Ok. This is now the third summer in a row that exceptionally dry conditions have prevailed. Not continuously, but in killer sections of exceptional heat and dryness rolling through from April until now, and showing no signs of abating. In between conditions normalise a little, but the accumulating dryness builds over time. So today, I was really thrilled to find a second hand copy of ‘Plants and Landscapes for Summer-Dry of the San Francisco Bay Area’ edited by Nora Harlow and published by East Bay Municipal Utility District in 2005.
This book really triggered much of the current landscaping and garden thinking of the Bay Area, and was influential, winning the American Horticultural Society’s Book Award in that year. So, despite paying more for the postage than the book itself, I am really looking forward to learning more about an area that could be really inspirational for me gardening in Tostat.
Despite all, there are moments of loveliness- once your eye has adjusted to looking past the things that bug you! I grew Bupleurum fruticosum from seed about 7 years ago, and whilst not a looker in the conventional sense, the massed flower heads look fabulous at eye height and attract masses of insects. Now mature plants, they offer real presence in the garden as other plants go over, and I value their strong evergreen presence.
Echinacea purpurea is just coming through. It is fair to say that this period, though super-dry, is also an inbetween moment in the garden anyway. There is a pause that naturally happens in the summer, and we are in it. But, Echinacea and Rudbeckia are arriving soon, thank goodness.
This is the first year the Eucomis ‘Sparkling Burgundy’ has flowered- last year, bulb strength was being built with leaf production- but now we have flower spikes and leaves- a great display, but with us, it’s got to be grown in a pot so you can manage the watering levels required. They are thirsty when in the middle of flowerspike production and it’s true, you want the spikes to last as they are quite magnificent.
Abutilon ‘Pictum’ just at the top of the page, is another shrub that does best in a pot, not so much from the water point of view, but more from the over-wintering needed. ‘Pictum’ like all the Abutilons with the wider-open bell-shaped flowers, needs not to be frost-nipped, so I lug it under cover in the winter, just to give it enough protection to make it. ‘Mesopotamicum’ and an unknown orange abutilon are just that bit tougher, the toughness give-away being the more shrouded, longer-line flowers as below. Personally, I am lusting after ‘Ashford Red’, of which more later…
And the slightly mad- not-to everyone’s-taste Lilium ‘Flore Pleno’ is carrying on regardless. And I love it for it’s slightly shambolic Rita-Hayworth quality. It cheers me up.
jardinecofriendly 