Far Out Flora

Gardening in the Outerlands of San Francisco

Monthly Archives: December 2011

SF Botanical Blooms

December 11, 2011 by Megan | 5 Comments

Succulent Wonderland

The day after Thanksgiving I headed up to the foggy SF Botanical Garden to see what was happening. The succulent section is looking super sweet right now with all the Aloe arborescens freaking out. They’re starting to go nuts in gardens all over town right now, too. Winter Aloe bloom time is one of my favorite flower seasons. Check out the mega-giant Agave salmiana starting to shoot out a flower.

Montanoa grandiflora

Lots of crazy tree daisy action going on. This one smells like cupcakes. Sweet, sweet cupcakes. I think I stood in front of it for at least five minutes just sniffing. It’s right off the main path that goes by the succulent section at the bottom of the hill across from Puya hill.

Vertical Agave attenuata

I wish I had a rock wall of my very own to shove full of succulents.

Brugmansia sanguinea

I’m still obsessed with Brugmansia sanguinea. This one has some really nice coloration. Ours isn’t as deep red. I still get a little freaked out when I see how big our “little” guy could potentially get (I’m still in denial about its size).

Cuphea micropetala

There were masses of Cuphea micropetala blooming in the Exhibition Garden, which I often forget to visit.

Nerine bowdenii

Nerine bowdenii was going completely crazy in the South African section. There are masses and masses of it looking pretty all over the place.

Pretty Protea repens

One last pretty bloom. Check out our buddy Derek’s blog post on Plantgasm for more cool pics (he went the day after me). More pics from my visit are here on flickr, too.

Awesome New Alpines

December 8, 2011 by Megan | 4 Comments

The New Alpiney Container

I’ve been wanting to give some Saxifrags & a few other shorty plants a shot for a couple months & this big honking container didn’t have anything going on, so I made my alpine garden dreams come true. The little dude front & center is Maihuenia poeppigii. It’s a funky little cacti from the mountains of Chile that actually likes moisture. The limey green guy to the left & in the back is Saxifraga x arendsii ‘Purple Carpet’. It’s hard to see unless you click in for the big pic, but it’s made up of itty bitty rosettes. It LOVES water, especially when in sunnier spots. Are you noticing a pattern? These plants are water likers which scares me a little. Teeny weeny Dianthus pyrenaicus native to the Pyrenees mountains is drought tolerant, but won’t mind average watering either. Instead of just throwing in a random mish-mash of semi-used mystery dirt I went with cactus mix, so there shouldn’t be any drainage issues. Matti’s always in search of new crested freaks, so I brought him home Iceland native, Saxifraga cotyledon getting its crest on (it’s sticking out of that weird wood chunk thing & likes it kind of moist, too). Hopefully things work out & my mini mountain plants will fill in.

Check out NARGS (North American Rock Garden Society) to learn more about wee little plants that like hanging with rocks. There are lots of cool drought tolerant options out there. Here are a few pics of my favorite circle of rock garden awesomeness at the SF Botanical Garden.

Dreamy Armeria maritima ‘Rubrifolia’

Verbascum 'Letitia'

A couple shots from the rock garden at Olbrich Gardens in Madison, WI.

Olbrich Gardens Rockery

Euphorbia myrsinites going crazy

So what’s the difference between a rock garden & an alpine garden? NARGS defines it best, “Gardens in which rocks and plants appropriate to them are the chief landscape elements are called rock gardens or sometimes, if the plants are entirely or mainly sorts to grow naturally at higher altitudes or under subarctic or arctic conditions, alpine gardens. Well planned and well executed rock gardens are aesthetically agreeable as well as horticulturally stimulating.” That means that all the plants in the new container are hardy from zone 6b on down to 3!

Sprucing up Shiny

December 7, 2011 by Matti | 11 Comments

Shiny Succulent Container - Nov 27, 2011

Shiny Succulent Container - Nov 27, 2011

A tad past two years ago, I found this shiny object which I jammed packed with a ton O succulent cuttings. Well, it’s been way over due for a little sprucing up. Above is the result. Check out the side by side at the end.

Shiny Succulent Container - Nov 2009

Shiny Succulent Container - Nov 2009

Here’s how it looked 2 years ago…it’s really more if a game of survivor. Cruising the Mission hood for funky stuff, I found this UFC (Unidentified Found Container. 35 cuttings from our backyard later, it was filled with hope, dreams, and promise. Our Thrift Store Succulent Storage post tells more of the story.

Shiny Succulent Container - Nov 27, 2011

Shiny Succulent Container - Nov 27, 2011

Why did it need a replanting? Well, rarely do plants look superb forever, unless you’re using plastic. Here’s a recent pic how it’s been looking. That’s what a year of total neglect looks like. Shocking anything is still alive.

The cool thing is that I have a better idea which of these succulents can handle a some stress. Taking a peek above, looks like the tough guys are a couple of aeoniums, some Sedum rebrotinctum, a sempervivum, Crassula tetragona, and some other crassula & sedum.

Feb 2010ish on Left -- Nov 2011is on the Right

Feb 2010 on Left -- Nov 2011 on the Right

Check out this before and after (clicking our pics make them big). There’s about an 18 months span from left to right. Game on, let’s see which will endure thru 2012.

– Far Out Flora

Vintage Gardeny Gifts

December 3, 2011 by Megan | 2 Comments

Vintage Planter Cuteness!

Our good friend Amy was just in San Francisco visiting from Madison where she scours estate sales and the best St. Vinnie’s ever to find funky awesome stuff for her etsy shop Dairy Heiress. How cute are those planters above? Click on any of the pictures to be whisked away to the etsy page for more info.

Cornucopia of Fruits

Hollyhock Dishes

Bambi Planter

Owlies

Parakeet Planter

Merry Mushrooms

 

Flashback: Kalanchoe prolifera

December 1, 2011 by Megan | 3 Comments

Kalanchoe prolifera all grown up

Matti recently uploaded some super old, embarrassing pics of yesteryear (2.5-3 years ago) to our flickr account. If you want a good laugh, or inspiration that a pit of a not so great garden can turn in to something not so bad, check out the set. About a year ago we started keeping track of pics in our backyard in an organized fashion on flickr, making it really easy to go back and freak out at what our garden looked like a year ago. I’m a sucker for before & afters, so the Flashback posts might become more regular. Our little baby Kalanchoe prolifera is all grown up and looks like it’s going to shoot out some flowers soonish. It’s even taller than me! I do admit it’s not the classiest of succulents in the looks department. Kind of gangly and awkward, but I still love it.

Oh look! There’s a semi-crappy looking container with succulents in it. I’m currently trying to keep a weirdo Sedum from the isle of Cyprus alive in the right hand (empty looking) spot. So far I’ve only killed one of these cool plants, but it’s not looking so good for this second guy either. I’m hoping if I wait out the “collapse” phase good things will happen. It is a succulent after all.

Kalanchoe prolifera baby last November

So, we picked up this freaky little dude about two years ago in Morro Bay. Light Brown Apple Moth (horrible, horrible creature from Australia who thankfully seems to have taken a little nap recently) took a liking to it this summer, along with quite a few of our succulents including the Sedum I mentioned above. I hate to kill the spawn of butterflies and moths, but I busted out the BT on a pretty regular basis this summer in an effort to battle it. Dang LBAM went nuts on a bunch of non-succulents, too. It had no problem flying around the apartment taunting us when the windows were open at night either, which is how I made a positive identification as it clung to the side of the laptop monitor.