Toughest part in gardening in our area is our 6 month long or longer dry spell. And with the ongoing drought I have to choose drought tolerant plants or avoid water hungry plants. In my garden itself, I only get about 4 hours direct sun, so it is hard to grow flowering plants that needs about 8 hours direct sun. But I found out I can grow some temperate orchids woohoo! So it alleviates my craving for flowers. Or my one and only calamondin tree grows scented blooms before fruiting..so it is a bonus for me!
Thankfully there is a huge selection of succulents I can grow..that is how I started and even among the succulents it is a learning curve, finding out which ones can take direct sun, and finding out more which ones likes just warm ambient surrounding and not the intense heat we get during summer. And some succulents have blooms too, some more actively blooming during our mild winter conditions so it adds much needed color during the doldrums of winter. Finding out which ones among them are summer dormant and which ones are winter dormant is an ongoing process as I get to know different varieties, just have to be more observant about it and not assume that just because they are succulents, that they all actively grow in summer.
I have learned to choose which plants to grow. I am finally understanding too that in summer, I should not expect much blooming in the current plants I have, it is just too hot & stressful for them. I get the blooms in Spring when it is cool going to warm...and in Fall when from warm slowly cooling down, and we start to get the much needed rains in late Fall to winter. Accepting the fact that in winter, most plants are in slow down, or dormant, is something I have learned eventually, unless I try to hide them indoors to keep them going. I count the blessing of our mild winters here, so it is not totally brown and dead looking around us, especially my succulents, they stay green and some with blooms.
