Betts's Blog

It's been whacky all day!  Non stop rain...I think these clouds lost there way again, but we're not complaining.  Except, all the drivers, baseball games and people who were planning to sunbathe.

Here are some happy plants

The Madagascar Palm that belonged to mom (which is now 5 ft tall)

 A lily from Rainier, MN

And my Crocosmias...ready to flower (bought the bulbs in Sequim, WA, at the Lavender Festival Street Fair)

 Wishing you all well (^_~)

Good morning,  After my last blog, I wanted to show you the majority of my garden is in good shape and enjoying more blossoms.  

Here are my Daturas grown from seeds that Carolyn sent...I'm keeping a close watch on these guys.

 These Petunias were pure white when I got them and now their showing their 'true' colors?

 Hummer's Delight below

 This is the Golden Rattail in full flower...it's spider season here...not spider mites this time, thank goodness

 Here's a little guy in flower....The Peruvian Old Man is his neighbor...

Have a nice weekend.  Wishing you all well (^_~)

Happy Friday Friends!  For the most part it is, my sun lovers are enjoying the sunny days and some are blooming wonderfully.  But, the Brugmansia and Rick's Dahlias have been hit with either spider mites of something worse.

Below is one of Rick's Dahlias before it got hit.  What do you think made them so sick??  

Thanks!

This was taken June 16th

The next two shots were taken yesterday (June 23rd)

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The Brugmansia

DON'T FORGET YOUR SUNSCREEN

WISHING YOU WELL

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY guys!

Hope you all have a great day!!

Wishing all very well (^_~)

Hi again,  thought I would post pics of the ground covers related to my Rock Purslane...they're just as festive.

Here is the ground cover Purslane that most of us are familiar with.

And this is Portulaca, which is what I usually use...both are file shots.

These both do well here and are great ground covers...the purslane is more of a perennial than the Portulaca which is treated as an annual.

Wishing you all well (^_~)

Greetings,

Here is the newest succulent to my collection I post about earlier.  I've read it's a good ground cover and is drought tolerant, the flowers are simple but have long stems.  I potted the leaves that broke off...so it will be fun to see how long they take to produce a new plant.   I'll keep this in a pot for awhile to see how well it spreads.

Wishing you well (^_~)

What a great weekend!  Teri surprised us with a whirlwind visit and Aurora came in too.  We didn't have to share them with anyone (^_^) It has been years since just the four of us hung out.  It was a 24 hr visit and then they were both gone....and did our house feel empty...no tears(well not a lot), but they have good lives and great guys so how could we be too sad.

 Sunday I took off and hit some shops in search of a certain garden tool I gave to Aurora the weekend before.  A very handy tool, all one piece (no welds) with a spade on one end and claw on the other, made of a strong alloy.  I found it years ago and was one of my most used tools.  Aurora is a budding container gardener and was in need of some proper items. 

Well, I had absolutely no luck in finding a worthy replacement.  I now have a very nice collection of garden tools and will most likely survive with out it (*-*).....but at Home Depot there was customer carrying a plant I had seen at another home 'n garden place.  I kept an eye on him and watched him walk out of the garden area.  Luckily three employees were there and I asked where he had gotten the plant.  One told me where there were more and I said, "oh good, I thought I would have to take it away from him"...

Okay, long story short.  It's a Rock Purslane, it was in bloom and it's a succulent.  I had to have one!!!   It's now on our secret garden shelf, it switch places with our Lenten Rose which can't take our summer sun.  No pics, yet, but I'm happy.

Here is a pic of Rick and the girls.  Aurora on his left (lives in San Francisco) and Teri on his right (lives in Port Angeles, WA), it was an early Father's Day moment.  We do see Aurora more, but she's as busy as her sister.

 Hope you all had a good weekend of sunshine, warmth and enjoyed some time in your garden!

Wishing you all well (^_~)

Hi all, hope your weekend is a bit better than mine.....I caught a cold!  Luckily, it's too wet to play outside at the moment.  So, I've been going through some pics I've wanted to post and one has a 'mystery' tree in it.

It's the first shot, it's in a neighbors yard and we can't place it!  Also, a closer look at the leaves (with a lil' hummer).  We've never seen it flower, it's a lovely tree.  Our fence is 7' with the trellis, but our yard is a couple of feet higher than the yard the tree is in.

The third shot is of one of my many Pelargoniums...I have an album called Pelargonium Heaven.  I love them all, the scented and the colors.  Although I can't go too crazy with all the wild colors.  I'm hoping the cuttings from the Pelargonium we took out last week will take...such a beautiful flower.

Well, need to kick back and maybe watch a couple of old movies...I feel a little tired.  Not to fret, I'll feel better by tomorrow in time to supervise the play equipment or black top during recess.

Mystery Tree #1

 Mystery
Tree #2

Hope you all had a good weekend (^_~) Wishing you well

Greetings,  It has been raining continuously since last night.  Not hard, just steady, this is not the 'norm' for us but our garden is loving it and even my cactus are not deterred from their annual spring show.

What do you think?

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Wishing you all well (^_~)

Greetings, hope you've had a good week.  

Just pulled some of the clumps in the front bed and luckily, only one was the Siberian Iris.  The rest are Watsonia and I will be replacing the Penstemons with it. 

I still plan to put in some Black Eyed Susan, with our summers being hot and dry, they may not be as invasive as in areas that get summer rains. The Arum I posted has not spread at all in the 10 yrs it's been in it's spot.  That was why I was so tickled that two bloomed, lol   I did pot up the Siberian Iris and will keep it small.

Hope to do some gardening this weekend, but it's suppose to rain!!!  This is not the norm here for this time of year.  But, that's okay, we can use it.

Hope you all have a good weekend and for those who are still being battered by the weather, my prayers are will you all.

 Wishing you well (^_~)

Hi,  I can not believe the spring storm coming through our area...thunder yet!  But as one of the kids at school said, we need it and she's so right.

Here is a pic of some of the work we did on David and Aurora's place.  There are some others in the 'here and there' album.

Basically, we removed an over grown but beautiful geranium(pelargonium).  I think it was a Martha Washington variety, we did take plenty of cuttings and potted them up.  Unfortunately, I forgot to get pictures of it before taking it out...some of the root is under the concrete.  The green hand is pointing to the woody trunk we had to remove, it was growing left to the cypress by the stairway of the white house.  This is not their place.  There is a cypress and jade bush on either side of the garage door and the geranium bush was on the far left.  They were all overgrown and leaning towards the south, their place faces north.  I replace the geranium with some succulents Aurora will be able to control.

On her back balcony, we put up some trellis and two bougainvillaeas and a star jasmine will grace those.  She is just beginning to put plants on the balcony, she has some on the stair landing that leads down to the garage/basement.  She and David rent there. 

The back yard is about the size of our front yard (that's pretty small).  It is a 'jungle', Aurora is going to try to get David to help clear it out and make it worthy for two little boys, to sit and grill on warm days.

We had fun working on what we did, the weather was actually nicer than Vacaville!

 Rick did the heavy pruning, still has more to go.

Hope your week is a good one...wishing you well (^_~)