Fridays are for touring nurseries and possibly plants shopping. Today was a good day as I finally found some gorgeous Rose Of Sharon trees/shrubs from the enchanting Chateau™ series which will survive in my climate zone. For years I tried variety Hibiscus, none of which made it pass Winter. Today, I am hopeful that I can enjoy these Roses of Sharon for many years.
Chateau De Versailles Rose Of Sharon.Aphrodite Rose Of Sharon.
Also, how beautiful is the Rose Cherub Daylily below? This is yet another cold-hardy plant with dark-green leaves and graceful ruffled rose-pink flowers with chartreuse-colored throats. It will be a great companion plant for the other variety of daylilies in my garden and humming birds and butterflies alike will love it.
Rose Cherub Daylily.
Wishing you all a fantastic weekend and happy gardening.
It has been a busy day around the backyard garden. The weather has been cool lately, allowing us to trim most of the dead Pine Tree branches which were on our side of the property. Summer is another synonym of fire season and it never hurts to remove any fire starters around a home. That part has been completed on our side, the neighbors just have to continue working on theirs and it will be perfect.
On Friday morning we picked up a Vintage wrought iron tripled plant stand from a local store and the set of 3 cobalt blue glazed ceramic planters I bought last month look beautiful on it. The planters are filled with a variety of Echeveria succulents. Going forward with the cleanup, I have been trimming and shaping the Japanese Boxwood as well as the Common Broom shrubs, which are hosting the Genista Caterpillars, the larvae of the Genista Broom Moth, LepidopteraPyralidae . Yes, it’s that time of year again. I will be using a solution first thing tomorrow morning to get rid of the pests before they completely damage the plants.
The first Donkey’s Tail Succulent also known as Sedum Morganianum,blooming.
Donkey’s Tail, blooming.
Yesterday we spent the day in Crestline, CA, shopping, sight seeing and of course, eating. It is such a beautiful and friendly little city that you can’t help but fall in love with. We stopped at a nursery and almost took the stunning Black-eyed Susan home, when I remembered that we have too many yellow flowering plants. I will be ordering the Rudbeckia “Cherry Brandy”, a new addition and different color to the garden.
I just realized that it’s the first day of Summer and we are already half way through the year. A couple of months ago I couldn’t stand the cold and here we are, getting ready to brace ourselves through some incoming heat waves of the season.
We have not been able to enjoy the outdoors as much as we would have loved to. The weather has been quite unpredictable;we enjoy those Santa Ana winds, just not when combined with heat and humidity.
Not much is happening in the garden. Unlike the other Daylilies, Siloam David Kirchhoff Daylilies are now awakening with beautiful blooms. The Gauras are thriving with vigorous growth and hosting the Caterpillars of the White-lined Sphinx.
Siloam David Kirchhoff Daylily.
Earlier this month I dug up the perennial bulbs and got rid of them all, except the Allium Drumsticks which I relocated. I love their eye-catching oval shaped burgundy blooms.
It’s hot out here and there isn’t much to do, except walk around and enjoy the beautiful plants.
So what’s happening in my garden? A few day ago, I got rid of the perennial bulbs, all excluding the Allium Drumsticks which I really like. I pruned and shaped the Autumn Sage, Texas Sage, Lavender, Boxwood and the Dwarf Myrtle. We also completely removed and got rid of the second Navajo Globe Willow tree on our property. These trees are easy to grow from cuttings, but don’t thrive in the High Desert and are susceptible to diseases.
English Lavender.
The Daylilies have started to bloom.
Pretty Woman Daylily.Stella D’Oro Daylily.
I planted a few Ornamental Grasses at the right corner of the end of my property along side some Spanish Lavender, Autumn Sage, Miniature Rose bushes and Agave Ovatifolia (which I recently transplanted).
Fountain Grass.
The Pomegranate tree is blooming and producing fruits.
Pomegranate tree.
I have quite a few Yellow Bird Of Paradise Bush ll around my property which I constantly prune and shape. They are one of my favorite ornamental trees along with the Desert Willow.
Yellow Bird Of Paradise Bush.Desert Willow tree.
Once in a blue moon we have some unfortunate events going on around the garden. Today we found a damage on the irrigation tubing caused by either a thirsty gopher or Ground Squirrel. These rodents have figured out where things are around here and the are becoming quite sneaky. These Agave Ovatifolia ‘Frosty Blue’ have all been dug out and relocated. The mature Agave was damage by a Gopher.
Well, have you ever met a person from a different religion who claims theirs is better than yours? If not, I am sure you have read articles about one religion being more mischievous than the others or some nonsense of the sort.
“Religion doesn’t lie, people do.” — Joan Ambu
I have met all types of people in my life and regardless of what my beliefs are as well as my religion, I have always respected theirs. I am not one to judge a person and when I do, I never condemn a group for the shortcomings of one. I grew up with a lot of Muslim friends and, other than scheduled prayers and a few forbidden food, we were just kids doing what kids enjoy doing.
I met a Muslim woman a couple of years ago whose daughter befriend mine at school. This woman made me question what I thought I knew about her religion. To win my trust, she began by letting me know that Muslims don’t lie and I responded with ‘no religion lies’. She brought her younger daughters to my house and as expected they were amazed, excited, went in every room and had fun with my daughter. The third time we went to their house I realized something was off and made it the last. My kids were always confined in the living room, were denied access to any other parts of the house and her girls were not allowed to share toys with mine (I heard this woman telling two of her daughters to go put their dolls away). When the bathroom was in use and my kids needed to use it, they were denied access to the guest bathroom because it was reserved for important people. Now you would think it was a clean house and that maybe this woman wanted to maintain order; it was however, the opposite.
This woman didn’t share much about herself, but she was an hypocrite who was quick to speak ill of others. She had a few grudges she needed to let out, and I understood even though it wasn’t a nice way to go about it. When, however, she said Mexicans are lazy and fat you know, that was the last straw. This is not by any means a slim and/or fit woman. Her husband and one of her sons are probably the fattest men I have seen so far and a few of her daughters are rapidly getting there. For her to utter those words, knowing that my children are of Mexican descent, was disrespectful and rude. I couldn’t waste a second around someone like that.
Weeks went by and her girls wanted to come and play at my house, but their mother said no, that we should be the ones to go over there. One of the girls innocently repeated what her mother said to my daughter, who calmly replied, ‘no, thank you.’ This woman is not a bad person, she simply lacks knowledge, respect and acceptance.
“Every time you lie, it brings me a little closer to goodbye.” – Unknown Image source: PictureQuotes.com
Just a couple of years ago, there was a family of four who lived across from us; they kept to themselves, seemed nice and we were told by their landlord who is a good friend of ours that they are good people and Christians.
A month prior to moving out the masks fell off and their true nature were revealed. I met three of the fours and I was chocked when I realized that all were Machiavellian. They were dishonest, self-aware, extremely self-centered, manipulative, sneaky, ungrateful and would tell out of this world lies to achieve their goals. They blamed everyone else for their misfortune and did not understand why nothing worked out for them. Such people would drive you crazy. I stopped sympathizing and empathizing with them.
“Sometimes it’s not the people who change; it’s the mask that falls off.” — Haruki Murakami
I have friends of different religion than mine who are a little off every now and then. That’s okay as long as we do not become full of ourselves and start belittling others. Judging her based on her repeated actions, you can see how one can quickly come to the conclusion that Muslims are not fun to be around. Her actions do not speak for the other Muslims and we should not put everyone in the same basket. The same goes for Christians and other religions.
As people, as individuals, we should strive to do better and to be our best selves around each other.
“Condemn the offender, not the Religion.” ― Joan Ambu
By JM Perez
