Far Out Flora

Gardening in the Outerlands of San Francisco

Category Archives: Bloom Day

November Blooms

November 14, 2011 by Megan | 17 Comments

Helenium autumnale 'Helena Red Shades'

Happy November Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day! This is the time of the year when we start to feel a little guilty about having all kinds of stuff blooming, not too guilty. Maybe two months ago I stuck Helenium autumnale ‘Helena Red Shades’  in a container on the part shade side of the garden not expecting much, but I’m loving it.

Lotus maculatus explosion

It’s a waterfall of orangey goodness! We flipped the grill container around a month or two ago & the Lotus is going nuts.

Crassula falcata

We ripped out a big Crassula falcata last winter, but a kept a couple chunks around. This one’s looking remarkably clean. The old one was pretty spotty. Seems to be cool with part shade.

Crassula corymbulosa

 

Cestrum 'Newellii'

Aloe arborenscens

Tropaeolum tuberosum & Eccremocarpus

The hummingbirds have been going nuts for the Tropaeolum tuberosum. Just when I think that the Eccremocarpus scaber ‘Cherry Red’ is dead it busts out with another flower.

Asclepias physocarpa

I thought this plant was a goner back in August/September. It was getting beat to crap by light brown apple moths & pretty much looking pitiful, but it looks like we’re going to see some “Family Jewel” action soon. It’s happy & covered in flowers.

Faucaria sp.

Nemophila menziesii "Baby Blue Eyes"

I’m hooked on Nemophilas. I’ve heard snails love them, but so far we’ve been lucky.

Nemophila menziesii 'Penny Black'

Nemophila menziesii ‘Penny Black’ is one of my favorite annuals on the planet. I’ll be jamming this plant in to nooks and crannies forever. Tons of my favorite CA native spring annuals are back at Annie’s along with poppies & sweet peas.

Petunia exserta still looking sexy

Cuphea cyanea "Pink Cigar Plant"

Happy Blooms!

 

 

 

 

 

 

October In Bloom

October 14, 2011 by Megan | 25 Comments

Scabiosa & West Coast Lady

Scabiosa & West Coast Lady

Happy Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day! A big shout out to May Dreams Garden for hosting the worldwide flower sharing fest. Lots of repeats from recent months past, but we still have plenty o’flowery action happening out back. We’re not really sure which Scabiosa this is (it was a mystery freebie from Annie’s I planted in a pot last winter). The dang thing hasn’t stopped blooming since May and the butterflies love it. I love how the little periwinkle dots on the wings match the bloom.

Brugmansia sanguinea

Brugmansia sanguinea

Our Brugmansia sanguinea has busting out the blooms left and right. We’ve actually had a decent amount of rain for October, which nearly collapsed the entire thing (I feel like a pruning failure). It’s super floppy… which means as soon as the flower fest is done I’m going to hack it back. Anyone have any advice about pruning it in to a lovely small tree?

Echeveria sp.

Echeveria gibbiflora

Not really sure what this cultivar is, but it’s an Echeveria gibbiflora of some sort. I’m going to call it ‘Fancy Panties’ since I have no idea what cultivar it really and truly is.

Euphorbia myrsinites

Euphorbia myrsinites

Now I haven’t really looked at a donkey tail lately, but what’s up with the common name “Donkey Tail Spurge”? Nothing about this plant reminds me of an equine creature, but I do love it.

Calandrinia spectabilis

Calandrinia spectabilis

Look at that lovely flower! The actual plant itself is all spotty and weird. I’m thinking it’s getting too much water, not enough sun and is in a pot with probably sub-standard (crappy recycled so-so draining soil). We have a couple in the ground that have never been that happy either (they more sun and less water). I see them everywhere around town (even in the fog belt) looking huge and awesome. Perhaps we have the Calandrinia curse?

Petunia exerta

Petunia exserta

I’m still loving our Petunia exserta (almost extinct in its homeland of southeastern Brazil). When we look out over the garden from the living room, the flowers look like floating red stars. I dead head it religiously.

Black Petunia

Black Petunia

My fingers turn purple when I deadhead this one. I’m curious to see how things go for it this winter.

Grill looking pretty

Grill looking pretty

We flipped the grill around a week or two ago, since the Lotus maculatus was putting on a show for the fence. Echeveria pulvinata is back in action again, too. Anyone else out there orange flower fans? I think we need more orange flowering friends.

Fuchsia fulgens

Fuchsia fulgens

Still looking good despite my half-assed transplant.

Dahlia ‘Dark Side of the Sun’

Dahlia ‘Dark Side of the Sun’

Oh geez, I just looked at our previous Bloom Day posts and back in August I posted almost this exact same picture. I’ll be honest. We almost spaced Bloom Day, so some of these pictures are a week or two, maybe three old. Right this very second there are no Dahlia blooms in action.

Fuchsia 'Fanfare'

Fuchsia 'Fanfare'

Are you sick of ‘Fanfare’ yet? It just keeps blooming and blooming and blooming.

Cuphea 'Strybing Sunset'

Cuphea 'Strybing Sunset'

So does Cuphea ‘Strybing Sunset’.

Echeveria runyonii 'Topsy Turvy' flower

Echeveria runyonii 'Topsy Turvy'

Happy Bloom Day!

 

Bloom Day September

September 14, 2011 by Megan | 24 Comments

Bee & Mystery Succulent

Happy September Bloom Day! Thanks to Carol at May Dreams Gardens for hosting the monthly bloom-a-thon. Summer has finally arrived in Outer Sunset. For the first time in several weeks it hit seventy five degrees and was sunny!  This little bee was pollinating its little heart out on a cutie mystery mesemb. Anyone have any ideas as to what it is? I don’t even remember where we got it.

Cuphea 'Strybing Sunset' action

Matti brought Cuphea ‘Strybing Sunset’ home from the pitiful pile at work, and it’s made a full recovery. I threw it in there to give Fuchsia ‘Fanfare’ some leggings to cover up some of its skinny leg show.

Linaria reticulata 'Flamenco'

Linaria reticulata ‘Flamenco’ is one of my favorite annuals. I’d even say it’s even in my top five. We planted one last Spring, and it bloomed like a crazy thing for months in a big container. I loved it so much, this time I planted three. It’s well on the way to being a giant ball of red-orange flowery goodness.

Petunia exerta fun

Crazy rare Petunia exerta from South Eastern Brazil is still going strong despite being trampled by a dog. We trample it, too trying to get to plants in the far corner. Greensparrow Gardens‘ blogger Joseph Tychonievich hooked Annie’s up with the seeds for this super unique Petunia. Joseph is so cool he actually tricked his tree dahlia in to blooming using a trash can this summer.

Plectranthus neochilus

Some folks don’t like this funky little groundcover’s herby odor, but I think it smells nice. The purpley flowers aren’t bad either.

Sempervivum starting to get crazy

We’ve got semps in all shapes in sizes, bursting with sea creature like blooms right now. Matti’s been addicted to semps for quite some time, but I was slow to jump on the bandwagon. We had one back in Wisconsin that I loved, but I was weirdly not in love with them when we moved here. I think one might have gotten rotty during the winter. While I still can’t rattle off all the cultivars like Matti, I do love them again.

Impatiens nyungwensis

Matti picked out mega-rare Impatiens nyungwensis, a native to Rwanda from Annie’s last winter/early-spring. It’s loving life next to the beach. We now have two thriving colonies of this hairy little guy, from a couple chunks of plant I shoved in the ground after it was looking sad in a container.

Brugmansia sanguinea

Pretty soon our Brugmansia sanguinea will have some flowers facing the garden where I can take a picture of it without sticking my head next to the fence. This guy has really taken off. It’s covered in buds right now, and getting huge.

Eccremocarpus scaber 'Tresco Gold'

Finally, after quite some time of not doing so much Eccremocarpus scaber ‘Tresco Gold’ is causing hummingbird brawls in the garden. We literally have over ten Fuchsias out back, and the hummers don’t give a crap about them compared their beloved Chilean Glory Vine. Earlier this week I saw my first full on hummer battle above this vine.

Verbena bonariensis and fluttery friend

The butterflies have been digging the Verbena bonariensis big time latey. Anyone know what this one is?

 

Happy August Bloom Day!

August 15, 2011 by Megan | 17 Comments

Echeveria shaviana hybrid

Happy August Bloom Day from the  Outer Sunset! A big shout out to May Dreams Gardens for hosting the worldwide bloom-a-thon blog fest! We’ve got some cool stuff happening in the flower department right now, including this Echeveria that Matti and I spent twenty minutes trying to identify online with no definitive answers. It’s ridiculously bloomy right now.

Madia elegans

About a month or two ago I thought the gophers had gotten to this California native, but a chunk of it had just broken off. We haven’t seen any gophers for a couple months!

Pretty Pelargonium

Aristolochia californica surprise

What’s up with the late summer pipe vine pipe? One section of the now massive vine is sprouting out flowers. I feel like it’s trying to take over the world right now. So far no Pipevine Swallowtail action. I heard they’re not typically found in these parts, which means if you grow it, they may not come.

Container of stuff

Hurray for surprise Lobelia seedlings from last year in places I don’t mind. My hack job on the Fuchsia ‘Fanfare’ is getting less awkward every week. I love my pot o’ violas. I would always plant them in Wisconsin forgetting every spring, that as soon as it started to get hot they’d shrivel up die in full sun. There’s some Satureja douglasii, “Yerba Buena” spilling out and spreading doing its groundcovery thing. I’m going to shut up and post some bloomy pics now:

Eccremocarpus scaber 'Cherry Red'

Fuchsia denticulata

Fuchsia 'Venezuela'

Echeveria nodulosa

Sempervivum

Athanasia pinnata

Eriogonum 'The Hub'

Viola 'Etain'

Dahlia ‘Dark Side of the Sun’

Happy Bloom Day!

 

 

 

Blooming in July!

July 14, 2011 by Megan | 12 Comments

Pelargonium trigonum miracle flower!

Happy Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day! We’ve got some stuff blooming in the backyard. You might be thinking, “Hey, that’s a geranium flower. What’s exciting about that?”, but it’s a freak Pelargonium we picked up at a Succulent Society meeting. We still have the tag calling it Pelargonium trigonum, but I can’t find anything on the interwebs about it. I’m thinking maybe it’s Pelargonium tetragonum, it’s gotta be closely related. It has square succulent stems, might be confused for Euphorbia and is weird. I think it would be a lot happier in a different (sunnier/drier) spot, now that I’ve finally took the time to read about it. Here’s a pic of it back in May when it wasn’t getting eaten by a Calceolaria.

Calceolaria integrifolia ‘Kentish Hero’ & friends

You can barely see the poor Pelargonium between Calceolaria integrifolia ‘Kentish Hero’ and Cerinthe major purpurascens. The Calceolaria has been going crazy with orangey mouthed flowers.

Cotyledon orbiculata that keeps on giving

Cotyledon orbiculata has been blooming since early April. It just keeps pumping out flowers.

Dahlia 'Dark Side of the Sun'

So far my Dahlia experiment has been doing pretty well. No powdery mildew, yet! The cold, damp, drizzly fog is definitely here for Summer.

Keckiella cordifolia (CA Native) getting cuddly with the Agave

Gilia capitata chamissonis fluffy cuteness (CA Native)

Eccremocarpus scaber 'Cherry Red'

New Zinnia & Eryngium tripartitum

We’ve quite a bit more blooming all over the place right now. Check out our backyard flickr set for all the action in July. Thanks to Carol at May Dreams Gardens for hosting Bloom Day!