Climbing Rose

Climbing roses are a classic complement in any garden big or small especially if they are made to climb on a wall or a trellis. They are excellent on a bare wall that gets enough sunshine. 

Planted the rose on one of the side corners of the house; did not bloom during the first year and bloomed the second year. While most climbing roses bloom only once or twice a year, this one has blooms all summer long with occasional dead heading.

The white blooms are about 4 inches, fully double with a lot of petals with a slight scent and the blooms are in a cluster like a floribunda. The blooms are produced booth on old and new cane.

Spring

Spring is the season when the garden starts bursting with color. Spring is my second favorite season after fall, and I always anticipate spring. I’d like to share some of my favorite spring pictures in my yard.

The pomegranate which is all bare stalks and twigs in winter is now full with it small leaves and bright red flowers.

Every Southern California garden should have an orange tree, it does not grow very tall and always having fruit and flowers all year long; flowers, young and ripe fruit all at the same time.

Roses which has been pruned in mid winter is now full of flower buds ready to bloom, this one is an English rose but I forgot the specific type. It has a strong fragrance but like most English roses it only blooms in spring and then another one before fall.

Fall & Winter Colors in SoCal

Southern California is known for evergreen and palm trees but not for trees with leaves that change color in fall. Except for trees that are planted for fall color, there are no vegetation and trees that grows naturally in Southern California for their colorful leaves in fall.

The pomegranate tree in my yard is one such tree that has leaves that turns yellow then shed sheds them in late fall early winter. It has relatively small leaves that turned yellow in late fall.

Another tree in my yard that turns color is the Japanese maple which is now about ten foot tall. The leaves turned yellow in early to mid fall then turned red in early winter. The red leaves are still in the branches during Christmas. 

Dahlia

 

Dahlias are perennial tubers that bloom from late summer to the fall months. They come in multitude of different colors, shape and sizes. Most can grow as tall as six feet in height with blooms as big as a small plate.

Established dahlias require a thorough and deep watering at least once a week during the summer months. Summer this year in Southern California is unusually humid with a few inches of rainfall. With the mandated reduction in water usage due to the drought, I have watered my dahlias only every other week but still came out with huge and healthy blooms. The rain during the summer months definitely helped.

Besides the pink dahlia that I planted a few years back, I planted a new one during early spring and it bloomed with an orange red flower. As usual the pink one has blooms that are huge but not as huge as the last few years. It definitely needs to be dug out and divided. I will have to do this early January. It should have been done this year but did not have the time.

Pomegranate

A small tree suitable for the semi-arid climate of Southern California is the Pomegranate. It is not only grown for its nutritious fruit but the tree itself is a very good addition to any garden as it is relatively small when full grown.

I have planted one almost 2 years ago and am now bearing fruit but not as many as a full grown tree. It is about 5 feet tall after 2 years and has a few fruit this year. It started with flowers in the spring and a few of these flowers developed into fruits.

Pomegranates are drought tolerant which makes it suitable for the Southern California garden specially these past few years with only a few inches of rain annually. I deep water the small tree once a month and it is very healthy. Pomegranates do not thrive very well in wet soil as it develops root decay.

The edible part of the fruit is the deep red seeds which can be eaten raw or pressed into juice. The fruits are not as big as I expected but with enough water and fertilizer perhaps the fruits next year will be bigger.