Garden News
Jan. 29, 2011
We are having a dry winter instead of last years wet winter.
Jan. 20, 2011
I had to remove most of cannas because they were too large and vigorous, and I don't have enough space. I have not seen cold damage this year, and we are getting lots of sunshine. The crocus are up and blooming. The fuchsia continues to bloom in the winter. The dwarf camilla is growing buds. The dwarf pine is looking great. The dwarf lemon tree has lemons that are almost ready to pick. The Asian magnolia is growing buds.
Nov. 18, 2010
We had some warm weather. The tropical plants are doing very well. I will have lots of cannas to trade or rehome after they go dormant.
August 30, 2010
The weather has been more normal, and we are getting more sun. We had a heat wave for two days, and a few small annuals dried up.
August 4, 2010
We have had an unusually cold summer. I don't think my garden is doing well. I have harvested the vegetables, and I am using the planter boxes for some of the orphan cannas I have adopted. If I really wanted to become more sophisticated with tropical plants, I would need to build or purchase a green house.
June 7, 2010
I am experimenting with new tropical plants mostly cannas. I will post result when I see how they do. The weather has not been warm enough, although we had two warm days.
May 31, 2010
We had a few days of sun, but now the fog has rolled in. It looks like fog season has began. The garden is looking good, and I have refreshed my compost as a mulch for the plants. Many plants are now blooming. New photos have been posted to the Flickr account.
May 17, 2010
The weather has turned cold again. The roses would like to be in bloom, but they are suffering due to the cold. Tropical plants are not doing well this year.
May 3, 2010
We are finally having some sunny weather in San Francisco. I have added many new plants. Spring is a good time to add new plants to give them time to become established before winter. Do not believe the hype about fall planting. Winter is a difficult season in San Francisco, and I always lose a few plants every winter do to cold damage, Heavy rains can create rot.
April 27, 2010
The rain continues creating disappointing growing conditions. I have however, added new plants to the garden and bought a new compost bin, after the older Earth Machines developed cracks due to age. I am adding new tropical plants. I found a pink water canna. The roses are starting to bloom.
April 17, 2010
Planted vegetables in my planter boxes.
April 8, 2010
The freesia are over, but the Lily of the Valley is in full bloom. Some of the hydrangeas are starting to set buds. The hostas are up and out. The roses have buds, but still have not bloomed. The dwarf Meyer Lemon tree has shown some positive growth. The clivia miniata has bloomed better then ever before and is still blooming. The Nuccio's Pearl Camilla is still bloomed. Nuccio's Gem is a white camilla, but I have Nuccio's Pearl which should be the white flower which looks like a pearl. The Nuccio's Pearl is the oldest plant in the garden. I got it at Goodman Lumber Company which was a store in San Francisco at the edge of the 280 freeway, but it went out of business. Both the camilla and the rhododendron have problems with excess algae growth on the leaves which appears to be a disease. It got worse this year due to the excess rains.
March 26, 2010
Spring Blooming plants are just about finished, and the roses are beginning to show buds. The excess rain problem is almost over, but we did have some unexpected rain showers recently. The crocus have finished blooming, and the lily of the valley is just beginning. The freesias are still blooming. Asian Magnolia are beginning to leaf out. Tulips are at their peak, but I did not get any tulip flowers this year. The clivia continues to develop new flowers.
March 5, 2010
The effects of the rain are evident as the garden is off to a slow start. The camellia is blooming but, the flowers are more white then pink and smaller than normal. The lily of the valley is almost ready to bloom and most of the hostas have started to emerge. I have added a fuchsia with kind of bit of old wood, so hopefully this fuchsia could survive. If fuchsias can make it over time they developed a thick trunk that is winter hardy. I also planted some impatiens. The yellow clivia minata is blooming, but the blooms look water logged. The clivia had cold damage on December 7, 2010 when an usual cold snap hit San Francisco. I lost a double white brugmansia, my lantanas, my Cristo Rey Rhododendron, and a hydrangea Annabelle, which did not come back this year. I took out the Annabelle to make room for the fuchsia. Although Annabelle are cold hardy, mine died for some reason. The coral bells (Heuchera) are doing very well in the rain. The dog tooth violets or trout lilies Erythronium also like a lot of water. In fact, I have so many they are available for trade. However, plants can not be shipped out of California due to agricultural restrictions.