Wednesday, 20 March 2019
The Shelburne Hotel
Allan examined the wisteria that we (mostly he) pruned a month ago. The buds are just barely showing. He was able to remove some more branches. Until they fully bud out, it is hard to tell what has been cut and what is still alive.
He checked the planters on the decks and planted some night scented stock, tigridia, and sparaxis in the bigger ones.
I got the sweet peas planted all along the fence and mulched with Gardner and Bloome Harvest Supreme.
Allan watered the garden because it has been so hot, dry, and windy.
The wind was still mildly annoying. I must say that both yesterday and today were too hot for my comfort at 72 F. But…mustn’t grumble. A cold rainy day would have been worse.

Sun and shade
My Melianthus major survived the cold here and will have its old stems cut down after this weekend’s Celtic music festival. I thought the garden needed some height right now.
Long Beach
We picked up our check at city hall and learned that it’s been suggested that planting wildflowers is a solution for the beach approach planter thievery. That won’t work out there in the dry salty wind unless the planters get watered regularly (and not by us hauling buckets). The watering has to become part of the same it’s water truck routine as the watering of the hanging baskets…not as often but at least a couple of times a week. So far, wildflowers in general (poppies, for example) are not drought tolerant enough to take the beach front conditions without supplemental water. Only the plants most desirable to thieves…lavender, sea thrift, santolina…survive out there with no summer water.
I was cheered up from my brooding about it by the narcissi on the north side of city hall…
…and later by some street tree and planter narcissi.
We planted the sweet peas in Fifth Street Park. This involved a lot of hesperantha (formerly schizostylis) removal. It is so lovely in autumn and such a pest the rest of the year.
Allan removed the horrible mildew-prone Dorothy Perkins rose on the low fence in front of Captain Bob’s Chowder. Because of the low fence height and the narrow driveway, we can hardly let it bloom at all without it sticking out in the way of vehicles, and what blooms it did have were always nasty white with powdery mildew.
Allan’s photos:
I added some sparaxis and tigridia to the two nearby planters that we redid last year.

More glorious Tulipa sylvestris
I had thought we might get Diane’s sweet peas planted today, as well. No. The park took us well into the early evening.
Reading
Over the last couple of weeks, distracted by garden shows to watch, I slowly read a book at bedtime.
While I enjoyed it, I liked his later book, Sourdough, better.
Here are my favourite bits.
The passage below reminded me of Armistead Maupin’s Tales of the City (San Francisco).
I have been feeling lately like I have lived an awfully long time, and also that having fifteen reasonably healthy years to go is awfully short. Here are the thoughts of a much younger character:
On the work board, the sweet pea jobs have begun to disappear. The beach approach weeding is assuming a low priority at the moment as I am more interested in a day of mulching and improving the Boreas Inn garden and another day of sorting out, deep weeding, and some rearranging of the Shelburne garden.
Nice work on the wisteria! I love seeing all the cheerful spring flowers in the public gardens and planters.
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Thank you!
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Some of my fondest memories of my Long Beach life are the smiles we shared every summer over the wonderful sweet peas you planted for me.
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They did so well…all but they one year when they did flower and all but were not as spectacular. And that ONE year was just outstanding, the year when the picket fence had been redone so the soil was all fresh and new.
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Your weather seems very unreliable at the moment. Is it always like this?
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It is always changeable, and frequently windy, but the strong wind on a warm day in March is quite unusual.
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tee hee, that little lemon cypress is cool. I see them around. They sort of look funny only because I know they are related to the grand Monterey cypress. Yet, the more I see of them, the more I like them . . . and I normally dislike yellow foliage.
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They smell nice, too.
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Yes, how odd. They really do smell citrus like, mixed with the classic cypress aroma. I will not go out of my way to get one, but they often show up in the bargain corral of retain nursery in Santa Cruz in January, along with the live Christmas trees that did not sell.
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