These are the flowers we had in the garden in mid-summer 2020, mainly taken on
21
December 2020, on the December solstice. They're not all overly pretty, but the purpose of the photos is
to record what was in the garden at the time.
As I've been saying for some time now, the garden is not doing well. I think that I'm going
to have to accept that much of the work isn't worth the time or money. In particular, trees
just don't thrive here. My carefully coddled Paulownia kawakamii (that's the
parent tree on the Wikipedia page) has now died:
Should I be sad? It was barely a metre high after over 5 years; it should have been 5 m
high years ago. Even if it had survived, it would be nothing like it should have been.
Other trees are not doing well.
The Buddleja × weyeriana
that I planted two months ago that I salvaged and then planted a couple of months ago has died. The
Corymbia ficifolia that I bought earlier in the year, and which flowered happily until the first frost, doesn't
seem to have recovered from the winter:
On the other hand, a couple of trees are bucking the trend. The Schinus molle that I was so concerned
about two months ago now seems to be returning.
Here then and now:
Once we get rid of the weeds round its base, it might still grow. A related plant (I think)
is the Acer negundo (“Box
elder”) that we planted nearly 3 years ago, and which never did well. We had thought it dead, but there's
hope yet:
The Hibiscus
rosa-sinensis “Uncle Max” that I planted two years ago isn't dead, and it's developing buds, but it's barely any bigger than
it was when I planted it (first photo):
I think it's just too cold for it where it is. Now that it's looking vaguely OK it's
probably time to take a couple of cuttings for planting inside.
My suspicion is still that trees grow to a certain point, after which they hit the clay
substrate at about 80 cm depth, and then they just die. But there are a couple
In a more positive light, the bulbs and tubers and things are flowering well:
The flower stems are over a metre long, and they remain (there's still last year's stem in
the middle).
Part of the issues is almost certainly watering, and in particular I've wondered whether
that was the issue with the Paulownia and the Corymbia ficifolia. One indication is these hanging baskets, where I was a little
lax with the daily watering. Only one plant survived, but now seems to be doing well:
Where did all that water come from? It can't have been from rain; it hasn't rained in days.
It looks like the fixes allowed new leaks to spring up. How I hate this technology!