Tomatos

 Bloody Butcher Tomato - purchased from The Seed Bank in Petaluma, CA - Planted 4/1/12, all seeds sprouted, (four per cell) thinned seedling replanted 4/22/12. Will plant in the garden when they are a little larger, and when I can set up some fencing around the raised bed to keep the dog out of it.

Today I planted tomatoes that were purchased, four cherry red tomatoes from a six pack that I bought at OSH about a month ago.  They've been on my windowsill waiting for the weather to be warm enough to plant. They had grown pretty tall, so I trench planted them, laying them sideways, and leaving just a bit sticking out from the top, so the plants will root well.

Tomato Arbunzyi purchased from Annies last weekend. Planted deep down and mounded soil up to encourage rooting.

Not sure what I did here...

Somehow I completely killed the zinnas, but not the lantana or marigolds.

New pottery

I went to Sloat in Danville the weekend before last and got these four pots during their BOGO sale. I was really happy to see that they had some green colored pots.

I planted the Guara I bought a few weeks ago, and the silver

transplant weekend

This weekend I finally transplanted the herbs out of their small shallow bowl, into a medium shallow bowl. They are much happier here. If I had known what I know now about herbs, I would not have planted the rosemary and lavender in this pot since they get pretty large.

Then I took the small shallow bowl and planted some annuals I got at the nursery.

Parrots Beak

Lotus berthelotii or Parrots Beak

My grandmother send me some cash in my birthday card, which I pretty much immediately ran out and spent on this plant and the orange pot it's in.

These guys are supposed to be sensitive to cold, so when I bought it a few months ago, when it was still cold at night, I kept it in the house on the sill of a south facing window. and when it warmed up I moved it outside. It grew a lot when I re-potted it, and this week it started blooming!

Most Lotus need 40° F nights to induce bloom, but not this vibrant-hued variety. Night temperatures can be as high as 55 - 60° F.

Parrot's Beak or Lotus Vine is a great plant that fills the needs for a silver, soft-foliaged plant, as well as a trailing silver plant that flowers. However, the flowering part is short lived, based upon where you live and how fast the temperature rises in the spring. Parrot's Beak needs cool temperatures in order to initiate flowers, and will start and continue to bloom only if the spring temperatures do not climb too fast or spike (when there really is no spring and you fast forward to summer.) If you have warm night temperatures the plant will quickly go out of flower.

In warm-winter areas, lotus is a striking evergreen perennial groundcover. It grows best in full sun with well-drained soil.

Light:
Sun
Zones:
10-11
Plant Type:
Annual,Perennial
Plant Height:
To 8 inches tall
Plant Width:
To 2 feet wide
Landscape Uses:
Containers,Beds & Borders,Privacy,Slopes,Groundcover
Special Features:
Flowers,Attractive Foliage,Easy to Grow

Annuals

I planted some annuals in a couple of containers to place on the windowsills in front of the house, they are doing pretty well...

Here they were a week or so ago before the bloomed

Here they are when I first planted them.

Blue Honeywort

The Blue Honeywort (Cerinthe major var. purpurascens) should have died back after the frosts a couple weeks ago, but it seems to have sprung some new growth.

It's also sprung some new offspring. I thought I grabbed all the seeds off this plant, but clearly I missed some. I first saw this stuff on a garden tour in Livermore, and the woman who owned it said it spread like weeds. I had my doubts because the first few times I tried to grow it, it didn't take, but now I see what she's talking about.

I'll have to try to transplant these guys in the ground before the gardeners my landlord pays for mistake them for weeds and wack them down.

There's even one growing out of my Puya Alpestris.

Winter petunias

I thought the petunias had died in the freeze last week but I guess not...

Salvias

There are a couple of different Salvias in this pot - Salvia 'Salsa Purple' & Savia 'Forest Fire' (Purple/Red).

I think they go very well together. I bought them back in May, but didn't plant them right away, and they suffered for it, it's just now that they've made a recovery, and are looking good... I think the purple is an annual, but I'm hoping the forest fire will come back next year.

New Plant and planter

I bought this planter this weekend(mostly because it's the most gorgeous shade of blue, but also because it was on sale) and found a cute little yellow and white Lantana at Navlets to put in it (there was no specific name or this one on the tag just a generic "Lantana' name). I brought it home and thought I should add in some white trailing flowers too. maybe Alyssum...

Lantana does REALLY well in California, especially when given enough space to thrive. It will die back in the winter if there is frost but will come back the next year. They are not fans of shade - since they are prone to mildew, I've had a couple in shade that haven't even thought about blooming.

Here it is with the alyssum and a few white pansies...

Nicotiana - Tobacco Plant

I love the pale green blooms on the Nicotiana 'Hummingbird lemon lime' I've bought it three years in a row since I first found it, and this year, instead of buying the little six packs, I bought one in a 4" pot that was already doing well. It has done VERY well, and is in an absolute explosion of blooms. I think next year, I will buy the 4" pots again.

Sweet Pea clean-up

I decided to pull out the sweet peas this week, since they have been dried up for a while now. I took the opportunity to collect some seeds to plant this fall...

Oyster Plant Update

These are the stages of the oyster plant, bloom, then it closes up, then it explodes in a poofball of seeds.

Enhancing a Hanging Pot

Yesterday I bought a hanging pot from CVS that was on sale for $9.99. It is filled with my favorite color of Million Bells ( Calibrachoa ) - Tequila Sunrise, which has a great, dynamic, orange color.

It's a nice hanging pot, but it needed a little more interest. I found these great pentas which are a super-pale lavender (Maybe "butterfly blush" color?), complimenting the orange nicely.

New Plants

This weekend I bought a bunch of plants. I couldn't resist...

From Nauvlet's I bought:

• A six pack of Tobacco plant (Nicotina)- 'Avalon Mix'
• A six pack of Salvia 'Salsa Purple'
• A six pack of Savia 'Forest Fire' (Purple/Red)
• A Penstemon - 'Ice Cream Blueberry Fudge'

From Orchard Nursery I bought:

• A six pack of Echinacea - 'Magnus Deep Rose'
• A Tobacco plant (nicotina) - 'Hummingbird lemon lime'
• A Salvia microphylla 'Hot Lips'
• Monarda - 'Violet Queen'
• Monarda - 'Blue Stocking' ('Blaustrumpf')

Sweet Peas

The Sweet Peas have completely blown all my expectations away. There are so many of them! and they are gorgeous!

I was expecting, a rich medium blue color, based on the seed package(see photo below), but they came out a deep, royal purple instead...still gorgeous, and I found the perfect companion sweet pea for it (assuming the packaging on this one is accurate).

The seed packet I used was a lake valley brand seed, that I purchased probably four years ago. The package says "sell by 12/08." Regardless of that date, they worked fine for me this year, and I planted about four seedlings in wine Barrel #2

I purchased the seed packet on the right just a couple weeks ago, This one is from Burpee, called "Lilac Ripple." I plan to grow it alongside the "Royal Blue" next year, I think they will look gorgeous together, assuming of course, that Burpee does a better job of representing color on their seed packages than Lake Valley.

Blue Honeywort

Two or Three years ago while I was on a garden tour, there was a garden in Livermore that had a little field of these things, and since then, I've been trying to grow them. It took me a while to figure out that they don't get sold in nurseries. So last year I got some seed, and tried to grow it, I started it far too late in the year though, and it was a total failure.

 

This year I planted it in time to get a few blooms. I love it. Next year I hope to plant even earlier, and have even more success.

Cape Daisy Surprise

This little cape daisy was labeled an annual, but here it is back for another season. This variety is called Nuanza Copper Purple or "Osteospermum ecklonis"

Seed Success!

This is my first successful seed growing venture... EVER. Seed to bloom with this beautiful sweet pea! This particular one was planted directly into wine barrel #2 back in November...

Front Yard Color

I replanted the two pots on the windowsills in the front yard... Yesterday, after we went to the farmer's market, we stopped at Target's garden center. I picked up a couple of primula malacoides (fairy primrose) for $1.29 each, and an erysimum citronia (wallflower in orange) for $4.39. The wallflower actually had two plants in the pot so I was able to split it in two for what I was doing.