Winter color at the local botanic garden

I visited South Coast Botanic Garden with a friend last weekend.  Our purpose was to see their dinosaur exhibit but I took photos of flowers and a few other plant highlights along the way.  Located approximately five miles from my home, the garden provides an indication of the color our part of the country offers in winter and I thought I'd share it with you as we head into the Christmas holiday.  I'll keep my commentary to a minimum.

The Aloes are at their best during the winter months.

I think this is Aloe arborescens, although the flowers look redder than usual

Aloe 'David Verity'

Aloe isaloeansis

Aloe melanacantha

NoID Aloe

Possibly hybrid Aloe capensis 'Quartziticola'

Mostly Aloe vanbalenii and its hybrids

That's it for the Aloes I photographed but there was more floral color to be found elsewhere.

Late blooms on an Erythrina (aka coral tree)

Bearded Iris!

Justicia aurea

Maybe Justicia floribunda

NoID Lavatera

Meadow with Narcissus papyraceus (aka paperwhites)

An interesting Viola my friend took note of

There were a few other plants, mostly without flowers, which I noted.

A nice mix of Agave attenuata and Crassula ovata

Three bloomed-out Agaves with what I think is Pedilanthus bracteatus (aka tall slipper plant) in flower on the left.  I neglected to get a closeup of the latter.

Native California Heteromeles arbutifolia (aka toyon and Christmas berry).  The birds and I miss the large specimen that suddenly died in my garden several years ago.

Iresine herbstii 'Variegata'

My friend and I thought this tree was dead at first.  My phone's plant app identified it as Taxodium distichum (aka bald cypress)

Best wishes for a happy holiday week!  I'll share photos from the dinosaur exhibit later this week.

All material © 2012-2025 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party

In a Vase on Monday: Christmas cheer

I picked cheerful Christmas-y colors to see in the holiday week, depending heavily on stems of my Grevillea 'Superb', although the initial inspiration for the following arrangement was the zinnia flowers still blooming off and on in my cutting garden.  I pulled up my zinnia "crop" in October but missed two plants by accident.  Now that I've seen that they can produce flowers into December, next year I may purposely leave some tucked in corners to provide color while my cool season flowers are getting started.

Front view with Zinnia 'Benary's Giant Coral' front and center

Back view, showing off a couple of stems of a snapdragon planted as part of a mix of plugs in late October

Overhead view

Clockwise from the upper left: Agonis flexuosa 'Nana', noID Antirrhinum majus, Coprosma repens 'Plum Hussey', Grevillea 'Superb', Leucadendron 'Wilson's Wonder', and Zinnia elegans 'Benary's Giant Coral'

A handful of blue flowers called out to me this week too.  As we expect to see another atmospheric river flowing through Southern California beginning Tuesday evening and possibly extending into the weekend, I didn't hesitate to cut them to fill the small vase on our kitchen island.  The butterfly-like flowers of Rotheca myricoides 'Ugandense' in particular don't hold up well under pounding rain.  The rain is welcome here, even if a soggy Christmas isn't ideal.  However, I do hope it comes down gently so it doesn't worsen conditions in the burn or landslide areas.

Clockwise from the upper left: arrangement in place, overhead view, and closeups of Cistus ladanifer 'Blanche', noID Cyclamen, Rotheca myricoides 'Ugandense', and Salvia 'Mystic Spires'.  In retrospect, I should've used a softer foliage plant as a filler instead of the Cistus stems, but oh well.

For more IAVOM creations, visit our band leader, Cathy at Rambling in the Garden.

All material © 2012-2025 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party

Cat-proof Christmas Decorations

I skipped a Christmas tree last year for just the second time in my life.  It was a precautionary measure.  Following the loss of my seventeen year-old cat, I'd adopted a six-month old cat from a local shelter in late August.  Meeko wasn't as well-socialized as Pipig by a long shot and both my husband and I were concerned that she'd wreak havoc with a six-foot pine tree so we took a pass on that.  Meeko is calmer now but we were still concerned so I dressed this year's tree more simply, leaving the most fragile and treasured ornaments in their boxes.

My husband took the precaution of laying plywood under the tree and screwing the tree stand into the wood.  I used mostly unbreakable ornaments and skipped the usual ribbons.

There were only a few glass ornaments, none of which were precious and all of which were placed in the upper levels of the tree 

Meeko hasn't brought the tree down but her initial reaction, even before I'd rigged up the lights and added ornaments, was concerning.  As soon as she saw the tree standing in the living room (or possibly when she smelled it), she growled and her fur and tail fluffed up.  She took refuge in my home office and wouldn't come out, even hours later.  I considered locking her in my office or her catio overnight but I left her on her own and crossed my fingers.  She was still growling at the tree some the next morning but she felt safe enough to walk through the living room, although she did subsequently throw up her breakfast.  However, since I decorated the tree, she's become more comfortable with it.

All is well so far.  I caught her playing with a string of lights at one point but I tucked that string up a little higher and that hasn't been a problem since.  She also tried to get to the water in the tree stand but my husband fitted two pieces of cardboard over the water and clipped them together after she kept working to pull those covers off.  Somewhat to my surprise, I haven't seen her bat at a single ornament, nor try to climb the tree.  Maybe next year I can dress up the tree in my normal fashion.

I've kept the other indoor decorations relatively low-key too.

I had to use a step-ladder to put these wood pieces up above the door on the south end.  Meeko is an adept climber but even she can't reach that narrow ledge.

My Santa on a bike is also safe atop our grandfather clock

I did put up my faux tree in the front entryway again this year, using wood and plastic elements

Led by a Santa-like angel and Ms Ladybug, the ornaments set a garden theme

Even the outdoor decorations presented challenges this year.

My husband inevitably ends up with a crick in his neck when he strings our usual lights along the roof's edge.  To avoid that impact, I purchased a light projector.  It was easy to set up, aiming the lights at the Magnolia tree.  It was hard to capture its effect with my camera but I'm relatively pleased with it.  Blue, green, and red lights rotate both separately and together, admittedly looking a little like light bugs crawling the tree's trunk. 

With the pergola attached to the front entry removed, there's no longer anything to support the wreath (much less the garlands) I usually put there.  I tried setting up 2 poles on either side of the entryway to support smaller 20-inch wreaths but the poles weren't the same height and one was wobbly to start with.  This one ended up to the right of the door, decorated with a single bow and several cuttings of Leucadendron 'Safari Sunset'.

The second wreath ended up mounted over the window in the lath house with just a painted ornament and a small bow.  It could use more red but I no longer have any plants with red berries and I couldn't find my faux red berries.

The truth be told, I haven't thrown myself into the holiday season the way I usually do.  I don't blame that on Meeko or the changes made to the garden, though.  It's been hard to get in the spirit given the political nightmare that's virtually impossible to avoid and the misery spread by the inhabitants of the White House.  I'm hoping to see members of the party in power act rationally in the face of the issues of serious concern to the bulk of US citizens and develop the backbones to take action.  It's hard for me to believe they'll have many supporters if current circumstances continue, much less get worse every day.

I've got plans to attend the "Dino-mite" exhibit at South Coast Botanic Garden with a friend this weekend.  By the sound of it, it's not at all Christmas-y but it may be a good diversion.  I hope you find some fun in the weekend too.

All material © 2012-2025 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party

Wordless Wednesday: Coming in for a landing?

All material © 2012-2025 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party 

In a Vase on Monday: A Burst of Sunshine

Grevillea 'Peaches & Cream' called to me this week.  This Grevillea is another year-round bloomer but it produces nowhere near the number of flowers as its cousin 'Superb' so I don't often cut the flowers for a vase.  However, we've woken up to a dense marine layer for a few days now and I needed some sunshine to bring inside.

I couldn't bring myself to cut more than 2 stems of 'Peaches & Cream' but I filled in with yellow and white daisies, a few stems of an early blooming Narcissus, and some orange berries to echo the peachy tones in the Grevillea's flowers

Back view

Overhead view

Clockwise from the upper left: Agonis flexuosa 'Nana', Argyranthemum frutescens 'Mount Everest', A. f. 'Beauty Yellow', berries of Auranticarpa rhombifolium, Grevillea 'Peaches & Cream', and Narcissus tazetta 'Geranium'

I pulled together a few stems for a second smaller vase for the kitchen island too.

As there's not much to this one, I'm sharing just this photo of the vase in place, the overhead view shown below, and a collage showing closeups of the flowers.

 

Overhead view

From the upper left: noID Alstroemeria, Antirrhinum majus, Boronia crenulata 'Shark Bay', and a noID Dianthus barbatus

The marine layer delivered two-hundreths of an inch of precipitation over the past two days but there's still no prospect of significant rain in the forecast at least until January, and I'm not prepared to bet on that.  It's too bad Santa can't deliver rain!

For more IAVOM creations, stop in with Cathy at Rambling in the Garden.

All material © 2012-2025 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party  

Bloom Day - December 2025 (Early Edition)

It's holiday season and blog posts need to be crammed in wherever I can.  Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day, the long-running meme established by Carol of May Dreams Gardens, officially falls on December 15th but I took photos over the past week to fit it into my schedule.  My garden isn't showing off at its best this month but then that's to be expected, even in sunny Southern California.  It's been especially sunny and warm this week, with temperatures reaching into the low 80sF (27C) here along the coast.  Meanwhile, despite the monumental rain that's deluged the Pacific Northwest, there's been no rain here since late November and there's nothing showing in the extended forecast either.

As this month's lineup looks a lot like the one I showed in November, I'm going to start with this month's surprises.

This is Dermatobotrys saundersii (aka tree jockey).  Native to coastal forests in southern Africa, I picked it up as a small plant at a sale held by Huntington Garden many years ago.  I cut it back earlier this year after a poor showing in recent years and it's come back.  In the past it's bloomed in or around October but this year its bloom followed our rain in November.

My daylilies didn't do well in general this year but these 2, Hemerocallis 'For Pete's Sake' (left) and 'Spanish Harlem' (right), are blooming for a second time this year.  I'm getting one bloom at a time from each but I still appreciate them.

I planted Lachenalia viridiflora bulbs in a pot years ago but I'm delighted each and every year they pop up with their turquoise blooms 

Other plants that surprise me whenever they choose to show up include, clockwise from the upper left: Erigeron 'Wayne Roderick', green Eustoma grandiflorum, Hypoestes aristata (aka ribbon bush), and Vesalea floribunda (aka Mexican abelia)

Next up are the flowering plants making the biggest impact at the moment.

The 3 Camellia sasanqua shrubs that came with the garden are the most floriferous plants at the moment.  The shrub shown on the left and in closeup on the upper right may be 'October Magic Rose'.  The other 2 shrubs, represented by the closeup on the lower right, may be 'Early Wonder'.

Hybrid Aloe vanbalenii x ferox is just getting started.  There are several other species of aloes following close behind this one.

Argyranthemum frutescens springs into action during our cool season.  'Mount Everest' is on the left and 'Beauty Yellow' is on the right.

Correa pulchella 'Pink Eyre', shown on the left and in closeup on the upper right, is always the last of the Australian fuchsias to bloom.  Meanwhile, C. 'Ivory Bells', shown lower right, the first to bloom, is still in full flower.

Crassula ovata (aka jade plant)

Cuphea 'Starfire Pink' and C. 'Vermillionaire'

The flowers of Gomphrena decumbens 'Itsy Bitsy' (aka 'Little Grape') are tiny but abundant

We recently removed one of the 2 Leptospermum scoparium 'Pink Pearl' shrubs in my north-side garden but one remains, for now at least

The Pelargonium peltatum (aka ivy geraniums) bloom off and on all year but they're happiest during the cool season

Polygala myrtifolia (aka sweet pea shrub) also blooms year-round but prefers the cooler season

I continue to be thrilled with the blooms produced by Protea 'Claire'

There are a few plants already gearing up for a big display next month too.

The Aeonium arboreum are getting a start on their annual takeover of my garden.  I refer to them as my "Triffids," although unlike those fictional plants, they're not carnivorous.

The flowers of Grevillea 'Poorinda Leane' are still tightly in bud

while the first flowers of Metrosideros collina 'Springfire' have begun to open

I'll close as usual with the best of the rest, organized into color-related collages.

Clockwise from the upper left: Barleria obtusa (aka bush violet), Duranta erecta 'Sapphire Showers', Evolvulus glomeratus 'Beach Bum Blue', Felicia aethiopica, Lobelia erinus, and Salvia 'Mystic Spires'

 

From upper left: noID Gazania, Pelargonium x hortorum 'Bird Dancer', Pentas lanceolata, and Xerochrysum bracteatum

From upper left: Alstroemeria 'Claire', Dietes grandiflora, Narcissus papyraceus, and Fuchsia 'Windchimes White'

Top row: Chrysocephalum 'Desert Flame', Haemanthus albiflos, and Rudbeckia 'Juliana'
Middle: Aloe lukeana, Grevillea 'Superb', and Leonotis leonurus
Bottom: Gaillardia 'Spintop Copper Sun', Leucadendron 'Safari Sunset', and Zinnia 'Benary's Giant Coral'

That's a wrap for Bloom Day and for this week.  Enjoy your weekend!  For more GBBD posts, check in with Carol at May Dreams Gardens on Monday, December 15th.

All material © 2012-2025 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party