Fall Standouts

Los Angeles County authorities have posted an "extreme" red flag (fire) warning this morning and with the wind already blowing like a banshee and humidity levels dropping by the minute, work in the garden isn't a viable option.   Time to focus on some of the pretty pictures I've taken over the past two days!

With the dahlia season clearly over, my fall garden has few standouts when it comes to flowers.  There are a few notable exceptions.

This is Barleria obtusa (aka the bush violet).  I picked up a couple of plants at one of South Coast Botanic Garden's fall plant sales years ago and they've bulked up and freely self-seeded.  After showing just a few flowers last week, they've suddenly burst into bloom in my back garden.  I imagine that the clumps in my front garden will follow suit soon.

Senna bicapsularis (aka Winter Senna) also threw out a few tentative flowers before powering up a full-fledged bloom-fest

Plectranthus ciliatus 'Zulu Wonder' is still keeping things low-key but I appreciate every graceful flower spike it produces, as well as those fragrant quilted leaves

Persimmon 'Hachiya' obviously isn't a flower but I'm impressed that I actually have some fruit this year.  I watched a greedy squirrel scamper off carrying a whole persimmon in its mouth yesterday so I don't expect them to last long.

While making a quick round of South Coast Botanic Garden on Monday in preparation for a tour I was scheduled to conduct on Tuesday, I snapped a few photos of plants that stood out there too.

 The Silk Floss trees (Ceiba speciosa) are the most dominant features of the garden at the moment

There are still some single-petaled dahlias to be found.  I believe this one is called Dahlia 'Mystic Spirit'.

This is a very interesting vine I can't remember coming across before.  It goes by the common names of orchid vine (for the yellow orchid-like blooms shown in the photo on the left) and butterfly vine (for the lime-green butterfly-like seed pods, fading to tan as they mature, as shown more clearly on the right).  The plant's botanical name is Mascagnia macropterum (syn. Callaeum macropterum).  I recently received some seed pods from a thoughtful blogger friend and will have a go at growing it.

My guess was that this is Persicaria orientalis, which goes by the fanciful common name of Kiss Me Over the Garden Gate, but I'm no longer sure of that ID.  Can anyone confirm or correct this ID?  This is Antignon leptopus, aka coral vine, a native of Mexico.  Thanks for the ID, Susan!

While I was at the botanic garden I thought I'd try to grab photos of the sculptures on loan from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) as I'd captured only one during a prior visit.  All six of the LACMA sculptures have been placed in the "back 40" (acres) of the garden to entice visitors to wander deeper into the grounds.  That proved to be a longer hike than I had time for but I managed to photograph three more.

This is Firestone by Peter Voulkos

This is Trace by Nancy Graves, which is perhaps my favorite of the sculptures the garden has on display

This is One on One by Richard Artschwager.  It seems to be the odds-on favorite of children as I've never seen it without children climbing all over it.

The sculptures do seem to be increasing traffic in the back area of the garden, which is great.  Restoring/reconstructing the lake would also give the garden a major boost but that's a longer-term project on the botanic garden's master plan.

What's grabbing your attention in the garden as October comes to a close?


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

Bloom Day - October 2019

My summer flowers are slowly fading but my traditional autumn bloomers have been slow to make an appearance.

The newest arrivals are these:

The Anemone hupensis japonica came with the garden and aren't prolific bloomers in my climate but I love them just the same

Cuttings of this Plectranthus ciliatus 'Zulu Wonder' came with me from my former garden.  It's one of my favorite plants but needs a good bit of shade - and it doesn't much like being trod on by construction workers.

This is a Salvia leucantha 'Santa Barbara' I thought had died.  If you look carefully at the stem in the middle, you'll see a lurking crab spider.  They're suddenly everywhere in my garden.

Senna bicapsularis finally produced its first blooms this past weekend.  Despite a hard pruning earlier in the year, the stems are very tall, making the flowers hard to photograph.

The flowers of Vitex trifolia aren't especially impressive but the shrub itself, bearing leaves with purple undersides, is attractive

My cutting garden is still the source of the majority of my flowers.  If the following photos look familiar, that's probably because you saw very similar ones last month.

The dahlias are the flashiest denizens of the cutting garden
Top row: Dahlias 'Bluetiful', 'Enchantress' and 'Hollyhill Karen Lee'
Middle row: 'Citron du Cap', 'Labyrinth' and 'Terracotta'
Bottom row: 'Otto's Thrill' and 'Punkin Spice' (Only 'Diva' is a no-show right now)

I can't put names to most of the Zinnia elegans currently in bloom so I'll let them all go incognito

Other cutting garden blooms include: noID Cosmos bipinnatus (top), Amaranthis caudatus (bottom left) and Rudbeckia 'Denver Daisy' (bottom right)

Elsewhere in the garden, a few of the plants that bloomed earlier in the year are responding to our cooler nights with another flush of flowers.

From left to right: Bauhinia x blakeana, Leptospermum scoparium 'Pink Pearl' and Leonotis leonurus

Meanwhile a variety of stalwarts continue to put on a good show.

Abelia grandiflora 'Hopley's Variegated' is having a very good year

This bed, dominated to Pennisetum 'Rubrum', Lantana 'Lucky White' and Grevillea 'Peaches & Cream', has stood up really well against the construction mess associated with our ongoing remodeling project 

Although closer to the action, this bed containing Grevillea 'Superb' and Cuphea 'Vermillionaire' has also done remarkably well

Some of my Leucadendrons, 'Devil's Blush' (left) and 'Winter Red' (right), are continuing to put on good imitations of flowers

Pennisetum 'Rubrum' is such a star it deserves a second look

I'll wrap up as usual with the flowers keeping a lower profile this month.

Top row: Delphinium elatum, Eustoma grandiflorum, and noID Lantana
Middle row: Lavandula multifida, Plumbago auriculata 'Imperial Blue' and Polygala fruticosa
Bottom row: Salvia 'Mystic Spires', Trichostemma 'Midnight Magic' and Wahlenbergia 'Blue Cloud'

Top row: Aloe 'Rooikappie', Alstromeria 'Indian Summer' and Lantana camara 'Irene'
Middle row: Euryops chrysanthemum 'Sonnenschein', Correa 'Ivory Bells' and Clematis paniculata
Bottom row: Pandorea jasminoides, Phylica pubescens and Zephyranthes candida

Top row: Correa 'Wyn's Wonder', Grevillea 'Ned Kelly' and Pentas lanceolata 'Graffiti Pink'
Middle row: Hemerocallis 'Plum Perfect' (another bloom spike!) and Penstemon mexicali 'Mini-Bells Red'
Bottom row: Rosa 'Pink Meidiland' and Salvia canariensis

For more Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day posts, check in with Carol at May Dreams Gardens.


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

In a Vase on Monday: Windfalls

I'm afraid there are yet more dahlias in my vases this week.  I've been on the look out for new fall blooms but the usual suspects have been slow to appear.  Unfortunately, our Santa Ana winds have shown up right on schedule, bringing yet another round of wildfires.  The winds cause humidity levels to plummet and snap tall, top-heavy dahlia blooms.  Salvaging the blooms for use in a vase is preferable to throwing them in the trash.

This week I decided to photograph my vases in the new but still unfinished kitchen.  The cabinets have been painted and the countertops are installed but there's no electric lighting yet.

The tall stem in the center of the arrangement is showing off the first blooms of Senna bicapsularis

Top view

Clockwise from the upper left: Dahlias 'Citron du Cap', 'Labyrinth' and 'Otto's Thrill'; Coleonema pulchellum 'Sunset Gold'; Lantana 'Lucky White'; Leptospermum scoparium 'Pink Pearl'; and, in the center, Senna bicapsularis

I managed to create one vase using "new" material.

The graceful lavender racemes shown here are Plectranthus 'Zulu Wonder', one of my favorite fall bloomers.  One of my plants has been trashed during our remodeling process but the other is looking good.

I also added a few stems of Anemone hupensis japonica, not a prolific bloomer here but always welcome

Top view showing off some late-blooming lavender lisianthus (Eustoma grandiflorum).  According to the nursery tags, this variety was supposed to have had reddish-brown flowers.

Clockwise from the upper left: Anemone hupensis japonica, Euryops chrysanthemoides 'Sonnenschein', Eustoma grandiflorum, and Plectranthus ciliatus 'Zulu Wonder'

Dahlia 'Punkin Spice' has had lots of attention the past few weeks but she's too pretty to allow to wither in the wind either so I threw some of those blooms into a third vase.

The only embellishment I added to the dahlia blooms was 2 stems of Duranta repens 'Gold Mound'

'Punkin Spice' can vary dramatically in color as these 2 photos show

The wind was still blowing in my location last night but the fire situation in Southern California has improved overall.  The Sandalwood Fire, which covered 1000 acres, killed 2 people and burned 74 structures, is near full containment.  The Saddleridge Fire resulted in evacuation orders affecting 100,000 people, spread over 8000 acres, contributed to one death, and burned 31 structures.  It's also blown smoke and ash over a wide area of Los Angeles County, including my own area.  It's 41% contained as of the last report.

For more Monday vases, visit Cathy at Rambling in the Garden.

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

In a Vase on Monday: Bidding adieux to my dahlias and zinnias

I'd hoped that I could keep the dahlias and zinnias in my cutting garden going until the end of the month but last week's Santa Ana winds, also known as "devil winds," knocked out the blooms of all but one variety of the dahlias and badly dried out the zinnias.  That's not to suggest that these plants were looking great before the wind arrived.  The dahlia blooms had steadily decreased in size; weak stems caused most of the flowers to flop; and leaf-miner had begun to badly mar the foliage.  The zinnias' foliage has mildewed and foraging raccoons have already trampled some of the plants.  So, with one possible exception, I expect to pull all those plants this week to make way for my winter cutting garden.  It's already running late to sow sweet pea seeds here and I have a number of other seeds I'd like to direct sow, as well as ranunculus corms that need planting.

I'll store the dahlia tubers for use next year but I want to bid them a fond farewell for the season.  Despite the hot, dry winds that blew all last week, Dahlia 'Punkin Spice' manged to produce another bumper crop of flowers.  As the foliage I used in last week's vase was still in good shape, I've reused it for my first vase this week, simply refreshing the floral elements.

'Punkin Spice' was the best performer among this year's dahlia crop in my cutting garden

Last week's vase containing these dahlias had landed on my dining table so I'd planned to move this week's version to the front entry but, as the back view looks so good, I had to give it a position where it can be viewed from all sides

This view from the top highlights the variations in the dahlias' petal color

Clockwise from the upper left: Agonis flexuosa 'Nana', berries of Auranticarpa rhombifolium (now splitting to reveal the seeds inside), Leucadendron 'Wilson's Wonder', gold Zinnia elegans (looking just a little like sunflowers), an assortment of other Zinnias, and 2 views of Dahlia 'Punkin Spice' (again showing off its color variations)

The berry and wine-colored zinnias were also still blooming well, even if the foliage looks horrible, so I cut most of those for a second vase.

In retrospect, these flowers might have looked better in a vase that allowed a looser arrangement

The back view shows off the Leptospermum flowers that began blooming in earnest again this past week

Top view

Clockwise from the upper left: Zinnia elegans, Coprosma repens 'Plum Hussey', Gomphreana decumbens 'Itsy Bitsy', Pentas 'Kaleidoscope Appleblossom' and Leptospermum scoparium 'Pink Pearl'

The bush violets (Barleria obtusa) began blooming last week so I decided to make use of them and my beloved Plectranthus 'Zulu Wonder' before their relatively short bloom periods are over.

I had a few more lisianthus (Eustoma grandiflorum) make an appearance following our recent rainstorm

The bush violets drop continuously but luckily those in bud continue to open

Top view

Clockwise from the upper left: Barleria obtusa, 4 varieties of Eustoma grandiflorum (the darkest one is 'Black Pearl' but I don't have cultivar IDs for the others), Symphyotrichum chilense, and, in the center, Plectranthus ciliatus 'Zulu Wonder'

Visit Cathy at Rambling in the Garden to find other IAVOM arrangements created from materials on hand.  Have a colorful week!

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