Ripe

This Opuntia in the dryland garden at DBG was absolutely gorgeous in full sun today. If I had the patience I would sketch it then paint it in gouache.

Rabbitbrush in Bloom

What a sight this sea of rabbitbrush is, adjacent to Crown Hill Park in Wheat Ridge. A signal that fall is fast approaching!  A choice specimen, below, at the Kendrick Lake Demonstration Garden in Lakewood is a like a gold shag carpet.  The Chrysothamnus nauseosus (bottom) in my own garden will need another few weeks to come into full form.  

Aspiration

This is NOT a shot of my garden. My Rosa foetida has never looked this good ("Give me a minute, will you? You only just planted me this year!"). I aspire for her to emanate such beauty; holding this image in my mind as I water and fertilize, she will hopefully transform by spring from several spindly canes to a full-fledged beauty.

Dad's Garden

I was looking through some of Dad's old garden pictures and came across these (c. 1979). Dad fine-tuned this meandering rock garden behind our house in Darien, CT from 1978 to 1986. I remember as teenagers how we used to make fun of him for hovering over flowers with this 35mm Canon camera; little did we realize how devoted a gardener he was! How I wish I could draw on his knowledge and creativity now! He would have been 74 today. Happy Birthday Dad!

Thirsty

Turns out this is one of the thirstiest plants in my garden (Zauschneria garrettii). Had I not been watering it regularly, it would surely be dead (R. Nold asserts it has no place in the dryland garden). Being that it is providing some of the only vibrant color in front right now (there is no shortage of greys, blues, and washed out greens!), I figure I'll continue to oblige it by dousing it daily. Maybe next year it will graduate from being puny and fill more of the space in the center bed. I'm interested in its angles, and plan to sketch it for a watercolor study.

Opuntia gilvescens (Oklahoma Pancake Cactus). Figured I better acquire a cactus with serious spines, lest I look like a neophyte (the other Opuntia in my garden is a bright green spineless number). The trick with this one, which just went in over the weekend, will be to water it enough to support root establishment while at the same time simulating the drought that cacti endure in the wild in August and September. I'll be keeping a close eye on it.

Early Success

The Rockery at One Year Old:

According to E.H.M. Cox, an important turn-of-the-(20th) century plant hunter and garden writer who wrote Plant Hunting in China and the major bibliography on Reginald Farrer, there are seven stages in the life of a gardener: "First, the awakening of the realization that a flower is beautiful; second, the desire to possess flowers; third, the feeling that one must grow them and learn the rudiments of plant-cultivation; fourth, the joy that comes with early success; fifth, the despair when we are defeated by a plant or plants and the knowledge is forced upon us that one life is too short to encompass even a tithe of all there is to know about the cultivation of plants; sixth, the decision to follow one particular branch of horticulture; seventh and last, the arrival of the full-frown specialist in that particular branch." (From Cox's Foreword in Western American Alpines by Ira Gabrielson, 1932)