Gentle Fire ...

I haven't yet devoted a post to some of our most faithful self-seeding annuals, so I thought I'd sneak a couple of shots in, just to show who has been revving up lately out front. Two of the things I love about self-seeding annuals is that for one, you always end up with some each year, and they have a tendency to wander around the garden a bit, popping up in unexpected places, as well as establishing their own stands here and there. These are just two of our more fiery ones who always come back to visit from year to year. The first is the marvelous California Poppy (Eschscholzia californica) and the second is the common 'Pot Marigold,' Calendula (Calendula officinalis).

Both of these flowers bloom primarily in the fiery range of oranges and yellows, but they also exhibit some wonderful and subtle variations in color from flower to flower. The past few years we've had some rather strange Calendula 'sports' develop in one area of the front boulder bed, and I'm anticipating seeing those again, they're just so bizarre! (If you'd like to see them, go here, and scroll down to the "Summertime Sports" post.) There's a lot to be said for annual self-seeders ... you don't have to replant them every year, they're very cost effective for gardeners like us, who want to snatch up so much when we're plant shopping that the bill can be sobering at times, and certain species are quite receptive to cross pollination that produce interesting variants (our Celosias seem to be quite susceptible to this). Of course sometimes the 'mutants' are outright ugly, but around here, they don't usually get a chance to make a return visit and head straight for the compost. It may seem cruel at first for us to practice 'unnatural selection,' but over the years we've learned our lesson about just letting things run rampant in the garden. That happened with Feverfew and Tansy, and after having had to eradicate those (which took several years), we're less prone to let the second tier contenders have their way ....

Une fleur de prix pour Katiebird

In a post on Calendulas from a few days ago, I had a "find the bug" challenge going, and not only did Katiebird first find it, but she also won the coveted commenter's "I'm first!" award of the day! So ... as a humble effort at a prize of some sort, I give you even more summer firepower with a scrumptious California Poppy that was blooming this afternoon. You can also see a little more orange in the Moss Rose (Portulaca grandiflorum) in the background, though it's a bit more on the spent side of blooming. In all the variations we see in California poppies, I think this type is my favorite, with its warm inner orange glow, its tentacular whorls of IBs, all topped off by a crisp yellow that just summons up a cold glass of lemonade on a hot summer's day.

So here you go, Katiebird! Enjoy .... and though I'm long overdue in giving you linkage (my bad), I encourage readers (if you haven't already) to visit Katiebird's own marvelous site, Eat4Today. I've not been a frequent visitor of late, but I can see that I should be heading there more often. Shame on me, but good for us that Katiebird continues to provide such a resource with its wealth of wisdom!

Bonus Blast of Early Summer Fire!

Another shot from the Sunday camera garden tour ...

Though the California Poppies have been sparser than usual so far this year, I was stopped dead in my tracks as I visualized this "perfect" shot in my mind ... but would the yarrow cooperate and come out half-way focused? So far neither of us has had much luck trying to capture the intricate flowers of this red variety, but the California poppies usually will reward me so I snapped it anyway. One shot. And I was thrilled with the detail I got of the poppy IBs, complete with pollen. I think it looks absolutely smashing with the yarrow in the background, even if it doesn't display the degree of focus I'd hoped for. Still, just gazing at the simple architecture of the poppy (note that this one only has four petals ... they'll do that!) makes me savor the moments of sheer beauty that we're sometimes able to preserve for future delectation. After taking this shot, I just continued around the garden getting other shots, and when the card was full and I headed back into the house, this poppy had already closed up for the afternoon.

A blast of fire, captured in time where it happened. That same space is already different today, and will continue to evolve further as the summer proceeds ... perhaps the greatest reward of gardening ... seizing those moments forever when we're lucky, and watching the inevitable changes occur as each flower progresses through its cycle.

Weed and Seed (and Weed Again!)

Well, today was (yet) another weed and plant day in the garden, though I didn't accomplish as much as I had hoped due to the off and on threat of rain, which ultimately never materialized in other than a few light showers. We did get the "Black Magic" Elephant ear (Colocasia esculenta) planted into a big pot with purple sweet potato vines (Ipomoea batata). These are plants you'll be hearing more about as they grow larger over the course of the summer.

I feel like we're really behind getting things in this year, and in a sense we are ... yet as I looked back into last year's archives to find these photos for tonight, I could clearly see just how far ahead everything else was at this time last year. That cold blast for three weeks in April really did put a big damper on the regular cycle of our garden denizens this year. No matter, since the planting has yet to be finished this year (as it will surely be within a week at the latest), I decided to just go with the flow and proceed as we usually do and what the garden will be this year is what it will be.

The photos here are from last year (July 1 and August 25, 2006, respectively) and are adult blooming specimens of two kinds of seeds I got planted today. The first is the lovely, ubiquitous (deliciously so!) California Poppy (Eschscholzia californica) and though it's not back as profusely as usual, we had some leftover seed as well as a new variety ("Thai Silk Fire Bush") we purchased from a seed vendor this year. We're really looking forward to the new variety, because it promises to introduce a nice, fiery red hue into the mix with the other California poppies we have ... so stay tuned to see those when they come into bloom.

The second is the not too commonly planted, but still eye-popping "Blue Enchantment" Convolvulus (Convolvulus tricolor). This cultivar is often referred to as "Bush Morning Glory" because it has less of a vining tendency than its cousins and more of a mounding, creeping growth habit. In our garden (perhaps because they usually get in a bit later than other seeds) they tend to really come into their own in the late summer months, and these particular mounds bloomed last year right up until frost, when they still had buds forming on them.

Friday's projects are more of the same ... weed an area, seed that area, plant annuals here and there ... so much to do as the summer starts its inevitable wind up! I'm particularly eager to get several new annual poppy varieties planted ... "Danish Flag" and "Heirloom," two striking examples we also purchased this year for the first time ... we also got a free pack of "White Cloud Peony Poppy" seeds with our order, and we're going to mix those in with the Pink Peony ones we always have every year (and for those who know our garden, those are fondly referred to as "Frank's Poppies," due to the master gardener who first gave them to us years ago). We're also seriously considering moving our Oriental (perennial) poppies from the back corner (where they've been getting overwhelmed by other growth the past few years) to more prominent places in the front garden ... so as you can surmise, there's a helluva lot more work to be done around here! And I'll keep regular readers posted on all the blooming events as they occur ... Now, time for you to get out, get your hands dirty and bring some blooming into your little corner of the universe!