Annual Adventure

In previous articles I talked about creating the “bones” - the hardscape, trees and large plants- of my mid-80's garden in Encinitas. But creating the garden was really all about my passion at the time...growing beautiful flowers. Growing up, as my vagabond family had moved from house to house, I acquired a lot of experience growing plants from seed. I discovered that in California six-packs and one gallon plants were more common.
This was a somewhat new and seemingly more expensive way of planting for me. Still to get some quick color in the garden, I bought flats of annuals to create drifts of color. With so many choices of annuals that I had never grown before it was difficult to know what not to buy. Some choices, however, were easy. I had always wanted to grow foxgloves, so I planted these and fairy primroses in the shadiest areas of the garden.

Ranunculus in the backyard

​​ Old winter garden favorites that I grew in Texas went in the sunny areas - snapdragons, violas, pansies, lobelia, sweet alyssum, calendulas and sweet peas. New to me were marguerite daisies, annual candytuft and fragrant annual stock in whites and pastels. I sought out and planted as many different cultivars of Pacific Hybrid Delphiniums as I could find. I added bulbs of Dutch Iris and finally lots and lots of tuberous Giant Tecolote Ranunculus. I had grown ranunculus in Texas, but had no idea that almost all the bulbs sold originated in nearby Carlsbad. The flower fields in the mid-80s were about twice their current size and spilled over into the now developed area behind their current location. It was also while visiting the fields that I first became aware of South African bulbs - freesias, watsonias, ixis, sparaxis, and tritonia....but I'd have to wait another year before I'd be able to plant these.

Seed grown annuals along the front sidewalk

I mail ordered roses from Jackson & Perkins. I spent hours reading the catalogues and checking each variety to make sure it would do well. I was a little too inspired by the tree roses (AKA rose standards) of the Pacific Northwest and planted 2 deep red American roses flanked by 2 pink hybrid teas. Unfortunately, with their long bloom stalks, these weren't the best tree rose selections for the garden.

​​

By early April, there were lots of beautiful flowers. As the spring started to fade into summer, I ordered summer annual seeds and set up the kitchen atrium window with flats and trays to grow the next round of garden color. Falling back on what I knew best, I planted lots of hybrid marigolds, zinnias, and rudbeckia daisies. Lots of rudbeckia daisies in as many variations I could find. I also added many of the new hybrid petunias that were coming on the market...and I developed a bit of an obsession for Martha Washington Pelargoniums. Gradually the early spring garden of whites, blues and pastels gave way to bright yellows, oranges and reds of summer. My mulch pile overflowed and the worms and grubs were very happy.

Still I wanted every new plant I saw and I wanted to know more...much more. My gardening tastes were starting to change and year 2 would be different. Looking back over the list of plants in this article, it is amazing how few of these I currently grow.

The second year at my garden in Encinitas, I continued to remove grass and iceplant and expand the flower beds. I added a bed that wrapped around the patio and built large wooden planter boxes to go up against the house under the eaves. I replaced the bedroom window with a French door that opened into the backyard. Under the eaves I hung large clay pots with heavy rod iron hangers. I'd plant them each spring with tuberous begonias, fuchsias and trailing lobelia.

Annuals along the driveway

And my obsession with plants continued to grow, but I was still heavily influenced by plants more suited to the Midwest than San Diego. I started regularly watching the Victory Garden on PBS and continued visiting gardens and nurseries, and reading books and magazines looking for new plants and ideas.
I continued to grow plants from seed, but also added many more bulbs. I bought lots of plants via mail order. I tried many varieties of daffodils....but found that a pale yellow large cupped "ice follies" did very well for me. I experimented with freesias and planted as many as I could find. I started growing dahlias. I had also learned a trick, that if I planted the ranunculus bulbs later in the fall, they would grow shorter and be less prone to falling over when in bloom.

Backyard in Summer

I added more roses to the garden. I visited the San Diego Balboa Park rose garden in November to observe which roses were still in full bloom. This led me to add mainly florabunda roses to the garden. There were 2 roses that really did well for me. One was a tall reddish-orange floribunda called "Impatient". After a few years in the garden it produced over 300 flowers at one time followed by more flower sprays throughout the year. Another favorite was a short floribunda called 'Sunflare' also with large sprays of flowers and a delightful licorice scent.

My color tastes were also starting to develop. I learned that I liked lots of bright sun-colors: bright and pale yellows, oranges, coral, and tangerine contrasted with dark blues, lavenders and purples. I developed a dislike of red flowers since the color was difficult to work with. My favorite flower color was soft coral, almost the color of a Dreamcicle ice cream bar. At the time, it was nearly impossible to find plants that bloomed in this color. The closest I could find were bearded irises, tuberous begonias, and impatiens.

Back Patio

I was also starting to realize how much work it was to maintain a flower garden was and started looking for plants that had longer bloom times and needed less deadheading. Some of the the new hybrid nemesias fit both my color tastes and bloomed from fall until the first hot days of summer. Inspired by all the annual statice, Limonium sinuatum, that grew along the train tracks in Encinitas, I grew several cultivars from seed.

The black cat that adopted me

I was also starting to have pest problems with snails, whitefly and spider mites. The overhead sprinklers caused problems with knocking over delicate plants and shattering blooms.

I became known at work for bringing in huge floral arrangements on Monday morning for the reception desk and my office.