I thought I'd tell everyone how I began gardening. As a kid we lived with my aunt & uncle in Hawthorne,California. Uncle Gene worked on airplanes at Douglas Aircraft during the week and gardened during the weekend. I guess he was kind of my hero and I really looked up to him all my life. I remember looking up at his gladiolas and naked ladies. My niece and I just planted about 5 dozen daffodils and a couple dozen gladiolas so can't wait to see them com up. Aunt Ruby sewed and sewed. She had a day job working at a furniture plant and sewed all of her free time at home for other people. Uncle Gene would come home from work and piddle in the yard or garage. He did the cooking and cleaning, not your average guy.

He had everything in that little back yard! Some of my best memories are with him. He had what he called Naked Ladies, which I finally figured out a few years ago what they were. They were canna! Imagine that! He had a whole row of them behind the apricot tree that I used to spend my time in as I got older. I used to climb up that tree and hide and watch the world go by, it makes me smile just remembering it. He had gladiola's that reached the sky, well, they looked like they did from my point of view. I remember looking up at them, so either they were pretty tall, or I must have been 2 or 3 years old at the time. :)

• Honeysuckle
• Silver Lace (polygonum aubertii)
• Virginia Creeper
• Dropmore Scarlet Honeysuckle
• Lonicera 'Gold Flame' Honeysuckle
• 2 - Lonicera 'Pam's Pink' Honeysuckle
one along front fence and one in back flowerbed by greenhouse
• Lonicera 'Pink Lemonade' Honeysuckle
• Trumpet Vines - 3 colors
• Carolina Jessamine
• Clematis - 2

• Spanish Broom
• Persian Purple Lilac Hedge
• Texas Sage (Green Cloud)
• Texas Sage (Lynne's Everblooming)
• Salvia Greggii
• Heavenly Bamboo
• Purple Leaf Sand Cherry
• Dwarf Myrtle
• Variegated Boxleaf Euonymus
• Graber Pyracantha

• 1 Cottonless Cottonwood
• 2 Fruitless Mulberry
• 1 Acer Truncatum (Shantung Maple or Purple Blow Maple)
• 1 Pine Tree
• 1 Apricot
• 1 Mimosa (silk tree)
• 1 Arizona Ash
• 1 Mexican Redbud
• 1 Dwarf Garden Delight Nectarine
• 1 Mexican Lime (dwarf)
• 1 Improved Meyer Lemon
• 1 Anna Apple - Harvest - July 1 - July 25
• 1 Dorsett Golden Apple
• 1 Pink Lady Apple - Harvest late September/early October
• 1 Stella Cherry Semi Dwarf - Harvest - May 25 - June 15
• 1 Bartlett Pear Semi-Dwarf - Harvest: August 1 - August 20
• 1 Loquat - Harvest March to June

My Flowers and what's leftover in my garden: