tz_garden

I feel a little like I'm on pause.  Maybe the daily news, perhaps just mid summer?  Although the weather has been perfection this year - basically 80-85 every day.  The most mild summer ever.  Eryngium 'blue glow' (I think) is really showy this year, the thistle starts off silver and slowly turns blue-purple. The bottom of the foliage gets a little bedraggled, that's the only con.  I FINALLY saw one of the black squirrels!  I'd heard of a family of black squirrels that live near the College Ave. neighborhood.  A gorgeous neighborhood that once included the  Livermore Sanitarium , before it's closing in 1965 and then later demolished.   Years ago, Sophia and I were walking the Arroyo trail and popped in the "Sanitarium" neighborhood.  An older feller stopped us to give us the history and that this building was part of the original Sanitarium - he said water tower.  ? Who knows. The cute little garage is round, maybe he was on to...

Went for a visit yesterday with my usual cohorts, Sophia & Ivan to the UC Santa Cruz Arboretum & Botanic Garden.  I had never been, they visited approximately a year ago.  The garden is in the middle of fixing a retaining wall, so we had to enter in a roundabout way through the main campus.  We parked and were walking down to the nursery to pick up some plants I had ordered online.  When we saw THIS.  These, there's actually 2-one male, one female.  Leucadendron argenteum.  To say I lost my mind would be an understatement.  Sophia was laughing at my response to seeing a full grown specimen.   In the sunlight, it looked like a shimmering metal tree - and yet, the foliage is incredibly soft.  I'm beyond infatuated.  *Mine have grown well, having been planted in 2024.  But I'm well aware I'm taking a chance on them living - they like it a little cooler, more coastal conditions and a bit warmer winter than they'll get ...

 I'm slowly continuing the take down of the front "rear" garden.  I'm needing a bin dump to really get going again (tomorrow).  I'm in the summer slow down. It's been 80's-90's, the most mild summer I can remember.  I could get used to this!  Dudleya still looking nice, usually scorched by this time of year. During my chop down, I spotted a forgotten pot of Dianella ensifolia showing off vivid purple berries.  When Ivan and Sophia come to visit, I'm the lucky recipient of things passed along -this one from  David ! A fabulous Stenocarpus sinuatus.   This one from Ivan. No way this San Pedro cactus cutting has rooted yet, but it's certainly showing signs of life.  and these incredible Euphorbia ingens cuttings. That big one is much taller than me! I moved a lone Lophocereus marginatus, Mexican fence post cactus to a grouping a couple feet away.  And stood up the Euphorbia ingens here, I'm hoping the fence + an early morning sun posit...