June Favorites: Looking at the Positives

If you read my last post, you know I was upset by the impact our start-of-summer heatwave had on my garden.  It's worse in some areas than others but it's hard to walk through the garden without fixating on dead and maimed plants.  Loree's monthly favorite plants post at danger garden forced me to take a closer look at what's looking good despite the impact of what I've been thinking of as the "heat apocalypse." On the good side, most of the plants I installed in May and early June, including the 5 Xylosma congestum shrubs planted along the street, survived.  The dry garden doesn't even appear to have registered the event.  The backyard bed I featured in my May favorites post still shines and the garden beds alongside the front walk look good.

So here are a few of the plants that lightened my heart as I roamed my garden yesterday:

This Oscularia deltoides, planted in October 2012 from a 4-inch pot, seems to love growing along the stack-stoned wall at the bottom of the front slope.  The succulent foliage is attractive but the flowers, which blanket the plant when it blooms, are spectacular.  I plan to add cuttings of this plant elsewhere along the wall.

Phormium 'Maori Queen' makes the most of the late afternoon sun.  This Phormium handled the recent heat much better than the darker-leaved varieties in my garden, which generally look sad.  There are 6 'Maori Queen' in the front garden, none of which were damaged by Monday's 105F high temperature.

Sitting next to Phormium 'Maori Queen' is Correa 'Wyn's Wonder'.  It's not in bloom at the moment but its variegated foliage makes a refreshing splash in one of the beds that lines the front walkway.  Because it's done so well here, I've added 2 more of these plants to this bed, one of which replaced a group of Arctotis 'Pink Sugar'.  I love the latter plant too but it gets grubby looking in summer so I'm relegating those plants to areas with less traffic.

Leucadendron 'Safari Sunset' is finally gaining size in the backyard border.  It's backed up here by Mexican feather grass (Stipa tenuissima) and a coral-flowered Russelia equisetiformis, which may be the only plant that actually seemed to get a boost from the intense heat earlier in the week.

The red tones of Aloe dorotheae (shown in close-up on the right) and Crassula pubescens ssp. radicans have brightened the succulent bed in the southeast side garden.  Unlike some of the agaves, the Aloes show no signs of sun scorch or the scars of edema.  I can't quite decide whether I like the yellow flowers of the Crassula but I've let them stay for now.

While I've lost a section of thyme in the from garden on the southwest side, the Thymus minus planted from flats last fall in the backyard has done a good job of filling in.  Blooms are appearing here and there too.