I put this sunflower in the tibouchina thinking they'd bloom at the same time. Of course they will, but not yet. This is that familiar old Bloom Day flower shyness.
I like the Cobaea scandens flowers most of all when they first open.
After this, they get really dark. Is there a word for the ripening of flower color? It would be nice to arrest the color ripening at this stage. There is a white-flowering Cobaea scandens, but there's nothing in between.
This plant's also being shy. Those are all buds.
Is this Berlandiera lyrata? I know I grew some from seed, but I got distracted and lost all track of my seed sowing efforts this spring.
This Francoa sonchifolia.
But that's not its foliage. The flower spikes should be quite vertical, but this one has leaned to near-horizontal. Whatareyougonnado. I'll have to get another picture with the foliage, because the foliage is nice.
Fuchsia bolivana 'Alba'.
I cut back Anisodontaea capensis pretty hard when I planted it here, but it made some more flowers.
I also recently cut off all the flowers on the the scarlet runner bean (Phaseolus coccineus 'Sunset') because I wanted more foliage. It's got lots more foliage now, and the flowers are coming back.
This Oxypetalum caeruleum is new to me. It's just a tiny thing.
Small pictures of big things.
Keckiella cordifolia seems to be winding down,
Just like the July Bloom Day post.
Check in with May Dreams Gardens for more.
17 comments:
How fresh everything looks, your climate is soothing to those bright colors, even without a lot of rainfall. I need to study that lack of rainfall and how to find plants that can do without but also take the winter downpours. I love the francoa. Good to know about the runner bean reblooming. How much foliage did you remove?
I didn't remove any foliage from the runner bean; I removed flowers. I removed about 20 flower stems.
Is flower shyness related to performance anxiety? I really like the Fuschia, there is only one variety that will make it past May here.
Thanks for sharing your beautiful flowers and almost blooming ones!!!
Isn't that one single princess flower up at the top of the picture? And speaking of blue flowers, I love that little blue oxywhatchamacallit right next to the rusty-patina'd metal. Really nice together.
The Fuchsia is like a mini Datura with its velvety leaves and hanging flowers. So when does your real dry period start? Are you watering at all other than select plants?
I should do a post on water.
August is generally when I feel like everything collapses, and it happens kind of suddenly. Even the poppies come to a halt. However August is also a foggy, wet month because the days are still long, and our coastal convection system is still 'turned on'. If my garden had trees, I'd have substantial fog drip in August.
September and October are typically our hottest months, but they are also likely to bring a light rain or two. Even perhaps a heavy rain in October.
What has not been watered in this post: Tibouchina, Francoa, Anisodontaea, Keckiella. The Tibouchina doesn't need any water, the Francoa and Anisodontaea grow in dry shade and part-shade respectively, so no water. The Anisodontaea would like some water since I just planted it this year. I'll water the anisodontaea when/if it looks like it needs some. The Keckiella (a native) would probably die if I watered it. It will go dormant soon, and drop all its leaves and basically become a pile of sticks until late fall.
The Oxypetalum is in my raspberry patch. I water the raspberries as I deem necessary, and I hope the Oxypetalum takes what it needs.
The Berlandiera is in a pot with a rose, which I water once a week--not enough, because I'm not getting any roses. Sigh.
The sunflower got weekly water for awhile (since I did not grow it from seed, it needed supplemental water to settle in), but it's clearly established now, and I'm thinking maybe I won't water it again. Well, maybe in August..?
The Cobaea--I have no idea where it's feeder roots are. Maybe they've grown over to where the apple tree is? In that case, it gets watered weekly. Otherwise I don't put any water in the vicinity of that plant (where also grows agastache, beschorneria, and abutilon--all quite content without any supplemental water).
The Passiflora is growing adjacent to a couple of tomatoes which I water once every 7-14 days depending on heat (most of that area's under a deep layer of mulch--4 inches--that seems quite moist whenever I plunge my finger in--but I water anyway because I can't believe my own observation.)
The lily is in a pot, and I water that every other day unless it's really cold. I should probably fertilize it too. I want that bulb to get good and plump.
The scarlet runner bean vines (three of them--two in a large pot, one in the ground) need regular water or they won't produce. All the food crops get moderate to regular water. I try to put thirsty ornamentals near food plants whenever possible, or in the case of scarlet runner bean, to combine food and ornamentation in one plant.
I planted the fuchsia out recently from a large pot. I was watering it for awhile because I thought it was probably a good idea, but the raccoon inflicted his heaviest damage there when I watered the fuchsia so I've stopped. Now I think I was mistaken; the fuchsia rootball was probably big enough to make due from July to October without my watering it.
It's quite amazing to me to watch the native manzanitas, ceanothuses, currants, and buckwheats pump out the succulent, new growth, and lush green leaves right now without any water. The manzanita is even forming flower buds that will bloom in December/January. The ground under those plants is bone dry and hard as a rock.
I love visiting your garden. You have such different blooms from mine in PA. I especially like the fuschia. I have never seen one of that shape.
As usually a very nice collection on unusual plants. The Francoa sonchifolia and the Fuchsia bolivana are my favorites, I think (actualy I like them all). BTW, my runner beans still don't have a single pod...
So many beautiful colors - my favorites are the blood-red lily and the oxypetalum.
The budding shown in that 4th picture made me dizzy! I didn't realize your deck was that high...wow. If that is chocolate flower, the petals aren't done unfurling, and I like it better than the opened flower. I still want that coreopsis 'Zamfir' with the tubular petals...I like tubular. (Yes, totally! ;-)
Of course you didn't remove any foliage. If I had not been in a hurry with my comment I would have gone back farther in the caption to see that. Another lesson taught that will probably be quickly forgotten. Haste makes mistakes. Sigh.
Is the term of art for color ripening "aging"? That Cobaea blossom reminds me of some of the expensive Daylilies with its range of colors blending into each other. At least you can capture those colors on film, even if you can't stop the colors changing on the plant.
I LOVE the Fuchsia bolivana 'Alba'. It is offically on the wish list.
Bloom day shyness? I had two flowers do that to me this month. They bloomed the next day.
I'm late in visting... would it be redundant to say that your gardens are always interesting to me because of the different flowers you grow? I've never heard of a lot of them.
Carol, May Dreams Gardens
That Red Velvet lily is awesome.
The red lily is wonderful, but all the flowers were so vibrant and so well photographed.
You must have a very lovely garden indeed.
PS: (I read your most recent post, I'm VERY glad your cat is doing well... both of the cats! You never know what they're going to get into next.)
Post a Comment