Beautiful garden Renee! Irises... still?? Wow! Nice. Mine are waaaay done. I didn't know it got THAT hot is SoCal? I grew up in Oxnard, and I don't remember it being that hot in the summertime. Now up here in the lower Sierras, we normally are in the triple digits for the next month or so. Been a weird summer for us up here too tho. Temps in the 70s and 50s at night. Totally weird for here. But nice. I'm sure not complainin'!

Very nice garden Renee! Glad to hear your weather is cooler this year...

Very lovely Renee. I think they should spell weather whether because regardless of our preference, we have to garden whether it rains or not :-)

Love the layers and textures and how you contrast the JC and the BC with the MS amidst the geometry of your structures. Very nice indeed !

Your birdbath is beautiful. The whole garden looks so tranquil and lovely with the roses, companion plants and groundcovers.

Everything looks so lush and beautiful, Renee! The roses all look very healthy and happy!

Renee, your photos and garden are amazing! Thanks for sharing it with us.

Everything looks so lovely Renee! Julia Child and Marmalade Skies are having a major color fiesta! What a fantastic summer showing!

I love the path you have done!! I love stone work in gardens.

Love all the color you have. Very vibrant garden. The green spikes give a nice contrast to the softness of the roses.

Well done!
Carol

Ms Renee to start off with your garden is Beautiful. and Marmalade Skies is my kind of rose a real show off. I'm glad your Bishop's Castle made it I think that everyone should grow a BC it's such a nice rose always giving and giving some more. Thanks for sharing.
Harold

Thank you for all of the kind words. It eggs me on!

Beth, Simi Valley, although just thirty minutes away from Oxnard, is far enough inland that is spends most of the summer in the 90s and into the triple digits.

Renee

Always love to see photos of your garden, Renee! It is so pretty and stunning. Bishop's Castle is one of my favorite Austins and your second flush looks fantastic! I envy you your Munstead Woods a little, hope they will grow well for you!

Thanks for taking the time and sharing pictures of your garden paradise!

Christina

Here is a link that might be useful: Organic Garden Dreams

Spectacular, Renee, and yaaay for the Munsteads! I was going to ask after them, but I didn't want to get the wrong answer. So glad they're doing well.

On another note entirely -- the white flowers with feathery foliage next to Marmalade Skies -- larkspur??

Kay

Yes, they are. Pathetic this year- they did not do well at all. They are Giant Imperial White- a really nice, tall larkspur- usually. Here's what they looked like last year:

Renee, I just now saw your lovely garden here for the first time today, don't know how I missed it before. I especially love the picture with Bishop's Castle, a rose I also have. You have such a great variety of plants along with your roses, and they look great together.

Ingrid

Oh, droooooool, Renee, more gorgeous photos! but uh, I think I need to borrow that lovely copper decoration and chase you around the garden for daring to diss your Larkspur...Yes, that is one glorious photo of "last year" but this year, it's very enchanting too next to the Marmalade Skies and yes, I can also see it with the Julia Child- unmistakeable and equally lovely and delicate....

We've all been there, Renee; it happens to me every year, it seems. Things that were gangbusters last year and a bust, or a partial bust, this year are a part of gardening. And yes, I'm talking to YOU, you nonblooming Princess Victoria Louise poppies, who put up lovely clumps of leaves, but nothing else! And YOU, "reblooming" tall bearded iris Clarence. (You can't rebloom if you haven't bloomed even once.) And the less said about you, TB iris Rosalie Figgie, the better.

Although sometimes it's difficult, I try not to let it get to me -- to see the overall loveliness and not dwell on the individual disappointments. Especially since I'm more than willing to accept the reverse -- plantings that were mediocre at best one year and become Stars of the Garden the year after. (Brava, Bolero, finally ecstatically happy in a pot!)

So mebbe this year they are Dwarf Somewhat-Less- Than-Imperial Larkspur. They are still lovely.

Kay