Friday, January 15, 2021

Bloom Day - January 2021

This Bloom Day compilation was the result of a scavenger hunt.  While there are still some splashy blooms in my garden, most of what's out there is little bits of this and that.  As I usually gather those in collages organized by color, this month I thought I'd organize the entire post according to color.

I'll start with the reds for no other reason than the fact that Grevillea 'Scarlet Sprite' is suddenly covered in tiny red flowers.

The flowers of Grevillea 'Scarlet Sprite' always strike me as more rosy-red than scarlet but maybe whomever named the plant was fond of alliteration

As you may know, Leucadendron "flowers" are actually colorful bracts surrounding cones but I wouldn't have much of a January Bloom Day post without Leucadendrons like 'Safari Sunset' shown here

The rest of the red flowers include, clockwise from the upper left: Calliandra haematocephala, Grevillea 'Ned Kelly', Metrosideros collina 'Springfire', Grevillea lavandulacea 'Penola', and burgundy Pelargonium peltatum

I'll follow with the pink flowers as they're the largest group at present.

The foliage of Argyranthemum frutescens 'Giant Angelic Pink' is literally smothered in blooms

The Hong Kong orchid tree (Bauhinia x blakeana) is loaded with flowers this month too

At a glance, the tiny flowers of Coleonema pulchellum 'Sunset Gold' may look white but they're actually a very pale pink

I needed two collages to cover the rest of the pink blooms.  Clockwise from the upper left: Arbutus 'Marina', Arctotis 'Pink Sugar', the first bloom of Cistus 'Grayswood Pink', noID Camellia sasanqua, and Camellia x williamsii 'Taylor's Perfection'

The rest of the pinks, top row: noID Alstroemeria and Correa 'Sister Dawn'
Middle row: noID Cyclamen, dwarf Grevillea rosmarinifolia, and Leptospermum scoparium 'Pink Pearl'
Bottom row: noID Pericallis (aka florist's cineraria) and Persicaria capitata

Next up are the oranges.

Aloe vanbalenii x ferox (I was alarmed when I noticed what looked like white blotches on the Aloe's foliage but thankfully these were simply effects of sunlight when the photo was taken)

This is another of the small-flowered Grevilleas in my garden, Grevillea alpina x rosmarinifolia.  Like the other small-flowered varieties, it blooms for only a couple of months each year.

In contrast, large-flowered Grevillea 'Superb' blooms continuously year-round

Other plants with orange flowers include, clockwise from the left: Dermatobotrys saundersii, Osteospermum 'Zion Copper Amethyst', Bryophyllum (Kalanchoe) fedtschenkoi, and Cuphea 'Vermillionaire'

Yellow flowers are up next.

Grevillea 'Peaches & Cream' also blooms year-round

This Leucadenron salignum 'Chief' is another of those that produces flower-like bracts

but, in my opinion, the winner in the floral imitator category is Leucadendron 'Wilson's Wonder'

Clockwise from the left are: Aeonium arboreum, Leucadendron 'Summer Red', Argyranthemum frutescens 'Beauty Yellow', and a mix of Gazania, most self-sown


I've relatively few white flowers at the moment.

The closest thing to a star among my white-flowered plants are these noID paperwhite Narcissi that came with the garden

Clockwise from the upper left, in the also-ran category are: noID Antirrhinum majus, Argyranthemum frutescens (returning to bloom a second year), Dianthus 'Dash White', Pennisetum advena 'Rubrum', and Westringia fruticosa 'Morning Light'


The blue/purple flowers bring us to the end.

I have a lot of rosemary in other areas but this variegated Rosmarinus 'Gold Dust' in my back garden is my favorite 

Gomphrena decumbens 'Itsy Bitsy' is another year-round bloomer here

Top row: noID Ceanothus, Felicia aethiopica, and Hebe 'Grace Kelly' (which has lost much of its variegation)
Middle row: Osteopsermum '4D Silver', noID Scaevola, and Polygala fruticosa
Bottom row: Teucrium fruticans (from a seedling collected from a friend's garden in January 2019), Trichostemma 'Midnight Magic' and noID Viola


For more on what's flowering in gardens across the country and in other parts of the world, check in with Carol at May Dreams Gardens, the architect behind the monthly event that is Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day.


All material © 2012-2021 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party


26 comments:

  1. It is always amazing to me how many blooms you have in your desert-like climate. It must be such a different way of gardening than I do here in the midwest. Plus your plants are amazing having evolved to live and grow in your area. Always fun to see.

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    1. Technically, our coastal area is considered a Mediterranean climate but we seem to be veering ever closer to desert-like conditions, Lisa!

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  2. Always nice to see the whole array of flowers currently blooming in your garden, Kris. You have a sweet collection of Grevillea and Leucadendron. And as I've said before, I love your Argyranthemum frutescens 'Giant Angelic Pink' - it is gorgeous and reminds me of the Flower Power fashions of the late 60s. ;)

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    1. Argyranthemums are our version of Chrysanthemums, I guess. I love them but wish their stems were longer to make them easier to use in a vase.

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    2. Can you cut them a bit lower, below where the stalk divides into flowers, as a 'small branch'?
      Certainly a spectacular display!

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    3. I do that, Diana, but even then the stem/branch is a bit short!

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  3. And there's Pink Sugar as usual, my favorite that I can't grow. Calliandra haematocephala is adorable.

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    1. Arctotis 'Pink Sugar' is one of my favorites too, Lisa. Annoyingly, the garden centers here don't usually offer the plants until spring when they reach their floral peak but they're really best settled in during our cool season. I need to propagate more of my own.

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  4. Wonderful, beautiful flowers!
    'Giant Angelic Pink' is really amazing!
    Happy Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day!

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  5. Beautiful and stunning varieties of blooms Chris. Spring seems to be in full swing in your region. I am desperately awaiting spring in my region after that chilling weather in the last week .Your Paper whites are so beautiful. I have tried Daffodil replete this year for spring hope will get success in blooms. It would be my pleasure if you join my link up party related to gardening here at http://jaipurgardening.blogspot.com/

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    1. Daffodils do relatively well here, Arun - unlike tulips! I did link up my wide shots post to your garden party yesterday.

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  6. Oh my goodness! You always make me want to move to southern California with all your blooms! I love the Leucadendrons. It looks similar to a Hellebourus.

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    1. SoCal has plenty of things that would frustrate you as a gardeners, Lee, the persistent drought being chief among them.

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  7. There is not shortage of blooms in your garden, even in the middle of January. Unlike Grevillea 'Scarlet Sprite', Camellia 'Taylor's Perfection' has a perfect name: this single bloom is sublime. Flowers or not, the more I see your photos of Leucadenron, the more I wish I could have grown any variety of this pretty shrub.

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    1. That particular Camellia bloom was perfection. Unfortunately, unseasonably warm and dry conditions during the fall months caused many buds to drop and the current hot, dry conditions aren't helpful either.

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  8. That photo of Leucadendrons 'Safari Sunset' was momentarily a dead ringer for Magnolia figo and I was so upset to have missed it when I visited your garden.

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    1. Like 'Wilson's Wonder', 'Safari Sunset' hits its bloom peak in January. Out of curiosity based on your comment, I checked my December 2019 Bloom Day photos and there wasn't a single Leucadendron bloom among them.

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  9. It's always fun to wander with you through your garden or just see what's blooming. I took a walk around this morning and the only exciting, but also a little scary, thing I saw was a hydrangea leaf bud showing green. I wanted to tell it to put its jacket back on because it's too cold to come out and play!

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    1. Ha! I have to give my plants a caution of another nature, Barbara. They need to put on sunscreen. It was 88F here on Friday, 84F yesterday, and we've already passed 80F today.

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  10. Hi Kris! I love how you show the color palettes of blooms together! Once again, it was uplifting to start the week with your blog.
    The Leucodendron “Wilson’s Wonder” is stunning. Does it show these “blooms” for much of the year?
    Is your Pericallis (Cineraria) a perennial for you? I have treated all mine as annuals, perhaps because I have only grown them in containers.
    Sadly, my Gomphrena “Airy Bachelor’s Buttons” seems to have died back, after blooming continuously in a container. I went back to the Annie’s website and it recommended cutting it back in the winter. So, I’ve left it to see if it will come back. I loved it so much, I was going to order another for back-up, but it is “out of stock” so I have it on my Annie’s wishlist. It sounds like yours continues to grow and bloom all year. Do you cut back yours at anytime?
    Thank you!

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    1. I'm sorry to hear that about the Gomphrena, Kay. It does seem to prefer some areas to others. It loves the area along my front walkway but it's struggled to gain a foothold in my back border yet hasn't entirely died out there. I cut it back a few times a year on no particular schedule when it sprawls out of control.

      'Wilson's Wonder' maintains that display for a couple of months but the "flowers" eventually turn brown and, because the plant also gets very tall, I cut it back by one-third to one-half when they fade. The Pericallis isn't perennial here - I usually buy at least one 6-pack of plugs each year. I like the taller varieties but they're harder to find.

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  11. Right, hardly any January flowers in your garden at all! ;^)

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    1. Well, you know how I am about flowers, HB - if there aren't gobs of them, I feel deprived ;)

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  12. Wow! You don't seem to have any winter pause for your garden. So many gorgeous colors!

    Feel free to share at My Corner of the World

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