Monday, March 18, 2024

In a Vase on Monday: The Leucospermums show off

It's been a bit windy but the combination of sunny skies and slightly warmer temperatures has sent spring into hyperdrive.  I didn't even have to give much thought as to what to cut to fill a couple of vases.  I hadn't planned on a third arrangement but then I decided I couldn't leave the anemones to the wind's punishment.

I'll start with the two arrangements featuring Leucospermums.

While this is yet another blue and yellow arrangement, the contents are entirely different from those I used last week.  In addition to Leucospermum 'High Gold', I used 2 varieties of Dutch Iris.  The Irises began popping up in a variety of colors seemingly overnight.

Back view

Top view

Clockwise from the upper left: Acacia cognata 'Cousin Itt', Iris hollandica 'Mystic Beauty', I. h. 'Sapphire Beauty', Leucadendron 'High Gold', Narcissus 'White Lion', and hybrid Salvia 'Bee's Bliss'


The second arrangement was inspired by Leucospermum 'Royal Hawaiian Brandi'.

Although inspired by the orange Leucospermum, this is another of my "everything but the kitchen sink" compilations

Back view: I threw in a foxglove and 2 calla lilies that probably didn't need to be there

Top view

Top: Abelia grandiflora 'Kaleidoscope', Antirrhinum majus, and Digitalis purpurea 'Dalmatian Peach'
Middle: Leucadendron 'Cloudbank Ginny', Leucospermum 'Royal Hawaiian Brandi', and Narcissus 'Beautiful Eyes'
Bottom: Narcissus 'Sunny Girlfriend', Ranunculus, and Zantedeschia aethiopica


I hadn't figured on Anemone 'Rosa Tigrato' delivering half a dozen blooms in my cutting garden but, having seen what wind can do to them, there wasn't really any question in my mind about cutting some of them for a third arrangement.

In addition to the red and white anemones, I included the stem of Helleborus 'Anna's Red' I'd used in one of last week's arrangements.  I was surprised that it was still in good shape and that one of the buds had opened.

Back view

Top view

Clockwise from the upper left: Anemone coronaria 'Rosa Tigrato', Grevillea lavandulcea 'Penola', Freesia, Calliandra haematocephala, and Helleborus 'Anna's Red'


There are a couple of chances of light rain next weekend and early the following week but those could easily disappear.  However, my fingers are crossed that we get at least one more good rainstorm before our rainy season comes to an end in mid-April.  My smallest rain collection tank literally sprung a leak during the last set of storms so I lost fifty gallons there and I don't have its replacement installed yet.  I'd like to start our long dry season with all my tanks full if possible.


For more IAVOM posts, visit Cathy at Rambling in the Garden.




All material © 2012-2024 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party


Friday, March 15, 2024

Bloom Day - March 2024

Is spring already working up to its peak in coastal Southern California?  It certainly feels like that's the case.  We've had more than a week of sunny skies after regular rounds of rain since January.  The temperatures have been warmer too, although we've only occasionally reached the low 70sF thus far.

I'm going to start this Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day post with the bulb flowers as, more than any others, they celebrate the spring season.

Because Scilla peruviana (aka Portuguese squill) is looking its best at the moment, it got top billing.  Every year, I plan to dig up and divide this clump but somehow I never get around to it.

The blue Anemone coronaria are still putting on a good show.  I think I've lost all the white 'Mount Everest' bulbs I planted in the fall to a smothering blanket of marsh parsley weeds but a couple strays came back from those planted in prior years.  I've also had several 'Rosa Tigrato' blooms, one shown here adorned with a ladybug. 

The white and yellow Freesias have peaked but the blue, pink and red varieties have appeared recently in small numbers.  I think gophers may have cost me the majority of the blue ones this year.

Ipheion uniflorum (aka spring star flower and Mexican star) can still be found throughout the back garden

I haven't seen many Narcissus 'Geranium' yet but 'Beautiful Eyes' (top row) came along like parade marchers.  Those in the bottom row are a noID Tazetta type, a noID variety I planted my first year year here, and peach-colored 'Katie Heath'.

I planted 2 pots of orange Ranunculus purchased in bud but I was tickled to see the plant on the left come back in a barrel I planted in spring 2023.  Orange Sparaxis tricolor (right) are everywhere, although rainstorms flattened many of the flowers earlier this month.

Tulipa clusiana 'Lady Jane' showed up early this year.  I'm still waiting on her cousin 'Cynthia'.

Iris hollandica 'Sapphire Beauty' (left and middle) showed up just last week.  The first 'Pink Panther' flower (right) opened this week.  Other Dutch Irises will be arriving in the following weeks.

The potted Hippeastrums are fading fast.  They don't appreciate standing in heavy rain or wind.  Clockwise from the upper left are: Hippeastrums 'Aphrodite', 'Evergreen', 'Exception', 'Lemon Star', and 'Zombie'.


I'm still waiting on most of the seeds I sowed in November.

I sowed seeds of 5 varieties of sweet peas in November, 2 of them mixes.  This one variety has bloomed for over a month without flowers from any of the others.  My best guess is that it's one of the (unnamed) flowers included in the Lathyrus annuus 'Mermaid Dreams' mix.  The larkspur seeds (Consolida ajacis) have produced lots of seedlings, some with buds.  The Nigella papillosa seedlings are up but I've yet to see any buds.


The flowering shrubs and perennials are piling on to the spring express train.

The Alstroemerias are just getting started.  Left to to right are a noID pink Alstroemeria, A. 'Inca Lucky', and A. 'Indian Summer'.

Arctotis 'Pink Sugar' (top row) were the first out the gate but yellow 'Large Marge' and 'Opera Pink' (bottom row) are working hard to catch up

Argyranthemum frutescens, clockwise from the top left: 'Grandaisy Dark Pink', 'Pink Comet', and 'Angelic Maize'

Calliandra haematocephala (aka red powder puff) is as pretty in bud (right) as in bloom

I thought Camellia williamsii 'Taylor's Perfection' was heading for the exit in mid-February but it surprised me with another, larger flush of bloom in March; however, the flowers are now dropping more rapidly and there are relatively few buds left to see it through another month

With a thicker blanket of flowers, I got better shots to capture the blue color of Ceanonthus arboreus 'Cliff  Schmidt' this month

The Cistus (aka rockrose) are also just getting started.  Left to right are: Cistus 'Grayswood Pink', C. x scanbergii, and C. 'Sunset'

Coleonema album (left) is trailing pink-flowering Coleonema pulchellum 'Sunset Gold' (right)

The chartreuse flowers of Euphorbia rigida look particularly bright when backed up by blue succulents

The downward-facing flowers of hellebores are notoriously difficult to photograph but I'm happy to have far more blooms this year.  Clockwise from the upper left are: hybrids Helleborus 'Anna's Red', H. 'Phoebe', H. orientalis 'True Love', H. orientalis 'Blue Lady', and H. 'Wedding Bells'.

The Leucospermum (pincushion) flowers are generally plentiful but they take their time opening from buds.  Clockwise from the upper left are: 'Royal Hawaiian Brandi', 'Spider Hybrid', and 'High Gold'Leucospermum 'Sunrise' (not shown) has only 2 open flowers so far.

The Osteospermums are making the most of spring.  Top: O. '4D Pink', '4D White', and '4D Sunburst'
Middle: O. 'Double Moonglow', an Osteospermum mix, and 'Serenity Bronze'
Bottom: self-seeded Osteospermum (possibly a variant of 'Berry White'), '4D Violet Ice', and 'Serenity Purple'

Pyrethropsis hosmariense (aka Moroccan daisy) is in the process of covering an area of my front garden with white flowers


Of course there are also what I call my "old dependables" that bloom much of the year, if not year-round.

Felicia aethiopica (aka wild aster) blooms most of the year if routinely deadheaded

I don't know how I gardened in my climate without Grevilleas.  The varieties with the largest flowers bloom year-round here.  Those with smaller flowers bloom for several months.  Clockwise from the upper left are: Grevillea 'Poorinda Leane', G. 'Peaches & Cream', G. lavandulacea 'Penola', G. 'Scarlet Sprite', G. 'Superb' (2 photos), and G. sericea.

Leucadendrons 'Safari Sunset' and 'Summer Red' have colorful bracts in lieu of real flowers but most people view them as flowers

Polygala myrtifolia (aka sweet pea bush) flowers most heavily in spring and summer.  It also self-seeds like crazy but that's another story.


And there are the Aeonium arboreum flowers, which bloom for months, usually until I become fed up with their screams for attention and cut them down en masse. 

Aeonium arboreum in bloom in my front and back gardens.  They're actually in every area of my garden.  The bees love them so it's hard to simply toss them out upon arrival.


I'll close this post as I usually do with color-coded collages of flowers that make less of a splash but which I can't bring myself to entirely ignore.

Top: Anchusa capensis, Aristea inaequalis, and Delphinium grandiflora
Middle: Geranium 'Tiny Monster', Lavandula multifida, and Limonium perezii
Bottom: Pericallis 'Magic Salmon', Salvia rosmarinus (aka rosemary), and noID Scaevola

Clockwise from the upper left: Boronia crenulata 'Shark Bay', Centradenia florabunda (aka Spanish shawl, new), mixed Cyclamen, Hebe 'Wiri Blush', Leptospermum scoparium 'Pink Pearl', and Pelargonium peltatum (aka ivy geraniun)

Clockwise from upper left: Auranticarpa rhombifolium, Nemesia 'Nessie Plus White', Daphne odora, Euryops chrysanthemoides 'Sonnenschein', and Laurus nobilis (aka bay laurel)

Top: Aloe striata, Arbutus 'Marina', and Cuphea 'Honeybells
Middle: Erysimum 'Wild Orchid', Lobelia laxiflora, and Metrosideros collina 'Springfire'
Bottom: noID Oncidium (my best guess), Primula acaulis, and Salvia africana-lutea


If you made it through the entire photo gallery, congratulations!  For more GBBD posts, visit Carol at May Dreams Gardens.


All material © 2012-2024 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party


Wednesday, March 13, 2024

Wild and Weedy Wednesday: Marsh Parsley and Clover

Last year I periodically joined Cathy of Words and Herbs with posts featuring wildflowers/weeds.  Well, the relatively abundant rain we've received this winter has already brought out a couple of prominent weeds masquerading as wildflowers in my garden so I'm joining Cathy once again.  Additional 'Wild and Weedy Wednesday' posts may follow as other weedy plants attempt takeovers.  This week there are two I want to call out.

The first, Cyclospermum leptophyllum, also known as marsh parsley, surprised me.  It's not that I haven't seen it before.  Although I hadn't identified it by name, it's previously shown up here and there but I've never seen it take over a large area.  This year it occupied roughly a third of one of the raised beds in my cutting garden, including an area I'd planted with Anemone coronaria 'Mount Everest'.  As I'd grown Nigella papillosa there the prior year, I initially thought the foliage coming up could be self-seeded Nigella - until I finally looked at it more closely.

I zoomed in really close to capture the tiny flowers of this plant.  While the ferny foliage fooled me, the flowers made it obvious that the plants weren't Nigella papillosa.  When I looked at the foliage more carefully, it was also noticeably finer and darker green than that of Nigella.

I'd already started pulling the plants up when I took this shot.  To say they thickly covered the surface of the bed would be an understatement.

Removing the marsh parsley was made more difficult by the fact than I'd laid plastic-coated wire mesh over the beds after planting them to keep the raccoons and possums from digging.  While I was successful in thwarting the critters, I literally had to cut out the wire mesh around grown plants to dig out the weeds.

Marsh parsley has a long taproot.  I filled the trug on the right with the plants before I was done.  A single Anemone coronaria had managed to sprout beneath the blanket of the parsley.  I suspect it's too late to expect the rest of the Anemones to pop up.


Technically, marsh parsley is edible but a number of online sites warned readers not to eat it as it can be toxic, at least if consumed in any significant quantity.  In the past, it's been used as a diuretic and antispasmodic medicine.  The plant has spread worldwide in temperate and tropical areas.


The second weedy wildflower that appeared with the rain is Trifolium repens, commonly known as white clover.  My feelings about clover are more ambiguous.  It appeared in my garden years ago, probably brought in with the imported topsoil I added to my front garden years ago when we removed the lawn we inherited.  It also took over a large area but it was pretty and the bees loved it so I let it stay until it got too tall to easily walk through.

It seems inclined to plant itself between the paving stones in my front and south side garden areas.  As I've had trouble getting creeping thyme to thrive in some spots, I don't mind when it fills in, at least until it entirely covers the stone path.

Its flowers are pretty and they're bee magnets.  The flowers are only just beginning to appear.

On the left, you can see clover mixing with succulents and the first sprouts of ornamental bunny tail grass, Lagurus ovatus.  On the right, it's shown sharing space with creeping thyme, Thymus serphyllum 'Elfin'.


I've noticed that a lot of people online recommend mixing clover into their grass lawns.  Reportedly, clover helps to prevent the development and spread of many of the common weeds that infiltrate lawns.  It also fixes nitrogen in the soil, which means it serves as a natural fertilizer.  Forbes Home presents the pros and cons of growing clover here


On a separate topic, I've cleared all but one plant out of the succulent bed I've targeted for renovation.  Yesterday morning I had one cubic yard of cactus-succulent soil dropped off in our driveway.  Stage two of the project is kicking off!

My goal is to get the soil additive out of the driveway this week!



All material © 2012-2024 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party