Is pink your favorite color? We have centranthus. Seeds blew in from a neighbor. We have to pull out a lot of it every year. You can see a little bit in the agave picture.

lol...yes, I do have a lot of centranthus since it's been established here for years. I just pull it out where I don't want it and let it grow where I do. I would not choose to be without it. It's a good filler and the butterflies love it. I have the hot pink and the reddish one pictured, and hopefully the two white ones that I planted have not been lost. They may have been where I was pulling things out on the west side of the house. Pink...hmmm, it would appear that I do like pink. The only orange, I believe comes in the form of the Lion's Tail / leonotis leonurus I do have a lot of pink and purple and not as much yellow and now adding reds and a lot of blues from salvias. My place, I'm afraid has been more the 'collector's' type and not given the advantage of a plan or even a clean slate to begin with...simply squeezing things in where the site suits them best and will most likely end as a complete hodge-podge of colors. I remember the first yellow that I added came in the form of a 'Golden Showers' rose given to me and once I'd planted it, liked the way the yellow livened things up. I probably would not have chosen to add reds, but was specializing in salvias and had to grow those reds somewhere....once again they were planted not with color in mind so much as where they would grow best as far as sun / shade, drainage, size, etc.

wcgypsy said:My place, I'm afraid has been more the 'collector's' type and not given the advantage of a plan or even a clean slate to begin with...simply squeezing things in where the site suits them best and will most likely end as a complete hodge-podge of colors.

Sounds just like El Rancho Kelli. There was a lot of stuff in wide range of colors that came with the house. We took out very little of that and have added more of our own, again in a wide range of colors. When I mention stuff that came with the house, it kind of sounds like we just moved here, but we have been here for 14 years.

Some stuff from today.

echinopsis


Don't tell my tulips that they can't grow here. This is the third or fourth year for them.

I'm envious that your iris are flowering. I have a lot but they're all in pots now and I would have thought they would flower earlier, but apparently that's not the case. I dug the ones that were in the ground since the gophers here like them and I have a lot that I got from weegy ('weegy12' on DG), ('screwy louie' here) In case we decide to move, I want to make sure that they all go with me and I don't want to mke gopher baskets for all of them right now anyway. Oh well, maybe mine will be in flower when everyone else's have finished.

If you would like some of the burgundy iris in September/October, let me know. I have some more clumps that I need to dig out. I think the variety is "Indian Chief", but I'm not absolutely certain. It could also be "Dauntless". That name certainly would fit.

I would like that very much, thank you. When mine start blooming, I'll send you pics to see if there are any you like to trade you for the burgundy.....

Everything is so fresh from the rain and the morning light is beautiful, so I had to go out with the camera...
First nicotiana sylvestris...

First year salvia seedling...love the two-tone coloration...

Verbena rigida...

Cistus lasithi.....

Morning light and shadowon the cistus skanbergii...

Thanks for answering the question I did not ask - whether gophers were a problem with Iris'. Picked up some yellow and purple ones at the DG RU yesterday, but not from Weegy. So baskets it is, it sounds like. What about Cannas? How are they with gophers? I had 2 6" pots of yellow ones from Desert Pirate that I have in 2 huge terracotta pots, but they need to be divided, plus I have some new bulbs too. I know, it seems too late to plant, but this is when I transplanted them last year.

I am envious of all your photos. I know Kelli that you are only a zone away, but my lantana seemingly bit the dust from the cold. I do see a few new leaves on mine, but yours are huge and full of blooms! The Lady Banks was starting to bloom, but after the horses, this is what is left - one tenacious rose and almost no foliage.


The petunias bloomed all winter, go figure, first time I planted annuals. BTW, those are the big pots with the canna bulbs.

Lynda, according to this info, gophers will eat cannas...
http://www.gardenguides.com/11...
I wondered if you guys held the RU yesterday with the yucky weather and all.
Yes, the gophers love iris, weegy was having a horrible time with them at her iris gardens. Was Weege there yesterday? I know Kathleen wasn't sure if she could make it or not. We were at Wolf's last week to drop off some plants.

Yes, we still had it and continue to miss your presence as well as Kathleen as they did not make it either. Weegy was there, yes. We "remembered" all those fvrom the past who could not be there (sounds like a funeral, huh?). Jack had us all set up inside the Bee Barn and the plants were outside. Changing weather all day. cold/hot/cold/windy & cold. Good time was had by all regardless.

I didn't think of that! The barn comes in handy...lol...and smells like honey, that can't be bad. Glad you guys had a good time.

I have lots of gophers and have to plant all of my roses and bulbs in cages, but I've never lost a single iris to gophers.

I always thought that my iris were safe until weege told me the gophers were eating hers, then I looked it up and found that they supposedly will eat them. So, all of the ones that I got from weege went into 2-3 gal pots. The yellow ones I had in the ground had not been bothered...well, maybe not, since I used to have a lot more of them. The others I have in the ground were all in one patch, the tall neon periwnkle blues and several weeks ago I noticed a gopher hole amongst them. I quickly dug them and put them in pots...then realized the next day that it's a squirrel hole....lol..
I would love to have some 'ugly' iris to plant into the ground to wait and see...but I've yet to find an ugly iris.
I use erigeron / Santa Barbara Daisy extensively and all of my rabbits leave it alone...at Kathleen's house she can't grow it 'cuz the rabbits love it.

I need to divid my cannas that are in the big pots and considered using nursery pots in ground instead of baskets. But then I guess I would have to use potting soil, so maybe not. Iris will be the same I guess. I put the strawberry plants I received at the RU in a window box to put a a table or chair so as not to tempt the bunnies and gophers.

Yep, our bunnies take the erigeron down to nothing as soon as I plant it. We bought two five-gallon pots of blue-eyed grass a few weeks ago and they took one of those from 18 to 2 inches in nothing flat. It was blooming, too. They seem to go for it right after I plant it, then when it grows back they leave it alone. Otherwise, they are not too bad and they do eat dandelions and some other weeds. I hate being at war with critters, so we tolerate them and focus all our anger on the squirrels!

My rabbits don't eat the sisrynchium / Blue Eyed Grass either...there is a lot of grass here for them this time of year also, maybe that helps.

Well, la-di-da, don't you have special rabbits, Sherry! LOL. Why don't you bring one over here so it can teach ours?

Neener, neener, neener......

all over my keyboard from Missouri. Love all your pics, thanks for sharing. Can't wait to see if I can get Lantana 'Radiation' from one of my local nurseries.