Bloom Day - December 2017

I pushed off my holiday preparations this year and, as I'm now feeling the crunch, I didn't have as much time to commit to my usual Bloom Day recordkeeping this month.  The exceptionally dry, windy weather we've been experiencing didn't help matters either.  In the interest of expediency, I relied in large part on photos I've taken here and there during December and have thrown a lot of these into collages.

I'll start off as usual with the plants delivering the biggest or most unexpected punches of color.

While the Hong Kong orchid tree (Bauhinia x blakeana) has been producing flowers since September, I don't think I've ever seen it covered by as many flowers as it has this month.  I'd thought it preferred moist air but, given that this month has been anything but moist, I guess I was wrong.  I took the photo on the left on Sunday when a sunset set the clouds aglow.  The close-up photo on the right was taken under sunny skies 2 days ago.

Camellia sasanqua does NOT appreciate single-digit humidity levels.  While blooms shrivel in record time once they open, it's a testimonial to the protection provided by this area tucked against the north side of the house that they bloom at all.  I've no IDs for these cultivars, which came with the house.

I picked up this new-to-me shrub, Dermatobotrys saundersii, at the Huntington Gardens fall plant sale based solely on its leaves and the description on its plant tag.  Within weeks of planting it in this large pot, it began dropping all its leaves.  I was sure I'd killed it until the lovely coral flowers and new set of leaves shown here began to appear.

Lotus jacobaeus has grown dramatically since I planted it from a 4-inch pot in July.  I've been surprised at how well it stood up to the dry winds we've experienced over the past 2 weeks.

Metrosideros collina 'Springfire' surprised me by blooming in December, when I expected blooms in, well, spring!  Planted in February of this year, it's still small.  At maturity, it should reach 12 feet tall (or taller).

A few plants paid unexpected return visits this month too.

My Lisianthus (Eustoma grandiflora) pooped out earlier than usual this year but a few blue blooms and a single pink one offered unexpected encores in December

I've also had a smattering of rose blooms this month.  From left to right: 'Joseph's Coat', 'Medallion' and a noID white variety

Here are some collages, organized by color, of other plants that managed to produce blooms despite our unusually warm, windy and arid December weather.

Top row: Erigeron glauca 'Wayne Roderick', Gomphrena decumbens 'Itsy Bitsy', and Helleborus 'Blue Lady'
Middle row: Lobelia erinus 'Crystal Palace', Ocimum hybrid 'African Blue Basil', and Osteospermum '4D Silver'
Bottom row: Polygala myrtifolia 'Mariposa', Tibouchina urvilleana, and Viola 'Matrix Midnight Glow'

Top row: Arbutus 'Marina', Arctotis 'Pink Sugar', and Argyranthemum frutescens
Middle row: Correa pulchella 'Pink Eyre', Cuphea 'Starfire Pink' (with a monarch butterfly), and Leptospermum scoparium 'Pink Pearl'
Bottow row: Osteospermum 'Berry White', Pelargonium peltatum 'Pink Blizzard', and Pentas 'Kaleidoscope Appleblossom'

Top row: Argyranthemum frutescens 'Go Daisy Mega White', flowers of Asparagus fern, and Gaillardia 'Fanfare Citronella'
Middle row: Lantana 'Lucky White', Leucanthemum x superbum, and Mandevillea 'Sun Parasol Apricot'
Bottom row: noID Osteospermum, Tagetes lemmonii, and primrose yellow Viola

Top row: Alstroemeria 'Indian Summer', Bignonia capreolata, and Gaillardia 'Arizona Sun'
Middle row: Grevilleas 'Ned Kelly', 'Superb', and 'Peaches & Cream'
Bottom row: Grevillea alpina x rosmarinifolia, G. 'Scarlet Sprite', and Hemerocallis 'Spanish Harlem'

Various succulents are also throwing up blooms, including (clockwise from the upper left): Aloe deltoideodonta, Aloe 'Johnson's Hybrid', Bryophyllum fedtschenkoi, Echeveria 'Serrana' and Faucaria tigrina

I'll close with a shot of my largest Pennisetum, no longer at its prime but still showing off its inflorescences.

Pennisetum advena 'Rubrum', still catching the sunlight beautifully in the front garden

Visit Carol at May Dreams Gardens for more Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day posts.


All material © 2012-2017 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party

Pleasant surprises (and a Wednesday Vignette)

Unless I have a very early appointment, I usually stroll through the garden every morning.  My most common discoveries are uprooted plants and holes dug by raccoons, skunks or squirrels.  But occasionally I have a pleasant surprise.  This was one:

This is a flower on Dermatobotrys saundersii, a plant I picked up at The Huntington Garden's fall sale in late October.  I placed the plant in a large pot in a moderately shady spot in my new bromeliad garden early this month.

This photo, taken November 2nd, shows what the plant looked like shortly after I potted it up

During the last heatwave, I noticed that it'd dropped a large number of its leaves.  I wasn't sure if that was a response to the heat, the sharp drop in humidity, too much shade or too little, or watering errors on my part but the leaves continued to drop and I feared I'd killed the plant.  Then it began to produce flowers and show the first signs of producing new leaves.  Hurrah!

This is what the plant looks like now.  It has relatively few leaves but lots of flower buds.  It turns out that the plant is semi-deciduous.  I learned a lot more about it through on-line references after the flowers appeared, including that it's considered at risk of extinction, that its fruits are considered edible, but also that the USDA classifies it as poisonous.

But those weren't the only flowers that came as a surprise.  There are a few more.

Echeveria 'Serrana' has bloomed.  I was attracted to the succulent's dark maroon foliage but its bright orange flowers are attractive too.  I don't always like succulent flowers but these are definitely an exception.

Some of my Eustoma grandiflorum (Lisianthus) are producing new flower buds too.  In late summer and early fall, the buds of many plants withered in place.  I pulled many of the plants up, tossing quite a few out, including what I thought were all of the pink-flowering varieties, which performed poorly this year.  Apparently, I missed at least one.

To top things off, as I was taking photos this morning, I ran into a visitor.

A Monarch butterfly!  She flitted all around the 2 Arbutus 'Marina' in the back garden but I never captured a good photo with her wings open.  Annoyed by my presence, she moved on to flowers higher up in the trees so I left her in peace.  She's my Wednesday Vignette.

I also left a surprise for my neighbors this morning.

Despite giving away bags and bags of lemons to friends over the last several weeks and dropping off a couple more at my next door neighbor's door, the tree down at the bottom of our back slope remained heavily laden with fruit, straining some of the branches.  I decided to lighten its load by giving some of it away and left 2 buckets of lemons at our driveway entrance early this morning.

Three-quarters of it was gone in less than an hour

For more Wednesday Vignettes, visit our host, Anna of Flutter & Hum.


All material © 2012-2017 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party