Christie - I looked at all the plants in pots that I have yet to plant, and said NO, I will not order. It was much harder to say no to Santa Rosa Gardens special - 18 perennials, their choice, minimum worth of about $50, all for $19.99. Even with $9.99 shipping, it would have been a bargain. But.......in the end, I was good.
Here is a photo of what I normally do with the Easter Lilies.
Summer is here, and lots are in bloom. But, the advent of the heat also signals the end of many others. I have been wanting to post this calla for a long time - Green Goddess. My sister got this from that last roundup that I mentioned earlier. I did not get one because I had purchased pot from a plant sale earlier that year. Not all Green Goddess are created equal - hers thrived, and mines languished. She gave me a couple of offshoots and they have done really well. Here is a garden shot in March.
I put that batch in the ground last fall, and it has grown quickly. I love the coloring. A closeup.
This plant rivals any that I have for the longest blooming season. My sister picked some for a bouquet at Christmas, and I picked the last of the blooms of the season just 5 days ago. There was always a few opened at any one time, and lasts over a week in the vase. Paired with leaves from the cast iron plant - another great foliage plant, carefree and grows in full shade - in my case, under a nectarine tree and gets watered about every two weeks.
I love flowers with fragrance, and gardenias fit perfectly into this category. It is one of those plants that seem to burst out into bloom overnight. This bush was about 6 feet tall last year, and I trimmed it back to a more manageable 4-5 feet.
Since this bush grows so vigorously, it lends itself well to periodic trimming of branches for arrangements. The smell is nice and subtle since it was in a large open space.
A medium shot....
and a close-up. I think it was desertpirate who suggested this sequence of photographing plants??? Maybe I got it the opposite - closeup, medium shot, and then the whole plant? The main blooming flush is over, but I will get some blooms for at least another month or so.
I have grown about 3-4 different alstromerias during the last 10 years. A couple have been totally wimpy and was too short to be used as cut flowers, and some have performed beautifully. This particular yellow orange one is very vigorous, and needs to be kept in check to prevent it taking over when you plant it in a spot where it is happy. But, it produces an abundance of blooms for almost 2 months. My sister gave me a clump of this about 5 years ago. This photo was taken at the end of May.
Here it is in a vase. Some of the stems can get up to 3 feet tall, and are quite sturdy. The peak of the blooms are over, but there are still about 6-7 stalks with unopened buds. The coloring goes really well with the colors of the walls in my workplace - this is the landing on the second floor where I put many of the arrangements.
Here is my attempt last year to try and restrict the spreading of the alstromeria. I got some plastic with holes that I hope is small enough to prevent the tubers from crossing through, and put it in about 8 inches deep. The barrier contained it enough so that I did not have to thin out in the fall - seems to be holding up OK. To the side and the rear of the alstromeria clump where there was no barrier, I still had to dig and toss.
Flower of the week (week 27) - this is another great perennial - Stokesia - low maintenance, unaffected by any pest, grows at a perfect pace - fast enough for me to divide if someone asks for an offshoot, but not so fast that I can leave it alone for several years; stays at a nice height since it dies back every year.
The plant was at it's peak a couple of weeks ago, but as I normally like to leave the flowers out in the yard as long as possible, I did my cutting this week. I don't have a photo for this year, but here is one from before.
Soils, LOVE your pictures!
Thanks, Christie!!
Your co-workers must love it that you bring in so many floral arrangements!
Thanks, Gardensox. They call me the "flower lady" at work. It is really gratifying when they say that they look forward to seeing what is new when they come up the stairs. And I get to enjoy them too, and being in a public place, I am reminded to toss them out when they wilt. The green goddess calla lily is going on it's third week and still looks good.
Do you want some white butterfly ginger? I am thinning down to one small bed. They have sprouted about a foot, but still should be transplantable.
Thanks, Soils! I would love some white butterfly ginger.
Wow- I have enjoyed this journey through the blooming season with all your flowers! My yard is literally bare so I am researching all sorts of plants and flowers- yours helped give me some great ideas. I just wish I could get peonies to grow here- they are one of my favorites and yours are so beautiful!
thanks for posting :-)
Thanks, wendallyn. I am lucky to live in a zone where I can grow peonies. The bloom time is really short, but it is definitely worth the effort to grow them. I moved into my present home in 1989 - it was fully landscaped (typical green shrubs) and most of the plants died in the freeze we had in the early 1990's. So, I was able to start with a new slate, and was able to put in the plants that I wanted - mostly perennials, bulbs, and annuals that reseed. I did not want the constant chore of having to replant annuals. I wanted cut flowers on a year round basis, so that became one of my most important criteria. Now that I am cutting back on the lawn, I am looking for drought tolerant low-growing plants for the lawn replacement.
You'll have lots of fun planning your garden.
I used to have a lot of gladiolus...but through the years, they have all succumbed to thrip infestations. Leaves and flowers were all deformed, and since I do not like to spray, I pretty much just dug them all up. I left this one patch, and last year, it bloomed, and the flowers were fairly healthy. Kept my fingers crossed, and it was OK this year too.
The coloring goes nicely with the rose behind it. I finally got an ID on that mystery rose that I started from a cutting from a friend's yard. I was down in southern CA this past weekend and visited the rose garden at the Huntington Library. Saw a rose very much like mine, and the name on that rose was Margo Koster. The owner of the original bush also asked a couple of rose experts that she knew, and the expert confirmed that it is a Margo Koster, circa 1931. I posted a photo of this rose in May, and it is still going strong in July. Here is the combo of the two in a vase. I grow cannas for one reason - the leaves make great greenery.
Flower of the week for week 29 - Crocosmias!! These flowers are unpredictable - they grow like weeds in some places, and die off in others. There were two spots that I originally planted them in - they have disappeared from those two places. This photo is actually my ginger patch, but somehow, a few corms of the crocosmia must have gotten included, and they have taken over - in a good way.
They make lovely bouquets - so all the crocosmias that I have popping up in odds and ends places, I just pull them up to give away. Many people ask for some when they see the arrangements. One of the easiest flowers to grow.
Flower of the week for week 30 - Lion's tail, Leonotis leonorus. I had two of these plants from years ago - one I left in a pot, and the other I put in the ground. The one I put in the ground died after a year (never did figured out why), and I wasn't sure where to put the one in the pot to prevent it from following that same fate. It languished for several years in a pot, and then I said, What the heck, I need to get it into the ground. It thrived once I moved it, and has been growing strong for the last 4 years. This yard photo is from a month ago when it is starting to bloom.
And here it is in a vase.
Close up of the blooms. I cut the shrub back hard in the winter to keep the plant around 4 feet tall. They do form seeds and I have found some in a plant growing in a public garden, but for some reason, my plant did not form any seeds that I can find last year. I cut off a few stems earlier this spring and stuck them in several moist areas of the yard. They are still alive, so I am assuming they have rooted. I will have to remember to check them soon to see if that is the case.
With some overlapping bloom time, here is a combination of the lion's tail and the crocosmia. Added a little Russelia equisetiformis - Russian firecracker
This message was edited Aug 1, 2010 8:30 PM
Love the lion's tail and the crocosmia put together. What a great color!
Thanks, Doss. What is blooming in your garden now?
Did not take any new photos of this plant this year, but since this is a plant that is not commonly found in nurseries, but is easy to take splits from, and it is kind of neat, I wanted to post it here in this series. Francoa ramosa - I got a split of it from a friend in San Francisco years ago - it likes the shade. I transplanted one into a sunny area this year, and it did not like it.
And here it is in a vase. I love this ceramic chivas vase and it's vivid blue coloring.
A close up of the flower stalk.
Flower of the week for week 32 - I have one patch of yellow echinacea and a patch of black eye Susan. I have a hard time telling them apart - my excuse is that they are in the same family. These have a really long blooming period. This is the yellow echinacea - or so I was told when I was given the plant. It has gotten huge.
And a vase shot.
Week 33 - this is an old standby from the yards of my childhood days - Amaryllis belladonna, aka naked lady. The summers are dry here in my zone, and this is one plant that will survive without hardly any summer water (but it will grow just fine with watering too). So, you see this popping out in neglected corners of many yards. In the photo of the yellow echinacea, you can see the naked ladies peeping out from behind. Here's a photo from another patch in the yard where you can see the bare stems. In this photo, they are growing under the shade of a cherry tree; in the photo above, they are growing out in the open and take the hot afternoon sun. A very versatile and easy plant to grow.
And here is the vase shot. The stems can get over 3 feet tall. Wonderful subtle fragrance too. Disease free, no summer water, only draw back is when you split it and give it to someone, it may take several years to bloom. You have to tell them to be patient, and it will bloom and once it blooms, it will come back reliably every year. But it greens up during Oct/Nov and adds greenery when other perennials die back. Anyone in the Sacramento area who wants some, let me know.
I started off a few years ago with just 1 dahlia plant, a border type. Then I got 8 in 2009, and am up to about 28 this year. For me that is a lot, but for other dahlia lovers out there, that is a drop in the bucket. I made a new dahlia bed this year, and this is the first batch to bloom. From left to right - Robin Hood,Fool's gold, Kasasagi (a pom pom type), Karma Choc. In the rear right is Camano Ariel.
Had just a little time this morning for the arrangement so did not do anything fancy. Here are the 4 of the dahlias. Fool's gold is a lot bigger and did not go well with the others so I left it out. One trick I learned is after cutting the dahlia stems, is to put them in about 2-3 inches of boiling water and leave them there until the water cools. That is supposed to extend the life of the blooms. This is the first time I tried it, so will have to see how long the blooms last. Any one out there tried this technique?
I have been on the road these last two weeks, but here is a photo of the Japanese anemone blooming at this time of the year last year. I have two types of Japanese anemones - this purplish pink one is the first to bloom. This variety do get invasive in my garden, so I do a lot of "weeding" several times a year to get rid of excess plants.
