Planted Tomatos!!

I planted these tomato seeds on April 11, I think that's a little late, but hey - better late than never! I also threw them into some packs that already had dirt in them from whatever I killed last year. 

The week I planted them, it rained and I forgot about them, and the soil dried out, and then it rained again, but I really thought I killed them, but I kept watering them just in case. A week later there were 1-2 seedlings and I was happy because I was going to get a few, and I put chive seeds in the cells where nothing had come up, and continued watering them. Tomatoes are hardy, and the rest totally sprang up a week later, so it looks like I'll have a lot of them. These are the varieties: 

Dr Carolyn
Uncle Mark Bagby
Tomato Paul Robeson
Tomato Purple Bumblebee
Tomato Basrawya

My friend also shouted out on facebook that he had more tomato plants then he could handle, so I picked up a couple each of the Martinos Roma and principe borgese he offered up.

I planted one of each of those in a large container with a nursery-purchased Arkansas traveler, I put a tomato cage over each, and planted a couple borage seeds in the middle, and a few bunching onion and chive seeds in between, hopefully some of those come up. 

Azalea in bloom

I got this plant for free from the lobby of the building I worked in over a year ago.    I repotted it last fall because it needed to be watered almost daily the soil was so filled with roots... Since then it's done very well and is now blooming in its south-facing window with filtered light.

Containers

This weekend I helped my mom repot her empty (or sad) planters, she needed a refresh before a shindig she was having.

The existing plant in this pot was the pansy , but it was in the 4" container and had grown lots of roots out past the container. We dug it up carefully and cut the plastic container off, repotted it with some lavender, dusty miller, and capendula? I love how the color combo on this one turned out especially because the pansy has just enough yellow to tie into the yellow patio furniture next to the pot.

All the visible plants here are new there are a couple in the back that are just coming back from last year so we left a little space for them

Most of the plants here came back from last year, it just had a spot that needed to be filled on the left so we balanced out the existing dark purple potato vine with the dark red grass

This corner is technically a retaining wall but I'm counting that as a container of some sorts because it's not very big. There was an existing hydrangea at the very corner of the boards there it will have white blooms but is not quite there yet, so we punched it up with some variegated foliage plants. We added the hosta, and the ( geranium style leave). We also added the large japonica in the pit just for height for the party so it's still in its pot.

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Pink Plants

I had a gift certificate for Orchard Nursery in Lafayette, CA and bought a taupe colored pot and three pink blooming plants this weekend.

I'm normally not so into the pink shades I prefer the orangy red tones on the warm side of the spectrum, but I thought these all looked very good together, and the pot went well with all of them as well.

Salvia coccinea 'Hummingbird Coral' Perennial treated as annual, to 2 ft tall, Full Sun.

Scutellaria suffrutescens 'Cherry Skullcap' Perennial, 3-8", Full Sun

Justicia Carnea Perennial, 2ft to 3ft depending on variety, Shade to partial shade

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

something is eating the Dichondra...

something is either eating the dichondra, or someone thought it needed a haircut. Anyone know if dichondra is tasty to critters?

 

Here's what it looked like when I planted it:

New Planter

I put some silver-toned plants into a dark-blue container today. I think it came out pretty good. I had the Dichondra in the backyard hanging out for the last year.  And purchased the Snow-in-Summer a couple weeks ago at Lowes (that's when I got the idea to do a silver-tones plant pot).  Today, I got this Dwarf Curry and the Society Garlic 'Silver Lace' at Navlets. Later in the day, I went to a different Navlet's location, and walked around with a silver-toned plant to see how it would look in all the planters, I was a bit torn between the dark blue, and a black pot, but ended up getting the dark blue one.

Dichondra 'Silver Falls' (Dichondra argentea) 
plant in sun or part sun

Snow-in-Summer (Cerastium tomentosum)
tolerant to USDA Zone 3, full sun (morning in extreme heat),

Dwarf Curry (Helichrysum italicum)
USDA Zones 7-10, drought tolerant, full sun, requires excellent drainage

Society Garlic 'Silver Lace' (Tulbaghia violacea)

The Society Garlic's tag said it came from Montereybaynursery.com and made me laugh, here's the description on the tag:

"Society Garlic - a beautiful clumping perennial for a sun to part shade. Prolific dainty lavender flowers bloom over a long sesaon. The wonderfully pungent aroma is purported to repel vampires. Use with other plants with colored foliage. "

Red Pot update

Here's an update on the red pot:

It's growing pretty fast here's what it looked like a couple months ago.

In this container is a Lobelia 'Queen Victoria', that has died back the last two winters and returns the last two springs. also Brass Buttons ground cover, and a red grass, leptinella 'Squalida.' Here's a post from when I first planted these in the container.

I keep them under the oak in the back yard where it gets some direct sunlight in the am and late pm.

Minature Planters

I found this tiny little Bonsai planters at Pottery World in Rocklin, and thought they would be perfect for some tiny little groundcover or moss. I found this Elfin Thyme at Nauvlet's and squished them into the pots.

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...

My Favorite Planter

OK well, the planter itself is not my favorite, but the plants in it are. I will someday find an appropriate planter to move these plants into - probably something purple or Green, or ivory maybe...

here's all the plants in it:


Here's the Plectranthus 'Mona Lavender'


here's the purple shield (Strobilanthes Dyerianus)


Here's the Purple Heart (Setcreasea pallid)


here's the Bugleweed (ajuga 'chocolate chip') The Bugleweed foliage used to be more purple, I think It might need more sun exposure to get that color again.


more posts on this planter:

http://zone-nine.blogspot.com/2009/09/purple-heart-addition_4115.html

http://zone-nine.blogspot.com/2009/07/persian-shield_9803.html

http://zone-nine.blogspot.com/2009/08/persian-sheild-blooms_6403.html

Wallflowers blooming

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.

Blueberries

I have a number of blueberries in pots in my backyard, and have had blueberries in pots for years. Right now I'm putting some new Azalea soil in the pots and working it into the top inch or so of soil.

The plants I started out with are not the ones I have now, but here's the current line-up:

• Duke
• Jubilee
• Darrow
• Sharpblue
• Misty

In the past I've had, Blueray, Bluecrop, and Earliblue.

The trick with blueberries in pots is to keep them super happy. Give them a Azalea Mix Soil, and top it off with some redwood bark to keep the soil moist when it's warm out... Keep them pruned (take out any dead branches, and any that are growing toward the center of the bush, and any that are crossing each other), and well watered when it's hot out (containers soil dries out faster).

Lion's Tail Container

This container had a lion's tail plant, rockcress, and a red lantana. It also has a few struggling bulbs - some freesia, and one brodiaea.

The Lion'sTail (the light colored sticks in this image) I got two years ago, the first year it did ok, and the second year it took off like crazy into lanky, 3' tall stalks. I learned on my visit to the Fair Oaks Horticultural Center's open house last summer, that they need to be cut back hard. So, I've cut it back to about 1/3 of it's height, hopefully that will encourage it to get a little more bushy this year.

The Rockcress (The plant covering 2/3 of the container) I got from my mom a couple years ago, she had purchased it and never planted it, so she gave it to me. I thought it would look nice in a container with the lion's tail since they are both bright orange, and bloom in the summer. Last year the rockcress was barely hanging on... but it seems to have taken root and exploded this winter, I can't wait for it to bloom this year!

I also got a bright red Lantana (low plant on the left) late last year, and just placed it in it's orignal pot in the container to see how it would look and also see if it would survive. It's done pretty good, I'll think I'll plant it in the container...

Wine Barrel #3

This one is doing very well...The yarrow is doing very well, in fact I'm worried about it invading the entire barrel. The California Fuchsia that I added in this year seems to be doing well, the Euphorbia is happy, and the monkey flower is doing well but not taking over - I'll have to watch it next year though to make sure it doesn't take over. The Echinecea I transplanted in has died back, but I'm holding out hope that it will return next spring.

Wine Barrel #2

Wine barrel #2 Sweet Peas are doing well... Two of the Morning Glories are still growing, the other appear to have been eaten by something.

Wine Barrel #1

So wine barrel #1 is doing pretty well, the Bat- Faced Cuphea is still blooming, and the blue-eyed grass is starting to come back, the Euphorbia looks good though the blooms are dead and need to be cleared out, the Sticky monkey flower is done blooming, but looks good, and the Delphinium looks like it's hanging on enough to come back next year.Today I saw something interesting, I haven't seen bees around for a while, but today there was one hanging around the sticky monkey flower, that is not in bloom...I wonder if the sticky pat of the leaves is actually food for the bees when it's off bloom time? I haven't been able to find any info on that, but this little bee was really buzzing all over that plant. - and didn't touch the Bat-Faced Cuphea.

Drowned plants

I went on a trip last week, and it rained the day I left. When I returned, I found wine barrel #2 had not drained and had sitting water about an inch over the soil line ( the drainage holes I poked into it last year were only with a large nail, so the wood probably swelled up enough to seal those holes up). The plants in that wine barrel looked like they were pretty much dead. I got a drill out and drilled some holes near the bottom of the barrel, and the water drained, but I think it's too late for most everything in the planter they were sitting in water for five days. The Sage may survive, it still has some living bits, but the monkey flower is long gone, as well as the pansy, and tobacco (though the last two were annuals any way so no big loss).

Puya Alpestris

I bought two of these plants last year at Annies Annuals because of it's promise of interesting teal flowers. I planted them in pots and put them in the front yard. One was in more sun than the other, and it's growth was stunted, so I moved it to the same spot the other was. This year, the one that was not stunted shot up a flower spike, and today that flower spike started blooming.

I'm assuming that the flowers will darken over time into the teal color they are supposed to be, because this one that opened today is a lime green.

The Puya Alpestris is a species of bromeliad native to Chilean Andes and grown as an ornamental plant with unusual teal flowers

Here the info on the plant from annies http://www.anniesannuals.com/plants/plant_display.asp?prodid=1956&account=none