Kittens & Mystery Plants

MANY THANKS TO ALL OF YOU who so sweetly shared your condolences on the passing of my garden kitty, Willow. The sadness will linger as I venture to the garden and she's not there. However, my progeny, always looking ahead, have adopted a brother and sister team to carry the torch. Meet... 

Sister Nala and... 

Brother Taz. 

My photography isn't even close to stellar but this is the best I could do under the circumstances. Aren't they adorable?

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While driving last evening, I spotted this mystery shrub gorgeously cascading over a pristine fence. Quickly pulling the car over, I grabbed my camera and took these photos. I'm thinking it must be some kind of Escallonia but I've never seen a weeping form. Are any of you savvy people familiar with this gem? If so please enlighten me. 

The Albany Master Gardener garden tour was this past Saturday. It was WON. DER. FUL. The gardens were amazing and inspiring. The only drawback is that it was a clear, blue-sky June day, which meant most of my photographs, with the stark contrast between shade and sun, were not Blog-worthy. However, on the subject of mystery plants, I thought I'd share a photo of this hardy Geranium I spotted on a shady nook. The pink, star-shaped flowers are unfamiliar to me. Do any of you have a guess as to what variety this is? 

And since we're on mystery plants and pink flowers, (you know me), I thought I'd post a few more shots of my Gazbera, taken on the aforementioned clear, sunny day. Love, love! 

The rest of my photos are from the rose garden in Avery Park, Corvallis, Oregon. I don't have names for most of them. It was kind of breezy and cool so I just snapped and tried to enjoy the stroll. If you're familiar with these varieties, by all means, do tell. 

A HUGE rambler, this one has small flowers that start out pink and age to purple. 

Pink, ooh, la, la! 

Love the serrated edges of this gem. 

More pink. This might be 'Bonica.' 

This is 'Cinco de Mayo.' I have it in my garden. I love the indefinable coloration of the petals. 

I tend to favor the small-flowered bush types. This one really wowed me. 

Here it is again. 

Rosa mundi perhaps? 

This is another small-flowered, bush-type. Check out those petals! 

And finally, from my own garden, 'John Cabot' is outdoing himself this year,
despite having a 'Polish Spirit' clemmy winding through his branches. 

'Scentimental' is also a shiner this year. 

Finally, James Missier of Garden Chronicles blog awarded me the Versatile Blogger award! What a nice thing to do, James. Thank you! I wanted to alert you, my awesome readers, to his blog, if you're not familiar with it. He lives and gardens in Malaysia and it's difficult to leave his blog without a huge case of plant-envy.  

As always, 

You Inspire Me

BEFORE I LAUNCH INTO today's post, I want to thank all of you gracious, sweet people for encouraging me on the jungle I loosely refer to as a garden. I've always known that gardeners are the awesome-est people on the planet and now, once again, you've all proven it. So kudos to you. 

I still don't have the "afters" for the aforementioned jungle but hopefully soon. However, last time I was sneaky and didn't post all of my "before" shots. So, here are the "befores" and "afters" of my front yard rock garden and the entrance to my courtyard. 

Before, with lots of overgrown stuff. 

After. You can actually see the tiny gravel now. Yay! 

Before. Embarrassing. 

After, ah.... 

Before...madness and lunacy. 

After, we still need barkdust but at least you can walk without tripping. 

The other day while shopping at one of our local "we have everything" stores, my eyes caught hold of this flower, below. It looked like a Gazania on steroids. Above a fluffy, silver rosette were several of these pink (and you know me and pink) daisy-type flowers. 

Once the plant is out of direct sun, the flowers close up, just like
a Gazania, so this weekend I'll get a better shot of the flowers.

Here is the tag. It's a cross between a Gazania and a Gerbera. Apparently it's been around for awhile. My online search didn't reveal much other than the fact that it was trademarked in 1998 and that it is, indeed, a cross between the two Gs.

Have any of you heard of this and if so have you grown it? There
were orange-flowered plants too but, nah. Pink all the way!

Oh, and uh, it's hardy in Zones 8-10. Even though mine is a Zone 8b garden, I doubt it will winter over so I'll treat it like an annual. At $5.99 for a one-gallon pot it's one of the very few plants I've
actually purchased this year.

My Indigofera heterantha is beginning to bloom. I didn't cut it back last fall
 so it's really much too tall. I won't let that happen again. 

The booty on my patio is almost exclusively green this year. 

Ditto for my courtyard. 

Two leaning plants playing nicely: Cotinus and Verbascum. 

This is a smaller bed near my outer pond. Who needs flowers?

Unfortunately, I have a bit of sad new to report. Our garden matriarch, Willow, passed on last week. She was 15 years old. 

This photo is about 5 years old. 

I took this photo just a few weeks ago. A few days ago she looked lethargic. The next day she wouldn't wake up.
I'm pretty sure she went peacefully. It's the end of an era for us. 

Finally, the Albany Master Gardener garden tour is this Saturday so I'll be posting photos of the gardens soon.