My daughter and her husband use staples like these to secure selected rose canes against the wooden fence. Today was devoted to pruning and to turning over the soil and cleaning out the beds. With a long rainy spell promised in the coming week, everybody agreed that the garden ought to be made ready to benefit.
Irises, daffodils, and other bulbs are coming up beneath the denuded rose bushes. In Northern California these traditional signs of spring begin to appear in January every year, with winter still solidly established.
This afternoon the calla lilies were calling out in especially loud voices to be dug up and separated and spread out along the entire side wall of the garage. They have needed this attention for several years and finally won their point. It turned into a fairly messy -- yet ultimately successful -- operation.
It is impossible to kill a calla lily. They are sturdy plants and will probably outlive the stucco architecture that surrounds them.