Wednesday Vignette: Rare Sightings

Although our temperatures have fallen a few degrees this week, it's still been very warm here and humidity has been unusually high, which continues to make working outside uncomfortable.  California is known for dry heat but this tropical bent has become increasingly common year-to-year.  I've still managed to get in a little time in the garden but I haven't tackled any new projects or planted anything new, with the exception of a large sunflower I popped into a pot on the patio to replace a plant that had seen better days.

I've continued to take photos in the garden, though, and my Wednesday Vignette this week focuses on some unusual sights.  The first is the flower of Drimia maritima, aka sea squill (formerly Urginea maritima).  I've admired the foliage of this drought-tolerant plant at my local botanic garden for some time but had the devil of a time finding the bulb at a reasonable price.  I finally succeeded last year and, even though I'd understood the bulb was large, I was surprised by its nearly bowling ball size and how heavy it was.  I planted it in the driest area of my dry back slope, an area that receives no irrigation, and somewhat to my surprise it produced foliage over the winter months.  The foliage died back in the spring but a flower stalk appeared this month.

I snapped this photo of the plant's foliage on New Year's Day.  The plant should get much larger with more years in the ground.

The flower stalk was just beginning to emerge in mid-August.  I hadn't expected flowers at all this year but checked on it after reading a couple of posts from others who had flowers.  Because of run-ins with fire ants, I've been avoiding my back slope this summer but I suited up to protect myself and checked on the flower stalk again on Saturday.  It had grown taller but was light on open florets.

I checked it again yesterday.  It's even taller and florets are opening at a steady pace but the lower flowers are shriveling as new ones appear.  The bees love it regardless.  It's not a display like the one you see here but I have high hopes for it in the future and I'm seriously considering buying one or two more bulbs.

The second surprise in my garden came in the form of a bloom on one of the Epiphyllums growing in my lath house.  I have three plants, only two of which are identified in my records and I originally thought the one with the flower bud was 'Monastery Pink' but, as the bud developed, I realized I was wrong.

I subsequently concluded that this is Epiphyllum oxypetalum 'Queen of the Night'

I'd been checking on the bud every couple of days, looking for a full-blown bloom, but once I correctly identified it, I realized I was going to have a hard time getting a photo of it in bloom.  According to online resources, it rarely blooms and, when it does, it opens only at night and, once that happens, it wilts.

The referenced resource says it may be seen in bloom as early as 8pm but the best hours to catch it are between midnight and 3am!  I took this photo at 8pm, and checked it again at 9pm and just after 11pm.  There was no sign of any change.  Conceivably, it's already bloomed and this is it in its wilted state but I see no sign of it shriveling; however, I'm not sure how many nights I'm prepared to trot down to the lath house in the dark with a flashlight and camera.

So a photo of the 'Queen of the Night' cactus flower may not materialize this year but, as I was passing through the cutting garden late yesterday afternoon, I caught a rare photo of one of the many hummingbirds that buzz through my garden all day every day.

This little lady (I suspect it's a female but I'm not sure) had just chased away a competitor seeking access to "her" cutting garden and was still on guard watching to see if it returned.  It did and she set off on a chase.

Little things like these add elements of joy to days that often feel mundane and repetitious (or infuriating) these days.  I'll end this post with another thing the brought me joy this week, the new pot of sunflowers on our back patio.

Although I have sunflowers growing elsewhere, I couldn't resist a pot of Helianthus 'Sunfinity' on my trip to the garden center for fertilizer last Friday.  I evicted the sad plant that had occupied the pot and replaced it with this, photographed here through my kitchen window.

Here's another view from the garden, where the sunflowers echo the bright color of Lantana 'Samantha' in the foreground

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

All material © 2012-2020 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party

The Aloes are blooming

Well, only one of my own Aloes is blooming but most of mine are small specimens.  However, I popped in at the South Coast Botanic Garden last last week to check on their collection.  SCBG extended their Desert Garden to include a larger collection of Aloes last year and, as many of these plants bloom during the winter months when flowers are otherwise scarce, I thought this would be a good opportunity to check on how the new plants are coming along.

This Aloe arborescens was already well-established in the older section of the Desert Garden.  In bloom it lives up to its common names of Candelabra Aloe and Torch Aloe.

Aloe 'David Verity', a hybrid of Aloe arborescens, is perhaps my favorite with its red and yellow blooms

I love Aloe 'Erik the Red' as much for its foliage color as its flower.  The specimens at SCBG are all still small.  This one was just starting to bloom.  This hybrid is a complex mix of 4 Aloe species.

This is the yellow-flowered form of Aloe maculata, aka Soap Aloe

I couldn't identify this one Identified by Diana Studer as Aloiampelos ciliaris, aka Climbing Aloe

Looking like something out of a story by Dr Seuss, this is Aloe pluridens, aka French Aloe

This is Aloe 'Rooikappie', a low-growing variety that blooms off and on year-round.  I have a couple of these in my own garden but mine have never produced this many blooms at one time.

Aloe 'Spiney' was also bred by David Verity.  Its foliage is covered with teeth.

The garden has a wide mass planting of Aloe vanbalenii.  Since my hybrid Aloe ferox x vanbalenii came from SCBG, I'm guessing one of these may be its parent.

While I was at SCBG, I also took a quick spin through the older section of the Desert Garden.  Here are some of the highlights:

Not the best photo but the dark Aeoniums glowed ruby-red here

This is a Boojum tree (Fouquieria columnaris), another plant well-suited to a Dr Seuss story

Stenocereus griseus, which always makes me think of a sea creature (a prickly one)

Drimia maritima, aka sea squill, isn't a succulent but I found these low-water plants growing in the Desert Garden anyway.  I love their leaves, which looked great here backlit by the sun.  I've coveted this plant for a long time but the bulbs were hard to find.

However, I finally found one at a relatively reasonable price last year.  The bulb was huge and heavy.  I planted it on my back slope, where my raccoon friends promptly dug it up and tossed it aside.  I replanted it and stuck a wire cage over it.  Now that the plant's foliage has emerged I've removed the cage and left it to fend for itself.

Whatever your weather this weekend, I hope you manage to find some bright color to liven it up.


All material © 2012-2020 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party