I'm sorry some of these pictures are blurry. Sooo much on my plate today, but I ran into the garden for five minutes and snapped some pictures to honor the day.
If we go out the back door and down the stairs, the first thing we see is Bartlettina sordida, a giant shrub from the Asteraceae, native to the cloud forests of Mexico. The vanilla-scented flowers are just beginning to open.
Strawberry everywhere.
Small drift of tiarella, and you can see some red Heuchera in there too.
Some bromeliads are flowering now...
Cineraria buds peeking through the tall flowering spikes of Tellima grandiflora...
Hundreds of little geranium flowers on the biennial Geranium maderense. Plant it in full sun and every bud will open at the same time.
Ceanothus 'Frosty Blue'. I got this 50% off at my local nursery last year. I have two bees working this plant from dawn to dusk.
The yellow flowering shrub is Fremontodendron 'San Gabriel', and you can see some Cerinthe major flowering beneath it.
Blurry picture of California native Mimulus pictus. I grew these from seed.
Just one flowering spike right now on my small Trichostema lanatum, one of California's absolute best native plants.
Unknown cultivar of native Mimulus aurantiacus, propagated from a cutting.
Lots of tomato flowers, but no tomatoes so far.
Nemesia strumosa. A filler plant.
I still have some daffodils in the bamboo.
I always have abutilon in flower.
Sunflower and wallflower.
Just one tiny little flower on the climbing hydrangea.
Up on the deck outside the bedroom window, Salvia 'Hot Lips' brings a hummingbird by every morning.
Are these called jonquils? I have them everywhere. And you can see a sweet pea flower there too!
Random pelargonium. I have a few of these actually. They hardly count.
Scarlet flax; this, with California poppy is one of my favorite summertime flower combinations. I sowed them together in several pots.
Link to last month's Garden Blogger Bloom Day.
13 comments:
I just got an acute pang of zone envy. I don't know much about plants, but I'm pretty sure I can't grow Bartlettina sordida or Aeonium up on top of my windy hill in Seattle. Thanks, as always, for the photos. Next time you're up this way, please allow me and my husband to buy you and your guy a drink somewhere, OK?
Your garden is lovely as always. You have a lot in bloom right now too. The daffs in the bamboo are an unusual combination. Did you plant them together, or did they meet across the dance floor?
Pam, I thought the yellow petal part of the daffodil would go well with the yellow-striped bamboo canes. The beautiful color the canes doesn't really stand out much and I wanted to do something to bring that out a bit. The daffodils are not a slam dunk for this purpose, but they work for other purposes: namely, to bring some interest to the garden in February/March which is really tough sledding in my garden due to its particular light conditions.
jva, The big, soft Bartlettina leaves would shrivel into crispy/soggy blackness with your first frost. But you could try easy-rooting succulents like aeoniums. At the end of the summer, snip off some big pieces and winter them over as houseplants. After the ground thaws in spring, plant them out. This guy has a lot of cool stuff for cheap that you could consider: danielscactus.hypermart.net.
I would definitely take you up on a drink! Guy probably would too, but he is always nervous and uncomfortable about meeting new people and would most likely decline the offer. Which is fine; we like to maintain semi-independent social lives. Sadly, we have no plans to get up there anytime this year. So you'll have to come here.
Putting up what's blooming is more work for you, Chuck - you have so many plants and never any off months. I loved seeing all your flowers. You have so many things blooming in such a small space, but the sense that this is a planned garden comes through strongly.
Now, what to covet for my own garden? The abutilon, Mimulus aurantiacus, and frosty blue ceanothus... Hank already has dibs on the G. maderense.
Annie at the Transplantable Rose
I think our native mimulus would do extremely well in your Texas garden, Annie. And it comes in many different colors. I picked one that's just a smidge off from the species color.
I laughed when you said "planned garden". Indeed--it's planned down to the inch. I just keep changing the plan!
:) :)
Thanks for coming buy, you guys.
Chuck... thanks for participating in Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day. For having just a few minutes to take pictures, you did an amazing job. Everything looks so green and fresh and summery!
Wow...for "not having much time", you did a great job! I've got some "zone envy" too....but not for long, cuz' soon I'll be too busy here! LOVE that Bartlettina especially...I bet bees/butterflies like that, too.
It's a combination of digital camera (unlimited pictures), small garden (limited number of photographic subjects) and close familiarity (at least two hours in the garden, every day). I can bang it out pretty quick.
I am having a little zone envy, too! I love that you're growing some plants that are familiar to me, alongside a bunch of gorgeous succulents and other tender plants that I could never leave outside. (And If I could say that abutilon blooms year-round for me... I'd be in heaven!)
The tiarella--is that 'Iron Butterfly,' by the way? I love the foliage on that. I opted for 'Crow Feather' for my own garden, but looking at yours makes me wonder where I could put another stand of one of the more deeper-leaf-lobe varieties.
I wish I knew more about my tiarella. Unfortunately, I bought it long before I knew anything about gardening (not that long ago!). It was the only one they had at my nursery, and I bought four of them, and I've been dividing them ever since. It's absolutely one of my favorite, favorite plants in the garden. It could be a cultivar of the native that grows in our redwood forests.
The leaves are very deeply divided with rough, irregular margins. In the fall/winter, the centers turn a dark color. It really brings a nice woodland character to that end of the garden.
Ah, would I sound like I was bragging if I said that I still had snow - none of these silly flowers you seem to have in abundance. I mean, who'd want them anyway? Give me freezing cold, freezing rain and a few inches of snow anytime.
Yeah right.
Great pics
D
All beautiful - you have a luscious garden.
I'm having zone envy too, and we live in the same city!
Well, I could change the name of this blog to Zone Envy (noone has that name, as far as I can tell, which is surprising--but I'm continually surprised how few California garden blogs there are. What's up with that?!), and then someone in Southern California could start a blog called Zone Enviest.
Seriously, don't have zone envy for San Francisco. Have zone envy for somewhere just a little bit warmer, where one can grow everything I have and also grow beefsteak tomatoes, melons, corn, peppers, and eggplant. Because I can't.
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