This column returns to a regular recommendation: walk through your garden to appreciate recent growth and blossoms, spot problems that need attention and identify opportunities to enhance the landscape. Taking a fresh look at your piece of nature can be a departure from daily pressures and an invitation for creativity.

While commenting on the early blossoms, I’ll observe current problems (none dramatic, this time) and develop a list of things to do.

Sacred flower of the Incas

This shrub occupies a prominent space in the bed of Chilean natives and displays clusters of pendant orange tubular blossoms that flare into magenta skirts. This cultivar, ‘Hot Pants,’ is one variety of the Cantua buxifolia. Others come in pink, orange, white (golden yellow flowers flaring to white tips) and tricolor (bright yellow tube ending candy-striped pink and white tips).

All the varieties have a delightful appearance and a rangy growth habit. The blooms begin as early as March and continue into spring, while the shrub can grow to 7 feet high and wide, with sprawling form and leafless stems. To control the plant, stake some branches together and schedule pruning after flowering. Cut back the longer stems, keeping in mind that flowers are produced on the previous season’s wood.

Hardy fuchsia

There are 110 species of fuchsia, mostly native to South America. The genus name honors Leonhart Fuchs (1501-1566), considered one of the fathers of botany. The genus was introduced in England in the late 1700s, and currently over 16,000 cultivars are available.

My garden includes a small bed with a few varieties. Two versions of fuchsia boliviana (red and ‘Alba’) dominate, with several smaller cultivars growing below. One of my favorites is ‘Galfrey Lye,’ a mite-resistant hybrid developed at the San Francisco Botanical Garden. It produces lots of blooms that continue unabated until frost. It grows about 30 inches high and wide in a single season, and sprouts from the base in mid-spring. It performs well in an open north exposure with bright light and protection from intense sunlight.

Fuchsias bloom on new wood, so drastic pruning might seem harsh, but the plant will rebound better and healthier than ever. Regular removal of spent blossoms benefits the plants, and pinching growing tips encourages bushy growth.

The long-lasting blooms of ‘Galfrey Lye’ combined with rangy growth create indecision about pruning. Well, just do it!

Madeira Island geranium

Geranium maderense is a rare endemic from the island of Madeira, and the largest species of the genus. It’s a biennial bloomer and its large palmate dark green leaves are attractive while being patient for the blooms. The plant grows to at least 3 feet high and wide, and produces a large, multi-branched inflorescence of 1-inch-wide, mauve-pink, dark-centered flowers above the foliage.

The plant creates seedlings that flower in two or three years, so after I received a seedling at a plant exchange, it didn’t take long to develop a cluster of plants. I have shared seedlings to encourage others who have the space to enjoy this plant.

My colony consists of the species of this plant. The ‘Alba’ variety, which I haven’t seen, could be a fine complement.

It can be appropriate to thin the seedlings as they approach blooming time, but, for the remaining plants, don’t remove the lower leaves because they serve as stilts to support the future’s heavy inflorescence.

Tall bearded iris

These plants have been developed into a stunning array of colors and forms, which can be explored on the American Iris Society’s Iris Encyclopedia (wiki.irises.org). This online resource includes examples of the full range of iris groups and their cultivation. If you search for the name of a particular cultivar of interest, you can learn the formal description of the blossom, the history of its hybridization and its awards.

The tall bearded irises reached their peak blooms in April, when the Monterey Bay Iris Society held its annual show. This event is an excellent time to target favored cultivars to add to your garden, in preparation for the society’s annual sales in August, which is the time for planting iris rhizomes. Check out the sale schedule at montereybayiris.org/mbis-events/iris-sales.

The large and growing range of iris hybrids leads gardeners to collect the latest introductions, the preferred colors or forms, the products of one hybridizer or the award winners. Collecting irises can be overwhelming! My option has been to develop a swath of a highly rated cultivar, ‘That’s All Folks’ (2004), named to feature one of the last works of hybridizer William Maryott, who built upon the work of local hybridizer Joseph Ghio.

I do have other irises in my garden: a group of Dalmatian irises (I. pallida ‘Argentea variegata’) appreciated for their variegated foliage and a cluster of butterfly iris (spuria) that has grown to about 5 feet tall after we removed a large shrub shading the plants. They should bloom by June.

My small fish colony recently vanished, probably as raccoon or heron meals, so it was time to clean the pond and order several water lilies. Recently, a friend gave me a Louisiana iris (‘plantation belle’) to add to the lily pond.

Historic sweet pea

A vast number of sweet pea cultivars are commercially available. Their blossom color ranges from pastel shades of blue, pink, purple and white to bicolor. They are valued for their intense fragrance.

These climbing plants are commonly grown from seeds planted in autumn in a sunny spot, ideally near a trellis or other surface to grow on. Cultivation is quite easy and includes regularly pinching the new shoots to encourage bushy growth and greater yields of flowers. Plants typically reach heights of 3 to 7 feet, with flowers appearing in midsummer and continuing for many weeks if regularly deadheaded.

More than 50 sweet pea cultivars have gained the Royal Horticultural Society’s Award of Garden Merit, so easy choices for gardeners are to explore prize winners, blossom color combinations or new cultivars each year.

My option has been to settle on the original sweet pea (Lathyrus odoratus ‘Cupani’), cultivated in the late 1600s by Franciscan monk and botanist Francesco Cupani.

This earliest introduction continues to be among the best for blossoms and fragrance, and one of the aphid-resistant varieties, so I collect the seeds each year to share and replant.

This year, the time passed to train the plant to the trellis, so it climbed and spread into the available space on its own. This is among the easiest and most satisfying plants in the garden.

This week in the garden

Walk through your garden, welcome the season and make mental notes for the future.

Enjoy your garden!

Tom Karwin can be reached at gardening@karwin.com.