It rained lightly but steadily on Saturday and, as the forecast called for even heavier rain on Sunday and Monday, I clipped flowers in the late afternoon to arrange on Sunday. As it turned out, Sunday was mostly sunny, which goes to show that even the shortest-term weather projections can be wildly inaccurate.
My Hemerocallis, including the one I brought inside last week, still aren't blooming so I made do with what I could find to fill two small vases.
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| I've had a few Anemone coronaria blooms, all blue thus far. The stems grow longer as the flowers age but these 2 were still relatively short. |
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| Back view: I also used some very short stems of blue Pericallis, which is largely hidden behind Acacia foliage in this view but somewhat clearer in the earlier front view |
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| Top view |
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| Clockwise from the upper left: Acacia cognata 'Cousin Itt', Antirrhinum majus, Delphinium grandiflorum 'Diamonds Blue', Anemone coronaria 'Lord Lieutenant', Pericallis x hybrida, Nemesia 'Plus White', and Prostanthera ovalifolia 'Variegata' |
Saturday's rain brought down over a dozen
Camellia blooms and, with heavier rain in the forecast, I felt compelled to cut a couple of stems for an arrangement to sit on our kitchen island, where we could enjoy them, if briefly.
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| The Camellia flowers are beautiful, no matter how long they last |
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| Back view |
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| Top view |
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| Clockwise from the upper left: Alstroemeria 'Inca Lucky', Boronia crenulata 'Shark Bay', Camellia williamsii 'Taylor's Perfection', and Pentas lanceolata |
I removed the spent
Grevilleas in last week's vase and gave it a simple refresh to fill the spot that was held by the two week old arrangement featuring
Aeonium 'Zwartkop' and
Leucadendron 'Wilson's Wonder'.
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| The tweaked vase is on the left and the original version is on the right |
Monday is still projected to be very wet - as I prepared this post Sunday afternoon, the local forecast gave us a one hundred percent chance of rain. We got nearly an inch of rain on Saturday and I'm hoping for at least another half inch on Monday. Since Sunday was dry, I took the time to move the rainwater I captured in plastic trugs to my largest collection tank, which means all three tanks are full once again. That's a good way to start off the week.
For more IAVOM creations, visit our host, Cathy at Rambling in the Garden.
All material © 2012-2024 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party
Finally, the rains came! So great, we got another good dousing here, too. I love the anemones. And the camellias are so soft and pretty.
ReplyDeleteBetween Saturday and Monday, we got 2.3 inches, which is a healthy soak for us, Tracy. The rain was slow and steady, never pounding but nonetheless our chimney is leaking again despite last year's repairs :(
DeleteFull rain tanks! Sorry the chimney is uncooperative - that has been a long battle.
DeleteThere doesn't seem to be an easy fix for that chimney :(
DeleteMaking do with what you could find seems plentiful to me. :) Camellias...sigh. <3 As always, your creative vase work is so beautiful and inspiring. I'm glad you're getting some rain.
ReplyDeleteI also love Camellias, Beth; however, 'Taylor's Perfection" is the only one I planted and, given our water issues, it and the 3 well-established sasanqua I inherited with the garden will be all I'll ever have here.
DeleteI love both your compact little vases Kris, reminding us our vases needn't be blousy bouquets to be attractive. I must try harder with anemones as they look wonderful in vases of any size!
ReplyDeleteAnemone coronaria can be very splashy flowers but, in my garden at least, their flowering tends to be iffy. By my count I planted 80 bulbs at the end of October but I've yet to see foliage from even half of those and I can't explain why. I'd suspect gophers except that the bulbs were all planted in the raised beds of my cutting garden, which hasn't been touched by those loathsome critters.
DeleteI love little posies and yours are perfection. Especially the purple and blue one. Makes me think of spring. Hoping you get more rain soon.
ReplyDeleteJanuary and February are generally the wettest of our relatively brief rainy season but January was very dry until now. I'm hoping we catch up within the next 6 weeks so we get a splashy spring.
DeleteYour camellia has a lovely color and form. The Anemones are so perfect in your vase with the other blues and whites--so full of charm. I don't remember you having so much rain as you've had in the past year.
ReplyDeleteThe last (2023) "water year" was remarkable, Susie - almost 24 inches of rain between October 1, 2022 and September 20, 2023. In contrast, our rain in this water year (since October 1, 2023) was only 3 inches until this cluster of storms came through starting Saturday and Monday when we picked up another 2.3 inches. Our "normal" annual total is 14-15 inches with the vast majority (if not all) of that falling between late November and early April.
DeleteThose Anemones are pure eye candy--the stars of any arrangement!
ReplyDeleteAnd 'Taylor's Perfection' another star. I "need" a Camellia in the garden...did yours all come with your house? Seems like it is not a SoCal winter without Camellias. I adore Aloes but surely one Camellia in the garden is not irresponsible?
We inherited 3 Camellia sasanquas with the house but I planted Camellia 'Taylor's Perfection' shortly after we moved in 13 years ago. I was watering more heavily in the early days so 'Taylor's' got a good start but it's struggled in years since with low rainfall, dropping buds en masse before they fully develop. As California's water issues became clearer I decided I probably couldn't support more Camellias. I actually had more Camellias in my former tiny townhouse garden.
DeleteHappiness is full water reserves! Glad you had some decent rain, Kris. May it continue (gently) for the next couple months to bring up your totals.
ReplyDeleteThe blue/purples are so beautiful. I see your arrangements, which feel like a faraway dream when I look outside my door. I enjoy your gardens vicariously all winter long! Eliza
Your winter/ice photos are beautiful, Eliza, although I admit I like to see more color. The rain was expected to abate this morning but it's continued lightly all day. Floods have been avoided here so far but sadly not in the larger San Diego area. There's also currently an evacuation order in Topanga Canyon in the San Fernando Valley area :(
DeleteYay for rain! It has been abundant here this year as well. I love blue flowers and the blue vase - Cousin Itt made me laugh, I have a big Pleomele reflexa my husband calls the same thing. Amelia
ReplyDeleteHa! There's yet another plant sold here in California as Casuarina 'Cousin It' (one "t" unlike Acacia cognata 'Cousin Itt'). I guess the Addams Family still has a lot of fans!
DeleteBeautiful little vases Kris. I love anemone coronaria - both flower and foliage. Your 'Lord Lieutenant' looks very similar to 'Mr Fokker', the only blue I have grown. Your comment that "the shortest-term weather projections can be wildly inaccurate" is spot on. I've looked at current forecasts before which have said that there is a 0% chance of rain when in fact I can see torrential rain coming down 🤔
ReplyDeleteI hesitated in even giving the cultivar name applied by the seller to those blue Anemone blooms, Anna. They do look more like 'Mr Fokker' than 'Lord Lieutenant', at least at this stage of bloom; however, an earlier bloom took on the appearance of the latter as it aged. Maybe I'll just call them "blue" in the future :)
DeleteI laughed at your comment about torrential rain when none is predicted. I can truthfully say I've never witnessed that twist here but there have been plenty of occasions predicting 80-95% chance of rain only to see it disappear without leaving a drop.
Love the blue and white creation Kris! I always love seeing your blue anemones, and paired with white they look so fresh and spring-like. Made me smile!
ReplyDeleteI love blue flowers, Cathy. I wish I could find more of them.
DeleteI arrived in Temecula yesterday for a conference and it was just pouring rain. I was hoping you got some of it up where your at too. Not much that is as vivid blue as a Pericallis. Think I will buy another plant when they come into stock closer to spring.
ReplyDeleteSan Diego had flooding problems yesterday - I hope that didn't impact Temecula while you were there, Jerry. Between Saturday and Monday, we got considerably more rain than expected in my location - 2.37 inches - but it was slow and steady and we had no flooding issues in my area (or landslides, which has been a bigger issue where I live in recent years).
DeleteAll the flowers you chose have beautiful colours, Kris. And the short-lived camellias are always a winner while they last. :)
ReplyDeleteWe have the same issue here with weather forecasts - they are simply forecasting every day completely wrong at the moment!
I get updates from a UCLA climate scientist on a regular basis and he's described the difficulties of predicting weather, along the lines of the old description of chaos theory: "the flap of a butterfly's wings in Brazil sets off a tornado in Texas." (That's not his reference but rather my superficial distillation of his description.) As climate change continues, it seems that the factors affecting weather just get more complex.
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