Wednesday Vignette: The good and the bad

As I suddenly have extra time on my hands, I spent a large part of yesterday in my garden.  I noticed a couple of interesting and unexpected things, one good and one bad.

On the good side, I nearly tripped over a plant that seemingly appeared overnight, Ferraria crispa, otherwise known as the Starfish Iris.

I planted 2 bulbs in 2016 and 2 more in 2019 but thus far only one plant has shown itself

I believe this must be one of the 2 I planted last year as the flower color is much different from the plants that grew from the original bulbs

The bulbs I planted last year came from a chain garden center with a label that said the flowers are a red/brown color, although the flower on the left looks more reddish purple to me.  The flowers that bloomed last year looked like the one on the right.  Hopefully bulb blooms in the lighter color will also make an appearance soon.

So that was a nice surprise.  In the not-nice category was this:

I wanted to believe that this pile of dirt and rock at the base of the stacked stone wall in the front garden was due to decomposition of the stone

My husband pointed out the gap between the stone wall and the mountain of dirt beside it, confirming my worst fear than a gopher has taken up residence.  One of our next door neighbors has battled them for years in her back lawn but I asked her not to send them in my direction in her effort to evict them...

Sadly, we all often have to accept the bad with the good.  We've had rain on and off for over a week now and there's still more in the near-term forecast.  That's good!  Our season-to-date total thus far here is 8.24 inches.  Not great but certainly better than it was at the start of the month.  And all three of my rain barrels are now full!  On the nightmarish, nearly unbelievable side is the novel coronavirus pandemic that has turned nearly everyone's life completely upside down, including my own.  I hope to discover a way to "encourage" Mr. Gopher to leave my garden for an empty lot or a nearby hiking trail, and I hope that our government and world leaders from other countries will find a way to halt the progress of the virus plaguing us.

If you have any suggestions for ridding a garden of gophers, please let me know.

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


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

Top Ten (New) Blooms - Late March 2019

Chloris of The Blooming Garden posts a monthly top 10 list of what's flowering in her garden and invites others to join in.  I don't routinely participate as what I'd cover would frequently be a rehash of what's covered in my mid-month Bloom Day post.  As my March 15th Bloom Day post was particularly extensive, bordering on obnoxious, another post featuring many of the same blooms might strike readers as overkill.  Hopefully, Chloris will forgive me if I put my own spin on her meme.  The focus of this post will be on my favorites among the newest blooms in my garden.  With a few exceptions, these are flowers that didn't start blooming until the second half of the month.  In Spring, when almost every day reveals a new jewel, it isn't all that hard to come up with 10 candidates.  In fact, I had several that I culled from the list for the purposes of this post.

In my mid-month Bloom Day post, I bemoaned the fact that some of my most flamboyant bulb blooms hadn't yet made an appearance.  That changed in the second half of the month.

I was delighted when the Dutch Iris (Iris x hollandica) I planted around our backyard fountain our first year here bloomed.  I was more delighted still when they came back year-after-year, stronger than they were the prior year.  I've planted more of these bulbs the past 2 years and look forward to seeing similar results from them.

Scilla peruviana (aka Portuguese Squill) was a haphazard bloomer for my first few years here but it's become more dependable the last few years, a sign that I should plant more of these bulbs as well

I planted Ferraria crispa (aka Starfish Iris), a South African bulb, in December 2016.  If memory serves me correctly, the 2 bulbs bloomed for the first time last year.  I was able to get seeds to germinate too but I expect it's going to be a few years before I get those seedlings to bloom.  In the meantime, I'm pleased to see my original plants return to bloom again this year.  The flowers are about the size of a quarter and last only a day but they're spectacular nonetheless. 

I featured a single photo of one Leucospermum bloom in my earlier post, which is all there was to show at that point.  I took a ridiculous number of photos of that one flower as the bloom slowly unfurled.  My obsession has continued since then as more flowers have begun to open.

I planted Leucospermum 'Brandi' in March 2016 after a few prior failures in growing plants in this genus.  This one produced its very first blooms last year.  This year, the shrub's produced more buds and larger blooms.  The mature bloom is roughly the size of my hand.  I have 3 other species of Leucospermums in the garden now, all with buds, but 'Brandi' is the first out the gate.

Narcissi of various types have been blooming in my garden since January but more appeared last week, my favorite of which is the Tazetta Daffodil, Narcissus 'Geranium'.

This one produces as many as 6 flowers on each stem, making each stem look like a bouquet all by itself

I inherited several Phlomis fruticosa (aka Jerusalem sage) with the garden but most of the shrubs have declined significantly in the last few years, presumably due to persistent drought and soaring summer-time temperatures.  I pulled a couple and hard-pruned the others about 2 months ago.  I didn't have high hopes that they'd rebound; however, at least 2 shrubs are making a good go at doing just that.

I love the soft yellow of the flowers, which always strike me as something Dr. Seuss might have drawn

My mid-month post featured a single photo of a Ranunculus, the only one of these in bloom at that time.  The tubers in my cutting garden suddenly got cracking during the second half of the month.

From one bloom to more than a dozen in matter of days

In addition to white and pink picotee varieties I planted a batch labeled "salmon."  I was concerned that the latter would all bloom in exactly the same shade but "salmon" seems to encompass a range of pinkish-orange colors.  I've had problems growing poppies but these strike me as great substitutes.

The next candidate for my top new blooms list is an odd one.  Some of you may find it homely but I find it very interesting.

This is Salvia africana lutea.  I picked up a small plant at my local botanic garden 3 years ago.  It's still a little less than 2 feet tall but it's blooming well this year.  The flower's shape and color is unusual.

My next "new" bloom doesn't really fit the category as I've described it thus far.  It blooms nearly continuously but it's so hard to photograph that I seldom feature it.  I cut it back a month ago and it's looking particularly good right now.  I also managed a half-way decent photo of it for once so here it is:

This is Lavandula multifida (aka fernleaf lavender).  The pale pink-flowered Coleonema behind it helped the thin flower spires stand out in the photograph on the left.  The blooms last a long time and they're very aromatic, although I don't like the scent as well as I do other lavenders.  Its chief values to me are its deep blue color and drought tolerance.

My last entry is a flowering tree I found blooming only yesterday.  Once I noticed the blooms on mine, I noticed the same species in bloom all over town, as if a bell sounded to call them out.

This is Cercis occidentalis (aka Western Redbud).  In my garden it wants to be a shrub, producing a lot of suckers at its base.  If it wasn't for this annual display of flowers, I'd probably pull both of mine out.

That's it for my top 10 blooms for the second part of March.  Visit Chloris at The Blooming Garden to discover what she and other gardeners are celebrating as Spring kicks off.  Check out my Bloom Day post if you want to see what else is blooming in my garden at the moment - our heavier-than-usual winter rains have created magic.


All material © 2012-2019 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party

The best laid plans...

Bulbs.  I consider them little miracles.  They come in unimpressive brown packages.  You pop them into the ground and, if you're like me, you promptly forget them.  Then months later, surprise!  Blooms appear.  And, if the bulb is well-suited to its spot, it returns annually thereafter.  I planted over 300 new bulbs back in October and a portion of those, plus others planted in prior years, began flowering over the past two weeks.  The only problem with bulbs is that you don't really know if you've got what you thought you bought until it blooms.

The area next to my backyard fountain is filled with plants flowering in shades of blue, purple, white and yellow.  I planted packages of blue Freesias.  That's not what I got.

The "blue" Freesias I scattered around my dwarf Jacaranda began blooming this week

With one exception, it appears all are a dark pink.  The exception is orange, an unusual color in Freesias.

Out front, in the area bordering our driveway, I planted blue and white double flowered Freesias.  Or so they were labeled.

This lovely blue bloom isn't really a double flowered variety but the blooms are large and the color is right

And there are a few white blooms but, once again, the majority appear to be pink

I usually pick Freesia bulbs out of open bins, where there's always the possibility that someone drops a bulb or two back into the wrong bin.  This year, I bought all of them in sealed packages of 20-25 bulbs.  Instead of helping ensure my color choices, it seems to have had the opposite effect.

On the other hand, I bought 3 packages of mixed Sparaxis bulbs, 120 bulbs in total.  Generally, I prefer to put together my own color mixes but I've never found Sparaxis sold locally in anything other than a bagged mix of white, pink, orange and red flowers and, on this occasion, that's exactly what I wanted.  However, thus far, every single one has bloomed in shades of orange.

The flower on the left is blooming on the front slope amid succulents, while those on the right border a bed in the back garden

So it looks as though I'll be moving some bulbs around at the end of their bloom periods.  I'll probably move the dark pink-flowered Freesias to the back border, which already has a lot of light pink bloomers planted in prior years.

All the light pink Freesia, including those planted this year as well as those planted in prior years, are mottled with white this year for some reason

An effect of the weather?  A virus?

Maybe I'll drop the stray orange Freesia in with the gold-flowered batch next to the patio.

Of course, if I moved the orange-flowered variety here, it'll clash badly with those lavender blooms

While my "blue" Freesias haven't met my expectation this year, the blue bloomers planted in prior years have delivered.

The Dutch Iris next to the fountain started blooming this week

and the Scilla peruviana still look great

The first batch of the new Narcissus I planted in October are also meeting expectations.

Narcissus 'Geranium'

And the lovely Ferraria crispa continues to produce new blooms each day to replace those that bloomed the prior day.

The blooms may be small and last just one day but they keep on coming

The Alliums have produced only foliage so far but the first of the Ranunculus, planted in shades of pink, white and purple, are just beginning to open.

Um, does that look purple to you?

Oh well.  Gardening presents an endless stream of surprises.  I hope your weekend brings some good ones.


All material © 2012-2018 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party

Wednesday Vignette: Delightful Discoveries

We've been riding a weather roller-coaster of late.  Our rainy season, which generally begins in October and ends in April, has failed to deliver much in the way of precipitation thus far.  January's high temperatures made it feel as though we'd fast-forwarded into summer.  Then a blast of arctic air sent temperatures plummeting in February, even serving up a brief flurry of hail last week.  We finally got a bit more rain Monday night, 0.15/inch at this location, enough to warrant turning off the irrigation system, at least temporarily.  According to our roof-top weather station, our seasonal total, measured from October 1, 2017, now stands at 1.6 inches, which may end up being something for the record books, albeit not in a good way.  Under the circumstances, it's not surprising that the garden isn't as floriferous as it was last year at this time, when it benefited from heavier-than-usual rain.  But, when I look carefully, there are still beautiful flowers to be found.

This is Ferraria crispa (aka Starfish Iris), a South African bulb.  I planted at least 2 of these in December 2016 but this is the only one that survived as far as I can see.  It's not supposed to bloom until late summer or fall in this hemisphere but it bloomed last February and here it is again.  The blooms are small and short-lived but precious nonetheless.

Scilla peruviana is blooming again too!  It's a finicky bulb, which has gone years without blooming in the past but this is the second year in a row it's made an appearance.  Despite its name, it's native to the Mediterranean areas of southwestern Europe.  Apparently, it was sent to England on a ship named "The Peru," which is how it came by its name.

Ipheion uniflorum, a South American native, has produced a flower here or there for the past month but now the tiny bulbs are blooming in earnest

The noID Narcissus I planted my first year here are starting to bloom

And the Narcissus tazetta 'Geranium' bulbs I planted this past fall have produced their first flower too.  It's known for producing multiple flowers on a single stem and you can see that other flowers are preparing to push their way toward the sun in this photo.

Veltheimia bracteata, another South African bulb, has also returned to flower this year

While I may not have the blooms I had last year at this time, I know I have a larger head-start on spring than many areas of the country so I'm not complaining.  More rain is expected tomorrow night too.  My fingers are crossed that this will help keep 2018 out of the record books as the driest year on record for Los Angeles.

To close, here's a shot of a second Ferraria bloom, which opened just this morning.

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


All material © 2012-2018 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party