A Pretty Late Fall Bonus

The Barberry bushes that we planted several years ago along the garage wall are beautiful for most of the summer, but especially nice in the fall. They contrast starkly with the blue-gray cedar siding, and I love their graceful form. In order to have them look like this each year we have to cut them back severely in the spring, and the thorns on these branches are evil.

The most difficult part is to find a place to put the cuttings, as they are deadly to come upon. We try to put them down along the creek, in a place where we don't often visit. There you could find the spent remains of several cacti that we've parted with, several years of barberry prunings, some juniper trimmings, and all the other difficult to handle botanical castoffs of our yard.

Catch Up Week

Had the week off, and was able to get caught up on a lot of things, including the garden. Cut back some iris on the west border that seemed as though some animal had been sleeping in them. Throughout the week I was able to put in an hour or two of gardening each day, and then also catch up on filing, weeding cleaning and so forth inside. Also had a little time to be out and about. All in all, a good week.

Photos this week are of the garden stars. The Joe-Pye Weed in the late evening sun is lovely, and now that the Rudbeckias are blooming too, the purple and yellow are so great together.

The Mandeville in the pot on the deck is spectacular. Not a native, nor able to over-winter here, it is none the less one of the nicest tropicals for the deck. I have over-wintered them once or twice, but inevitably the white flies take over around March and all of the effort goes for nothing. I may try again though - it is so hard to see this beautiful plant die in the frost. If I do decide to try to bring it in, I will need to decide soon and begin to spray it with malathion to knock down the white flies as well as possible before late September. Have to do that for the Hibiscus anyway, so might as well.

The Casa Blanca lily in front is the first prize winner this week. It is as nice as it has ever been, and really stands out. So nice that a photo of it has become the wallpaper for my new iPhone - for now at least. I hope that it lasts at least until Thursday when the Torch Summer party is here.

And the forth photo is of the Barberry bushes that we planted several years ago on the West side of the garage. They are basically a pain in the neck to maintain, having very vicious thorns, and growing profusely every year. But even so, we cut them back to almost the ground each spring and they reward by giving us beautiful young growth each year, contrasting nicely with the blue stain on the cedar siding. Pretty high maintenance for a foundation shrub, but as long as we can handle them they are worth it.