too late for sunset
Missed Sunset
Daylight goes quickly this time of year. Last night I grabbed the camera, thinking I’d catch sunset from the roof deck. But thirty seconds later the sun vanished into this sticky cloudbank settled on the water. So, if by “sunset” you mean watching the sun do a slow swan dive into the drink, I missed it.
My weekend reading has been Annie Proulx’s amazing novel, The Shipping News. The book vibrates with a sense of place (Newfoundland) and has descriptions more vivid than the things themselves. Early in it she describes a sunset as “a flock of birds on fire.” My sunset was nothing like that, but still worth the haul up to the deck.
Summer
While I was up there I snapped this shot of the progress of the trio of new plants that I put up there in August, Euphorbia cotinifolia, Kalanchoe prolifera, and Lomandra longifolia. The euphorbia has survived the occasional watering lapses and is coloring up this gorgeous wine red color.
Closeup of the kalanchoe
The kalanchoe is beginning to put up its bloom spikes for the winter and is showing an intensification of the red color on the margins of its leaves.
And the lomandra looks like it did in August, only bigger.
I was hoping for a container planting that had seasonal interest–something other than living versions of plastic plants that looked the same year-round. So far I’m pleased.
Galvezia juncea
Last month I decided those three plants needed some company, and so they now have a new resident nearby. This is Galvezia juncea ‘Gran Cañon’, Baja bush snapdragon. It’s green and architectural right now. But soon it should small scarlet tubular flowers to coax some hummingbirds up to the deck. With a big selection of nectar-rich salvias down below, however, the hummers might be a hard crowd to motivate.
No sounds of birds up on the deck, only the sound of the sunset…
December 01 2008 05:16 am | Categories: gardening • my garden | Tags: Euphorbia cotinifloia • Galvezia juncea • Kalanchoe prolifera • Loma • potted plants • roof deck • sunset
Peter on 05 Dec 2008 at 8:11 pm #
Nice Kalanchoe — prettier than ours, which we have to keep inside in the winter.
Greg on 06 Dec 2008 at 1:54 pm #
Love your sunset photo. Sometimes the best shots come just after that glowing orb has slipped below the horizon!
Philip on 12 Dec 2008 at 7:46 pm #
I think this is very sucessful. I love the plant choices, so well set off by the strong square section metal pots.
Best,
Philip