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Six on Saturday: Just A Few Flowers

It is difficult to select only six flowers from the many blooming at this time of year.

1. Morea bicolor, yellow African iris is not very yellow. It is an impressively resilient and reliable perennial, though, and is quite easy to propagate. It really deserves more credit.

2. Morea iridioides, African iris is at least as resilient, reliable and easy to propagate, so is therefore very common. Whenever we have use for more, we simply split big colonies.

3. Canna X generalis ‘Mango’ canna performs very well and proliferates very efficiently. It begins its bloom before any other canna here. I just am not so keen on its floral color.

4. Echinops ritro, globe thistle looks like an Allium in this closeup picture. You might be able to guess where it is from. It is the first that I have grown since the summer of 1986.

5. Crinum bulbispermum, Orange River lily typically does not bloom quite like this. The florets should have darker pink or red centers. Could this be another species of Crinum?

6. Hemerocallis fulva ‘Flore Pleno’ daylily has been growing like a weed. We relocated a few only a few years ago, and must already relocate some of their now crowded progeny.

Anyone who would like to participate in this meme should peruse this participant guide for Six on Saturday.

Posted on by tonytomeo · 11 Comments

Six on Saturday: Foliar Closeups

All six here this week are foliar, without flowers. I suppose that floral subjects would be more appropriate for June; so, perhaps next week.

1. Ilex aquifolium, English holly certainly looks vicious up close. It grows wild from seed in the landscapes. I canned several as if we might find a use for them, which is unlikely.

2. Abies grandis, grand fir was collected from the wild near Smith River. A few are now canned here, although we have no idea what to do with them. They are such grand trees.

3. Picea sitchensis, Sitka spruce came with the grand fir from near Smith River. It is also difficult or impossible to accommodate in the landscapes here. Collection is a bad habit.

4. Heliconia psittacorum, parakeet flower is considerably more useful than the previous three. For now, though, it remains canned on a silly shelf outside my bedroom window.

5. Saccharum officinarum ‘Pele’s Smoke’ sugarcane came with the parakeet flower from Brent’s garden in Los Angeles. It is almost too easy to propagate, so we have quite a few.

6. Saccharum officinarum ‘Purple Ribbon’ sugarcane is an old heirloom cultivar. It was acquired after ‘Pele’s Smoke’, but already has as much potential to propagate too easily.

Anyone who would like to participate in this meme should peruse this participant guide for Six on Saturday.

Posted on by tonytomeo · 20 Comments

Six on Saturday: Exotic & Native

The first three were recently added. The second three were already here. That makes for Six on Saturday.

1. Opuntia, prickly pear, of an unidentified species, was collected from the wild near the original Bat Cave, which is really the Bronson Caves, in Los Angeles. It is overly prickly.

2. Echinocereus, hedgehog cactus, also of an unidentified species, was collected from the wild in Buckeye, near Phoenix, in Arizona. It is even more prickly than the prickly pear.

3. Agave filifera, thread agave was salvaged from a planter box outside a barber shop in downtown Felton. The planter box needed to be dismantled, so the agave came with me.

4. Salvia, sage, also of an unidentified species, is part of a pattern of unidentified species here this week. It is native, though, so was here prior to the arrival of the previous three.

5. Whatever this is, it is also unidentified and native. The flowers resemble onion flowers in blue. I think that it might be Triteleia laxa, Ithuriel’s spear, but I really have no idea.

6. Achillea millefolium, common yarrow is native here, but may be descendents of some that were seeded here nearly twenty years ago. I do not remember any prior to seeding.

This is the link for Six on Saturday, for anyone else who would like to participate: https://thepropagatorblog.wordpress.com/2017/09/18/six-on-saturday-a-participant-guide/

Posted on by tonytomeo · 2 Comments

Six on Saturday: More Memories

Nearly everything in my garden has history of some sort.

1. Aloe arborescens, candelabra aloe came from the home of a friend in the East Hills of San Jose about twenty years ago. It is the only one of these six that was not just planted.

2. Aloe barbadensis, aloe vera came from my former neighborhood in town. I relocated decades ago, but got pups from a former neighbor who also took some to her new home.

3. Hesperaloe parviflora, red yucca came from Surprise, to the northwest of Phoenix in Arizona, near the new home of my former neighbor who gave me the few aloe vera pups.

4. Yucca desmetiana ‘Blue Boy’ yucca was a Christmas gift several years ago. It had been confined to its can within partial shade for too long. It already has stout but bare trunks.

5. Yucca glauca, soapweed grew from seed that I collected at a gas station somewhere in New Mexico on the way to Oklahoma in late 2012. It must be happy to be in the ground.

6. Yucca arkansana, Arkansas yucca, contrary to its name, came from Newalla, just east of Oklahoma City in Oklahoma, not long after I acquired the soapweed seed in late 2012.

This is the link for Six on Saturday, for anyone else who would like to participate: https://thepropagatorblog.wordpress.com/2017/09/18/six-on-saturday-a-participant-guide/

Posted on by tonytomeo · 8 Comments

Six on Saturday: TIMBER!

Several large trees needed to be removed at work.

1. The steeple of the Mount Hermon Memorial Chapel (el Catedral de Santa Clara de Los Gatos) is now visible. It had been mostly obscured by a big Douglas fir and a big tan oak.

2. This new view of stately redwoods is also visible behind the Mount Hermon Memorial Chapel. It had previously been cluttered with tan oaks, bays and another big Douglas fir.

3. Logs were still strewn about when I took these pictures on Wednesday. Unfortunately, a few redwoods needed to be removed also. The largest trunks will be milled for lumber.

4. The stump to the lower right was cut last Monday or Tuesday. The stump to the upper left was cut when the redwoods were harvested, prior to 1906, more than 120 years ago.

5. Alyssum, wax begonia and zonal geranium should perform much better with so much more sunshine. (Stock will be removed for summer.) They had always been in the shade.

6. This rose, although irrelevant to the topic, is the token flower of my Six for this week. It is too colorful to omit. I have no idea what cultivar it is. It was red, then faded to pink.

This is the link for Six on Saturday, for anyone else who would like to participate: https://thepropagatorblog.wordpress.com/2017/09/18/six-on-saturday-a-participant-guide/