Calla Lillies

These also came with the house, but this year with all the rain, they are looking pretty gorgeous! Tons of blooms, and big, lush foliage.

They also make great cricket catchers. I've found at least four in the blooms, and was able to crush them easily.

Feeding the Blueberries

Today I fed the blueberries some azalea & rhododendron food. I read somewhere to fertilize blueberries in the spring when they flower, which they are doing now (OK well some of them are done and are working on making fruit already). The directions said to give quite a bit, I hope I haven't overdone it...

I skipped giving the new blueberries the food, since they've probably been fed like crazy from the nursery.

Bird Bath!

Today we put up a birdbath made out of an old satellite dish. I got the idea from instructables

It's mounted on an old stump in the backyard, that we can't really do anything else with. It's probably not the most ideal birdbath, since the dish is metal, and the location is in full sun from about noon until the evening, but I figure the birds will be able to enjoy it in the morning and evening.

Rose Blooms

I wish I knew what rose this was, It's really gorgeous!

This rose bush came with the house, and has never really bloomed, either being eaten by bugs, or just not getting enough water to produce blooms. This year it got cut way back, and got an extra long winter and here is the result!

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"

Hummingbird

Caught One on Camera!

I recently found my hummingbird feeder and hung it up for the birds outside my living room window.  Here's one of the ladies taking a drink.

Roses starting to Bloom

The rose that came with the house in the front yard is getting ready to bloom. This is the best it's looked in the four years we've been here. It got cut back hard this year, and all the rain we've been getting must have been great for it.

Wallflowers blooming

Blue-eyed grass and Euphorbia

Wine Barrel #1 is blooming away.



This Wine Barrel contains Blue-eyed grass, Euphorbia Amygdaliid, Sticky Monkey Flower, Bat-faced Cuphea, and a Delphinium. The Delphinium and Bat-faced Cuphea will bloom later...

My favorite combo in this planter is the Blue-eyed grass and Euphorbia blooms that compliment each other so well...

Something is Eating My Fruit Trees

I'm not sure what to do about this, I suspect this damage has been done by crickets. I don't want to use pesticides.

New Hibiscus

Today I found a specific Hibiscus I've been looking for for years. I first saw it at the home of Chick Fil-A founder, Truett Cathy, while on a tour of his automobile collection in Georgia with the Cadillac & LaSalle Club. I remember seeing this variety, taking a photo, and thinking "I want that one." About a year later, I did see it in a nursery in Alameda, and found out it was called "Painted Lady" but it was like $35 or $40 for a five-gallon plant, so I reluctantly walked away.

Today I went to Home Depot looking for a hummingbird-friendly plant, and while there wasn't a great selection of red tubular flowering plants at his point in the season, I did find this Painted Lady Hibiscus, at a fantastic price, a five gallon pot was $13.95.

Blueberries

I've been looking for a Bluecrop or Blueray blueberry this season, I used to have both and they were flavorful and performed well for many years, until I killed them by not repotting them one year. I tried a few locations of my local small nursery chain, Navlet's, but their bare root blueberries were gone pretty much as soon as they arrived. so I missed that opportunity. and have been checking all Nursuries every where I went this year.  I'd given up hope on blueberries, but today, I saw a Bluecrop at Home Depot, for $4.95. So I picked it up, as well as a Jersey.