Fading Images

Several years ago, my daughter-in-law made this prayer flag for my birthday after I mentioned learning about Tibetan prayer flags on an art and photography blog. My daughter-in-law chose the symbols to use and hand stenciled the designs and lettered them in Sanskrit. She then hand colored each panel. She did not follow the traditional prayer flag format for my flag. Her work was so exquisite I did not want to expose the flag to the elements, so I hung it in my breakfast area. After a few years, I decided to place the flag in my garden, as it was meant to be. According to the Tibetan belief, as the images fade from exposure to the elements, the prayers of the flag are said to become a permanent part of the universe, just as life moves on and is replaced by new life. Tibetans renew their hopes for the world by continually mounting new flags alongside the old. This act symbolizes a welcoming of life's changes and an acknowledgment that all beings are part of a greater ongoing cycle. I'm glad I placed the flag outside where I can see it from my windows or when I'm walking in the garden. I think of the sentiment connected to prayer flag every time I see it moving in the breeze.

My Lilac Vine (Hardenbergia violacea) has grown so much that it now covers a good portion of the block wall on one side of my house. It has also grown over the wall, and can be seen from the roadway. That is how I knew it had bloomed. As I was rounding the corner to my house, I saw that the vine had bloomed overnight, so I went to my backyard and took a close look. Because the wall has a southern exposure, the sun shines in such a way that the blooms are not obvious unless you step into the shade of the house to shield your eyes from the sun. Had I not noticed the blooms from the roadway, I might have missed it at its peak blooming as it is at least three weeks earlier than previous years.   

January is rose pruning month in the Phoenix area, but as usual, I was late and didn't get around to it until the first week of  February. Actually, any time between early January and early February will work, but I've had more April blooms when I do it early. By the time I got around to it, all the rose bushes had gone dormant, except my Red Intrepid. This rose bush lives up to its name--it produces blooms almost all year long--although in the extreme heat of summer, the blooms are deformed and sparse. It is also the one rose that I have that produces no scent. The pruning produced this nice bouquet!

Summer's Almost Gone

When the Queen's Wreath blooms, it's fall. I was hoping this was the year this vine would thrive, but it was not to be. The summer was particularly brutal this year, and so many plants struggled for months just to stay alive. It's not a lack of water (even though we've had only 3 inches so far this year) it was the sun's intensity. 

I lost many, probably about 15, perennials this summer, but I think most of them died a natural death rather than succumb to the heat. They were all six to seven years old and had lived their cycle. As my landscape has matured I've replaced fewer and fewer plants, but these latest deaths left bare spots that need filled in. So, I'll be spending some time in a couple of nurseries in the next couple of weeks, trying to make up my mind what the replacements will be. I don't think I'll go beyond the tried and true, I seem to have lost the urge for adventure in the garden.

An early September trimming is all it takes to revitalize the Lantana plants and get them blooming again. By late August, they are quite large and sprawling, with no flowers--dusty and dry looking. For a few weeks after the trimming, they look worse than ever, but look at how symmetrical and full they are just a while later. They will now bloom for months, just like this.

September is Ferocactus cylindraceus flower time, and it looks like I'll have flowers well into October. We had a light rain about three weeks ago--the first in many months, and that prompted this last push. I've collected seed from the fruit for years, and have occasionally started some ferocactus seedlings, but I've never been interested in this aspect of gardening, so I tossed out about a quarter pound of seed recently. I still feel kind of guilty about it for some reason.

Promises, Promises

Chuporosa

It's still officially winter, but there are many blooming plants in my landscape, and the promise of more to come. We had a couple of days of below freezing temperatures earlier in the month, so I have lots of dead plant material left unpruned. It is acting as an insulator in case we have more frost. It doesn't look so hot in my garden right now, but with the extra rain we received earlier in the month, spring should bring lots of wildflowers. And weeds!



Cape Honeysuckle


Today I spotted a male Costa's hummingbird (Calypte costae) with its beautiful iridescent purple head and breast and iridescent green back. As it was retrieving nectar from this heavily blooming Cape Honeysuckle, I rushed in to get my camera but when I got back, the bird was gone and didn't return. This is the first time I've seen this particular hummingbird in my garden. I hope more return. Check here for a great photo of the Costa's hummingbird.

Aloe sinkatana

Desert Marigold

Feathery Cassia

Volunteer Nasturtium

I'm really surprised that I have so many volunteer Nasturtium plants showing up in various containers around my garden. Sometimes my husband mixes old potting soil in with the new stuff, and I think this may be how this is happening. I asked him why he always retrieved the potting soil I throw out, and he said it seems like such a waste, so he mixes it with the new soil. After getting odd plants coming in here and there, I think he's now convinced this isn't such a good idea.

Mexican Bird of Paradise



Lilac Vine (Hardenbergia violacea)


This vine is really loaded with little buds, so in a couple of weeks, this plant will have a spectacular display. The vine has grown quite a lot in the past year, and now covers about eight feet of one of my block walls. Wish I would have planted several more. It was a good choice! It is an Australian native and is well suited to our area, but not yet in common use here. It seems impervious to frost and extreme heat. It is a twining vine so it needs a trellis for support. I use vine wires on the block wall and that works well. Since it can be easily propagated with softwood cuttings this time of year, I may try that to get more of these to cover another section of block wall. The vine looks great year round, even when not in bloom.


   Valentine Emu is loading up for its February show. Sometimes there are so many flowers that the plant can't stay upright. This is one plant that improves with pruning and shaping after the blooming period. This is another Australian native.



Yellow Emu

Blooms Continue....

Brittlebush and Penstemon grow where they want to in my garden. For several years, I had only one Brittlebush shrub, but last year, several more came up, and this year, there are about ten growing in one area. They look good in spring and sometimes in fall. The rest of the year, well, it's hard to look at them. They dry out in the center, and become woody. They do last several years if left alone, so I just turn my head when I walk by them except in spring.

The few Bush Morning Glory shrubs left in my garden are now in full bloom. They are quite a standout among all the yellow each spring. When I established my garden in May of 2005, I had 18 Bush Morning Glory shrubs, and each summer, I lose a few more. They are not long-lived perennials, and I although I love them, I haven't replaced the ones lost. I like to try new plants when I have an open emitter, but I'm going to go back to Bush Morning Glory now that I'm down to only six.



Although this Lilac Vine flowers for a only short time in early spring, its green leaves break up the expanse of the unpainted walls of my garden the rest of the year. Although I said in my last post that I don't want to spend any more money on this property, the unpainted concrete block is not attractive. I would like to have it painted a Sangria color. Or maybe a shade of orange. Or, maybe a deep sapphire. Folks from other regions may think this would be madness, but it's fairly common here in the desert to have brightly hued garden walls, usually in colors that have a Mexican flavor.  The walls quickly fade in the bright sun, so the shades become more subtle within a year or so. On second thought, maybe I'll just stare at the gray walls. The initial cost is quite high, and then there's the ongoing maintenence. Fading is ok for a few years, but after awhile, they just look tired. Another concern is resale. Repainting undesirable block walls is usually not high on the list of remodel jobs for new homeowners!

Suited to Arizona

Macfadyena unguis-cati (Cat's Claw Vine)

One of the reasons I bought a couple of Cat's Claw Vines 15 months ago was that this popular vine is well suited to Arizona and notoriously fast growing, and I wanted something to break up the monotony of the high, unpainted block walls that surround my very large back yard. Well, no fast growth in my garden! After languishing as a single, six inch stem for months and months, in late November this plant finally decided to grow. (The other one is alive, but barely.)

The Cat's Claw is a self-climbing vine that attaches itself to a wall with tiny claw like structures. It tends to get top-heavy if not pruned regularly, and can come loose and topple. If that happens the only way to get it to self-attach again is to cut it to the ground. At the slow rate it's growing in my garden, I won't have to worry about that for quite awhile.

This vine is so tough it can take full sun on a south wall, is hardy to 15 degrees, drought tolerant and takes reflected heat. In spring, it has trumpet-shaped yellow flowers for a short period of time.

Geococcyx californianus (Roadrunner)

Recently this Roadrunner decided to stop his food gathering for a minute to rest on my courtyard pony wall. Although I snapped this photo through the window glass and screen of my home office, it's clear enough to see its coloring and size.

Roadrunners are ground cuckoos with some strange characteristics. It is especially suited to the desert as it has a nasal gland the eliminates excess salt, and it reabsorbs water from its feces before excretion. It is so fast it can catch a humming bird in midair!

The roadrunner's diet includes insects, scorpions, lizards, snakes, rodents and birds, but in winter when small animals and reptiles are harder to find, it will eat some plant material. This bird will go after rattlesnakes and kill them by whipping them around and slamming the snake's head until it dies, then it swallows the snake whole, digesting it a little at a time--half in--half out. Kind of a disgusting bird when you think about it!

Lots Going On

My garden looks good right now, and will continue to produce cactus flowers, blooming shrubs and ground coverings until about May, depending how high the temperatures get. The Mesquite and Palo Verde trees are not very attractive right now as they are shedding last year's leaves and in preparation for new leaves, flowers and catkins. Around May 1, the Palo Verdes are in full bloom. It's always a spectacular show, but sometimes hazardous for the tree if the branches get too heavy with blooms. This sometimes causes the branches to split if the tree was heavily watered to produce fast growth. Weak wood is the result.

I love the way the papery bracts of the Bougainvillea appear translucent against the blue sky and bright sunlight. This is the cultivar, B. "Barbara Karst".

A field of Parry's Penstemon. The stems on this stand are quite tall, about 40 inches high. If it is too breezy, many of these long stalks will break or bend. It's been calm, so as of today, they are all upright.

Hardenbergia violacea

This Lilac Vine is a new addition to my garden. My nurseryman said it will do well even in summer, but everything I've read says it's a shade plant for summers in Phoenix. Time will tell. Since the nursery guarantees all plants for a year, I'm willing to take the chance. I hope it makes it--I think the flowers, which appear only at this time of year, are quite pretty. The dark green leaves are also attractive.

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Look how much this Agave stalk has grown in just one week. Scroll down to last Tuesday's post to see the difference! Although I've seen the unbelievably rapid growth of Agave stalks, I continue to be fascinated by the whole process. It's no wonder the Agave dies after producing this stalk. It takes tremendous energy resources to produce something this big this fast. The stalk is over three inches in diameter now and ten feet tall! It is now forming flower buds.

Notice the long flower coverings with sharp points. This is protect the buds as they are emerging. These eventually wilt and dry, exposing the flowers to pollinators like Hawk-moths, hummingbirds, wasps, bees, and butterflies. Bats prefer the branched inflorescence of other Agave species.

Born Too Late

Lagenaria siceraria

On a nice October day a couple of years ago, I was cleaning out the seeds and debris from the inside of a bottle gourd shell (Lagenaria siceraria) as preparation for a gourd art project, when a gust of wind scattered the stuff across my garden.

I had been especially careful about keeping the seeds contained, as I did not want volunteer gourd vines growing all over the place. I spent a good deal of time picking up what seeds and debris I could find, but looking for gourd seeds on decomposed granite groundcover is more difficult than looking for the proverbial needle in a haystack. As expected, I’ve ended up with a few volunteer plants over the past 24 months.

The problem is the volunteers never sprout at the right time. The vine in the photo is about five weeks old. I've decided to let it grow, just to see how long it will last. All the others that sprouted the past two years have died after a month or two, either from heat or cold. March is the ideal gourd planting time in my region. Not a single seed has started in March. The current gourd vine has been flowering for a week, but no gourds are forming. However, the vine looks pretty, so it's serving a good purpose.

Welburn Gourd Farm near Fallbrook, California grows very thick-shelled gourds for crafters. The scattered seeds came from a gourd I chose while at the farm attending the Annual International Gourd Art Festival, so when I look at my little volunteer vine it reminds me of the fun times I had at the Festival with my daughter and my sister.

Fond Memories Of Queen's Wreath

Antigonon leptopus

After years of resistance, I finally caved and purchased a Queen’s Wreath vine (Antigonon leptopus) and planted it today, close to a block wall in my garden. I want it to cover the bare blocks and add interest to the area of my garden that was hardest hit and left barren by our freak deep freeze this past winter.

I’ve loved this vine since I was a child. My grandmother had a pink flowered one that grew on an overhead arbor the length and height of her two-story house. By late summer, it had grown to reach into some of the nearby trees and when it was in full bloom, I thought it was just magical. At least until winter, when it became a brown, dried mess.

I always chose not to have it because of its winter dieback and the resulting clean up job. Cleaning up is not the easiest task when one has granite groundcover. Although decomposed granite looks fine in desert landscapes and requires little care, it really should be kept litter-free. Accumulated leaves and plant debris makes it look unkempt, in my view. However, my plain block walls have been bothering me more than the inevitable cleanup, so I took the leap.

Queen’s Wreath, also called Coral Vine and Rose of Montana among many other names, is a common sight in Southern gardens. In some areas, it is considered an invasive plant because in tropical climates it does not freeze back and becomes quite vigorous, choking out other plants.

This native of Mexico can grow up to 40 feet along a wall or fence. It clings with tendrils. In desert gardens it is often planted at the base of Palo Verde or Palo Brea trees so that will climb up into the trees and provide a striking burst of contrasting color to the lime green bark and foliage of the trees. The vine can have pink, white, or red flowers, but the pink variety provides the most pleasing combination with the lime green.