There are just too many cool things blooming in my colleague’s garden to not get some more pictures. Some may seem to be redundant to others that were shared earlier, as well as to some that have not been shared yet. The unknown salvia and lion’s tail are finishing their bloom, as it the know what time of year it is. The weather may not seem like that of late summer, but they know otherwise. I got these pictures while I could. African iris and African daisy are oblivious. They bloom whenever they want to, and African iris can even bloom a little bit through winter if it chooses to. Autumn sage, as the name implies blooms best about now. Of these six, only the four O’clock will deteriorate in autumn and die back through winter. The salvias will get pruned back anyway.
1. Four O’clock, Mirabilis jalapa, are the same as those featured last Saturday in Six on Saturday, and in the following brief article about the individual plants that bloom with flowers of different colors. This one looks like a blob of mustard with a bit of ketchup that squirted out of a hamburger as someone bit into it. The rich red flower in the background that looks more like plain ketchup is on the same stem.
2. Autumn sage, Salvia gregii, is a different cultivar of the same species featured yesterday. The picture that was posted yesterday was from a specimen in the landscape at the library in town. This picture is that of a cultivar of smaller stature but with bigger flowers. The zonal geraniums of questionable (pink, salmon, peach or whatever) color that were featured last week can be seen in the background.
3. Black and blue salvia, Salvia guarantica, looks just like this. . . or this looks just like black and blue salvia. I really do not know what it is. It sure is an exquisite blue though. The base of the plant is rather scrawny, almost as if it intends to grow only as an annual. It will get cut back like other salvias, but not as aggressively. If it regenerates from the base like it should, the old growth can be cut back later.
4. Yellow African iris, Morea bicolor, is sort of cliché. However, this is the only one anywhere around. Seriously, with all the many acres of landscape that my colleague maintains out there, this is the only one. The more common white African iris, Dietes iridioides, is lacking completely. (‘Dietes‘ and ‘Morea‘ are synonyms, but ‘Dietes‘ is uses more for the ‘iridiodes, and ‘Morea‘ is used more for the ‘bicolor‘.)
5. African daisy, Osteospermum ecklonsis, looks something like gazania. There are plenty pictures of gazania as well, but I will use them for the next two weeks. This species of African daisy is shrubbier and more colorful than the sprawling types that were popular as ground cover back in the 1980s. It blooms more profusely, and with more vivid colors. I probably should have gotten pictures of the other colors too.
6. Lion’s tail, Leonotis leonurus, will be featured in my weekly gardening column this week, which shows up here on Tuesday. I am no fan of orange, but I can not dislike this bloom. The color is as flashy as that of California poppy. I will never understand why this perennial is not more popular than it it. It has been available longer than some of the less impressive salvias, but salvias are trendy. They are related of course.
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/
If the flower on the left is a four o’clock, is the flower on the right a five o’clock, or perhaps a three o’clock? Is one a.m. and the other p.m.? What about the flower of the same species that I featured twelve hours ago? What about those in another picture that I will share next Saturday?
‘Moonshine’ is probably the epitome of fernleaf yarrow, Achillea filipendulina, even though it is technically a hybrid. From the middle to the end of summer, its three inch wide corymbs (flat-topped trusses) of tiny bright yellow flowers stand as high as three feet above ferny and gray basal foliage. Bloom is best in full sun and warm exposure. Established plants do not need too much water.
It makes sense for flowers to bloom in spring. Winter is too cool, windy and damp for both flowers and the insects that pollinate many of them. By summer, successfully pollinated flowers have faded, are busy making seed to disperse in autumn. Some plants produce fruit to get birds and other animals to disperse their seed. There are certain advantages to blooming early in the spring.
Their pastel hues and blends of pink, lavender, near red and white are so perfect for the middle of spring when cosmos, Cosmos bipinnatus, begin to bloom. They are just as perfect as bloom continues right through summer and almost to autumn, when the tall and airy plants finally begin to wear themselves out. If they continue through autumn, they eventually succumb to frost in winter.
No mater how much work we put into our roses to sustain bloom all through the season, and not matter how successful we are with that endeavor, the first spring bloom is always the best. Some roses continue to bloom in floriferous phases afterward, while others bloom sporadically but continually; but there is nothing like the first bloom phase. The last blooms are just waiting for autumn.
Not all annuals last as long as petunias do through summer, or pansies do through winter. Some fill in for the in between seasons, or if longer term annuals do not last quite as long as they should. Cockscomb, Celosia plumosa, blooms best now that it is about halfway through summer, and then finishes as weather gets too cool for it in late autumn, not so much more than two months later.
Those outside California sometimes envy our ideal climates and soils. More of a variety of plants can be grown here than in most other places in America. There are not many plants that can be grown elsewhere that will not grow here. However, phlox, Phlox paniculata, is an example of a plant that can do well here, but for some reason or another, is much more popular everywhere else.
Tony Tomeo 