These are 3 pictures of flowers blooming in our yard this summer. The first picture shows an Amaryllis belladonna plant. These beautiful fragrant light pink flowers have appeared for the second year in a row from a bulb that I planted in the ground several years ago. The flower stems appear from the bare earth about a month after the leaves turn brown and die in June. Ours has about 10 flower stems this year, about twice as many as last year.
The second picture shows a cluster of purple dahlias that I planted in one of our raised bed gardens last year. These dahlias have grown vigorously and bloomed profusely in our raised beds, which get watered regularly and have some protection from snails and slugs. When I tried to grow dahlias in the ground a few years ago, snails devoured them.
The third pictures shows a group of hollyhocks growing in another one of our raised bed gardens. I planted the hollyhocks by seed last summer. They have grown very quickly over the past year with regular watering, but no fertilizer. Some of our hollyhocks are now over 8 feet tall. Our hollyhocks started blooming in early July, and they were full of dozens of flowers of various shades of pink and white for over a month. Now they are starting to fade. This picture was taken about a month ago.
August 20 2011 | Amaryllis and Dahlias and Hollyhock | No Comments »
I first started growing broccoli about 2 years ago. We eat broccoli almost every week, because it’s so densely packed with nutrients. So I figured it would be fun to try to grow it ourselves. But I didn’t have much luck growing broccoli until this spring. In previous years, the broccoli plants didn’t grow much, and the broccoli heads were very small, about 3 inches wide. This year, our broccoli plants including the broccoli heads are huge. The largest broccoli head I have harvested so far this season is about 8 inches wide (see third picture above).
I planted a half-dozen broccoli seedlings back in mid-March in one of our raised beds. Last year, slugs ate many of the leaves of our newly planted broccoli seedings, which no doubt stunted their growth. So this year, I placed iron pellet snail/slug bait around the plants as soon as I put them in the ground and reapplied it every 2-3 weeks.
I fertilized our broccoli plants this year at least once a week with a water soluble general purpose fertilizer. For a period of time in April and May, I was fertilizing the plants 2-3 times a week (which may have been an overkill). Starting in early May, the plants really started to grow rapidly, and before I knew it, they were huge. Each plant is about 24 inches wide, measuring from leaf tip to leaf tip. Some of our individual broccoli heads from one plant are as big as a cluster of two or three grocery store-sized broccoli heads! In terms of flavor, our broccoli tastes about the same as grocery store broccoli. Although, our broccoli tastes fresher.
The weather in our area was ideal for growing broccoli this spring. The temperatures here have been mainly cooler than average for the past several months. Broccoli grows best with highs between about 63 and 74 degrees F. We have had very few warm days this spring, and the high temperatures have been mostly within that range. Our average high for June is about 77 degree F. Typically, it would be too warm for ideal broccoli growth by about late May in our area.
June 11 2011 | Broccoli | No Comments »
These are more pictures of the roses in our yard that are blooming this weekend. The first photo shows our red Black Magic tree rose. It’s not a fragrant rose, but it has very long lasting perfectly-shaped flowers.
This is another photo of one of our pink Color Magic roses.
This is another photo of our Sheila’s Perfume rose.
This is a photo of our Double Delight rose.
This is a photo of our Surprise rose.
April 30 2011 | Roses | No Comments »
Of course, spring isn’t just about roses. We also have some very attractive white flowers blooming in our yard this month. The philadelphus plant shown below that we have growing near our fence has been looking better every year. Ever since I removed 2 old trees that were shading it, this plant has really taken off and grown rapidly. Every April for the past few years it gets covered in beautiful white flowers.
Below are a few plants called Viburnum Opulus Roseum (also known as the Snowball flower) that we planted as nursery transplants last year. They are full of their characteristic snowball-like flowers now. Ironically, their buds form and open as springs arrives, the temperatures warm, and snow (if you ever get it in your area) is just a distant memory. Both the snowball and the philadelphus are only spring bloomers. Both have a tendency to grow quite large unless pruned regularly.
April 29 2011 | Philadelphus and Viburnum | No Comments »
Roses seem to be some of the most diverse garden flowers. Roses come in a wide range of colors, shapes, and scents. They bloom over a long period from spring to fall, unlike many other flowers that just bloom in spring. Although, the most abundant and most beautiful rose bloom is always the first spring bloom.
Every April and May I am enchanted by the beauty of the 2 dozen or so roses we have growing in our backyard. Below are pictures of a few of them. The first picture is Sheila’s Perfume, which is an incredibly fragrant rose. However, the candy color of these roses tends to fade quickly in a few days.
This second picture is Ginger Snap, which has an amazingly bright orange color.
This third picture is Color Magic, which has very large flowers that darken from light pink to deep pink as they age over a period of about a week.
April 29 2011 | Roses | No Comments »
Our Comice and Barlett pear trees are full of blooms right now. The Bartlett pear tree (second picture) seems to have more blossoms than it has ever had. Even our 3 year old red Bartlett pear has blooms for the first time. Our pear trees consistently produce a crop of pears that is proportional to their spring bloom. The Bartlett in particular gets pears every time it blooms, unlike our Blenheim apricot tree, which was full of blooms in early March, but has no fruit on it now. The heavy rains we had here in mid-March seem to have damaged the newly forming apricots. Although, in some past years, our Bartlett pear tree did not have any blooms.
The newly forming fruit on pear trees seems to be less affected by rain than other fruits like apricots and sweet cherries. However, Comice and Bartlett pears are of course prone to fireblight which can cause severe branch die back and can reduce the crop. Although our pears have had touches of fireblight in past years, it has never affected more than a few branches on each tree. In general, fireblight is not a serious problem in our area, because the month of April when pears bloom here tends to be relatively dry.
April 16 2011 | Pears | No Comments »
Late March and early April is lilac season in our area. We have several of the Descanso lilac hybrids including lavender lady and blue skies, which do not require as much winter chill as the standard lilacs. I took these pictures on March 31. Lilacs have been one of my favorite garden flowers for a long time because of their fragrance and beauty, even though they only bloom once a year. Our lilac flowers are fading now, just as our roses are starting to open.
April 16 2011 | Lilacs | 1 Comment »
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