Posted on by tonytomeo

Chameleon

What color is this? It looks pink to me. A day earlier, though, it looked peachy orange. At various times last year and the year earlier, this same angel’s trumped bloomed more orangish orange, yellow and even white. I can not remember its schedule now, but I know that it has been weirdly variable. It is one of four cultivars of angel’s trumpet here, but the only one that will not decide on a color for its bloom.

One of the other four angel’s trumpets here blooms with double white flowers. My favorite, although relatively diminutive, blooms with single white flowers. The most vigorous is ‘Charles Grimaldi’, which blooms with single yellow flowers. A formerly fifth cultivar with big single pink flowers unfortunately rotted without replacements over winter a few years ago.

This particular angel’s trumpet grew from scrap that I took from a green waste pile at the curb of a job site in eastern San Jose several years ago. I took it because I found the pastel orange foliar color of the specimen that it was likely pruned from to be appealing. I had no idea that it would bloom with so many other comparably appealing floral colors.

Posted on by tonytomeo · 10 Comments

Six on Saturday: Not Yet Summer Bloom

Too much is blooming now for pictures of foliage, bark, trees, vines, shrubs or any other horticultural subject matter. I got these pictures before yesterday, so they are technically still spring bloom.

1. Gladiolus X hortulanus, gladiolus looks silly alone. It was the first to bloom. All others are in small colonies that developed from reliably perennial bulbs, which were originally components of a mixed batch. I would not have expected any to be so reliably perennial.

2. Lavandula angustifolia, English lavender has similarly lasted longer than expected. It was already a few years old several years ago, when I predicted its natural demise within two years. A feral specimen of Spanish lavender coincidentally grew from a seed nearby.

3. Antirrhinum majus, snapdragon is also feral. All within its colony bloom white. Those of another feral colony all bloom yellow. However, the parents of both colonies bloomed with mixed colors of the same variety. I can not complain, but I wonder what happened.

4. Celosia argentea, plumed cockscomb blooms with these red, orange or yellow flames. The chartreuse foliage in the background is coleus. They are a good example of why I do not procure annuals at work. I have difficulty with such striking color, texture and form.

5. Abutilon X hybridum, Chinese lantern is an awkwardly lanky shrub that will not stop blooming. I would like to prune it down to perhaps improve its density, but do not want to interfere with its bloom schedule. It has been here for many years, and might be feral.

6. Canna ‘Cannova Mango’ canna is not my favorite cultivar, but has too many attributes to discredit. It begins blooming before any other canna here. It blooms more abundantly than any other canna here. I know of no one else who dislikes this color as much as I do.

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

Almond / Almond

Pote-8-o or pote-aht-o? Tome-8-o or tome-aht-o? Ape-ricot or app-ricot? Pee-can or pi-kahn? What about “almond”? This is different from the distinction of plums and prunes. It is a matter of pronunciation. Is “almond” pronounced like “salmon” or “common”? Those who grow them, and likely know better than the rest of us, commonly pronounce it like “salmon”. Most of the rest of us pronounce it like “common”. The nuts are harvested by machines that shake them from their trees, which supposedly shakes the ‘ell out of them, which sort of makes sense. Although the “l” is silent within both pronunciations, it might be slightly more so within the “common” pronunciation. Everything associated with almonds prior to harvest, such as their orchards, trees, bloom, unharvested nuts and their collective industry, commonly employs the “salmon” pronunciation, in which the “l” may be slightly less silent. Everything associated with harvested and processed nuts and their products, which are what most of us are familiar with, more commonly employs the “common” pronunciation. For the pair of trees in my garden, I use the “salmon” pronunciation. For their nuts, I use the “common” pronunciation.

Posted on by tonytomeo · 12 Comments

Six on Saturday: Making Up For Lost Time

A few late bloomers are making up for lost time. Hydrangea, although late, is somewhat earlier than it typically is. Bluegum is not blooming, but contributes its own sort of color with bark.

1. Eucalyptus globulus, bluegum remains canned because it grows too big too vigorously to go into the ground. Ultimately, it will likely need to be destroyed. For now, it provides both aromatic juvenile foliage and pretty adult foliage. It also has pretty watercolor bark.

2. Yucca recurvifolia, curve leaf yucca is known as Yucca gloriosa var. tristis now. What was wrong with its former botanical name? Its boring common name should be changed instead. Anyway, I am impressed that it is blooming so soon after relocation last winter.

3. Hibbertia scandens, guinea gold vine grew like a weed from a cutting last year, and is now beginning to bloom for the first time. This is the first of many flower buds to unfurl. Its bloom was expected, but its profusion is unexpectedly impressive. It remains canned.

4. Hemerocallis fulva, daylily was similarly expected to bloom and is similarly blooming with unexpected profusion. I have no idea what cultivar this is, but I suspect that it may be the straight species. We grow just one other daylily cultivar, and it is relatively docile.

5. Begonia semperflorens-cultorum, wax begonia had languished for years in its planter box full of aggressive redwood roots. It now grows much more happily in its new planter box within its old planter box, which is elevated on cinder blocks above an empty space.

6. Hydrangea macrophylla, hydrangea typically blooms later on axillary stems because I prune the terminal buds off with winter dormant pruning. My concern was that, if I left the canes intact as I should, they would flop over. They are flopping, but it was worth it.

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

More White Trash

White is my favorite color. It is not the best color for all flowers, but it is the only color that I allow within the White Garden, which is really just the meager landscape of the Mount Hermon Memorial Chapel. Creamy white, such as white nasturtium and white canna, are not white enough. I am adamant about this. After replacing a few blue lily of the Nile with a white hydrangea, I needed to remove the hydrangea as it began to bloom with a slight pinkish blush. About that time, two winters ago, we added a white climbing rose. It was a perfect fit, and produced a straight cane that extended from the top of an original cane to the eave during its first summer. Because it was still young and small, it bloomed mildly but sufficiently. More importantly, it bloomed white. It got pruned over winter. Now that it is a bit larger, it is blooming a bit more fuller. However, it no longer seems to be blooming pure white! Young flowers unfurl with a creamy pale yellow blush before fading to white. It is too pretty to remove, especially without a replacement. This could become a major dilemma!

Posted on by tonytomeo · 12 Comments

Six on Saturday: Going Bananas Again

Banana trees have grown slowly through the oddly cool weather of spring. They are only now beginning to slowly recover from last winter.

1. Ariolimax columbinanus, banana slug is obviously unrelated to bananas, but seems as if it should not be. It is about as big as a small banana, but fortunately does not consume much viable vegetation. It prefers redwood detritus. It is rarely out during arid weather.

2. Actinidia deliciosa, kiwi vine is obviously as unrelated to bananas as a mollusk, but is something that I want to show off. These remaining three of five original cuttings are my second attempt to grow a male pollinator for a female vine that grew here two years ago.

3. Musa ingens, oem or giant highland banana produced a pup that grew big enough for separation. A smaller secondary pup remains attached as a potential replacement for the primary trunk when it finishes, but additional pups will likely develop through summer.

4. Musa itinerans var. xishuangbannaensis ‘Mekong giant’ banana also produced a pup. It is still dinky and now seems to be blinding out without a new leaf within its latest leaf. Another pup is only beginning to appear. I hope that more pups will eventually develop.

5. Musa, banana of an unidentified species and cultivar is recovering slowly from winter. It was here through last summer, so, unless it is a dwarf, it should be bigger by now. The shabbier specimen to its far left is Musa X balbisiana ‘Blue Java’ or ‘Ice Cream’ banana.

6. Rhody is who everyone who reads my Six on Saturday really wants to see. I have been negligent in posting pictures of him. He is not exactly easy to get a good picture of. Even this picture should have been centered better. Obviously, he knows his fans do not mind.

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 · 6 Comments

FIRST Louisiana Iris!

Finally, after two years, ‘Black Gamecock’ Louisiana iris from Tangly Cottage Gardening are blooming! At the end of winter of 2023, I divided a significant clump of them into enough pups for a thirty foot long row on the edge of the irrigation pond. They grew through summer, and should have bloomed for the following spring. Instead, a gopher ate all but a few pups. At the end of winter of 2024, I divided another clump into enough pups for a twenty foot long row in the same location, but closer to the water. Again, they grew through summer, and should have bloomed this spring, but instead, all but a few were eaten by a gopher. These that are now blooming are the survivors from the original batch, which were canned for their safety. They are blooming late, probably because they would rather be in the ground than canned. I will divide these into more cans now so they can proliferate and be divided again later, until there are twice as many as necessary for the edge of the pond. Then, I will plug some at the edge of the pond, into saturated soil that gophers can not dig under.