Sunday Best – Feral Plum
Six on Saturday: Color of Profusion
Tulip is the only single flower of these Six this Saturday. The other five are dinky flowers that are colorful in their natural profusion. Even tulip is more colorful with at least a few friends, as it bloomed in its landscape. Flowering quince shows only three flowers in this closeup picture, but it actually blooms more comparably to forsythia or spirea.
1. Tulipa X hybrida, tulip is of an assorted batch, but seems to be the same color as all of the others. Such batches typically contain a preponderance of varieties that happen to be overly abundant when they are mixed, but are not likely to be completely homogeneous.
2. Spirea prunifolia, bridal wreath spirea could have bloomed more fluffily if it had been in a sunnier situation. This specimen has been in partial shade in the storage nursery for too long as it waits for reassignment to a real landscape. I remember it only as it blooms.
3. Ceanothus thyrsiflorus, California lilac is the same that I posted a picture of here two weeks ago, but neglected to remember until now. It is the only of these six that is native. It could have been installed intentionally into its landscape, but it more likely grew wild.
4. Chaenomeles speciosa ‘Orange Storm’ or ‘Double Take Orange’ flowering quince has a pair of cultivar names, which is two more than I can identify for the other five of my six. I can not determine if one is more correct than the other. It is pretty, but a bit overrated.
5. Forsythia X intermedia, forsythia was with the bridal wreath spirea and ‘Double Take Orange’ flowering quince in the storage nursery for a long time before assignment to the landscape that it now inhabits only last winter. It has not grown much, but blooms well.
6. Loropetalum chinense, Chinese fringe flower is pretty enough to be an illustration for the gardening column. I may feature it next week or the week after. If I do so, it must be within its bloom season. When it became a fad several years ago, I was not so keen on 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/
Sunday Best – Ranunculus
Six on Saturday: Eucalyptus
Eucalyptus has a bad reputation. Regardless, the worst of the genus and its only cultivar that I am aware of inhabit my gardens. Four less offensive species inhabit a landscape at work. Actually, several species of Eucalyptus are not only appropriate for home gardens, but are also naturally very well adapted to local chaparral climates. Their bad reputation is an unfortunate result of the bad behavior of merely one of hundreds of species, which happens to be the second of these Six. Eucalyptus camaldulensis, red gum allegedly also contributed to that reputation, but more so in Southern California than here, as it is rare locally. Half of these six show sessile juvenile foliage, rather than petiolate adult foliage. Pictures of high foliage were taken from significant distances.
1. Eucalyptus globulus ‘Compacta’, bushy blue gum is my least favorite eucalyptus, since it is a contrarily runty cultivar of an otherwise grand species, but here it is in my garden.
2. Eucalyptus globulus, blue gum is too grand for my garden, though, so can not develop a natural form. It is pollarded for its aromatic juvenile foliage, but has a few adult leaves.
3. Eucalyptus cinerea, silver dollar tree, which is not the same as silver dollar gum, may be confused with silver mountain gum, since their botanical names are interchangeable.
4. Eucalyptus pulverulenta, silver mountain gum is very distinct from silver dollar tree. I find their confusion to be annoying. Botanical nomenclature is designed for simplicity.
5. Eucalyptus sideroxylon, red ironbark grew from a small root sucker with merely a few roots. I got it from a stump in another landscape, and am impressed by its performance.
6. Eucalyptus citriodora, lemon gum is delightfully aromatic, and, as its name suggests, is rather lemony. Its foliage will soon be too high on lanky bare trunks to reach, though.
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/
Six on Saturday: Bluem
Blue is the rarest floral color. Furthermore, many flowers that appear blue are somewhat purplish, or perhaps more purple than blue. These six all look blue to me, although I can not see blue very well.
1. Iris unguicularis, Algerian iris has been blooming long enough for a third appearance here in four months. That may seem to be redundant, but it is my favorite for this week. I still do not know when to expect its last blooms. It is from Tangley Cottage Gardening.
2. Viola cornuta, viola exhibits more insect damage than I was aware of when I took this picture. Well, this is embarrassing. I do not select annuals at work, but I do enjoy taking credit for them. These bloom longer here than they would within the Santa Clara Valley.
3. Viola X wittrockiana, pansy also performs better here than in the Santa Clara Valley. These blue pansies alternate with white pansies, which I prefer; but I took this picture to conform to the blue theme. We have not yet found any color that is not appropriate here.
4. Hyacinthus orientalis, hyacinth blooms thinly on floppy stems in partial shade, but is impressively reliably perennial. We should probably move the bulbs while dormant, but would prefer to instead remove an unwanted bay laurel tree that shades their landscape.
5. Ceanothus thyrsiflorus, California lilac is both locally native and added to at least one of our landscapes. Unfortunately, it is not easy to accommodate. It grew too large for its particular applications, but is difficult to prune properly without removing its best parts.
6. Myosotis sylvatica, forget-me-not is naturalized here, but not too aggressively so. It is pretty near but not within cultivated landscapes, where it can benefit from supplemental irrigation without incurring damage from weeding, raking and other gardening activity.
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/
Sunday Best – ‘King Alfred’ Daffodil
Six on Saturday: Late Winter Color
Color is relatively scarce as spring bloom is only slowly beginning. A bit of winter bloom remains. Not all flowers bloom earlier here than in other regions. Some could actually be a bit later than expected.
1. Lemna minor, duckweed does not grow much during cool winter weather, but lingers until sloshed by rain. After surviving through a dry January, it finally succumbed to rain during early February. Its monochromatic green revealed this more vibrant color below.
2. Viburnum tinus, laurustinus is not among my favorites. I seriously do not understand why it is as popular as it is. Nonetheless, several feral specimens inhabit some of the less refined landscapes. I do appreciate how the white bloom of this specimen is not blushed.
3. Arctostaphylos X densiflora ‘Howard McMinn’ manzanita qualifies as a locally native species, but is actually an unnatural hybrid of two species that, although native close by, are not locally native. I should not be so critical. It performs well within our landscapes.
4. Leucojum aestivum, summer snowflake does not wait for summer to bloom. We know it as snowdrop because it blooms when real snowdrop, Galanthus nivalis, would bloom. There is no confusion since real snowdrop is very rare here. I have actually never seen it.
5. Iris X germanica ‘Rosalie Figge’ bearded iris is redundant to a similar picture two and a half months ago, but continues to bloom. I am beginning to wonder if it ever stops now that it has been doing so continually for so long. Fortunately, no one is bored with it yet.
6. Camellia japonica, camellia is a different unidentified cultivar than that which posted with ‘Rosalie Figge’ bearded iris two and a half months ago, so is not so redundant. Most camellias were not blooming then, and even now, many are only beginning their bloom.
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/
Sunday Best – New Zealand Tea Tree
Six on Saturday: Scion Exchange
‘Beurre d’Anjou’ pear has been elusive. I visited the Scion Exchange of the Monterey Bay Chapter of the California Rare Fruit Growers to find scions, but none were unavailable. I got the few other scions and cuttings of the first three of these Six instead. That was two weeks ago. Some other deciduous vegetation is beginning to demonstrate that there was not much time to spare. Oddly, one banana tree did not bother with dormancy this year. It seemed to be comfortably sheltered.
1. Pomegranate, persimmon, caprifig, white mulberry and black mulberry cuttings are a bit too numerous to cite with their botanical and cultivar names. Most lack labels since I can identify them as they grow. They are plugged into the same can to occupy less space.
2. ‘Allegheny’ pawpaw scion is hopefully happily grafted onto seed grown understock. It is longer, with more buds than I would have preferred, but is rather thin. ‘Mango’ to the left is even dinkier. Three other small seed grown trees remain ungrafted without scions.
3. ‘Seckel’ and ‘Beurre d’Anjou’ pear were what I came for. I did not find ‘Beurre d’Anjou’ but this is ‘Seckel’. The quince understock is big enough for a pair of cleft grafted scions. Basal scraps from the scions were plugged as cuttings. Redundancy could be useful later.
4. Sambucus racemosa, red elderberry reminds me that winter dormancy will be ending soon for most deciduous plants. Grafting, bare root planting and dormant pruning must therefore be done sooner. Norway maple might be the last deciduous species to refoliate.
5. Musa acuminata, banana trees look so shabby after even minor frost that their foliage gets cut back. This unidentified specimen stayed nicely foliated under the eave and close to those uninsulated walls of the associated building, which happens to be a coffee shop.
6. This happens to be on the menu board of the coffee shop, which happens to be within view from where the banana tree that did not get frozen is situated. Another banana tree that is just a few feet away but unsheltered was deprived of the last of its frosted foliage.
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/
Sunday Best – Flowering Quince (January 31)
Tony Tomeo 