I was looking at my blooming Agave attenuata and noticed something for the first time. The flowers on its spike have been opening asymmetrically, with the south-facing buds opening a few days earlier than the ones on the shaded side. I guess it’s the agave equivalent of moss growing on the shaded north side of a tree trunk. As I looked at all the agaves in the neighborhood, I was noticing the same thing: All the south-facing buds open first. It makes sense, I guess, with the sun-warmed buds developing sooner than the ones growing in the shade. There must be a botanical term for this—I’ll see if I can’t look it up sometime.
Something else I noticed the other week was that two of the little rosettes growing underneath the growth producing the big spike are also blooming. They’re nice, but the blooms get pretty lost in the foliage.
And compared to the big main spike, which must be something like twelve or more feet from base to tip, you can see how it’d be easy to overlook the little pups…
In the photo above you can make out this big red aloe in the background, Aloe arborescens. The clump began as a one-gallon plant in the early nineties. Now it’s probably six feet tall and twelve across.
February in Southern California is a busy month for flowering plants. Here’s a selection of what else is blooming in the garden.
This raised planter of Oxalis purpurea is the first part of the garden that visitors encounter as they head up the front steps. Dozens of white flowers and a lone pink one in the front. Oops.
Verbena lilacina, greened up from the rains, beginning to hit its stride.
One of several plants of Nuttall’s milkvetch, Astragalus nuttallii, that I raised from seed last summer.
Snapdragon-relative Galvezia speciosa ‘Firecracker,’ never a prolific bloomer for me, though mine’s a young plant.
The pink-flowered, purple-leaved form of Oxalis purpurea.
Carpenteria californica, a California plant that reminds me a lot of sasanqua camellias in its simple contrast of stamens against broad petals.
First flowers on Phlomis monocephala.
February flowers on a yellow crassula that I’ve forgotten the name of…
The final blooms of the season on another crassula, your basic jade plant, Crassula ovata…
The fragrant Solanum parishii, a widespread California native, doing battle on the slope garden against iceplant, Algerian ivy and Bermuda buttercup.
Freeway daisies (Osteospermun) below, with black sage (Salvia mellifera, prostrate form) above.
Keeping up the daisy theme, Arctotis acaulis hybrid…
Another actotis, ‘Big Magneta’…
…and a final photo, a final arctotis, shown against a piece of garden art made from glass, steel, and concrete.
As always, my thanks to Carol at May Dreams Gardens for hosting Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day. Even with snow on the ground many places up north, there’s still plenty in bloom today in warmer, more southern locations, and on windowsills and greenhouses around the world. Check them out [ here ].
February 14 2010 | Categories: gardening • my garden | Tags: Agave attenuata • flowers • Garden Bloggers Bloom Day • gbbd • native plants | 32 Comments »
Get out your 3D glasses! Part of this Garden Bloggers Bloom Day posting comes to you in glorious 3D, inspired by the news that 3D television was the big news at the recent Las Vegas Consumer Electronics Show, and by past, current and future 3D movies (Avatar, The Creature from the Black Lagoon, Alice in Wonderland).
This is one of my clones of Arctotis acaulis, which is just coming into bloom.
To view the 3D effect you’ll need a pair of glasses or a viewer that has a red lens over the left eye and a cyan (green works too) lens over the right. This image, what’s called an anaglyph, is pretty low-tech, more Black Lagoon than Avatar, but it works. I won’t detail all the steps for making it, but there are lots of explanations out on the web for how to do it in Photoshop. [ Here’s one. ] You can also use a good photo editor like Photoshop Elements that will let you adjust the individual color channels of the image.
You don’t need a proper 3D camera to photograph slow-moving subjects like flowers, but you’ll need two separate images, one for the left eye, and another for the right. Just take two images of the same subject, moving slightly left-to-right before you click the second image. If you have a camera with manual controls, you’ll get the best results if you focus and set the exposure manually.
This is the image pair I started with for the anaglyph above. You might even be able to view this raw pair in 3D. Some people are able to practice what’s called “free-viewing,” where the left eye focuses on the left image and the right eye on the right-hand one. You’ll eventually see three images, and the central one will suddenly pop into 3D.
This last pair shows the next-to-last step big step, before you layer the cyan image over the red one to create the final 3D image.
The rest of this post returns to stodgy old 2D. Sorry.
Winter is the big bloom season for many of the native plants, as well as for many plants adapted to Southern California’s mediterranean climate. Here are many of the plants flowering right now.
Here’s the agave I featured prominently in last month’s posting. It’s nearing its half-way point on the spike.
First blooms of the season on Verbena lilacina.
First blooms of the season on Nuttall’s milkvetch, Astragalus nuttallii.
The very first, brave bloom on another Arctotis acaulis clone, ‘Big Magenta.’
First flowering on another plant, likely Crassula multicava. The bed where this plant is will soon be covered with a dense mist of flowers for several months.
Another flowering crassula, Crassula ovata, your basic jade plant.
Black sage, Salvia mellifera, coming into bloom.
Santa Cruz Island buckwheat, Eriogonum arborescens, still blooming—the Energizer Bunny of buckwheats.
…some weird bromeliad. I have a likely name somewhere, but not stored in my brain’s RAM right now…
I was taking some pictures of this desert mallow, Sphaeralcea ambigua, but was more captivated by the interesting damage patterns created by a leaf-mining insect.
And last but not least: What I’m certain will be the last paperwhite narcissus of the season. I keep thinking that, but another clump pushes up through the earth and starts to flower. I’m not complaining.
As usual, my thanks Carol of May Dreams Gardens for hosting Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day! Check out what’s in bloom in other gardens around the world [ here ].
If you haven’t had enough of the 3D photos, check out a much earlier 3D garden blog post [ here ].
Now enough of this 2D indoors nonsense. Open the door, and go outside and enjoy your garden in the grand glorious 3D it comes in naturally.
January 15 2010 | Categories: gardening • photography | Tags: 3-d photography • Garden Bloggers Bloom Day • gbbd • mediterranean plants • native plants | 14 Comments »
For December 15’s Garden Bloggers Bloom Day I’m trying something new. Instead of showing you all the almost ever-blooming things in the garden I’m highlighting a single plant, the foxtail agave (Agave attenuata) that’s finally blooming after a decade and a half in the ground. I posted before on how the monster bloom spike has collided with some some nearby plants. Over the weekend the thousands of buds on the spike began to open.
In homage to artists who take one subject and try to make it interesting in multiple ways, here are some of the first photos of the plant in bloom. I’m not sure which is my favorite photo so far. Maybe the fourth? Maybe the fifth?
Still, it’s hard to begin to do justice to an awesome plant.
A few other things are blooming, but it’s December and the pickings are slim: a couple of California natives, some late-season blooms on Santa Cruz Island buckwheat (Eriogonum arborescens) and first-of-the-season blooms on the desert mallow (Sphaeralcea ambigua).
Oxalis purpurea, early in the morning, before it’s fully expanded…
Leonotis leonorus coming back into bloom…
When so little is in flower, you might pay attention to some of the less significant flowers on plants that are grown primarily for their foliage and structure. These three senecio species would only win “nice personality” in a floral beauty pageant (Senecio cylindricus, S. articulatus, S. mandraliscae).
In fact, the agave I showed earlier is a plant that’s most often used for its terrific architectural structure, in part because it flowers so infrequently. But when that one blooms, there’s no ignoring it.
Thanks to Carol at May Dreams Gardens for hosting Bloom Day!
December 14 2009 | Categories: gardening • my garden | Tags: Agave attenuata • Garden Bloggers Bloom Day • gbbd | 22 Comments »
Salvia microphylla ‘Hot Lips’ would be in every month’s bloom day posting because it never has stopped blooming for me since it went into the ground two years ago. The plants are getting huge and taking more than their share of the garden, and I’ll have to admit that they’re on my list of flowers that I’m almost tired of seeing. But because of these plants, the hummingbirds are a constant presence in the back yard. I’d hate to do anything rash like remove their favorite year-round source of nectar.
A while back I had to find out what it was about these plants that was so appealing. I took one of the flowers and popped it into my mouth. A tiny hit of flavor, faint but sweet, registered on my tongue. Pretty tasty if you’re a bird addicted to nectar. But I wondered if I was pimping my neighborhood birds with sugar water in the way a busy suburban parent might keep their kids supplied with gallons of soda.
Some other plants that are in the “I’m almost sick and tire of seeing them all the time” category: Salvia nemerosa ‘Snow Hills,’ Gaillardia pulchella, and Euphorbia ‘Diamond Frost.’ They’re all in the gallery of flowers below.
The season also brings some new blooms to the fall garden: Oxalis bowiei, Protea Pink Ice, Camellia sasanqua ‘Cleopatra,’ lemongrass, and the plant formerly known as Lessingia filanginifolia var. californica (now relabeled as Corethrogyne filaginifolia var. californica). And then there are the sporadic bloomers. You can’t set your calendar by them, but they’re nice to have around. Hover over any image below for their name.
Happy Bloom Day, and thanks to Carol at May Dreams Gardens for hosting this monthly online garden party.
November 14 2009 | Categories: my garden | Tags: flowers • Garden Bloggers Bloom Day | 14 Comments »
For this month’s Garden Bloggers Bloom Day I have some closeup photos of some of what’s blooming in the garden. I’ve done a couple posts on using backgrounds behind plants (Background check / One way to photogrpah a tree). Inspired, all but one of these shots uses a white sheet of matboard placed behind the plants. Each color of background presents a different end result. Using white accentuates dark flowers and stems, and some of these photos are a busy network of dark lines against the light background.
There are some newcomers just coming into bloom, but many plants have been in bloom for several months. When life gives you more of the same flowers…well, I was thinking I’d try to photograph them a little differently.
I suspect the neighbors think I’m odd enough taking pictures of everything in the garden, and I thought it’d be extra-distressing if I were to be walking around the garden with a big white board as well as the camera. As a result all of these are from the quiet privacy of the back yard, with the exception of the one plant without a white background.
Purple coneflower, Echinacea purpurea.
Lion’s tail, Leonotis leonorus; Desert mallow, Sphaeralcea
ambigua.
Peruvian daffodil, Hymenocallis festalis; Freeway daisy, Osteospermum sp.
Verbena bonariensis; Juncus patens (with fallen leaf caught in the plant).
Some salvias:
Salvia nemerosa ‘Snow Hills’; Ivy-leaved sage (Salvia cacaliaefolia).
On the left is Andean sage (Salvia discolor with its almost black flowers set in light green calyces; on the right is Salvia microphylla ‘Hot Lips.’
Some California buckwheats:
Flat-topped buckwheat (Eriogonum fasciculatum)
San Miguel Island buckwheat (Eriogonum grande var. rubescens)
St. Catherine’s lace (Eriogonum giganteum)
Butterfly bush (Clero- dendrum ugan- dense); seed pod of whitetop pitcher plant (Sarracenia leucophylla).
Pink and white double bougainvillea (unknown variety); Agastache aurantiaca ‘Apricot Sprite.’
Pink double bougainvillea (another unknown variety); toloache (Datura wrightii).
Thanks again the Carol of May Dreams Gardens for hosting Garden Bloggers Bloom Day. It’s a terrific way to build community among garden bloggers wanting to share the flowers in their gardens. Check out this month’s offerings!
July 14 2009 | Categories: gardening • my garden | Tags: buckwheats • Eriogonum • flowers • Garden Bloggers Bloom Day • gbbd • sages • salvias | 16 Comments »
The spring orgy of flowers is winding down. Some spring bulbs flashed for just a few days and were gone. But it didn’t really matter because they were replaced by something else interesting.
Summer’s flowers seem to come at a more measured pace. But for me it’s a different sort of pleasure, letting me focus on more subtle things like plant forms, leaf colors and textures.
Here’s some of what’s still blooming from spring, along with the beginnings of plants that will accompany me through the summer months.
The flowers above, left to right, top to bottom:
1: Blanket flower (Gaillardia pulchella).
2: Lavender cotton (Santolina chamaecyparissus—I have to look up the spelling of this species every time).
3: Deerweed (Lotus scoparius) You might confuse this California native for one of the invasive brooms. It’ll drop most of its leaves to survive the summer drought, but the delicate wands of branches stay attractive—at least to my eyes.
4. St. Catherine’s lace (Eriogonum giganteum)—a buckwheat from the California Channel Islands and coastal regions. This is a young plant, but its umbels are already huge—the largest in this photo is two feet across.
5. Santa Cruz Island buckwheat (Eriogonum arborescens)—another California buckwheat.
6. This is a Crinum that came with the house. It might be C. powellii.
7. Verbena bonariensis—a flower that’s exactly the same color as the verbena in the final picture in this post, though their plant and flower forms are totally different.
8. Clarkia williamsonii.
9. Same as 6.
10. Brodiaea species, one that I lost my records for—maybe B. elegans (anybody know this one?).
11. Butterfly bush (Clerodendrum myricoides ‘Ugandense’)—In the same family as mints and sages, this has square stems and a delicate scent to the leaves and stems. It enjoys water but doesn’t get much of it and still looks presentable.
12. Verbena lilacina, a tough species from the Isla de Cedros, off the coast of Baja. At first glance it looks like the lavender lantana many people around here grow, but the leaves are totally different. Here it’s planted alongside some succulents with red and blue-gray leaves.
Thanks again to Carol at May Dreams Gardens for hosting Garden Bloggers Bloom Day!
June 14 2009 | Categories: gardening • my garden | Tags: flowers • Garden Bloggers Bloom Day • gbbd • spring • summer | 14 Comments »
Today’s Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day post features five plants I’ve raised from seed. I’d consider most of these in the “pretty easy” to “really easy” categories, both to germinate and to grow.
Three of these came up from seed that I sowed directly in the ground last October. I basically made little furrows a quarter to half an inch deep, sprinkled in some seed, and watered them in. I provided some supplemental watering the give them a head start, and then let the occasional rains take care of getting the plants established. Now that the rains are probably over for the year, I give them occasional sprinklings to keep them greener and flowering longer.
This first flower is Clarkia williamsonii, which is an annual native to inland Central California and Orange County. The Seedhunt listing described the flowers as being “gaudy.” A flower that’s gaudy? Sold!
The next images are of another clarkia, Clarkia rubicunda ssp. blasdalei, native to coastal Central California and El Dorado County. The first is a freshly opened flower, the second a flower that’s on it’s second day.
Until this morning I’d never noticed with these that the fresh flowers have the stamens all bundled up, and that they don’t extend until the flower is older, after the anthers bearing the pollen are starting to dry up. You can see the stamens as the white four-pronged appendage in the center of the second flower. It’s a clever way to prevent self-pollination and keep the gene pool diverse.
Another easy annual is baby blue eyes, Nemezia menziesii. What you see here is pretty scrappy and well could be the last flower of the season. Although this is an easy plant, I’ve decided that it’s better suited to a garden spot that might get more than bi-weekly supplemental water.
I’ve been showing lots of California poppies this spring. This will probably be the last of the garden pictures of the common orange form. The flowers this time of year are starting to get smaller as the plant’s water supplies dwindle. Also, here near the coast, the plants start to mildew heavily, leaving them crippled. (You can see some of that as the whitish background foliage.)
Better suited to coastal areas is this yellow coastal form of the species, Escholzia californica maritima. The strain I’ve got starts to flower later in the year than the typical orange form, but the plants show much better resistance to powdery mildew and will continue flowering later into the year.
Unlike the first three plants I showed, the poppies are perennial, so the same plants will continue to come back one year to the next. But one nice thing with all these species is that they’ll come back from seed as well.
Check out all the other Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day photos by checking out the listing at May Dreams Gardens.
May 15 2009 | Categories: gardening • my garden | Tags: Clarkia rubicunda ssp blasdalei • Clarkia williamsonii • clarkias • Escholzia californica • Escholzia californica maritima • Garden Bloggers Bloom Day • gbbd • native plants • poppies • reseeding • seed-grown plants | 6 Comments »
May Dreams Gardens has been hosting the Garden Blogger’s Bloom Day for a while now. This is my first go at it, with a big sampling of what’s blooming in the back yard garden right now. Several of the shots are of the same plant, so it might seem like there’s more in bloom than might first appear: When life gives you fewer flowers, you look at each one closer!
In the photos above are:
- Ranunculus Tecolote (white)
- Oxalis purpurea (white form)
- Oxalis, random self-sown hybrid
- Salvia nemerosa ‘Snow Hills’
- Alysum that has self-sown from a planting 15 or more years ago. The originals were white and purple. The new ones come all-white, or mixtures of white and purple
- African daisy (arctotis hybrids)
- Blue-eyed grass (Sisyrinchium bellum)
- Solanum pyracanthum
- Cestrum fasciculatum ‘Newellii’
- Mother of thousands (Kalanchoe daigremontiana)
- Protea Pink Ice
- Melampodium Derby
- Aeonium species
- Your basic calla lily (Zantedeschia aethiopica)
- Euphorbia lambii, in bud
- Euphorbia characias subsp. wulfenii
- Mizuna, escaped from a vegetable garden planting 10+ years ago
- Alpine strawberry
- Hopi red dye amaranth
- Heliotrope
- Bird of paradise
- Epidendrum orchids (red, orange)
I have a few cool California natives beginning to flower in the front yard, and I’ll post more of them soon.
February 15 2009 | Categories: gardening • my garden | Tags: flowers • Garden Bloggers Bloom Day • gbbd • in bloom | 15 Comments »
