Rosaliene’s Garden Summer 2025 – Sons’ Garden Plot 2 – Los Angeles – California
I give thanks that, this summer, temperatures in West Los Angeles did not rise into the upper nineties (Fahrenheit) and more. While I enjoy the privilege of staying indoors during the hottest parts of the day, there were times I had to brave the heat for medical visits. On August 19th, I also began weekly sessions of physical therapy for what my young new doctor determined, after X-rays of my knees and ankles, is osteoarthritis. Thankfully, on my return trip home around 11:15 a.m. after my physical therapy session, I can take refuge from the heat under a tree near to the bus stop. What’s more, I stay hydrated with coconut water.
After a year of suffering with intense pain in my heels after an hour’s walk, I now know the cause and I’m getting help to strengthen the muscles in my hips, glutes, and thighs. Except for a setback after doing 30 repetitions of squats during my third session—now reduced to ten—I’m making progress. Last weekend, for the first time in a long while, I did not have to limp indoors with aching feet after just two hours of gardening.
Rosaliene’s Garden – Spring 2025 – Sons’ Adjacent Apartment
During the warmer and drier spring days, I was finally able to return to my weekend gardening activities. Our garden remains a source of joy and a refuge. With ongoing raids in our Latino communities across Los Angeles County and beyond, it has become clear that one’s legal status offers no protection from being randomly grabbed and disappeared. No criminal record; no problem. They fabricate one: resisting arrest, assaulting an officer. It’s a numbers game: a 3000-a-day quota. Now, I’m wary about going for my scheduled yearly blood and urine tests next month. You see, my medical clinic also serves our Latino and homeless communities.
During the time I spend with our plants, I forget this crazy world I now live in. They respond to my presence, my touch, and my voice. (Yes. I talk to the plants. 😊) They care not about the color of my skin or country of origin. My neighbor’s cat, Pumpkin, couldn’t care less, either. She loves to spend time with me while I’m gardening. At the request of blogger and cat lover, Rebecca Bud at Rebecca’s Reading Room, I’m sharing the photos below of Pumpkin.
Flowering Aloe Saponaria (Soap Aloe) – Los Angeles – California – March 2025
While a two-headed monster is creating havoc, anxiety, and pain across the land of the living, Mother Earth signals that life finds a way in the face of adversity. The captioned photo features the explosion of orange flowers from the succulent Aloe Saponaria (Soap Aloe) in my neighbor’s garden on March 3rd. The photo below is a closeup of the early blooms captured on February 22nd.
Closeup of Flowering Aloe Saponaria (Soap Aloe) on February 22, 2025
In another adjacent garden plot, the potted white azalea plant defied last year’s extreme summer temperatures that scorched its foliage. During a dry winter, my concern grew for its survival. Just three days of continuous light rainfall in early February were enough to give it new life again. What a joy!
Rosaliene’s Succulent Garden – Summer 2024 – Los Angeles – Southern California
This summer, June through August 2024, the average temperature for the contiguous American states was 73.8° F (23.2°C) – 2.5 degrees Fahrenheit above average – ranking as our nation’s fourth-hottest summer on record. So says NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information. California – together with Arizona, Florida, Maine, and New Hampshire – “sizzled through their warmest summer on record.” Heatwaves are growing more frequent, more extreme, and longer lasting in the U.S. West and across the world as the climate crisis drives increasingly severe and dangerous weather conditions.
To end this summer with a bang, an excessive heatwave arrived on Thursday, September 5th, bringing a record-breaking temperature of 112°F (44.4°C) in downtown Los Angeles on Friday, September 6th, says the National Weather Service. With temperatures in the nineties in our neighborhood in West Los Angeles for five days straight, I was forced to stay indoors – no weekend gardening – until relief came on Tuesday, September 10th.
Fragrant Red Rosebush – Spring 2024 – Los Angeles – Southern California
With an ongoing global climate crisis, due to humanity’s addiction to fossil fuels, our weather swings from one extreme to the next. Heat domes. Prolonged drought. Rain bombs. Epic floods. We’re not the only ones impacted. So are the trees and plants. Unlike those of us who can find shelter, they must face the elements head-on. Some are resilient and adaptive. Others are not so fortunate.
I’ve observed that the rosebushes in our communal garden are more sensitive to these extremes than my succulent plants. Over the years, we have lost 50 percent of our rosebushes, leaving only eight survivors. The two most recent losses, of the white Hedgerow variety, occurred after the Winter 2022-2023 heavy rains. Grown in an area fully exposed to the elements, their roots sat for three months underwater.
The photo on the left below shows one of them. I haven’t asked the gardener to uproot it in the hope that there may still be some lingering life. The photo on the right is also a white Hedgerow rosebush that stands at the other end of the same exposed plot. After standing for three months in the Winter 2023-2024 floodwater, it’s not doing well. In spring, it’s usually filled with lots of sprawling leaf-laden branches and roses. During our “gray May,” it produced only one tiny rose. I fear that it will not survive another wet winter.
Dead White Rosebush – Winter 2022-2023White Rosebush – Spring 2024
About seven years ago, I undertook to clean up the garden plot of a former neighbor and friend, a food stylist, who had moved back to her home state when her husband Benny took ill with lung cancer. He died months later in January 2016. In March the following year, my best friend and poet also died of lung cancer. Taking care of this plot became part of my grieving process.
After clearing the dense overgrowth of cactus plants, I uncovered the stunted dead trunk and branches of what appeared to be a rosebush. The six-inch tall (15 cm) plant had been smothered by more aggressive plants. For two years I watered it without any sign of life. Then, wonders of wonders, a new branch appeared with tender baby leaves. My care and attention had paid off. The first and single stunning pink rose appeared a year later. Then in 2022, it thanked me with five roses (see photo on the left below). My Miracle Rosebush, as I call it, continued to produce up to six flowers each spring, but I’ve noticed a change in the color and shape, as shown in the photo on the right below. Resilience has its limits as we age.
Stunted Miracle Rosebush – Spring 2022Stunted Miracle Rosebush – Spring 2024
My former food stylist neighbor planted the captioned fragrant red rosebush. Then just a small potted plant used in one of her photo shoots, it has grown into the hardiest and most luxurious of our rosebushes that keeps on giving. It reminds me of our neighbor Benny who is no longer with us. Healing after loss can come in unexpected ways.
Three other rosebushes also brighten my days with their unique beauty and vibrancy, as pictured below. The two remaining rosebushes are not yet in bloom. Hopefully, with the “gray May” and early “June gloom” now behind us, they will awaken to the summer heat.
The photos below were taken by a neighbor and dear friend who, sad to say, has recently moved out-of-state. In the early spring, I also lost my young gardening enthusiast and companion who moved to another neighborhood, trading her garden space for a dog park and ocean-view. Our lives, like the weather and climate, are continually in motion. I adapt as best as I can and, like the rosebushes, bloom in due season.
Camellia Trees – Winter 2024 – Los Angeles – Southern California
After the hottest year on record, we’ve had another unusually wet winter. Our garden turned a luxurious green with joy. Red camellias, in the captioned photo, blushed as we passed by on the way to and from the parking area. With a few exceptions, the succulent plants have also responded well to the soaking.
The growth of the potted Aeonium Mint, shown below, was impressive. Just two plants! Compare its growth since October 2023.
Aeonium Mint February 2024Aeonium Mint October 2023
Other large potted plants in this open area, shown below, have also responded well to the drenching.
The Aeonium Kiwi, one of my favorite succulents, is also happy. Thankfully, the open area did not flood and drained well.
Neighbor’s Garden – Summer 2023 – Los Angeles – Southern California
Gone are the days when I could spend hours soaking up the summer heat at the beach. Nowadays, I risk suffering from heat stress, as occurred on two occasions during a heatwave in July. To get out for my weekly chores meant leaving home after 4 p.m. when temperatures became bearable. Mind you, even then, I couldn’t forget my hat and a bottle of lifesaving ice-cold water. Worse still, I had to reduce my weekend gardening hours to just two hours from 5 to 7 p.m.
Thanks to an unusually wet winter, after several years of drought, our plants responded well to the excessive heat. In August, Tropical Storm Hilary also drenched us with two days of steady rainfall and cooled us down, if just for a while. The Propeller or Crassula Falcata succulent plant stole the show with its spectacular red blooms. A gift from a former neighbor who moved out last year, the plant (shown on the left) produced five blooms this year, compared to two last year. The Propeller plant, shown on the right in its early stage, is a young plant I bought last year that has flowered for the first time.
A new neighbor, who moved in last year, transformed his plot with a metal bench and added several potted plants. The flowers he planted for summer added joyful color to our garden. (See captioned photo.) How wonderful to have another garden enthusiast among us!
The garden featured below belongs to another neighbor and friend, a working mother of a seven-year-old daughter, who caught the gardening bug some years ago. In a once-neglected area of our courtyard, she has created a garden that changes colors with the seasons.
Located near the rear entrance/exit, her apartment is unique in having a two-panel glass wall, instead of a window, in her dining room area. As shown in the photo on the right below, she has taken advantage of the afternoon sunlight to set up an indoor garden. With its wide variety of plants, her garden is a delight to explore.
African ‘Lily of the Nile’ – Rosaliene’s Garden – Los Angeles – California – June 17, 2023
After an unusually wet and frigid winter, I was relieved that most of my plants had survived the deluge. A few, like the potted lime tree and croton bush, gained new life. Spring struggled to come into its own, remaining cooler than normal. The plants that flower in the spring are featured below. The captioned photo of the purple African ‘Lily of the Nile’ was the last plant to flower and is still in bloom.
The drought took a toll on the Amaryllis lilies, as shown in the photos below. This is the first spring that the stems only produced two flowers instead of four.
Amaryllis – Spring 2014Amaryllis – Spring 2023
The yellow Calandivia succulent plant added much needed color to the garden plot in front of my apartment. I’ve had this plant for several years now and, despite the drought, it continues to bless my spring days with much needed joy. The adjacent plant pot with purple Graptoveria Debbie also added a touch of color with their star-shaped yellow mini-flowers.
Yellow Calandivia Succulent Plant – Spring 2023Purple Graptoveria Debbie – Spring 2023
My favorite succulent rosettes, like the two plants below, all flowered this year. They have a strong not-so-pleasant scent that attracts the stray bees that visit my corner of the garden.
Aeonium ‘Kiwi’ – Spring 2023Aeonium ‘Kiwi’ – Spring 2023
My indoor garden got a great boost this Mother’s Day with five new plants from my sons. So far, none of them have died. I keep them on top of the sideboard cupboard below my living room window where they enjoy the morning sunlight. As you will note in the photo, three of them are on the window ledge.
Temperatures are expected to rise this weekend. I’m brazing myself for the summer heat ahead. To my American readers, a Happy Independence Day!
Rosaliene’s Indoor Garden – Los Angeles – California – Spring 2023
Three Worlds One Vision 