Irises Fading, Lamb's Ears Blooming, Chard and Kale Bolting

I Hate to Say Goodbye to My Irises

I have been enjoying irises in bloom since February, and I hate to see them go. Yet I can see more iris flowers dying each day. I'm glad there are still a few more buds that haven't bloomed yet. Below you can see what's left of a pale purple iris. The bending chard about to flower points to it. Above the chard a blooming Lamb's Ears plant reaches for the sky. 

Fading Iris, Bolting Chard, and Sages and Scabiosa in Background, © B. Radisavljevic

If you peak carefully behind that irsis, you can see the beginning of my tricolor sage starting to bloom. This is the first year it's bloomed for me. The large clary sage behind the iris shouldn't bloom until next month, but you never know. Learn more about clary sage and see it in bloom in my garden. Those blue flowers at the very back left are scabiosas, also known as pincushion flowers. I've often planted them in my gardens because they are perennial and seem to thrive.  

I took the photo below in a different flowerbed on the front corner of the lot. It shows the remaining light purple irises in all stages of development. You can also see the miniature roses that have started to bloom. They are later than my other roses. The yellow flowers are gazanias. They are closed today because it's overcast.

Irises Budding, Blooming, and Fading, Next to Miniature Roses, © B. Radisavljevic

Lamb's Ears in Bloom

I'd like to show you how fast Lamb's Ears grow. The shot below was taken at the end of February. Notice how short it is compared to the irises on the right, the lilies of the Nile in back, and the star jasmine in the background. The entire bed will change by May.

Lamb's Ears Next to Sidewalk, February, 2017. © B. Radisavljevic

In April I finally got around to thinning both the Lamb's Ears and the jasmine. They were smothering my Spanish sage and Sweet Williams. See Garden Tasks Finished before Storm.

Lamb's Ears Next to Sidewalk, April 6, 2017. © B. Radisavljevic

Now it's May 10, same year. Look at how the plants have grown. It amazes me how fast the Lamb's Ears shoot up and start blooming. It seems they grow half an inch a day in April. The star jasmine is also beginning to bloom. The yellow calendula to the right of the Lamb's Ears blooms all year. 

Lamb's Ears Next to Sidewalk, May 10, 2017. © B. Radisavljevic

I do love Lamb's Ears because it works well as a groundcover when I need it to smother weeds. It's also easy to pull when its fast growth becomes a problem. It looks like more will have to come out soon. All these Lamb's Ears plants have spread from other plants. I started with just one plant at this house. As it spread I planted a few of it's children in other beds. But many children also grow several feet from any I have planted. 

Lamb's Ears also have a certain graceful beauty. They lurk during the winter, but in spring they rise toward the sun and bloom. The bees use them for forage. Here's a close-up of the little flowers. Their gray leaves and fuzzy texture add contrast to the green of other plants to add interest to the garden all year round. 

Lamb's Ears in Bloom, May, 2017, © B. Radisavljevic

Books to Help You Grow Great Chard and Kale

 The Edible Front Yard: The Mow-Less, Grow-More Plan for a Beautiful, Bountiful Garden The Manual of Seed Saving: Harvesting, Storing, and Sowing Techniques for Vegetables, Herbs, and Fruits Organic Gardening: A Beginner's Guide To Growing Kale Outdoors How to Grow Greens: A gardeners guide to growing cabbages, brussels sprouts, broccoli, kale, lettuce, cauliflower and spinach, with step-by-step techniques and over 150 photographs The Book of Kale and Friends: 14 Easy-to-Grow Superfoods with 130+ Recipes

The Chard and Kale are Bolting

The kale was just starting to flower a month ago on April 6. Now many of those flowers are seedpods. I will try to collect some, though there's probably no need. I never planted this kale. It sprouted from a seed from the mother plant across the yard. By collecting the seeds I'm more likely to get the seedlings where I want them.

Kale Flowers and Seedpods, May 10, 2017, © B. Radisavljevic

Here's a close-up of the flower. 

Kale Flowers, May 10, 2017, © B. Radisavljevic

One branch of this kale plant had started leaning over the sidewalk. Couldn't resist snapping this photo of it. 

Bolting Kale Branch Hanging Over Sidewalk, May 10, 2017, © B. Radisavljevic

Although the kale is already making seeds, the chard is just starting to flower. In the last couple of weeks the stalk has risen and you can see the flower buds on this chard plant forming. Just two months ago the main stalk and the leaves were red. (This is rhubarb chard.) As it begins to flower both have turned green, but you can still see a few traces of the red. 

Budding Chard, May 10, 2017, © B. Radisavljevic

When I went to the backyard on the same day to take a photo of the chard by the rose garden, I discovered my might I have two micro-climates on this same property. The the chard in the photo above grows in front and gets afternoon sun because it faces west. The chard plant beside the rose garden gets morning sun from the southeast. It also has the shelter of the fence and the roses from the north side. In any case, small flowers are already starting to bloom on the plant by the rose garden. 

Flowering Chard beside Roses, May 10, 2017, © B. Radisavljevic

It's the same small yard and same variety of chard, but one plant flowers slightly ahead of the other. 

I will leave you with one last photo from the front flowerbed of the chard and a blooming Lamb's Ears plant side by side. You can see how red the chard started out on the bottom part. You can also see how high the Lamb's Ears got in comparison. 

Related Posts

1st Iris This Year

Irises Are Garden Survivors

Jupiter's Beard: A Mystery Finally Solved

Jupiter's Beard  © B. Radisavljevic

For many years Jupiter's Beard was a mystery plant to me. I saw it everywhere I went in gardens, but when I'd ask the owners of the gardens what it was, no one knew.   One day I saw it in a large pot at Nature's Touch in Templeton and I was sure I would finally find out its name, but even they couldn't tell me. I posted photos in gardening email groups, but no one knew there, either, what my mystery plant was.

Then one day a few months ago I was looking either online or in a gardening book and I finally found it. I could finally call it by its name -- Jupiter's Beard (AKA Red Valerian). Scientists call it Centranthus ruber. According to Becca Badgett, of the Gardening Know How Site in her article on Jupiter's Beard, parts of this plant are even edible. Yes, you can eat the leaves and roots.

Jupiter's Beard, in spite of also being called Red Valerian, is not the same as the Valerian (Valeriana officinalis) used in herbal preparations people use to help them sleep. That has very different leaves and is also known as garden heliotrope. Nevertheless, Jupiter's beard is considered an herb.

Whatever you call it, you can find it all over North County gardens. It is popular because it needs almost no care, has an attractive flower, and will grow in places many other flowers won't. You can use it on slopes, in poor soil, and in parts of your garden that are hard to irrigate. It can usually survive on rainfall alone. What it does not like are wet, shady places. It needs sun and good drainage.

My neighbor uses Jupiter's Beard at the very edge of her flower bed to add color. That is a red sage behind it.

Jupiter's Beard Hanging over My Neighbor's Garden Wall, © B. Radisavljevic

Jupiter's beard is considered a pest by some. It tends to be invasive. It reseeds in a way similar to dandelions. I know my neighbor is often tearing out her excess plants. Most of my photos here were taken of her garden. Next time she starts thinning her plants, I'm going to ask her for one.  I just learned they are very easy to root in water if you have a slip. If you would like to grow Jupiter's Beard and you don't know anyone you can get a slip from, Amazon has an amazing variety of seeds available that will give you many colors from which to choose.

If you enjoyed this post, please share it. The sharing buttons are just above the comment box at the end of this post. The photo below is especially designed for pinning. 

This is my tenth post for the 2016 AtoZchallenge, a Blogging Challenge for the month of April, 2016. My theme is plants, since this is a gardening blog. Here are links to the other posts if you missed them.

A is for Apple Blossoms
B is for Bottlebrush
C is for Carnations
D is for Daisy

E is for Elderberry
F is for Flowers
G is for Gazania
Hollyhocks are Edible
Irises Are Garden Survivors

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C is for Carnations

Pink Carnation, © B. Radisavljevic

Carnations are among my favorite flowers. I love their scent, and Mom always had them in her garden, so I grew up with them. I have written plenty about calendula on other sites, and  I couldn't find my catmint photos until after I had already decided that for the purposes of this AtoZchallenge, C is for carnations. 

Mom loved carnations. So when I inherited her home in 2005, I wanted to plant some here. She had a lovely rose garden in the back yard, but had never planted any flowers in front for the neighbors to enjoy. I wanted to see some color there, so I started propagating new plants from my home herb garden and moving them in. Carnations add color to the flowerbed in winter and early spring before it gets hot.

Swallowtail Butterfly on Pink Carnations,  © B. Radisavljevic

Carnations are easy to propagate. I believe the light pink carnations in these photos are the progeny of a root division I originally got from Mom almost fifty years ago. If you pull a section of the plant off near the ground, remove the bottom leaves, plant it in good soil, and keep it watered until established, it will probably grow up to produce flowers. There are more complicated ways to do it, but I didn't find out about them until I had already been successfully propagating carnations from cuttings for several years. This swallowtail butterfly didn't care that I hadn't propagated my carnations by the book.

In 2013 I decided I wanted to grow a darker carnation, so I bought one from a local nursery. It's pretty crowded by other plants now, and I'm hoping I have time to remedy that soon, but I have gotten a few of the dark pink variegated carnation flowers from this plant.

As you  can see, the calendula seedling (left) that sprang up in front of the darker carnation almost looks like it's where the carnation came from. Instead it's helping  the carnation to hold up its head.

As you can see, I sometimes can't find time to  tend my garden as I wish I could, so it sometimes does as it pleases. When I compare it to the monotonous green shrubs that used to dominate this flowerbed, though, I'm happy that when nature takes its course I have the color I do now.

How does your garden grow? Are you growing any  carnations?

If you enjoyed this post about carnations, why not pin it to your Pinterest board?

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