At Least It Wasn't The Itoh Peony

Someday the puppies will stop ripping up things and scattering the bits all over, eating a lot of the bits, barfing out some of them and pooping out the rest.  Some day. 

Today is not that day.  
 

Agave Propagation for Increased And Stable Variegation

I found the variegated bulbils I'd planted were mostly losing their variegation as they grew, and so I did a bit of research.  One can possibly get better variegated, and more stable variegated Agaves by the following method:
 Cut off the most variegated leaves.  Do not cut off the least variegated leaves--they will remain to nourish the plant while it grows.  


Cut out the tip bud of the plant.  This may stimulate dormant side buds to start growing (yes!  Agaves--at least some Agaves--have dormant side buds!).



 
Plant and wait.  New rosettes may form from dormant side buds.  These can eventually begin to form roots that search out the soil.  They can be cut off and rooted. Since they are growing from the area of the plant that had the most variegation, they may have better and more stable variegation.  

We'll see how that works out. I have a gazillion Agave desmetiana variegata bulbils, plenty to experiment with.  I have given away five grocery bags filled with bulbils, and planted eight plants in the long planter by the driveway.  

The bulbils had been planted in our tomato beds for the winter, and it was time to plant out the tomato seedlings, so the bulbils had to go.  Hence my ambition regarding Agave propagation for increased and stable variegation.

 In other Agave news,  the 'Joe Hoak' offsets are growing roots and new leaves.  They still don't look all that great, but they are alive and improving.


'Blue Glow' flowers appear so far to be sterile or at least are unable to be fertilized by the Manfreda pollen I applied to them.  

All fall down...

Which reminds me, there are new flowers opening on both the Manfreda and the 'Blue Glow', so I need to get out there and try some more pollinating--I may run out of Agaves, after all.

Just joking! 
 


 

Dasylirion longissimum In The Sun

Here is the slope back in 2006, when I was just beginning my effort to turn it into a succulent paradise. The sole plant that remains from that time is the violet Bougainvillea, still in that same spot. The Lophostemnon confertus belongs to the neighbor--they planted it right on the property line. Unfortunately it's still there, too. Back then, the Dasylirion was in a two gallon pot and I was wondering what to do with it, and thinking it might be happy on that slope. The Baccharis is long gone; the Bougainvillea looks healthier.
The Dasylirion seems reasonably happy.

Stump Update, And A Hedges Progress

I had dug out around the stump to the roots and cut the two biggest roots I could reach, discovering that a few inches beyond the cuts, the root was crumbled.

Still, the stump was far too large and heavy for me.  I could do nothing further myself.
 
Our mow-blow guy agreed to cut out as much of the stump as he safely could and haul the chunks off, since I thought the stump was still too well anchored to remove completely.  However the first thing he did was to  rock the stump a bit, and it popped loose immediately.  The roots were completely rotted.  The whole stump can come out.
 
He cut off the top half of the stump and hauled it away and he's going to get the rest of it removed this week.  Yay!  After after all that I sat under the nearby pergola and stared at a Metrosideros excelsa that's growing a lot bigger and a lot faster than I thought it would ever do.  One stump out of the garden, but another lurks in the future--hopefully not my future.

 
Now to the hedge.  Planted from one gallon pots at the end of August, 2012:


End of April, 2013:

Some of the hedge branches are now over five feet (1.5 M) tall. I trimmed off every flower cluster that appeared this spring to force energy into growth instead of bloom. I tipped each plant back as well, to encourage branching and dense foliage.  I think it's done well in nine months. It gets two minutes of drip irrigation three times per week.  Plain green shrubs ain't so bad.

Boris Eats An Orange

"Look what I found!"

"No, Natasha!  You can't have any!"

"It's--ewwww--yecch!--what is this thing?!?  Better eat it, though.  Make Natasha jealous..."

There are other oranges in the garden Boris hasn't been able to eat.

'Lady Emma Hamilton':

And a bit more burgundy than orange, but Boris isn't allowed to eat this either.  Cordyline 'Festival Grass':

Taste--there's no accounting for it. 

'Perle d'Azur' Clematis All Over, And Not-Nelly-Moser

I hoped multiple plants of Clematis 'Perle d'Azur' and Salvia 'Wendy's Wish' in the same area would provide a little unity to a chaotic color scheme.  
One there, complete with self portrait:

And another...
  ...another...there I am again...

...and the mother of them all.



It seems to have helped tame the color chaos just a bit--or perhaps eyes are so drawn to ethereal blue it is easy to ignore the rest.  It helps that Geranium 'Rozanne' is nearly the same color as 'Perle d'Azur'.
Close enough for unity


  
'Not Nelly Moser' appeared in a pot of 'Angelique' Clematis, which is a pale blue with pale yellow anthers--I saw two or three flowers of 'Not Nelly' while walking back and forth and back and forth, deadheading roses.  It took several looks before I realized the flower was not 'Angelique', and more looks to speculate that this is a self of 'Nelly', or possibly 'Nelly' x 'Angelique.

'Nelly Moser' has pink-striped tepals and dark anthers:

'Not Nelly' lost her stripes and has white tepals edged with pale blue.  The same dark anthers:

Are random seedlings ever of value?
Seedlings that appear:  I have a seedling rose or two of little interest, some total dud Iris and Hippeastrums, a few dud and a few keeper (though hardly spectacular) day lillies. Apparently sometimes random seedlings are worth something, as that is exactly what 'Wendy's Wish' is--a seedling that simply appeared in one Wendy's garden.  One in a million.


 

Colorful Foliage Vingette

Seen in the neighborhood when walking the pups, this vignette is part of a beautiful garden.  From top left, going clockwise:  Cercis 'Forest Pansy',  Westringia fruticosa 'Morning Light' (???),  Phormium 'Alison Blackman', Libertia perigrinans, Agave attenuata.  Not a flower to be seen, but still colorful and lively.  

Compare 'Forest Pansy' with a bronze foliaged Phormium--it is more somber in mood:

Click over to Digging blog for more foliage celebration.