Iris Archives - Oceanside Garden

Gardener’s Log – May 2023

There are some notable things for May. The first is the weather, which continues to change beyond belief. This month we were, on average, 4° F warmer than last year. While that is quite remarkable, it pales into comparison when we talk about rainfall. Last year we had 13.22 inches of rain during May. This year 0.51 inches and most of that was in a few hundredths here and there. There was no significant rainfall all month. I have never had to start watering the garden in May before!

The second thing of note is that while my back continues to get worse, I have found a garden helper – Mary – who has been doing some amazing work helping to get the garden back into a semblance of order and enabled me to make progress on a few project, including one in which Mary and Jesse both helped make a huge advance.

Fairy Garden Progress

The most notable change has been in the Fairy Garden. I built a cover for the large water storage tank so that it is now safe for people and should stop critters getting in there. For those small ones that do, I have a little wooden ramp to help them get back out. While it is just a bit of wood at the moment, I will construct something a little better later.

With that done, and plants planted and barked, the whole area is looking more finished. The spill rocks for the stream have been mortared in place and the pipework finished. There are two valves controlling two water insertion points. The one at the top will likely become a small bog area and I hope it looks like an artesian spring that erupts from it, while a larger amount of water comes in just before the waterfall. Its entry point is hidden by one of the large basalt boulders. Those will get mortared in place as well and the bottom covered with the rounded river rock. The reason for so much mortar is that I have had problems with raccoons in the past who have managed to shred the rubber liner.

Other Progress

The new portion of deer fence was planted. Six vines have been placed along here, which is rather dense, but this has proven to be a difficult area for plants given the amount of moisture that the neighboring pines suck out of the soil. In part it is an experiment to see what survives. There are two Honeysuckles, two Jasmines, a Kadsura and a Periploca.

The final update is some planting in the native area. With Mary having cleared out a portion of it, many plants have gone in. Again, it is quite densely planted, but they will have a much better chance at survival in the ground than in pots. Most of them will be fine being moved later if necessary. The area is anchored with one of three vine maples that are destined for the whole area. This one is the purple leaved ‘Burgundy Jewel.’

Perhaps I should say a word about my definition of native. I am fine with cultivars so long as they provide the same level of interest to wildlife as the species would have. I am also willing to go slightly out of bounds in where a species originates. Northern California natives are fine in my book because in a warming World, these are likely to naturally spread here over time anyways. Finally, I have included some plants like the Pacific Coast Hybrid Iris. They still attract pollinators and provide a food supply, but do add some additional interest to the planting.

Visits

A trip into Salem gave us the opportunity to visit a garden and nursery located in the northern outskirts of the town – Sebright gardens. This is a highly focused nursery that specializes in Hosta, Ferns, and Epimedium. The gardens exceeded our expectations, and a full report is available here.

What’s in Bloom

One of the welcome blooms during May are the two Dogwood trees (Cornus ‘Venus’). Normally, the large bracts are seen from the underside. We see them from above from the house. It has large bracts that open up yellow, turning to cream and then white. They are tinged with pink as they fade. The display usually lasts for a month, but this year may be shorter because of the lack of rain.

The Iris are one of the spectacular blossoms of late spring, and for the first time, Hello Darkness lit up Tuxedo Lane.

Iris germanica 'Hello Darkness' — Iris germanica ‘Hello Darkness’

While flowers are often the most obvious plant spectacle, there are frequently other more subtle things of beauty. Case in point are these growth buds of the Callistemon ‘Dark Red’. I find these almost as beautiful as the flows themselves.

Callistemon subulatus 'Dark Red' — Callistemon subulatus ‘Dark Red’

Weather Summary

As already stated, the amazing thing about the weather this year is the almost total lack of rain for May. This, along with being 4° F warmer would make you think it has been a good month. Apart from two days when we were well over 90°F, warmer even than Portland on those days, the onshore breeze has been almost constant. This normally happens in June and July, but started early this year. That is probably the reason for the warmer conditions because it sets air temperature to be the same as the water temperature, keeping the nights warmer.

Calendar

Gardener’s Log – February 2023

February has to go down as one of the strangest months because I have hardly seen the garden. I got to see the first 10 days, then went for a trip down to Southern California (more about that later) and arrived back on the 20^th. Then on the 22^nd it started to snow and blanketed us with at least 8″ of snow. Before that had even had a chance to melt and to assess the state of the garden, we ended the month with more snow. Our zone is also confirmed as we set a new low at 22F. So, Zone 9a it is and some adjustments will have to be made in the plants I have been trying to grow.

I am probably going to give up on plants like the Rojasianthe. This has been killed off each winter, even though it loves it here in the summer. I do have one plant left that I have been bringing into the greenhouse when it gets cold, and I hope we manage to get it to bloom.

Garden Progress

The new section of deer fence has been constructed. It used a slightly different design to what I had done before. I have written a blog about it here. I think this incarnation of the design works well as it transitions into the Japanese garden. Thanks to the snow, I also know it has been working. On at least for the couple of occasions the deer have passed by.

Visits

So many! Our trip to Southern California was based in two locations – Azusa and Carlsbad. Azusa was a convenient location for the LA County Arboretum and Botanic Garden, California Botanical Garden, Glendora Botanic Garden, and Descanso Garden. Then on the way to Carlsbad we stopped at the Fullerton Arboretum and Niguel Botanical Preserve. Around Carlsbad was the San Diego Botanic Garden, Alta Vista Botanical Garden, the Hunter Arboretum, and the Palomar Cactus and Succulent Garden. We later found out that we should not have had access to this garden, but there was someone working in there and the gate was open and he never asked us to leave, so I guess we just got lucky. It is usually by appointment only.

Each of these had a unique character, ranging from highly manicured display gardens to small intimate spaces, to great collections, to slightly unkempt spaces. I have written up the first of them, which you can find here, and will do the others over time.

What’s in Bloom

Under the blanket of snow, I know that the Iris continue to bloom. Before the snow hit, some of the crocus were about to bloom, but didn’t get a chance to take a photograph. Early daffodils are opening.

Weather Summary

The numbers do not tell the whole story. January was cold, miserable and windy. Now we add on top record snow fall, not just once, but over a period of a week.

Average temperatures were more than 2.5F colder than last year. We topped out at 61.5F and again repeated our low of 22.5F. There was a period of 5 days when the weather station was not working. This was while we were away and needed to reset the system. That resulted in showing a rainfall of only 6.57, compared to 7.40″ last year. However, it rained during that period and none of the 8″ of snow was registered as rain. All of the snow was blown off the station rather than melting. The other interesting thing was that last year more than ½ the rainfall came on the last day of the month. It was also a windy month with almost every day having winds in excess of 10mph. Last year that only happened on a few days. Peak wind was 35.8mph with a gust of 51.4mph. Even the average wind speed was 3.4mph. That compares to 0.3 last year!

Plant

A net full of Iris

For a few years, I have been building a small collection of early season Iris that are often referred to as the netted Iris. You can see from the picture below why they get this name and this in turn gives one of the species in this group it specific epithet – reticulata, which in Latin means networked. It also includes histrioides and a couple of others. Most of the varieties in production today are hybrids of these.

Iris reticulata 'Painted Lady' — Iris reticulata ‘Painted Lady’

They come from Russia, the Caucasus and northern Iran. They all grow to about 6″ and bloom early in the year, soon after the foliage emerges. While each bloom last about a week, they tend to stagger their bloom a little, meaning that the show continues for a couple of weeks, and each variety blooms at slight the right time. That gives us these little pops of color and happiness during some of the darkest days of the winter. In summer, the leaves die down and the plants want to be kept dry. They require a very free draining soil.

Growing

While a number of these are planted out in the Winter Garden, I almost prefer to grow these in pots because then you can get up close to them. Many of them look better from the sides than they do from looking straight down on them. A compromise might be a rockery that is raised or on a slope that enables you to look at them at flower height.

Blooming

The first to bloom this year was ‘Eye Catcher’ which put on its first show on January 13^th.

Iris reticulata 'Eye Catcher' — Iris reticulata ‘Eye Catcher’

‘Eye Catcher’ has white with striated deep ink-blue star bursts on the standards and falls decorated with yellow stripes amidst a mini galaxy of variable deep blue spots.

This was followed by five of them blooming this week – February 4^th.

Iris reticulata 'Harmony' — Iris reticulata ‘Harmony’

Harmony has the most intense blue with a yellow blotch with a white fan around it. Very striking.

Painted Lady is very delicate with muted colors and patterning.

Iris reticulata 'Pauline' — Iris reticulata ‘Pauline’

Pauline is a dark purple with white markings on the tips and a yellow underside.

Iris histrioides 'Katherine's Gold' — Iris histrioides ‘Katherine’s Gold’

Katherine’s Gold is almost pure white with faint yellow and then a small gold splotch with purple splahes on it.

Iris histrioides 'Sheila Ann Germany' — Iris histrioides ‘Sheila Ann Germany’

Sheila Ann Germany has muted colors but very distinct markings in blue and gold.

There should be a couple more to come, but for now we have plenty to enjoy.

Calendar

Gardener’s Log – December 2022

They say that every year appears to go by faster, but that has not been the case this year, thanks to the increasing pain in my leg. This has reduced my ability to make progress, especially over the past couple of months, but I remain hopeful that this will be resolved in the New Year. It has also been a year of unexpected surprises from the weather. No longer can we claim to be a marginal zone 10 garden, not even a 9B. In fact, we were book-ended by bad weather – cold early which killed a lot of plants, and a major storm in the past few days that left the whole region without power for a day, and for us – almost two days. Thankfully, it appears that no significant damage was done by the wind and rain that came with that.

Garden Progress

Having said that, some major changes did happen over the course of the year, making it a very productive year. The new growing benches out front have made life a lot easier and are full to overflowing. Much less bending, plants not attempting to root into the ground, and making it a lot easier to get organized for watering and feeding. I also sold plants for the first time this year on ebay – all of my excess Protea venusta plants (it bloomed for the first time this year), many Grevillea, and a few other plants that I had excess of. I should have many more this spring to put up.

Progress through the year

In the main part of the garden, progress happened in three main areas. The new Winter garden, the Mediterranean garden and progress on the Fairy garden. Also made a start clearing out a lot of the Holodiscus from what will be the Native area of the garden. While the Holodiscus are natives, I don’t need the whole area filled with them and it will make room for native Vine Maples, native Rhododendron, Mahonia and others. I also have a batch of Trilliums going for ground cover.

I am not sure if I should be proud or embarrassed about the number of plants that have been purchased over the course of this year. A total of 341 new plant entries have been made in the catalog. If it is any consolation, it is a few less than last year that came in at 375. Many of those are bulbs, with a lot more reticulata Iris being included this year, after they brought so much joy last year. There has also been a concentration of plants that can take a little more shade. Dry, shade, sharp drainage is a difficult set of requirements, and then you add on top deer resistant. A lot of the plants are experiments to see how well they do.

What’s in Bloom

Winter is time when many of the South African and Australian bloom, although it is still early for most. Crowea ‘Poorinda Ecstasy’ has started early this year and started putting out the first blooms early in the month.

Crowea 'Poorinda Ecstacy' — Crowea ‘Poorinda Ecstacy’

Many of the Correa’s have started to put out a few blooms and that will intensify through winter. Correa glabra ‘Marian’s Marvel’ is one with slightly more pastel colors than some of the others.

Correa 'Marian's Marvel' — Correa ‘Marian’s Marvel’

Grevillea lanigera ‘Coastal Gem’ has really come into its own this year. It has spread nicely and has been holding its buds for a couple of months now.

But there are other more Northern Hemisphere plants that are also blooming. Helleborus x ericsmithii ‘Winter’s Song’ is the first of the Hellebore’s to bloom for us. I gave it a good hair cut a month or so ago meaning that the blossoms are really visible this year. It will soon put on new leaf growth.

Outstanding New Plants for 2022

There have been three plants that I acquired this year that have really blown me away. Two were from UC Santa Cruz arboretum (Norries) and the third from Half Moon Bay Nursery. They were all acquired in July and were blooming at that time. What is amazing is that all three of them are still blooming! The number of blossoms has changed, and the Ceratopetalum cheats a little bit because it is the bracts that are the most colorful and they last much longer than the actual flowers. But it is still putting out a few and with that, it keeps coloring up the leaves.

Grevillea rhyolitica

Leptospermum scoparium ‘Snow White’

Ceratopetalum gummiferum ‘Fairley’s Coral’

Weather Summary

For weather this month I am cheating a bit. First, we had another sensor go out on our array, meaning we had no record of rainfall during the last week of the month. A new array is on its way. Also, during the large storm at the end of the month, we were without power for most of two days, whereas Netarts, just a mile down the road, was out for a much shorter space of time. I have thus “borrowed” the data from them.

The average temperature for the month was 1 degree warmer than last year. The high was 59.4 and low of 27.7, compared to 55.9 and 29.1 last year. Last year’s winds were 29.8 and gust of 51.4. This year, thanks to the late storm winds clocked in at 70, gusting to 85.7. No wonder the entire county was without power.

Weather - December 2022 — Weather – December 2022

Yearly Summary

January and February were quite delightful months with lots of sun and low rainfall. March, April and May made up for that. Then we went into a long dry summer that extended into October. The final two months were somewhat average apart from the big storm in the last week of December. That was the worst since we have lived here. In total we had 105″ of rain this year, that was highly concentrated into 6 months. That is a little bit above last year at 98″.

2022	High	Low	Average	Rainfall
Jan	63	30.6	46.5	14.3
Feb	72.7	22.5	44.7	7.4
Mar	64.8	36	46.9	10.35
Apr	66.2	32.5	46.3	10.81
May	66	38.8	50.3	13.22
Jun	90	45.1	56.6	6.88
Jul	79.3	47.8	58.8	0.44
Aug	80.4	50.7	60.5	0.51
Sep	94.6	48.6	59.4	1.51
Oct	89.8	43.5	54.6	6.55
Nov	64.6	34.7	46.1	17.71
Dec	59.4	27.7	43.9	15.16