Posts about what is growing and blooming in my Sonoma County garden at various times of year.
We finally have beautiful weather here (though more rain is due to start Tuesday), so I want to take advantage of the sunshine and go to a nearby nursery to get plants to replace some that died last winter. I didn’t have a chance to plant anything in the garden last spring or summer other…
The sweet peas are at their peak now, producing armloads of flowers for bouquets. My Mom gets many more in her garden than I do because she has the perfect spot in full sun for them and they’ve naturalized there. We cut the flowers to keep them blooming as long as possible and then let…
I should have worked on Gardenia Musk today but got sidetracked on a new project. I made some exciting progress though and will return to Gardenia tomorrow with a fresher nose. When I left off the day before yesterday Gardenia seemed improved and ready for testing. I usually plant daffodils long before this but just…
It’s been pouring rain for a couple days now, but the sun came out from behind the clouds long enough to coax a few rosebuds to open, still with dewdrops. This is a yellow rose in my garden today that I thought looked photogenic so I took a quick snapshot to share; it’s called Helmut…
We’re enjoying some bouquets of very fragrant carnations and stock grown from seed; the carnations are especially nice, with more spicy scent than most varieties. They’re an heirloom type called “Enfant de Nice” from Renee’s seeds. Her larkspur called “Alouette” have also been spectacular this year, very prolific in beautiful colors and wonderful as cut…
I stopped by a local nursery to pick up a couple grasses that I needed and I spotted a vine that I’ve never grown: the deciduous Mandevilla laxa, known as Chilean jasmine. The large, very fragrant, white trumpet-shaped flowers quickly won me over, so I had to bring one home to try. It grows 10-20 feet and…
I’m getting back to some blending now in between other things. Hope people enjoy the samples and orders that are going out. I try to pick extras people might like and always include a note with each package. I think the personal touch is one thing that’s special about being a small company, and I really do enjoy the contact…
We’ll do a draw at the end of the day Thursday for 3 winners of one sample each of our two new scents: Wood Violet and Vintage Rose. Just post here on the blog that you’d like to be entered or send an email to info@sonomascentstudio.com and you’ll be entered in the draw. Tell me…
Here’s a shady corner in my garden where the Japanese maples are happy under the oak trees. The heuchera and geranium Biokovo bloom together, followed by foxglove and other geraniums. The hostas are just coming out. Lady ferns and Western sword ferns offer pretty green foliage too. The viburnum is blooming for the first time…
Last year I mentioned the Russian River Rose Company’s beautiful spring bloom of Kazanlik roses (the rose grown in Bulgaria for perfume oil). If you’d like to try growing one of these perfume roses yourself, you can order bare root shrubs at Richter’s. Before deciding if this bush is right for you, realize it will only…
Most of the garden looks soggy and bedraggled this time of year, but we still have a few flowers: winter iris, cyclamen, violas, and lots of lovely camellias. The stalks of dried grasses were nice too, but we just cut them down so spring growth can begin. In this climate zone of California it’s tough to convince…