Early spring bulb blooms

My monthly Bloom Day posts tend to be very long and, as the March 15th early spring bloomfest will probably be especially lengthy, I decided to "split the baby" and present my bulb blooms in a separate post.  While I expect a lot more Iris, Narcissus, and possibly species Tulip blooms to appear within the next month, there are already some flashy bulb blooms to share now.

Overall, I've been disappointed with the Anemone coronaria blooms in my cutting garden this year; however, 'Admiral' has been the exception.  The plants suffered when temperatures soared into the low 80sF but these recovered reasonably well.

The blue Anemone coronaria have been much less vigorous and the white 'Mount Everest' (not shown) have barely made an appearance.  The bicolor bloom on the right appears to have sprung from a corm planted in 2020.

I've planted Freesia bulbs in various colors throughout the garden in prior years.  I'm still trying to sort out colors blooming in spots they weren't intended for due to mislabeled bulb packages.

Hippeastrum 'Ambiance' was slow to sprout but it's putting on a good show now 

In contrast, Hippeastrum 'Luna', potted up at approximately the same time, began flowering in early January.  It's last 2 bloom stalks are just opening now.

I don't have a record as to when I planted Ipheion uniflorum 'Starry Nights' in my back borders but my guess is that it was 8-9 years ago.  There are more flowers every year even though some of the small bulbs were probably displaced as I widened the borders and replanted over the years.

I've added more Dutch Iris every year since 2018.  The oldest clumps of 'Sapphire Beauty' next to the backyard fountain are always the first to bloom.

I have a few masses of this same Narcissus in the the back garden, purchased as bulbs in bags years ago from the local garden center.  If they were identified, I never made note of it.

I planted Ranunculus tubers again this this past October but so far they've been a disappointment with only a handful of the tubers just now developing buds.  However, I bought a couple of plants in bud to fill in the empty spots in the pot on the left several weeks ago.

Scilla peruviana, which despite its peruviana epithet, hails from the Mediterranean region of Spain and Portugal rather than Peru, is a dependable spring bloomer in my garden.  I plan to dig up and divide the bulbs after they finish blooming this year.

Like the Freesias, Sparaxis tricolor bulbs are blooming in spots throughout my garden, all planted as a mix of colors.  The lion's share of these are orange but now and then I find one in another color.  

I'll share my the other blooms next Tuesday.  In the meantime, I hope you find some color to brighten your corner of the world this weekend.

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

Wednesday Vignette: The butterflies are back

Despite our periodic winter heatwaves, it seems early for butterflies but over the past month I've seen quite a few of them.  Not in any mass numbers mind you but they definitely weren't figments of my imagination.  Yesterday, as I sat at my office desk, I glanced outside and saw a large black and yellow butterfly flitting about just outside the window.  I didn't immediately jump up and run outside with my camera as I assumed it'd be gone before I could get out there but, when it persisted in drinking nectar from the Lantana flowers I decided, what the heck, I'd try to catch a photo.

This is a giant swallowtail butterfly (Papilio cresphontes), reportedly the largest butterfly in North America with wingspans ranging from 4-6 inches

Lantana is one of its favorite sources of nectar and I have plenty of that in bloom at the moment

This one flitted around the north end of the garden for an extended period but it repeatedly returned to this Lantana, making it nominally easier to get a few decent photos.  I even had time to run back into the house for my telephoto lens.

Their usual habitats are deciduous forests and citrus orchards, neither of which you can find in my area; however, like us and our next door neighbors, I suspect many people nearby have citrus trees so maybe it still fits the bill.

While I've seen these butterflies before, they're more common in the eastern part of the country than they are here in Southern California.  I understand that they're considered pests by Florida citrus growers as the caterpillars can damage fresh foliage and young trees.  The larvae are sometimes referred to as "bird poop caterpillars" because of their unique appearance, which provides camouflage from predators.

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

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

In a Vase on Monday: Spring is in hyperdrive

March started out warm here but turned cold again (low-mid 50sF/13C) as a storm moved through the area on Thursday into Friday.  Unfortunately, the storm blew through without delivering a drop of rain in our location.  Nonetheless, the periodic warm spells seem to have pushed spring into hyperdrive.  I wasn't sure what to cut for In a Vase on Monday simply because there were suddenly too many choices.  However, when strong gusty winds knocked over Hippeastrum 'Ambiance'  twice before I tucked it into a corner next to the house, I figured I might as well cut at least one of its tall stems before another gust caused it to crash and break.

I potted the Hippeastrum 'Ambiance' and Hippeastrum 'Luna' bulbs at about the same time but, while the latter shot up quickly, 'Ambiance' didn't show any sign of growth whatsoever until recently, when it suddenly produced 2 bloom stalks that towered above the remaining 'Luna' blooms 

Back view: I hadn't planned on using yellow in this arrangement but the brick red streaks in the petals of 'Ambiance' sent me on the trail of red-orange flowers and the colors in Lobelia laxiflora in turn led me to include 2 leftover blooms of Leucospermum 'Goldie' from last week's arrangement.  I added a third Leucospermum to round things out.

Top view: Even though I cut the Hippeastrum and other stems down dramatically in size, this arrangement was so tall I had to use a chair to take this overhead shot

Clockwise from the upper left: Hippeastrum 'Ambiance', Leucospermum 'Goldie', Leucadendron salignum 'Chief', Lobelia laxiflora, and Lotus berthelotii 'Amazon Sunset'

The wind also blew over the tall stems of the 'Chantilly' snapdragons so I cut some of those and let their colors dictate the remaining selections for my second arrangement.

In retrospect, I realized that this arrangement is similar in many respects to one of my Valentine's Day creations.  There are no Grevilleas in this one but there are Leucospermums, both of which are members of the Proteaceae family.  I even used the same vase.

Back view: The stems of Leucospermum 'Goldie' are stretching into my flagstone path so I didn't feel badly about cutting them for 2 vases this week.  I also remember that the squirrels started consuming these flowers in large numbers last spring and I'm reluctant to make their "harvest' easy.

Top view: The peach-colored Leucospermum at the center of the arrangement is 'Royal Hawaiian Brandi', which is just starting to bloom

Clockwise from the upper left: Agonis flexuosa 'Nana', Antirrhinum majus 'Chantilly Bronze' and 'Chantilly 'Peach', Freesia, and Leucospermum 'Royal Hawaiian Brandi' and 'Goldie'

For more IAVOM creations, visit Cathy at Rambling in the Garden.

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

Hustling to plant in advance of rain

Last Saturday, a friend and I went plant shopping.  My last post covered that trip.  This one shows where the plants landed.  I'm not always so prompt about getting my new acquisitions in the ground but, as weather forecasts began to show a much higher probability of rain on the horizon, I hustled to get everything planted before it arrived.  With one exception, everything is in place.

My Seaside Gardens purchases are shown here:

A total of 9 plants

Ceanothus griseus horizontalis 'Carmel Creeper' was planted behind a Leucadendron 'Safari Sunset' to cover an area that currently supports little more than weeds (in the form of clover and Erigeron karvinskianus).  The Ceanothus is supposed to grow no taller than a foot while spreading 8-10 feet.

I'm very fond of the "double" Osteospermums, in part because they remain open in low light.  I've got quite a collection of these already but Seaside had 2 varieties I'd never seen before so I scooped up 3 of each to fill in some empty spots while the Echium handiense, Hardenbergia violacea 'Meema', and Phlomis purpurea I planted in that area gain more substance.

This is Osteospermum '4D Pink'

This one, labeled '4D Dark Violet & White', is similar to '4D Pink' but not identical

I bought this Philotheca myoporoides 'Profusion' purely because I loved its growth habit, flowers and scent.  I'd absolutely idea where I was going to put it when I brought it home.  I ending up giving it a spot formerly occupied by a woody Centaurea 'Silver Feather'.  I'd cut the latter back hard and it didn't recover well.  I've already planted another 'Silver Feather', grown from a cutting, nearby.  Hopefully, they'll live in harmony.

If you were paying close attention, you may have noted the I didn't include the Mangave I purchased at Seaside in the above lineup.  That's because I combined it with some of the plants I picked up at Terra Sol Garden Center on the same trip.

This is my Terra Sol haul, all succulents

The 2 Mangave 'Red Wing' from Terra Sol were planted with the Mangave 'Navajo Princess' from Seaside in the middle.  The 3 Echeveria agavoides were planted in between the larger plants.

Two of the 3 Aeonium 'Mardi Gras' already in my garden (shown on the left) had become leggy so I beheaded them and replanted the cuttings with the 3 new 'Mardi Gras' Aeoniums I'd picked up at Terra Sol (as shown on the right).  They're situated next to a Hemerocallis 'Spanish Harlem' to echo the color of the daylily's flowers.

My earlier post mentioned a gift of several California native plants but didn't show them.  All of those shown below have found homes, with the exception of the bladderpod (Peritoma arborea, bottom left).

My friend has been volunteering at a public park in the San Fernando Valley.  They offer their volunteers free native plants as a gift in exchange for their service and she had enough to pass along these to me.

This Dudleya wasn't labeled.  I'm trying to determine if it's D. guadalupensis, D. pulverulenta, D. virens, or something else entirely.  Anyone know?  This is Dudleya lanceolata.  Thanks for the ID, EW!

I planted the 2 Penstemon spectabilis in the back garden in front of my Trichostema 'Midnight Magic', a cultivar of our native woolly blue curls

The 2 hummingbird sages (Salvia spathacea) went into beds on either side of the gravel path that runs through my north side garden.  This one looks tiny next to the whale's tongue and other agaves.

The bladderpod needs full sun and it gets large.  I had one years ago, which up and died on me after approximately a year in the ground so I'm giving more thought to where to place it to provide a greater chance of success.

Whether the rain will actually come is always a question.  Late last week, the chances were put at 25-30%.  On Tuesday, they shot up to 83%.  Last night they were down to 60%, calculated to arrive between midnight and 6am.  That's not ideal as I like to collect the water that pours down our rain chain to supplement what flows off the roof directly into my collection tanks but getting up at 2am to replace a full bucket with an empty one is crazy even by my standards.  As it turned out, we got nothing overnight.  The forecasters are still predicting a chance of rain later this morning.  We shall see...

The view to the northeast doesn't look very promising

However, it looks as though it's raining to the southeast of us

Meanwhile, my buckets are ready to catch anything we might get

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

A beautiful day - to shop for plants!

A friend and I spent a beautiful Saturday driving up the coast.  We stopped in Carpinteria to visit Seaside Gardens and had lunch on an outdoor patio at a nearby restaurant before driving up to Terra Sol Garden Center in Santa Barbara.  I can't honestly say I "needed" any new plants but when has that ever stopped a plant addict?

I try to get to Seaside Gardens at least twice a year, generally in spring and fall.  Seaside combines a well-stocked nursery with demonstration gardens featuring plants from different areas of the world.  The latter show visitors how certain plants can be combined to create a landscape, while also educating buyers on what they can expect as these plants mature.  Reading a plant tag prior to a purchase is always helpful but seeing a plant in a garden setting is a useful reality check.

Although it's feeling like spring in coastal Southern California, this visit in late February is earlier than most of my semi-annual visits.  Given that fact, as well as our low rainfall, the demonstration gardens weren't as colorful as they've been during previous spring visits but they were still nice to see.  Let me take you on an abbreviated tour, starting with the Cottage Garden and ending at the entrance to the Australian Garden.

Spring definitely wasn't yet in high gear in the Cottage Garden but this Rosa banksaie 'Alba Plena' was in full bloom

The Grasslands had received a good chop.  This prompted me to begin cutting back my own ornamental grasses this week.

I saw only a handful of California poppies in bloom but a Ceanothus and a western redbud (Cercis occidentalis) were flowering in the California Natives area

The Echiums were just starting to develop buds in the Mediterranean Garden

Some Aloes are were in bloom in the Succulent Garden but the area was relatively subdued

Another shot of the Succulent Garden

The South African Garden may have been the most colorful.  Clockwise from the upper left: Freesias, Leucospermum 'Sunrise' (much larger than my own specimen!), Leucadendron 'Jester', a huge mass of Polygala fruticosa, Osteospermum, and Leucadendron 'Ebony'.

This Fuchsia arborescens in the Central-South American Garden shows just how big this plant can get.  I have one in a large pot.  I've been told they can be grown in containers but seeing one this large suggests that could be more difficult than I assumed.

Acacia (noID) growing in the Australian Garden

Now, on to the nursery area.

There were a lot of possibilities to explore

Here are some plants I checked out but didn't buy:

Clockwise from the upper left: Begonia luxurians (I have one but it hasn't bloomed), noID Magnolia, noID Mammillaria, Penstemon 'Dark Towers', Pericallis 'Magic Salmon', pale yellow Ranunculus, Senna phyllodinea, and Yucca 'Bright Star'.   I keep looking for a deal on a Yucca to replace the one I lost but I don't consider $110 a deal.

After lunch, we headed sixteen miles further north to Terra Sol Garden Center.  I didn't take many photos, partly because it's much smaller than Seaside and partly because I'd forgotten to bring my regular camera with me on this trip.  All photos in this post were taken with my new phone, which I've only just begun to tinker with.  It's a substantial upgrade from my iPhone 5s, which I was forced to replace because my service carrier has phased out 3G coverage.

Terra Sol has a broad selection of succulents in a range of sizes.  I didn't see a label on the cactus on the upper right but I remembered that Loree of danger garden had commented on a similar plant in a post regarding her November visit, which aided me in identifying it as Hildewintera corademononis.  (The specimen Loree saw was $399.  This one was $470.)  The interesting plant on the lower right is Myrtillo geometrizans 'Crested Elite' (going for $35 in a 4-inch pot).

I spent more time than usual checking out the decorative garden art.  As much as I admired  the Buddhas, particularly the multi-faced one shown in the right column, they're priced well outside my budget.

I'd admired the face sculptures shown on the right during a prior trip but, when it comes down to it, I'd rather spend my disposable funds on plants

Despite the face that I didn't "need" any plants, here's what I came home with:

My Seaside haul included Ceanothus 'Carmel Creeper', Mangave 'Navajo Princess', 2 new-to-me Osteospermums in the '4D' series, and Philotheca myoporoides 'Profusion'

My Terra Sol purchases included Aeonium 'Mardi Gras', Echeveria agavoides, and Mangave 'Red Wing' (or at least those are my best guesses on IDs as all of them were unlabeled)

Before I headed home, my friend also gifted me with a selection of California native plants but I'll cover them in a separate post.  All in all, it was a very nice day, offering brief respite from the horror  of events unfolding in Ukraine.

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