Bloom Day - November 2022

While the volume of flowers in my November garden feels less than it should be at this time of year, when I compared the plants in a starring role this month to those I showcased in November 2021 and 2020, the list isn't much different.

Let's start with the plants putting on the best show at the moment.

The 4 Arbutus 'Marina' (strawberry trees) in my garden are laden with flowers.  The hummingbirds are currently at war over access to them.

The Barleria obtusa (bush violets) got an earlier start this year with the first flowers appearing in October but they're still colorful, if showing the first signs of wear

Bauhinia x blakeana (the Hong Kong orchid tree) begins producing flowers as soon as temperatures drop in the fall.  Most of the flowers are well above my head but occasionally one hangs low enough to allow me a closeup photo.

As the Camellia sasanqua shrubs were impacted by our recent water pipe replacement project, I was worried that their normal flowering schedule would be impacted but the flowers have appeared as usual, if in somewhat reduced numbers.  There are 2 varieties, similar in color, but I'm not able to identify either as they were here before I was.

Correa, commonly known as Australian fuchsias, aren't easy to photograph as the flowers are often hidden by leaves but they're also reliable fall bloomers.  From left to right are varieties 'Dusky Bells', 'Ivory Bells', and 'Wyn's Wonder'.

Euryops chrysanthemoides 'Sonnenschein' blooms on an erratic schedule seemingly correlated with our unpredictable rainfall

In a departure from the norms of my garden, I've buds but no flowers from Grevillea 'Peaches & Cream' to share this month; however, Grevillea alpina x rosmarinifolia and G. 'Poorinda Leane' (top row) are getting started and of course G. 'Superb' (bottom row) is putting on its regular show

The Leucadendrons are doing their best to fill in for flowers.  Clockwise from the left are Leucadendron 'Safari Sunset' with L. 'Blush', a closer look at L. salignum 'Blush', and L. s. 'Summer Red'

'

Most of the Osteospermums are taking their time recovering from the hot, dry summer but O. '4D Violet Ice' is ahead of the pack

Pelargonium peltatum (ivy geraniums) also appreciate cooler temperatures

Despite my efforts to control its height and shape, Senna bicapsularis is once again reaching gangly limbs into the sky.  This is a host plant for the cloudless sulphur butterfly (Phoebis sennae).

Tagetes lemmonii (aka copper canyon daisy) is off to a slower start this year

Some people sneer at the scent of Tulbaghia violacea (society garlic) but it's a vigorous drought-tolerant plant and it produces fresh blooms every time I deadhead it

As usual, the garden presents a few surprises.

Dahlia 'Lavender Ruffles' is still blooming while all its brethren have been tucked away in the garage to wait out their dormant period

Planted from a small pot received by mail order 2 years ago, Medinilla myriantha (aka Malaysian orchid) has produced its first bloom stalk

My roses have done terribly this year but, following the recent rains, this noID lavender-pink variety produced a single small bloom

 

The flowers in the background are sparser than they were in 2020 and 2021 but they're still worth recognizing.  Here they are in collages organized by color.

Clockwise from the upper left: noID Duranta erecta, Felicia aethiopica, Hebe 'Grace Kelly', Lavandula multifida, noID Phalaenopsis, and Vitex trifolia 'Purpurea'

Clockwise from the upper left: Cuphea 'Starfire Pink', Persicaria capitata, noID Cyclamen, and Gomphrena decumbens 'Itsy Bitsy'

Clockwise again: Achillea ptarmica, noID Angelonia, Argyranthemum frutescens 'White Butterfly', and Westringia fruticosa 'Morning Light'

Clockwise: Achillea 'Moonshine', Berlandiera lyrata (chocolate daisy), Gaillardia 'Arizona Sun', G. 'Spintop Copper Sun', Gazania 'Gold Flame', Lantana 'Irene', and Pennisetum advena 'Rubrum'

 

For more Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day posts, visit our host, Carol of May Dreams Gardens.

All material © 2012-2022 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party

In a Vase on Monday: Gather ye rosebuds while ye may*

First and foremost, I want to recognize Cathy's 9th anniversary of the In a Vase on Monday meme.  To keep a meme running and fresh for that period of time is an achievement in itself.  To pull people together in a supportive network from different backgrounds, climates, and countries is stellar.  Thank you, Cathy!  Thanks as well for pulling together the first, and possibly not the last, virtual meeting of IAVOM participants.  It was wonderful to put a face and a voice to some of you I've exchanged messages with for years.

Now, for today's vases, I should note that there are no true rosebuds to be found in my post this week.  My garden is at low ebb when it comes to flowers at this time of year and it's been a disappointing year in general with respect to roses.  However, some Leucadendrons, which have colorful bracts rather than true flowers, provide a facsimile of rosebuds and I made use of them in a starring role in my first arrangement.

I added a succulent Aeonium rosette to serve as the focal "flower" in this arrangement

Back view: The velvety burgundy leaves of the coleus, Plectranthus scutellarioides 'Vino', provided color contrast

Top view showing off the "rosebuds" of Leucadendron 'Blush'

Clockwise from the upper left: Aeonium haworthii 'Kiwi', Leucadendron salignum 'Blush', Correa 'Dusky Bells', variegated Correa 'Wyn's Wonder', and Plectranthus scutellarioides 'Vino'

 

I put together the first arrangement on Saturday afternoon to share during Sunday's Zoom call, which was held at 9am Pacific Time.  I cut a few other flowers late Sunday morning for a second arrangement (as I'm prone to do).

My original Dahlia 'Lavender Ruffles' (as opposed to the other one that produced its first and only flowers in late October) is still producing fresh foliage and buds but the flowers are opening very slowly

Back view: The addition of the Persicaria capitata foliage helps to give the arrangement an autumnal flair (at least to my eyes in a part of the world where colorful fall foliage is an anomaly)

Top view: The dark green foliage is Pelargonium graveolens 'Bontrosai'.  Both the stems and the leaves are naturally twisted.  The foliage has a strong lemon-rose scent.

Clockwise from the upper left: Dahlia 'Lavender Ruffles', Hebe 'Grace Kelly, Pelargonium peltatum, Nemesia 'Banana Swirl', Persicaria capitata, Prostanthera ovalifolia 'Variegata', and Pelargonium graveolens 'Bontrosai'

 

Cutting flowers has been a ritual for me for many years but prior to my discovery of IAVOM I did that on a haphazard schedule.  Now it's something of a Sunday ritual, one that both my husband and my friends respect.  It's an opportunity to focus on the beauty of my garden (even when it isn't especially forthcoming with flowers) and to assess what needs work at the same time.  Cutting, arranging, and photographing flowers and foliage also provides me a deeper understanding of the plants, which is valuable in itself.  Altogether, IAVOM is a win-win.

 

To find Cathy's own arrangement and those of other contributors, check in with her at Rambling in the Garden.

*  "Gather ye rosebuds while ye may" is the first line of the poem 'To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time' by the 17th century English poet, Robert Herrick.  The entire poem can be found here.

All material © 2012-2022 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party

Fall plant shopping trip

A friend and I made our biannual trip north to shop for plants last weekend, visiting three of our favorite garden centers in Carpinteria and Santa Barbara.  While I didn't come home entirely empty-handed, my purchases were relatively light this time.  That's at least partly attributable to the supply of plants I accumulated during the summer months and only planted out as temperatures dropped, as well as all the areas I recently filled with bulbs.

Most of my photos were taken at our first stop, Seaside Gardens in Carpinteria.  My photos focused primarily on Seaside's expansive demonstration gardens.

My friend and I were greeted by the garden center's cat, Oreo, as soon as we got out of the car

The Cottage Garden was exploding with blue-flowered Salvias and a few roses

Serene scenes from the Grasslands area

Even in November, the South African section was colorful, courtesy of Leonotis leonurus and Kniphofia

Protea 'Pink Ice' was in bloom too

The Succulent Garden always looks good.  I immediately noticed all the Agave gypsophila 'Ivory Curls' and assumed they'd been planted since my last visit in February but, after checking my prior photos, it seems the plants were there, albeit noticeably smaller.

Clockwise from the upper left: A mass of Agave bracteosa (squid agave), Agave attentuata (foxtail agave), and a closeup of Agave gypsophila 'Ivory Curls'

A variety of Aloes on the left and a closeup of new-to-me Aloe eminensis, which I understand is a tree aloe now classified as Aloidendron eminens

Other succulents that caught my eye included Euphorbia caput-medusae, Myrtillocactus geometrozans, and Pedilanthus bracteosa

This is my only photo from the South American Garden and the light wasn't favorable but I had to take notice of the fact that this Russelia equisetiformis (firecracker plant) is always in bloom

 

Although my focus was on the demonstration garden, I did a thorough round of the nursery as well.

Like the demonstration gardens, the nursery is organized by the plants' areas of origin.  I agonized a little over the Asplenium antiquum 'Hurricane' (a rarer variety of bird's nest fern, upper right) but ferns in general aren't happy in my garden so I passed.  I noted the perfect specimen of Mangave 'Tooth Fairy' (lower right) and can only hope my tiny specimen will look like that someday now that it's been freed of its small pot.

After a lunch break, we visited Island View Nursery, also in Carpinteria.

This photo of a noID Tillandsia was the only one I took during this stop.  The flower spike was large and very fragrant.  When I posted this photo on Instagram, people who know more about Tillandsia than I do thought it might be Tillandsia straminea.

 

Last up was Terra Sol Garden Center in Santa Barbara.  It's small but often packed with unusual plants.  I took no photos at all there, mainly because time was growing short and I was focused on plant shopping.  My biggest score was a selection of foxgloves.

Foxgloves aren't at all unusual but they had Digitalis 'Dalmatian Peach', which isn't always easy to find.  I brought home 3 peach, 2 purple and 1 white variety, all in the 'Dalmatian' series.  One is already planted in a barrel in my front garden (with large river rocks to deter the blasted raccoons) and 2 are in one of the raised planters in my cutting garden.

 

I bought a few other plants at our first two stops as well.

Island View had a 1-gallon Agave parryi (left) for $12!  (My friend bought a 1-gallon Mangave 'Lavender Lady' for $10!)  I also brought home the Begonia conchifolia var rubrimacula on the right.

My Seaside purchases were more mundane, a handful of small succulents and 2 Lotus berthelotii (one shown here planted near another I planted last year).  This Lotus is commonly used as a hanging plant but I like to use it as a groundcover.

 

That's it from me this week.  I hope you enjoy a wonderful weekend.

All material © 2012-2022 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party

The Little Things That Make Me Happy

A beautiful sunrise.

With a long day of plant shopping ahead of me, I was up early on Saturday and out the door before 8am to meet up with a friend 50 miles away for a longer trek to 3 of our favorite garden centers in Carpinteria and Santa Barbara

I took a dozen quick photos of the view looking southeast toward Angel's Gate, the entrance to the Port of Los Angeles, but the 2 shown here are my favorites

Rain.

We got 2 solid days of light rain.  I took this shot looking southeast between showers.

This was the mid-afternoon view looking northeast.  The rain was never heavy here, although there were flash flood warnings in some areas to the south and east of us.  We had several breaks in the rain yesterday and even, briefly, sun and patches of blue sky.

The garden got about 2/3rds of an inch of rain by 8pm yesterday.  Scattered showers were projected to continue into the wee hours of Wednesday morning. Our 2023 "water year" total to date, counted from October 1st, is 1.03 inches (26mm).

All 3 of my rain collection tanks are full, although my husband emptied water from the spa into my 265-gallon tank in October when he cleaned it out so not all of that was rainwater.  I also filled the plastic trugs shown here, some twice.  I used it to top off the fountain and to water pots and areas covered by roofing.  I'll empty the rest in the perpetually drier garden areas later this week.

My cat.

Pipig is blissfully happy on this loveseat in my home office.  There's a heating pad under that pink afghan blanket. 

She gets up only occasionally to eat and use her box, although she usually finds me to demand attention at least twice a day.  She's still fairly spry but, at 15 years old, I suspect she's got a touch of arthritis so the warmth is probably comforting.

She acknowledges me with a subdued, barely audible chirp when I come by rather than her usual more insistent vocalizations

Even the small garden chores I managed to squeeze in between interludes of rain this week made me happy.  The biggest one was finishing planting the bulbs I'd ordered (with the exception of seven Hippeastrum in need of pots).  Three hundred sixty-eight bulbs is an all-time record for me, and not one I envision coming close to matching ever again.  But I took care of some smaller projects too.

I've been collecting leaves from our deciduous trees and yesterday ran them through a Leaf Hog vacuum to chop them up before dumping them in my compost bin

I bought surprisingly few new plants during my Saturday trip but I got some of those planted, as I also worked at planting what I'd purchased over the summer.  I lost a few plants in this area, including 2 Euphorbia 'Ascot Rainbow' and 2 Phylica pubescens, so I resorted to adding more succulents here, including a small Agave ovatifolia 'Vanzie'.

I finally got around to potting a few things too, including this noID Stapeliad  (maybe an Orbea) given to me by one of the plumbers who worked on our pipe replacement in September

As long as I shut out the political news for a time, all is well.

All material © 2012-2022 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party