Greetings and salutations, everyone; yes, once again it is I, your popular host, Mani the purebred border collie, here today to talk about the weather, and some other things. You may remember me from such weather-related posts as “Rain, Rain, Rain, Rain”, among so many, many others.
Here I am in a characteristic pose.
It’s been raining here. Not a huge amount, really, but today we’re under a flash flood warning and supposed to get a huge amount of rain, which we actually do not need, according to the guy I live with. He’s been struggling to weed the garden, not very successfully, since every drop of rain that falls germinates a million weed seeds.
The guy I live with was going to go to the store today, but when he saw the weather forecast, one to three inches of rain in an hour, he decided against it, because the car’s driver’s side window won’t roll up all the way. He took the car to the dealer this past Monday, but they had to order the parts, so he’ll go back and have the window fixed.
A lot of rain washes the grape jelly out of the oriole feeders, and makes the orange halves all mushy. He’s gone through five jars of jelly in as many weeks, but we’ve had a lot of orioles, which makes up for the expense of jelly and oranges.
It’s my job to chase squirrels and robins away from the feeders, since they both spoil things for all the other birds by guzzling the jelly, and the squirrels eat the oranges.
The plants from Digging Dog perked up a lot after being rained on and getting some sun in between showers. They had a rough trip here, traveling in a cardboard box when it was 100 degrees or hotter, but the nursery grows nice plants that do well.
The last of the eremurus to flower this year, Eremurus olgae, had the tips of the flowering stalks toasted by the heat a week ago, but they’re still doing okay.
The guy I live with thought he had lost the large plants of Salvia ringens, but they were just waiting until the weather got nicer this spring.
It’s funny, maybe, that the place he bought these from said they were “xeric” and “sensitive to moisture”, which the guy I live with ignored, since he said all plants need water to live, and that more water doesn’t hurt plants nearly as much as not enough water.
The Latin word ringens means “gaping”, and I think you can see how it gets its name.
The plants have seeded around a bit, too, which the guy I live with says is “totally excellent”.
One plant that doesn’t care if it rains or not is Cylindropuntia imbricata. It’s native here, though not around us; it grows a bit farther south. (South of Colorado Springs.)
You can see that it has new leaves, which I think will transform into spines.
The guy I live with discovered a new setting on the phone camera, and so I’m supposed to show these pictures, even though they’re of the same things we always show pictures of.
The guy I live with says he going to cut down the blue spruce you seen in the next picture. It’s suffered a lot in the last few years and will never recover enough to look nice again.
The path to the “way back” is almost completely impassible now. Unless you’re me; I can just run through it.
It’s possible that there’s too much Melica ciliata in the garden, but the guy I live with likes the look of it.
Not much else has been going on. The guy I live with’s friend came down, and I got to say Hi to her. She and the guy I live with went to eat sushi and then look at a garden.
At least it isn’t roasting hot any more. I was afraid I would be cooked by the heat.
The guy I live with has been brushing me every day, but he said I was going to go to the spa some time as soon as the car window is fixed; I didn’t mind the spa last time, and looked all spiffy afterward.
The field was mowed. At least the parts that have paths, and close to houses, too. Maybe you can see the bunny here, trying not to be seen.
The coyote path was slightly lower than the rest of the field, so it kind of weirdly remained green, after the grass was mowed, as you can see below.
It’s still not raining, but I guess we have until midnight for the big rain. We’ll see.
Until next time, then.
the miserable gardener 
“The guy I live with says he going to cut down the blue spruce you seen in the next picture. It’s suffered a lot in the last few years and will never recover enough to look nice again.” Hell no. With some judicious pruning…. we got’s character.
No. It’s mostly dead.
Mee-yow wow did you efurr get THE BIG rain Mani??? Wee have had crazy torrential rain Caturday an Sunday an Monday…..an hue-mid an North wind an uppy-downy tempss. yesterday an today wee gotted a bit of Sun an then heavy cloudss. It iss SO-O chilley here tonite wee have THE heet ON! Yeah you red THAT rite Mani an Guy! Mee an LadyMew checked THE Callendur to make sure it ISS July 1st an not Novemburr 1st!!!
THE flowerss are gorgeouss! An pleese tell Guy they look crispurr in these fotoss accordin to LadyMew!
You look adoorabell purr usual Mani…happy trailss mee frend……
**purrss** BellaDharma an kidn reegardss LadyMew
Thanks. We didn’t get the rain they said we would. Which I guess is okay.
The guy I live with even cleaned out a blockage in the gutter (pine needles), but nothing happened.
Maybe that’s a metaphor.
That cleen gutter an no rain just mite bee a mettyfore fore sure Mani! 😉
I guess it is. The guy I live with doesn’t care for metaphors.
Mew mew mew neether does my LadyMew!! 😉
Thanks for the tip on Cylindropuntia imbricata! Alplains has the seeds (the chartreuse whipplei too) as well as a Opuntia humifusa x inermis which should be yellow and mostly spineless (not unlike myself).
Just got through a 104F heat wave here on Vancouver Island and now own a large Hebe pinguifolia scortchii!
The guy I live with said that back in the last century we used to grow Hebe pinguifolia, but the weather has gotten so much worse here that it isn’t even worth trying again.
He’s never tried opuntias from seeds; I guess it can be done (not that I know anything about it).
Cylindropuntias are some of his favorite plants, though wet, heavy snow in spring can break the stems. The largest one here got splayed by the snow this last April. (All of the cylindropuntias are in the front yard here, except for the spineless form of C. imbricata, and a purple-flowered form that’s growing in a place where I won’t walk into it.)
Cylindropuntia imbricata is an odd one. It looks so shrubby when it gets big, very unlike the related species of Opuntia. I did not see it when I drove through its native range, but then saw it at a highway rest stop just past its native range, as we drove into Arizona from New Mexico. It was labeled along with a few other species that were native there or nearby. It was nice that the rest stop was landscaped with a few appealing native plants, just in case some of the many tourists who go through there happen to be interested.
There are lots of large cylindropuntias; spinosior, arbuscula, versicolor, etc. Our native one is visible on both sides of I-25 south of Security, Colorado.
We have bunches of species, too; kleiniae, whipplei, ramosissima, spinosior, etc., all in places where purebred border collies can’t accidentally run into them.
Yes, I suppose that it is important to put them out of the way.
Definitely.
It’s hard to keep track of your weather, Mani! It was roasting hot, and now you have a flash flood warning. I hope it evens out soon and you can enjoy summer.
We didn’t have the flood they said we might, and now it’s pretty nice. I hear this weekend might not be nice at all, but for other reasons I’m not yet sure of.
I have ordered plants from Digging Dog several times in the past, but ultimately crossed them off my list permanently this year. It’s aggravating to always have to pay top dollar for West-to-East Coast shipping only to be disappointed in their “plant value per dollar”, so to speak, whenever the plants finally do arrive. I’m glad they sent you nice plants, though! Ordering from them has been too much like a visit to Las Vegas for me, and I’m not a gambler by nature, lol.
Shipping is a lot cheaper from there to here. The guy I live with used to order plants from east-coast nurseries back when he thought he wanted an “English garden” (see the post called “Then And Now”), but now that Colorado is a quarantined state (for Japanese beetles) it’s easier to get plants from the west coast, though not always easy to find plants that will grow well here, without irrigation.
Hi Mani! That’s an excellent hidden bunny picture. I accidentally shot a hidden bunny this morning (with the hose) as I was giving the dahlias a drink. Oops.
Thanks. The guy I live with made me stay inside today because he said there was a very, very tiny baby bunny hopping in the garden, and he wanted to make sure it left through the hole in the fence.