't doing either, just spilling over, cascading.

The whole kitchen courtyard looks nice now, filling in.

Windwalker Red salvia in its pot by the deck has sent up a scarlet flower. 

I should have trimmed the plant back earlier for a bushier growth, it's getting too tall and stalky. 

But what a vivid, rich color, and it's also been blooming on this one stem for a long time. There are more buds.

The prairie pot garden by the deck isn't ready for prime time yet -- only the single red salvia bloom and some white angelonias are showing -- but it looks full and layered, so I'm hoping for a nice composition soon.

I potted up the dwarf Golden Baby goldenrod into the terracotta vase pot. I took it out of the flagstone spot since the orange multicolor rose will go there.

I hope the little pot it is in will be big enough, it's supposed to get two feet tall. It will be less in a pot, and the plastic container inside the vase is small.

With this unusual damp, cool June many things are keeping their blooms and good looks a lot longer than usual.

An Orange Rose

The corner of the lower flagstone patio needs something. Especially something to break up the solid expanse of green vine from inside the living room.  

There's a yellow Swallowtail columbine in the corner and it's nice and full now. And a transplanted Japanese forest grass is bright and will be fountainy -- some day? 

To the right is the structural Blonde Ambition grass that looks great later in the season and all winter. And the turquoise birdbath at the end of the line.

But from inside all I can see is the flat wall of green vine covered fence.  And for seven months of the year it's a brown expanse.

The corner is a void, especially the forward spot where I took out a flagstone (and tried 3 times to get an ironwood tree to take). I could put the tall brown urn there, it isn't being used anywhere now.

But I need something colorful with form and presence, interest and vertical height, not a little tidy lonely perennial (that's a dwarf goldenrod Golden Baby there right now).

What I really want is an orange rose! I have no idea what variety this is (at Newman's in front of the parking lot) but wow.

A shrub rose, nothing big and tall, and something that flowers all summer. Nothing dinky. I like the color mix. With the lemon yellow columbine and the light yellow peony not far away, and the yellow foliage of the fountain grass, a darker color or varied colors are needed. Orange!

After days of searching so many roses in so many colors I finally ordered a 'Playboy' rose online from Sooner Plant Farm. 

It's a floribunda shrub rose, to about 3 or 4 feet tall and wide, so not a little dwarf . A presence, but not too tall. 

Multicolored red tinted, yellow and orange flowers. Some crystal pink at times, which will mirror the blushing pink on the patio, but will be mixed in with brighter and darker colors too. 

It will be seen.

There are no pictures of what the shrub looks like, only close ups of the flowers, which is the case for all the many roses I researched. No one photographs the plant, just the flower. 

I looked and looked at orange roses of all kinds and forms and color mixes, including one called Vavoom (really, better than Playboy?) that was described as traffic cone orange, but the right size and form.

I do want an eye catching flowery show, but I also want a plant that fills that space and looks good. This will be an experiment.

(I'll move the little goldenrod somewhere).

June

June is usually too hot, too dry and the sun is too intense. Not this year. Nights are still quite cool, keeping some things from bulking up or expanding. 

Days have been pleasant, but we've had some rain and it's all quite unusual. A thunderstorm rolled through and delivered a third of an inch of gentle rain (a little hail, but not much) and then it got quite cold.

Before the clouds rolled in I fertilized everything, this time with a granular fertilizer dissolved in my 2 gallon watering can.

June is rose time, and even in hot dry years the Peggy Martin rose looks great, although it has a short bloom time. It's looking very good right now.

I love catching a glimpse of it from the guest bedroom window.

I made a little sitting area to view it, although nobody sits there at the end of the alley.

The Blue Ice amsonias under it are looking really good too. A very modest, unassuming plant but pretty. It took years for them to mature.

It drives me crazy that the fullest, biggest plant combinations I have are where no one ever goes and they aren't visible. The ironwood tree, the rose, the amsonias, all look great together in a quiet little corner. Come have a sit and view them --

The one remaining Chinese privet is blooming now in June. Stinky, but nice enough to look at, especially since I limbed it up.

It's no longer a big overwhelming ball in the middle of the yard, but an almost tree height multistem form that is nice.

Tiny and Bright

There are pops of vivid rich colors blooming in the back yard, but boy do you have to get up close. They are tiny, tiny plants.
 

Pineleaf penstemon, so red, but so small.

Electric blue penstemon, first blooms.
Yellow sulphur buckwheat still going strong.

More pineleaf penstemon in a little more shade.

There are a couple more pineleaf pnestmons, newer plants, and not blooming yet. I found it takes 3 to 4 years before they settle in and flower.

Yellow Swallowtail columbines are still in flower. It's been cool, and quite cold at night and that has preserved them.

The Park

I took a walk today. Just a mile and half, slowly. I am out of shape and stiff. 

The park looks great right now and I sat there under the pergola for a while.

The cactus display garden at the park has come into its own and was spectacular -- big mounds of sandy soil and rocks with all kinds of cactus spilling over the slopes and standing tall. Opuntias are blooming.

They did a great job with scale and size, nothing dinky, a real display with presence and design. It was too sunny to photograph. 

But the rest of the park was lovely too, with flowering daisies, yarrow, penstemons, and Jupiter's Beard. And green lawn and low sumacs and such cool quiet air. 

Big, enveloping and with a meadowy look and far views. Nothing like my dinky garden with its ones and twos of tiny plants within walls and fences.

As much as I like being in my developing garden and lovely home -- things all look so nice and the way I want -- it is so good to get out. 

Not just at the park, but I also like seeing neighborhood yards and patios and gardens. It's a mature neighborhood with houses clustered at angles and nicely varied, but a cohesive Santa Fe style. There are creative ways people arrange their tiny front yards. Lots of garden elements are tucked into tiny spaces.

After a bit of rain yesterday it was clear and fresh. Just beautiful. It was in the 40s when I got up, in the low 60s as I walked. Hot sun, cold air, things to look at, a bench to sit on, a peaceful but vibrant sense of place.

Exquisite.

Rosemary

Rosemary Arp is too big for its spot between the walk and the house wall. So I trimmed it pretty severely, at first making it too boxy and square, but then trimming some more to give it a slightly rounder shape. 

It's okay. You can walk by it and still stay on the walkway. But it's clearly too big for the space.

In the beginning, of course, it wasn't. Here it was in 2018, seven years ago.