Moving the Blog...

 

Dear friends,

After trying a few posts back here on Blogger, I've decided to once more move the Small Sunny Garden blog.  In fact I am in the process of moving the entire archive of posts from both their erstwhile homes--here and on SmallSunnyGarden.com. The blog will now be (hopefully) more easily accessible for reading, commenting and subscribing, regardless of what platform you are arriving from.  It also allows me to post more easily, as well as creating an archive all in one place.

So...

Sound the trumpets and beat the drums!

The new blog address is at SmallSunnyGarden.substack.com.  The introductory post is here.  

I've been running my poetry blog ACM Weekly on Substack for over a year now, and I've found it to be a very usable platform.  Although Substack does allow for paid subscriptions, the Small Sunny Garden remains a free site.  Simply click through the initial "read it first" button to reach the posts.

Or go ahead and subscribe, if you like!  I'd be very happy to see you there!

Bits and Bobs

The first vase from my new home isn't much to look at, but it's a start.  I've combined some flowers I've planted with some stems I've foraged from the yard.

One of the most exciting things about our new property is the wonderful native plants all over it.  It's an older home on mostly undisturbed desert, which means a lot of quality native desert plants instead of the weedy things that colonize disturbed soil.  

In this particular vase, this means daisy-flowered brittlebrush (Encelia farinosa), which is rampant... and lovely.  I had to purchase it for my previous garden, but here it is growing naturally on the hillside and in the garden area.  There is also plenty of desert hackberry (Celtis ehrenbergiana seems to be the currently correct name), with its brilliant orange fruits.

Then there are a couple of things I've planted despite arriving here when temperatures were already in the triple digits.  Or perhaps because of it, since I managed to buy both at discount.  They're a sort of promise of things to come, but they've already supplied some pleasant color to look at from the kitchen window.

These are Salvia farinacea "Victoria Blue", with its tiny, brilliant plumes, and Catharanthus roseus, that reliable, summer-flowering, heat-loving tropical that is so reliable in desert plantings.

 

It's been a more difficult start than I had hoped here.  Just after we arrived, quite a bit went wrong with the sale of our home in Missouri.  We were forced to find a new real estate agent, restart the listing process, and figure out that the home's entire septic system needed to be replaced with a costly alternative system.  All of this has held up the cash we needed to begin some necessary repairs on this place, plus the horse fencing. Not surprisingly, perhaps, I had migraine headaches for weeks running as we tried to sort everything out.

The house is once more under contract now, and we are hoping everything goes through this time.  Meantime, I am very much falling in love with our new location--up in the high desert overlooking the lower San Pedro River valley.

It's a fantastic place to call home.

This is my first In a Vase on Monday in a long time!  Joining with Cathy at Rambling in the Garden, where many other wonderful vases are to be found each week...

Lastly, here is Encelia farinosa, a shot I took some days back since I didn't get a good one for the vase.  This is a delightful plant with silver foliage and yellow daisies and well adapted to extremely xeric conditions.

Six on Saturday: from the Monsoon Rains

 It's all about the rain right now.  Here at our new home, this month's monsoon rains have been torrential but much-appreciated by the growing things.

When we arrived, most of these plants were leafless or looked to be dead or dying.  But the rains have been falling for several weeks now, and the results are delightful.

At the top of the page is sweet acacia (Vachellia farnesiana) in full bloom.  The lot is full of these, ranging from small trees down to shrubs on down to sprouts and seedlings at ground level.  I shall have to begin weeding them out, there are so many!  The scent is wonderful.

The palo verdes are leafing out as well.  Their bloom time is mid-spring, but they are breaking their summer-deciduous dormancy in response to the rain.

I realize as I write this that I've assumed this is Parkinsonia florida, the blue Palo Verde, but I haven't checked it out.  There are some other wild varieties in southern Arizona, and I need to confirm just which one this is.  Lovely, in any case.

Another plant that was leafless when we arrived is this smallish ocotillo (Fouquieria splendens), which is now such a mass of leaves that those long thorns are nearly invisible.  I've wanted an ocotillo of my own for years, and here is one already in the ground and, apparently, thriving.  

It did look like a cluster of dead sticks when we arrived, but that is to be expected of an ocotillo in June.  It responded with leaves within two or three days of my giving it a quick spray of water.  (Temperatures were at record highs when we arrived.)  Since then the monsoon rain has kept it quite happy.

No leaves sprout on cacti, of course, but the young saguaro has clearly been drinking heartily.  Its ribs feel taut to the touch right now!

I consider it an honor, more than anything else, to have a saguaro in my garden.  I've taken the liberty of christening this one Bungo.

Lastly come the flowers.

The two half-price Salvia farinacea that I rescued are settling in nicely beneath the small kumquat...

...while the kumquat itself is recovering well.  Its leaves were withering and ready to drop when we came.  Now it not only has new growth but has begun to flower as well.  Yes, the scent is delicious.

Not a bad six for a start, I think!  After a difficult time leaving Missouri, followed by a rough first month here, (we were frankly sick with the stress and fatigue of it all) it looks like we are settling in.  I'll be posting more soon, if all goes well.  There is so much to discover here, and it is certainly a different part of the desert than my previous garden.  Still the Sonora, but at about 4000 feet elevation as well as further south.  There will be much to learn.

Meantime, this is my first Six on Saturday post, linking with the Propagator's weekly theme.  I've looked forward to participating but decided to wait until I could start blogging and gardening anew here.

The First Daylily

Daylilies (Hemerocallis) grow quite well here.  Indeed, the species H. fulva, with its rich, rusty orange blooms, has naturalized as a roadside or farm margin wildflower.

I planted the bright yellow dwarf "Stella de Oro" in my little border, certain that it would thrive and provide color through the summer months.  "Stella" was the first everblooming daylily, developed by amateur breeder Walter Jablonski in 1975.  It is still widely sold and with good reason.  It supplies color and reliability, and it was a good choice for a small space, such as this one!

Ring Around Some Roses

Today's vase (if such it can be called) makes use of the first rosebuds and the last hellebores.  Also of my very reliable heuchera, in the form of one largish leaf.

I remain convinced that this noID miniature rosebush is an unlabeled plant of 'Daniela', which I grew in Arizona.  What other deep red mini will shoot rapidly to knee-high and taller, then explode into half a hundred flowerbuds?  Whatever it is, it's been a bright spot in the garden ever since I planted it.

The hellebore is H. x 'Ivory Prince'.  It opens just as the earliest bulbs are finishing, providing extra interest as the spring season moves from squill and rock irises to mid-season Narcissus.  I didn't expect it to last all the way to the first roses, but here we are, though some might argue that the blooms are a little past 'lasting', being rather tattered by now.

And the marbled red leaf comes from Heuchera 'Carnival Rose Granita', or so I think.  At any rate it was from the Carnival series, which is said to be a hybrid Villosa, good for heat tolerance.

The lovely, small, blue dish was made by my friend, Canadian potter Rosie Sarich.  It is a saucedish from a larger nacho set I ordered from her, and I have kept it out from the packing because it is so useful, though I didn't expect to use it as a vase!

But I have to be quite creative about containers at present because just about everything is now packed onto the moving trailer.  And the trailer is locked and due to be picked up tomorrow.  

So we are eking out our last efforts here before hitting the road. An AC repair on our truck, packing the few things we've kept with us, some last clean-up, and a job I have put off as long as I well could--digging my irises to pot up some of the rhizomes.  None are quite to the dormant stage yet though I've waited as long as possible.  But they are sturdy, vigorous plants and will hopefully forgive and survive my timing!

Meantime, the miniature rose is taking over the show in my tiny border.  It is transitioning from late spring to early summer here.

At least I managed to post this week; last Monday I was still dealing with no internet, thanks to a lightning strike that destroyed the only thing left vulnerable in our electric outlets: the modem.  I still say it was sheer bad luck as there really wasn't very much lightning, just a few close strikes.  One did the job! With everything else that was happening, it took me awhile to get the replacement issue sorted.  All done now, though, and a Monday vase to cheer us on!

Thanks, as always, to Cathy for hosting In a Vase on Monday!  

A Quick Hike With Wildflowers

 

With our house on the market, we have to find someplace to go while it's being shown.  This morning's outing took us to a trailhead for the Katy Trail, which is a 237 mile trail across much of the state of Missouri.  Much of it runs along old railroad tracks; and the name derives from the Missouri-Kansas-Texas railroad, or MKT.  Hence Katy.  A very typical Missourism!

We certainly did not hike very far along it ourselves, but we did photograph a few wildflowers we found growing by the side of the trail.

There was quite a bit of Tradescantia virginiana or possibly T. ohlensis, the spiderwort (above).

There were spreading bushes of Rosa multiflora (below), sadly an invasive species here.  (Reader, I have grown it here myself before I knew its proclivities for world domination; it was a mistake!)

And there was this lovely pink-purple flower, which I have yet to identify.  One friend has already suggested Lunaria, but the leaves aren't right for that, though the flowers are similar.  The leaves look rather like Phlox, in fact--long, lanceolate and deep green.  But I don't know any Phlox species that would quite match the flowers and the 3 ft height...

So that was my little jaunt, other than the honeysuckle, which is also a problematic invasive, but gave off its wonderful scent in the rainy air.  Here it is clambering upwards, as it does!

Wordless on Wednesday

Iris 'Amigo'

 

In a Vase on Monday, But I've Packed All the Vases!

 

Iris Amigo in the front border

Dear friends,

I feel rusty beginning a blog post after a year of not blogging.  Even rustier attempting to do so on this, my old Blogger site!  But I intend to change things around on my website, and I want to test out the possibilities of using a dedicated blogging platform again.

Meantime it is Monday...

...and I have indeed packed all my vases (more on that shortly).  I located a canning jar for today's bounty of irises--more on them also!

My posy is haphazard to say the least, but I am much too exhausted to do more with it!  Here we have the lovely apricot-brown iris Jean Cayeux and the equally magical purple and lavender iris Amigo.  Also a few sprigs of Heuchera.

I have wanted to celebrate In a Vase on Monday time and again and again.  In fact, there have been Mondays when I have managed to pick and arrange flowers and even to photograph them.  But the entire process from flowers to post has been a bit beyond me over the past year.  I've had to deal with ongoing chronic pain issues, along with a good many other things, and I just couldn't manage to keep the blog going.

But life is changing at last.  So here is a post for the wonderful IaVoM with Cathy at Rambling in the Garden. 

As I said in the title, my vases are packed, and my irises will also soon be "packed".

Upon moving to Missouri at the start of 2019, we intended to move back to the southwest as soon as possible, ideally in eighteen to twenty-four months.  We are just at twenty-eight months, and we are on the cusp of heading to our newly purchased home north of Tucson, Arizona.  Our house here is under contract. Granted, it has taken about seven months since we began the whole process, but still, perhaps we haven't done too badly on the scheduling, given the difficulties of recent times!

At the moment, I don't really want to say too much about our experiences here in the Midwest.  It has proven a difficult time for my sister and me, and I would not choose to return here again.  Ever. The countryside is precious and beautiful and sweet, and we were able to stop the financial bleed we were facing.  But the hatred and insanity we have all seen play out on the national scale over the past few years are very present and very real here.  The lack of kindness and of normal human respect for anyone or anything is abysmal.  Everything we have achieved here (and we have made some progress in our lives) has been done long-distance or entirely alone.  Enough said!  We are moving away!

In the meantime, I did manage to plant about half of a border.  Some of it you may have seen before I stopped blogging altogether.  But as we are at the height of the iris season right now, I thought I would present my entire little collection of standard bearded irises--all four of them.

These are all so-called historic irises.  I'm not sure what the accepted date for "historic" may be, but each of these was introduced before 1940.  They have a grace and simplicity that I find delightful.

Mary Geddes

It seems impossible so far to capture the thrill of the rich, earthy, ochre hues on Mary Geddes.  She is quite a beauty, though looking ever-so-slightly weather-beaten here after everything was doused in quarter-sized hailstones a couple of nights ago.  She remains undaunted however, and supplies much-appreciated brilliance on even cloudy days.

She and Jean Cayeux (below) are the latest to flower, having opened their first blooms each on the same morning.

Jean Cayeux

Jean Cayeux is also apricot-brown, but in a somewhat more yellow tone and more even color.  It was introduced in France in 1931 and has contributed to the development of later tan- and brown-hued irises since then.  This is not to say it has been superseded.  It has its own inimitable grace and a soft, pale, summery color that brightens to a vibrant apricot when the sunlight falls through the petals.

Amigo

My original order included a very pretty-looking nineteenth century plicata.  As there was no notification of replacement, I have to assume the arrival of this gorgeous purple and lavender-blue iris instead was a labeling error, but what a lovely error!  My sister helped me surf through photos online, and we have little doubt that this is Amigo, introduced in 1934 and awarded in 1945 by the English Iris Society.

Indian Chief

This splendid wine and gold and bronze and almost-pink classic was introduced in 1929, making it the oldest variety I am growing thus far.  It is said to be a common noID variety in the eastern US, thanks to its durability as well as prevalence of planting over the years.  For me, it has been the earliest tall bearded iris to bloom both last year and this.

I posted about it last year as well, just before I ceased posting altogether; and my picture then does it more justice as I was still using my camera instead of my phone.  (Note: there is nothing wrong with my camera at present, only with my computer!  It takes digital gymnastics to post camera photos at present. I haven't got the energy!)

Well, there is one more thing I must share though it has nothing to do with the garden.  Last summer saw the birth of a wonderful little filly, daughter of my mare Sugar and stallion Toots, more correctly known as Suwannee Bonita and Suwannee Two Step.  Frou Frou has been a delight, and her arrival has done more to keep me moving forward than anything else.

 

Baby pictures, anyone?

Frou Frou at three days old

To mark just how close we are to moving, all my horses arrived safely in Arizona this morning.  They will be staying with our previous veterinarian there until I have some facilities up for them at our new place.  I'm already missing them all, and they only left yesterday morning!  I had better get back to packing...

I'll try to update you all fairly soon on the prospects of the new garden.  Put briefly, it's in USDA zone 8, Sunset zone 10.  There will be a bit of winter as it is at higher elevation.  Summers should be a shade milder than my earlier desert garden, but with climate change I can't be too sure what that will actually mean on the ground.  

And it is currently nothing but bare ground.  I will be starting very much from scratch.  But that is how my last garden began, and I am so happy to be returning to my beloved Sonoran Desert.

Lastly, I want to thank those of you who continued to leave comments for me on my last post.  I was simply too upset and fatigued with everything to respond, but those comments were deeply appreciated.  Thank you for caring!

Frou Frou, again!

Moving Day for the Blog!

Well, this is a big day at the small, sunny garden blog!  Late last night (or rather very, very early this morning!) I posted my first full post at the new site: a Monday Vase for the first Monday in October.

It seems all the more appropriate because this is a time of new beginnings in the desert garden, and I hope it will be a wonderful start to a wonderful new time for the blog.  I've felt like I was playing with a new Christmas toy, getting everything set up (except for those times when things weren't going quite right, of course -- which, as I recall, sometimes happened with the Christmas toys too); it's been great fun styling and laying things out.  It's all still far from finished but far enough along to warrant transferring my regular posts.

As some of you may recall, this move was triggered chiefly by the hope of clearing up the perennial difficulties experienced by WordPress users when commenting.  It looks like that will indeed be much easier now - one plus for the new format already.  Additionally it feels great to have the whole layout so much more under my control.  (No, I don't think I'm a control freak... much!)

So this will be my farewell post for the blogspot site.  I am looking into linking it to the new site to facilitate searches, but I've not yet confirmed that I can do that.

Meantime, the new site is up and running at www.SmallSunnyGarden.com.  I hope you all will enjoy it as much as I!

Wordless Wednesday: Anna

female Anna's Hummingbird in the garden

Our lovely Anna's hummingbirds have returned to the garden for the cooler months.

In a Vase: Windswept

Strong winds and overcast skies were the rule today, and this week's vase was disarranged by the wind as I took it outside to photograph it.  However, fortunately it was the sort that can stand a little mussing since it consisted mostly of just two types of flowers loosely combined.  Bright pink bougainvillea bracts...

...and white lantana...

...are both in plentiful supply.  There are also a couple of stems of artemisia tucked in at the base.

I used one of my handthrown stoneware pots, which was large enough to hold all the stems I picked.

Being from a woody plant, the bougainvillea sprays were soaked for about five minutes in boiled water, a technique that seems to be working for them.  Otherwise, I find the stems are quite prone to wilting, leaving the bright, crepey bracts all drooped and crumpled.  This batch is holding up well so far.

The tiny true flowers of the bougainvillea are white, a fact that inspired the combination with the white-blooming lantana.

Thank you to Cathy for the encouragement to cut garden flowers for the house each week.  Do check the other vases inspired by the IaVoM theme at Rambling in the Garden!

Weather Diary: Cloudy; High: 91 F (33 C)/Low: 77F (25 C); Humidity: 20%-55%

Garden Foliage in September

Perhaps because we receive so little rain here (averaging about 8 in/20 cm per year), it is magical when it does come, inducing the gardener to go out and stand in it, watching the plants as they drink it in.  Also fascinating is to watch how the foliage holds raindrops, creating transient patterns of light and reflection otherwise absent in the garden.

Each plant is different.

Layers of drops rest in among the layers of close-set leaves on Callistemon viminalis "Little John"...

...while the agaves hold theirs as if on a wide platter...

Agave parryi (I think!)

Agave marmorata

...or caught along the edge.

Agave angustifolia marginata

On cacti the drops may be beaded among the spines.

Trichocereus spachianus

The fern-like foliage of Caesalpinia pulcherrima carries raindrops in glittering sprays.

And the grass Muhlenbergia capillaris "Regal Mist" carries perfect rows along its round blades.

Each rainfall is different as well; this was a very gentle, light rain that left plenty of large drops hovering around the garden.  But it is fascinating to consider the patterns formed between the plants and the rain.

Thanks to Christina at My Hesperides Garden for hosting the Garden Bloggers' Foliage Day, which inspired this post.

Agave angustifolia marginata with Artemisia "Powis Castle"

If you have time, please check my last post as well, in which I look at some new plans for the blog and ask about what would be most at issue for my readers as I change over.

Ruellia brittoniana

Weather Diary: Partly cloudy; High: 83 F (28 C)/Low: 64 F (18 C); Humidity: 14%-89%