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Soil improvement between 2022 and 2024 definitely had a big effect on the inherited, self-seeding Mirabilis jalapa. Whereas in the summer of 2023, despite regular watering, they looked practically dead most of the time, in 2024, with a lot less…
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Bulbine frutescens
Bulbine frutescens is a very pretty evergreen succulent and one of those quintessential plants destined for a dry Mediterranean garden. As a native of South Africa it is not very frost hardy (-5℃ in well-drained soil) but very drought-tolerant (Filippi…
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Cosmos bipinnatus
Some plants just seem to want to give you “the finger”… When I think about how I coddled and cuddled my little cosmos seedlings last spring and summer, padding them with mulch, hovering over them with the watering can – and…
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Oxalis articulata / triangularis
One of those nice surprises that an older garden can offer: two different Oxalis plants that keep popping up where they must have been planted a long time ago. Oxalis is a South American native that has been naturalized in…
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Pears “Clapp’s Favorite”
The rather small old pear tree (half trunk), which had not been pruned for ages, produced only two pears after my first heavy pruning in early 2023. In the spring of 2024 it had developed masses of steeply vertical water…
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Portulaca grandiflora
Portulaca: One of those simple and seemingly “stuffy” plants that I had always ignored – until I needed to find some pretty summer ground cover for two large pots on the terrace. These plants are everywhere and they are so…