Kyle, your plum caster seed you shared with me

Just looking through this years pictures I took and I have a couple of these red/plum casters that Eclipse shared seeds of. Thought he would like to see how tall it got, it's been in the ground 2 years now, it got a late start in 2005 but once it warmed up in the late spring, it took off. It's about 8-9 ft tall now. We are having some unseasonably cold night time temps, coldest since 1998 so the leaf tips are burnt. I'll leave it until spring and prune and shape it up. It's a handsome addition to my greens in the garden!

Rich and dark, red stems, even the seeds heads are that plum color

Here's a new emerging leaf

At dusk with it's handsome fuzzy variegated companion which I can't remember the name of now.

This is the image where I first spotted it, dated Aug. 8, 2004 and I just found the name again which I had failed to record, Red Spire.
http://davesgarden.com/forums/fp.php?pid=992897

Sue, the seeds were originally collected in Pasadena and San Diego. Both trees(lol) had been there for years. Your garden is awesome! very lovely. Red Spire is the name of that castor bean. an old heirloom kind that almost dissappeared from plant collections and gardens.Took a couple of us several years to locate them to re-introduce.

they won't risk dissappearing now. :-)

thanks for sharing the pics...

Sue hide that pic of me..its awful!! LOL


:-)

LOL, it's hidden behind the link, best I can do!

It's a wonderful pic of you Eclipse...and a lovely garden you have sue.

The color onthose leaves is so rich you guys. What aboutt he flowers/pods, what color are they?

azreno, see my second post, same color. I didn't take a picture of any seed pods to post it seems.

Sue love that garden. Eclipse that is a great picture of you. I hope to have lots of castor bean growing this year. (hoping they help keep the gophers out) Any suggestioins on starting the seeds?

Oops, I missed that LOL Would love some seeds from that if you're up for a trade. I have what I can only assume is Carmencita (Marie, that's what I have you :-) and have been wanting the one with dark colored pods, it's so pretty.

Calif_Sue,

I just love your garden. Do you have more pictures, please!!!

Jeri

Thanks for the identification Lynn I was not sur ewhat I had.

Marie, soak the seeds in water overnight,then plant will speed up germination by many days.I have had them sprout in 3 days after soaking.Just don't drink the water ..LOL :-)

Thanks Kyle I will do that.

jeri11, my 'garden' is such a mish mash of scattered pots right now as I had intended to redo beds and redesign some and actually get stuff in the ground. Plus making some gardening friends with local DG members added to my addictive collecting problem and I accumulated way to many plants for this tiny lot! Most of my images just show bits and pieces and small sections, makes it look better than it really is! LOL But I'll share a few, makes the cold winter day dreams go by faster to look at summer shots!
I do have some shots in my Journal as well one can check out.

This is a section under my orange tree, just about everything is in large pots.

It was my favorite colorful spot in the garden!

There is a small double pond in the far background, too many plants to see it!

yep, too many pots!
That common caster in the background was planted in a 5 gal pot 2+ years ago and is now rooted thru the ground, no idea how I would ever move it, machete and chain saw maybe.

With my collections of begonias, succulents, daylilies and tropicals, it's quite a jungle. Would drive a designer batty I bet!

My favorite color combos are the oranges and plums

It's changed quite a bit since switching to warmer tropical colors and style, this was April 2005

Sue, you're sure making me long for warmer weather!!! hope it all survives this cold snap! I'm actually able to watch the thermometer fall as I type! It's getting that cold, that fast!!!

Your garden is so pretty!!

Lali, and you're gonna be colder than me too, brrrr, I just ran out and grabbed a few more things to tuck up against the house, gonna be major cleanup after this cold snap, everything is looking so bad. I am so longing for spring!!

Since I signed on to DG, my temp has dropped to 31.5º Brrrrr...

We're at 44 right now, from the SJ weather site:
Current conditions as of 4:53 pm PST

44
Feels Like: 37°
Barometer: 30.15 in and steady
Humidity: 22%

My feet have been cold for days. We are such wussies here in Calif!

Wow! Those are beautiful pics, I can't wait to have my own mish mash like that, love all that foliage.

We're wusses here, too, but I have a popup greenhouse at the moment that's 52 degrees, my other sensor outside not working right now :-( I have to fix that in the morning, it's going to be very cold here this weekend....could that be coming from CA?

Probably, it's Arctic so heading south I would assume. Supposed to be the coldest since our freeze of 1998.


brrrrrrrr

Calif_Sue,

How can it be 44 degrees? It was 74 here today and probably 60 tonight. I'm in zone 8b. I was having serious zone envy until you said that. I want somewhere that it doesn't get cold and by cold I mean 70. Is there anywhere that stays warm.

Thanks for the pictures. I really enjoyed them after looking at my mess today. There are so cheerful.

Arctic?! Oh, that so does not sound good, gonna be a lot colder than the forecasts I think :-(

Yeah, whats' up with that?? Zone 9 and all, sheesh! Expected low of 26 tonight, 28 tomorrow night. Lali (begoniacrazii) will be in the teens. I heard we are trading temps with the east coast now LOL! At least this is not the norm.

Come on spring!! We need some heat here!

That is geogeous!!! Sorry about the temp. It will be in here Tue. our high will be 44.

Sue..your garden is beautiful!!! Well thought out and grown...and....where are the weeds!!!!????

Congratulations....

hmmm, eye candy

Weeds?! Did ya catch the part where I wrote about it being all in the angle that I take the shot?! LOL, Actually, it's so packed, there are no room for weeds. Only in spots in front yet to be reworked and planted do they now pop up.

No room for weeds, that must be heaven.............sigh

A high of 44, lows in the teens......what's the world coming to? At least we have snow up in the mountains now, I think that had been lacking this year. We did get some rain, though, every little drop counts :-) We're supposed to be 27 tonight :-(