Touches of Fall Color

Although Pam at Digging no longer hosts her foliage follow-up meme, I'm still conditioned to think about foliage after collecting a glut of photos in preparation for Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day.  There isn't much in the way of fall color in my region of the country, especially as temperatures seem to be growing higher with each passing year, but our nighttime temperatures have markedly declined* recently so I took my camera outside and mounted a search.

The deciduous trees still aren't showing much color but I found two exceptions.

The coral bark Japanese maple (Acer palmatum 'Sango Kaku'), grown in a protected spot alongside our garage, is the only reliable provider of fall color I have

The noID persimmon at the edge of my cutting garden didn't produce any fruit this year but it has a touch of fall color, which isn't always the case.  A second persimmon tree on the other side of the fence has a little fruit but ugly brown leaves.

This year Leptospermum 'Pink Pearl' is obscuring the persimmon's best side

The persimmon doesn't look as impressive from this side, at least not yet

In the absence of real fall color, we look to plants that can mimic it.  Here's an example:

Graptoveria 'Fred Ives' has colored up nicely in the succulent garden on the south side of the house

My neighbor's maples are just showing the first signs of changing color but I expect it could be Christmas before they're flashy enough to show off.  I hope those of you in colder climates had a chance to enjoy the colors of fall before freezes hit or snow arrived.  Best wishes to all of you in the US in the sights of the Nor-easter.

*A "marked decline" here means temperatures occasionally dipped into the 40s.


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

Bloom Day - November 2018

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day snuck up on me this month.  Caught up in the midterm elections and the events that followed, another mass shooting, and a spate of horrific wildfires, my garden has taken a back seat this month.  It's also a lot less colorful now that I've pulled apart my warm season cutting garden in order to make room for cool season bloomers.  It's been much cooler here, despite the Santa Ana winds that triggered so many fires here in Southern California, but rain has remained elusive and our humidity levels have been stuck in the single digits so I count myself lucky that I found as much in bloom as I did.

The Osteospermums, one of numerous genera referred to as African daisies, usually revive when the temperatures fall.  Although I can't yet say they're plentiful, I captured one flower at just the right time of day and the right stage of bloom, and decided that I'd kick off this Bloom Day post with its beautiful close-up.

Osteospermum '4D Silver'

And here's a mixed collection of plants enjoying the start of our second spring.

Achillea 'Moonshine', Erigeron glaucus 'Wayne Roderick' and a self-seeded clear yellow Gazania are mingling comfortably here.  The yarrow flower stalks are far shorter than those the plants produced earlier in the year but their return is appreciated nonetheless.

Only a few plants are producing a multitude of blooms this month.

Barleria obtusa (aka bush violet) is a prolific bloomer and an equally prolific self-seeder.  I've moved seedlings to various locations within my garden and hope I don't someday regret doing so.

The two Leptospermum scoparium 'Pink Pearl' shrubs shown here are producing nearly the number of flowers they did last spring

Even though planted in the partial shade of a large Magnolia, Tagetes lemmonii has been pumping out a steady steam of flowers this month

The Camellia sasanqua shrubs are covered in buds and ready to bloom but the strong winds we've experienced off and on for weeks now have prevented them from appearing en masse.

NoID Camellia sasanqua

The ornamental grasses are still going strong and some of the Leucadendrons are still sporting flower-like blooms..

Left to right: Pennisetum 'Fireworks', P. advena 'Rubrum', and P. 'Skyrocket'

Although not true flowers, the colorful bracts of Leucadendron 'Safari Sunset' (shown with another noID variety, left) and 'Devil's Blush' (right) look a lot like rosebuds

The Australian fuchsias are all producing light sprays of flowers, as are the Pentas and ivy geraniums.

Clockwise from the upper left: Correa 'Dusky Bells', 'Ivory Bells', 'Sister Dawn' (new), and 'Wyn's Wonder'

Pentas lanceolata 'Nova' (left) and 'Kaleidoscope Appleblossom' (right)

Pelargonium peltatum (aka ivy geraniums) in shades of burgundy, dark pink, and lavender

The large-flowered Grevilleas bloom year-round.

Clockwise from the left: Grevilleas 'Superb', 'Ned Kelly', and 'Peaches & Cream'

One Gomphrena with tiny flowers also blooms year-round.

Gomphrena decumbens 'Itsy Bitsy' is in bloom continuously unless I hack it back, as I do at least once a year

A handful of new plants have produced blooms as well.

Hemizygia 'Candy Kisses', purchased on a recent plant shopping trip

Mimulus 'Jelly Bean Buttercream' (aka monkeyflower), purchased on the same trip

New-to-me Plectranthus lanuginosa, acquired by mail order a couple of months ago (and very hard to photograph)

Rosa 'Lady Emma Hamilton', received in February as a raffle prize won at the 2017 Garden Blogger's Fling.  These are the first blooms the shrub's produced.  They opened within one day of one another this week on the same plant but vary quite a bit in color and form.  The blooms are also smaller than I'd expected but perhaps all these things are due to receiving too little water.

As is my custom, here's the best of the rest of the blooms in my garden, organized in collages by color.

Top row: noID lavender, Lotus jacobaeus, and Osteospermum 'Violet Ice'
Middle row: Plumbago auriculata 'Imperial Blue', Polygala myrtifolia 'Mariposa', and Tibouchina urvilleana
Bottom row: Trichostema 'Midnight Magic', Wahlenbergia 'Blue Cloud', and Dendrobium 'Samurai'

Clockwise from top left: Arbutus 'Marina', Cistus x skanbergii, Cuphea 'Starfire Pink', noID Pelargonium, noID lavender-pink rose, and Rosa 'California Dreamin' 

Left to right: Lantana 'Lucky White', Leucanthemum x superbum, Nemesia caerulea, and Westringia 'Morning Light'

Left to right: self-seeded Gazania, Lantana 'Lucky Yellow', and Oncostele 'Wildcat' (orchid)

Left to right: Aloe 'Rooikappie', Echeveria 'Afterglow', Lotus berthelotii 'Amazon Sunset', and Rosa 'Joseph's Coat'

Left to right: Bauhinia x blakeana, Celosia 'Intenz', red Eustoma grandiflorum (aka lisianthus, new), and Fuchsia 'Mendonome Belle'

For more Bloom Day posts, visit Carol at May Dreams Gardens.


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

(Not) In a Vase on Monday: Thinking outside the vase

Cathy at Rambling in the Garden, our In a Vase on Monday host, is celebrating the fifth anniversary of this popular meme.  Last week she challenged participants to put together something not in a vase.  I've previously used pumpkins, driftwood and teapots to support arrangements so I tried harder to come up with something different, with mixed success.  My first arrangement doesn't deviate far from my norm.  I used an old basket, tucking in 2 jam jars to hold the contents that required water.

The berries and the guava fruit can survive without water but everything else requires it

I mixed 2 kinds of berries.  The larger ones start out looking like tiny pumpkins but soon dry out, turn brown, and open to display sticky seeds.

Top view

Clockwise from the upper left: Auranticarpa rhombifolium berries, noID guava fruit; Leucadendron 'Devil's Blush', Leucadendron 'Chief', Nandina domestica berries, Plectranthus scutellariodes 'Electric Lime' (coleus), and, in the middle, Rosa 'Joseph's Coat'

I also played around with a pair of concrete shoes my sister-in-law gave me years ago.

I'd planned to add flowers after planting the shoes with succulent cuttings (Aeonium arboreum and Crassula tetragona) but decided I preferred them just like this

My other idea started with the recognition that many of my bromeliads have vase-like structures to hold water.

This Nidularium wittrockia leopardinum illustrates the "storage tank" that collects water in many bromeliads

I use a bench surrounding our Magnolia tree in the front garden to display a variety of bromeliads and other potted plants.  On Sunday morning I filled the water tanks of 4 bromeliads with flowers.  In retrospect, I think the bromeliad arrangements would have been more attractive on their own rather than grouped together but I'd run out of time to fuss with them when I reached that conclusion.  As the nasty Santa Ana winds have started blowing again, it's not clear that these flowers will last long anyway.

This Aechmea fasciata (aka silver vase plant) holds stems of Leptospermum scoparium 'Pink Pearl' and Cuphea hybrid 'Starfire Pink'.  The larger pink flower stalk just visible behind the bromeliad's leaves is part of the plant itself.

Nidularium witttockia leopardinum made do with the feathery plumes of Pennisetum advena 'Rubrum'

Orange Aechmea blanchetiana was fitted out with Tagetes lemmonii, Abelia 'Kaleidoscope', Correa 'Ivory Bells, and Lantana 'Lucky White' 

This was my biggest flop.  This noID Aechmea (possibly A. orlandiana 'Rainbow') hosts Erigeon 'Wayne Roderick', Gomphrena 'Itsy Bitsy', Polygala fruticosa, and Osteospermum 'Violet Ice'.  It might have looked better without the busyness of the Gomphrena.

To see how other garden bloggers responded to Cathy's challenge, visit her at Rambling in the Garden.

Cathy's challenge was a nice distraction from the stresses of the past week.  First there was the tumult of the midterm elections; then a White House firing that raises concerns about where the political roller coaster is heading; then yet another mass shooting, this one close to home; and then wildfires.  The fires dredge up both apprehensions associated with living in a fire danger zone and memories linked to the 1993 fire that leveled my in-laws' home in Malibu.  We're some 50 miles from the nearest fire, currently burning unchecked in Malibu.  Thus far we've only had periodic whiffs of smoke; however, my brother and some friends in the West San Fernando Valley are uncomfortably close to the action.

My brother took this photo from a hill near his home on Friday night.    The last I heard, the so-called Woolsey Fire is only 10% contained.  (Photo used courtesy of Eric Peterson)

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

More New Plants!

It's been 3 weeks since my last new plants report.  It's time for another!  Last Saturday, a friend and I drove north to visit some of our favorite plant nurseries as we do at least twice a year.  Our first stop was Seaside Gardens in Carpinteria.

We were greeted by this Gulf Fritillary upon our arrival

Unfortunately for my pocketbook, the nursery seemed especially well stocked

Pentas and Salvias on this table attracted bees, butterflies and feuding hummingbirds.  I tried to catch a photo of the hummers but they weren't accommodating.

I did get a shot of this Salvia semiatrata with its pink and purple flowers.  I exercised some restraint and did NOT add one of these to my cart.

I almost took home a new-to-me Phormium 'Golden Ray' (shown in the left front section of this stand) but I really couldn't think of anywhere I could put it

We toured the demonstration gardens too; however, I didn't take many photos because the light was harsh.

I was shooting into the sun here but, even if a little blurred, I still thought the scene was pretty enough to share

The grasses were abundant

And of course the Succulent Garden always looks good

I found this plant with its red grape-like fruit interesting.  We couldn't find a label but my friend remembered seeing it at The Huntington Gardens and said the fruits are poisonous.  After a little on-line digging, I identified it as Cyphostemma juttae.

After a quick stop at a garden center down the road, we went in search of lunch as we were starving and our usual haunt was closed for a private party.  Feeling sluggish after lunch and given that I'd already mostly filled my friend's car with plants from Seaside, we made just one more stop.

This is Terra Sol, located in Goleta (near Santa Barbara)

It was late in the afternoon when we got back to my friend's house and, facing close to a 2-hour drive south in traffic to my own home, I got on the road fairly quickly after loading up my trunk.

Here's what my car's trunk looked like before I unloaded it.  For the record, I've done worse - I didn't even have to lower the back seats to hold my purchases this time.

Here's a photo of my haul spread out in my cutting garden

I've done relatively well getting most of these plants in the ground so let me give you a closer look at those I'm most excited about.

This is Correa 'Sister Dawn', which looks remarkably like Correa 'Dawn in Santa Cruz', a plant I've been seeking for years

This is Grevillea nudiflora 'Medusa', a selection from Jo O'Connell's Australian Native Plants Nursery offered by Seaside.  As we weren't able to fit in a separate stop at ANPN, I was thrilled to find this and a couple of other of Jo's plants.  This one's a low-growing ground cover.

This one also came from Jo's nursery.  It's Isopogon anemonifolius.  It doesn't look like much here but you can find a photo of it in flower here.

This is Leucadendron 'Cloudbank Ginny', which produces attractive flower-like bracts (which you can see here).  I needed another Leucadendron, didn't I?  I think this makes 21 now.

I fell prey to a Fuchsia of all things, even though those I have in my shade house didn't do all that well this year.  This is Fuchsia 'Hawkshead', which supposedly can get by on a moderate amount of water.  I've tucked it into a mostly shaded area protected by our front hedge.

This was also an impromptu purchase, although that could perhaps be said for a large number of the plants I buy.  This is Hemizygia 'Candy Kisses', reputed to be a drought tolerant perennial ground cover in my area.

The 2 Lomandra hystrix 'Tropic Belle' on either side of Phormium 'Maori Queen' here came from Seaside.  I use a lot of Lomandra as a grass substitute,  mostly the 'Breeze' variety.  I had 2 'Lime Tuff' in this position previously but I was never happy with that cultivar.

This is one of the few plants I still need to get into the ground but I've selected its spot.  It's Senna artemisioides (aka Cassia artemisioides).

I'd like to say that's all the plants I've purchased this November but that would be a lie.  I got some recent mail order purchases planted in the last week as well.

The Heuchera 'Marmalade' here came from Annie's Annuals & Perennials.  It's supposed to hold up better to heat that most Heuchera.  We'll see!

At least planting and puttering in my garden provides a temporary distraction from the daily news feed, which has become essential to my sanity.  I hope you manage to find pleasant distractions to take your mind off things this weekend.  Best wishes.


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