A California Garden

I had the privilege of visiting a beautiful garden a few days ago.  The predominant colors are bronzy purple, blue, and chartreuse, with touches of silver, pure purple, and orange.  The disciplined and harmonious color palette is in great contrast to my own all-color-is-good-color mishmash. 

Cercis canadiensis 'Forest Pansy':


Bronzy purple Phormium  and 'Forest Pansy' Cercis with blue Senecio mandraliscae:


Crassula:






The garden hosts towering mature trees that provide dappled rather than heavy shade.  The price for towering trees are large root systems and litter.




Water thrifty plants are plentiful, and stone color agrees with the overall color scheme:





 


Is any California garden truly complete without California Golden Poppies (Eschscholzia californica)?


Views of natural hillside beyond the garden add to the beauty:


A decomposed granite path leads to a lush kitchen garden:






The gardener has added a totem of hope that local rabbits won't decimate the veggies this year:



The kitchen garden is decorative as well as providing food:



Artichoke:



Native carex is planted as a meadow.  Unfortunately, the local rabbit population finds the native Carex as delicious as more exotic turfgrass.


Beyond the kitchen garden is a axial view of a knot-garden set in lawn.  There is a bottle tree, California style (fancy water?):


The bronzy-purple, blue, and chartreuse theme continues in the knot garden, morphed into a softer bronze, a silvery blue, and a more muted chartreuse:



Touches of orange are added in the flowers of the pomegranate tree and Lotus ground cover:




Color is provided by foliage.  Flowers are small vivid touches that vary by season.



Past the knot garden the area is centered around another mature specimen tree.  The focus is more firmly fixed by the clever re-use of a worn-out wheelbarrow as a planter:


 


In this slightly more shaded area, lush plantings provide a sense of coolness after the brighter sunnier kitchen garden:



Here, the blue of the consistent palette is expressed by native Ceonothus:




I hope you enjoyed this beautiful garden as much as I did!

Rosa 'Molineux'

Where's 'Molineux'?


No, that's 'Belinda's Dream'


No, that's still 'Belinda's Dream'. 



Not even close!  That's 'Eugene de Beauharnais'.



No.  'Tea Clipper'.  What about...


Closer, but not yet.  That's 'Eureka' (with the coral pink 'Bill Warriner' on the left).  What about...



There we go!  That's 'Molineux'!

'Molineux' is one of Austin's best rebloomers, so why is 'Molineux' often overlooked?  Why is 'Graham Thomas' more celebrated, or 'Golden Celebration' more recommended?  No, 'Molineux' flowers are not so magnificent as 'Graham' or 'Golden', but let us not overlook a rose that is nearly always in bloom, that is vigorous, that is never a Diva.   

The growth habit is upright but with plentiful foliage.  No lollipops on sticks:





Worth the hunt.   'Molineux' is a golden wonder among Austin roses here.  Excellent productivity, outstanding rust and mildew resistance.  The flowers are short lived, thought not as ephemeral as 'Heritage' or 'Windermere' and there are always plenty.  The Achillles heel may be the fragrance, which is a musty tea, but at times also brings to mind--I will be perfectly honest--the aroma of insufficiently composted horse manure. Hey: nobody's perfect. 



This rose was a mere two feet tall in my garden for two years.  I was delighted:  finally, a compact Austin.  Year three arrived and so did an additional four feet of height.  Doesn't matter.  Great rose.  Great, great rose.

Oh No! It Rotted! @$&%$#$!!

Oh dear, Aloe dichotoma:


It must have been the 14-16" of rain we got in December.  Our Aloe dichotoma was planted in a spot so dry everything else has died there.  Even the Agaves struggle without spot watering.  I never watered the Aloe, but that rainy December might have done it.   A slope was ideal for drainage, but in hindsight not good for a top-heavy tree Aloe, even one with a good root system.  I was thinking I should move it anyway a couple of days ago, when I saw it starting to lean slightly.  Now I know why it was leaning. 



All I can do is cut off the rotted bottom, let the cut dry out, and see if it can re-root.   In the meantime, I consoled myself with a look at 'Lady Emma Hamilton'.  Her exquisite beauty provides a bit of solace.



'Tea Clipper' helped a bit, too:


Gardening is learning, gardening is experimenting, I reassure myself.  Still hurts, though.

Rosa 'Honey Perfume'

An outstanding floribunda, headed for the scrap heap perhaps where commercial availability is concerned, now that Jackson & Perkins is bankrupt and headed for oblivion itself.  How if you create some truly wonderful new roses, and they vanish not because of disease, or pests, but because of business deals, Wall Street rapacity, greed, overborrowing, or whatever else brought J&P down? 



Let us pay it homage while we may.  Know that my photos do not do the beauty of 'Honey Perfume' justice--it really is even more beautiful in person.  Know also that despite the name, fragrance can be elusive, at least to this set of nostrils. 



The plant is well foliated and avoids lankiness:


Rebloom is steady.  Rust and mildew resistance are far above average.




I don't feel the need to say anything more except "Get it.  If you can find it.  If."