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| Echium in bud and Ceanothus in bloom on March 10th |
Well, the Echium is finally in bloom. Unfortunately, most of the Ceanothus blooms are faded or gone. But the bees love the Echium so I'll forgive the late flower delivery.
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| One month later |
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| Happy bees |
Now the waiting and watching has shifted to the backyard and the Echinopsis oxygona, also know as Easter Lily Cactus. Easter has come and gone but the plant's produced no blooms. There are at least 13 flower buds and one looks just about to open but apparently regular attention alone doesn't make that happen. Maybe it's waiting for the other buds to catch up - or simply holding out for the higher temperatures expected over the next several days.
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All material © 2012-2016 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party
That's a beautiful Echium, especially when it's blooming! Mine flowered last winter while still inside the greenhouse. I would have preferred that it wait.
ReplyDeleteIt just goes to show: a plant blooms when it wants to, not on the gardener's schedule.
DeleteOh that Echium!!! I love it. How big is it?
ReplyDeleteIt's a little over 4 feet wide and 3 feet tall. I have a smaller one in the south side garden. It was planted just a month or so after the one in the front garden but has never caught up in size.
DeleteAnd how hardy? If Alison is growing it, overwintered in the greenhouse, I might stand a chance. Want.
ReplyDeleteAccording to one of the California growers, it's hardy to 25-30 Fahrenheit or minus 1 to minus 4 Celsius, Jessica.
DeleteLovely Kris. I'm not familiar with Echium but will look into it. Would be nice to see these together but the earlier Ceanothus gave you an extended floral wonder.
ReplyDeleteThat's a positive way to look at it, Susie. It also means that the bees didn't have far to go to find a new floral source to forage when the Ceanothus finished up.
DeleteBeautiful! And even if they don't bloom at the same time, it's nice how you get a progression of blooms over time.
ReplyDeleteThat's true!
DeleteCool! The Echium looks happy.
ReplyDeleteKeep watch on the Echinopsis--the flowers are here and gone in a day.
Good advice on the Echinopsis. It's tucked in a corner so I've got a note by my computer to check it each morning.
DeleteThe Echium looks magnificent! I would have been on pins and needles waiting... I thought about trying it out here, but ended up with Alyogyne huegelii in the reserved spot ;-) Hope you will be able to show us the blooms on your Echinopsis when they finally come!
ReplyDeleteI love that Echium for the foliage but it's nice to see it in bloom too, especially as it makes the bees so happy. I'm trying out 3 Alyogyne myself - a neighbor across the street has a mass of them in the front yard, all in bloom.
DeleteThe Echium is well worth waiting for (for however long it takes). A friend has one here in a very sheltered spot, The foliage on yours looks like it's variegated. I should look for seed and try it.
ReplyDelete'Star of Madeira' is a variegated form, Christina. I like how the foliage meshes with the Grevillea 'Peaches & Cream' next to it, although the flowers don't mix quite as well.
DeleteSuch a gorgeous echium! I killed my specimen that was spending the winter in the greenhouse. You just can't beat the stunning combination of variegated foliage and deep blue blooms.
ReplyDeleteThat Echium seems to like to spread out a bit (mine's about 4 feet wide now) so I expect it's hard to maintain in a pot, Peter. However, as I recall, Loree found lots of those plants at a very low price recently - you should hit her up for one!
DeleteOkay, I'll make another attempt to comment on this. Have had the worst time with commenting lately, and am trying to figure out why. I can see why you were disappointed they didn't bloom simultaneously, but at the same time I can see the benefit of a combined longer bloom time. I bought a little Echium start the other week. Maybe tomorrow, I'll manage to move it into a bigger pot. I doubt I'll ever see flowers on it, but no matter. I absolutely love the foliage!
ReplyDeleteSorry about the problem with posting a comment, Anna. Blogspot and Wordpress seem to have periodic interface issues.
DeleteI think the Echium makes a great foliage plant. That's the principal reason I planted it.