Hydrangeas and the Heat

The weather continues to be hot and humid and I'm sure this extreme climate will be the norm instead of the cooler summers I remember while growing up in Southern California. Temperatures would vacillate in the 70's, not in the high 90's.

I remember my Grandfather's Hydrangeas would fill the flowerbeds at the front of his Ocean Beach house. Huge pompoms of lavender, blue and pink would captivate anyone who walked by, even prompting an occasional car to pull over to the curb to take a peak at the efforts of my Grandpa’s green thumb.

Hydrangeas were the first flowers I planted when we bought our home years ago, and they are still flourishing on both sides of the house, battling the heat at times, and delighting our family and friends with their magnificent presence. When the heat becomes a bit challenging I mist the flowerbeds fifteen minutes at a time and shade the blossoms from the direct sun to prevent scorching.

So far so good.

Home Sweet Cherry Tomatoes

Since food prices have gone up considerably, I have been trying to economize in any way possible to help not only with the energy crisis, but to put my two cents in to help the ecological economy in general.

Because my garden time is limited, a few years ago I found it easier to garden from flower boxes or flowerbeds, and this year I am growing vegetables in pots. It's very popular and easy to access when the product is ripe.

I stopped eating tomatoes from the grocery store years ago because they were, and still are, picked green and quite frankly they are tasteless. I bought one sixty-nine cent pack of cherry tomatoes and it has been producing delicious tomatoes for two weeks now. The yield is just right for my husband and me and now tomatoes have been added back into our meals.

Daisies

The Trumpet's Last Horn

As beautiful as the Trumpet Flower is, I am sad to say that I will be removing this flowering bush from the garden next week to ensure the safety of my Grandchildren's visits in the backyard. My oldest son gave me a starter shoot in a medium clay pot several years ago. The growth rate of this plant has been fast and phenomenal. It is now over ten feet tall.

I remember the first three trumpet blossoms that made their appearance in a transparent shade of white, and then delicately turned into a blush pinkish-orange colour at the widest end of their trumpet. I gave them the nickname of "dancing skirts" as each trumpet blossomed that first year.

I will miss the crowd of dancing blossoms but will always be gratefull for the photo shots they afforded me to have in my portfolio.

Morning Glorious

The heat spell in Southern California has calmed down a bit so I took the opportunity to weed the flower beds early in the morning.

My hot cup of coffee sat on the patio table as I furiously tackled the overgrown and out-of-control Morning Glories. They were trying to strangle the Bougainvillea bush and had jumped the fence to attack my neighbor's Orange tree on the other side of the brick wall.

I carefully untangled the vines from the Bougie but had to trim some of the small branches off of the citrus tree to release the death grip the Morning Glories had on its leaves.

I stared for a while at the gaping whole I made in my neighbor's tree and considered taking the offensive MG's completely out of the garden, but, when I watered everything down, a refreshing scene of purple and green promised to keep the yard cool even if the temperature decided to rise again. I sat back and quite enjoyed the purple flowers as I sipped on my lukewarm cup of coffee.

Maybe I'll take them out next year.