Far Out Flora

Gardening in the Outerlands of San Francisco

Tag Archives: coreopsis gigantea

February Flowers

February 14, 2012 by Megan | 20 Comments

Ferraria crispa

Happy Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day! We’ve got all kinds of sweet stuff blooming right now, but this Ferraria crispa is the freakiest. It’s our first fancy South African bulb. The foliage on this guy is what sold me. So often SA bulbs have lame grassy leaves, but this guy is almost succulent. Blooms are super fragrant, smelling like a combo of vanilla and butt. They’re fly pollinated, so the stank works for them. Check out all our pics of it here. Now for some of the California natives that have started to bloom.

Coreopsis gigantea & friends

During our first big rainstorm in what seemed like forever ago one of the branches took a dive, but it didn’t break off. We think it might help counterbalance the giant poofy top. It’s growing a with a bit of a tilt, but we’re going to get another big bunch of blooms soon. The Aeonium nobile above the bowling pin is going nuts! A shout out to Jenn at Dirty Girl Gardening for giving it to us last summer.

 

Phacelia viscida

Aristolochia californica

Three years ago I went on a mission to find this plant. I had seen cool pipe covered pictures of it via google and thought it was the coolest thing ever. Matti and I went to our first SF Garden show in 2009, where I tracked one down from Bay Natives. It was a little slow to establish and I thought it was dead the first year it went deciduous… right now it’s about to do the amazing thing I saw online. It put on a decent show last year, but this year is going to be nuts. If it wasn’t deciduous I don’t know if I could deal. Hopefully this is the year the Pipevine Swallowtails will sniff it out. They’re welcome to eat as much of it as they want.

Eccremocarpus scaber 'Cherry Red'

It’s the vine that won’t quit. Last year our Eccremocarpus died back quite a bit, but this year our masses of them (them reseed like crazy,  annoying cut off the pods crazy) are keeping the hummingbirds happy.

Fuchsia fulgens with Aeonium 'Cyclops' friend

Fuchsia boliviana

Brugmansia sanguinea

Senecio cristobalensis

Euphorbia wulfenii

Crested Euphorbia 'Tiny Tim'

Pretty much all the flowers on ‘Tiny Tim’ are cresting with bizarre monster like flowers. My crackpot theory is that aphids had something to do with it. They were all over this guy and I didn’t really do anything but blast it with the hose once. We have another big honking Euphorbia that’s currently under attack. I’m keeping my fingers crossed it will have a bunch of freaky blooms in a few weeks, too.

Thanks to Carol at May Dreams Garden for hosting Bloom Day!

January Bloominess

January 14, 2012 by Megan | 17 Comments

First Coreopsis gigantea bloom

Happy Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day! We don’t have a whole lot going on in the bloom department right now, but are crazy excited our Coreopsis gigantea  just started to bloom. We had a little gopher scare with it a couple weeks ago. I walked out one morning to find it completely droopy, with two gopher mounds about five feet away and panicked.  This freaky California native is one of my favorite plants we have out back. After a good long water it recovered and Matti took care of the gopher.

Lobelia aguana

My favorite new, super rare, orangey-red Lobelia aguana blooms just started to open up in the last few days. I’m in love! Mark D. (aka serialplantfetishist on flickr) picked up this cool Lobelia at a Strybing plant sale and shared the seed love with Annie’s. Check out the online sign for the cool story and more info.

Crassula multicava

I’m not a huge fan of this Crassula, but it seems to bloom continuously… dropping it’s tiny weeny babies all over the place. It’s not terrible or anything, but I have a feeling its days are numbered. Matti and I aren’t big fans of white flowering plants in our garden.

Eccremocarpus scaber 'Tresco Gold'

I can’t believe this dude is still kicking it.

Layia platyglossa

The first Tidy Tips bloom of the season!

Kalanchoe prolifera

This weirdo Kalanchoe known as “Blooming Boxes” is still doing its thing. I haven’t really seen an actual yellow flower peeking out from the box (technically bracts).

Black Petunia

A big shout out to Carol at May Dreams Gardens for hosting the monthly bloom share-a-thon!

Saturday Succulent Rearranging

September 4, 2011 by Megan | 13 Comments

Before the mass rip out

Yesterday I decided to go nuts on our Cotyledon orbiculata var. oblonga (I think that’s what it is). In the shot above I’d already cut out as much plant as you see remaining. I’ve always liked it, but we needed to make room for some cool new plants so I ripped the entire plant out. That whole region was getting a bit funkified anyways.

Here I am looking like a big dork

For the relatively small space I re-did it took me forever. I do not recommend squatting in a hunched down position like that for hours if you want to wake up the next day without some serious leg/back soreness.

Ready to get put back together

We had a big chunk of driftwood hanging around not doing anything, so I decided to use it as a little edger in the front.

Voila!

Six hours later it’ was done (I took a lot of breaks). I still have no idea what that other slightly bluer Cotyledon is hanging out behind the Coreopsis gigantea is. Behind and slightly to the left of the bowling pin is our brand new Aeonium nobile from Jenn at Dirty Girl Gardening. Matti brought home a couple freaky crested things including the Aeonium ‘Sunburst’ and Echeveria ‘Doris Taylor’ that are jammed in there as well. Click on the pic for a closer look.

Going Picture Crazy

May 7, 2011 by Megan | 9 Comments

Echium love

In April we uploaded 259 pictures of our backyard to Flickr. Dang!  The middle (mostly native) section is really filling in. I’m loving the Gilia capitata and Gilia tricolor. They’re both super bloomy right now. We have Gilia capitata ssp. chamissonis, too.  Our Eriogonom ‘The Hub’ is getting ready to pop soon, too! Our Dudleya collection keeps expanding thanks to Matti’s rescues from work.  Here are a couple more of my favorite pics from April.

Coreopsis gigantea getting gigantic

Alien Aeonium with poppies

Results from cleaning up the joint

Crassula corymbulosa and friends

Weekend Backyard Action

January 16, 2011 by Megan | 14 Comments

Pile of Crassula falcata

Yesterday we took advantage of the sunny, sixty something degree day by going nuts in the garden. I brought home twelve new plants from work, we also had quite a few homeless guys on the table. They all made it in to the ground! I started out the morning hacking down, and ripping out the gnarly looking Crassula falcata. Don’t worry, I saved and replanted a few chunks in a different spot. The Senecio vitalis got a massive hair cut too (I think it’s finally dodder free).

Crassula alba var. parvisepala

Check out the sexy  Crassula alba var. parvisepala I planted in the new free space!  I moved the Euphorbia rigida from it’s spot in the back and planted our new Plectranthus tomentosa  in the open real estate too.

I don't even miss the falcata

The pot with Correa pulchella got spun around, so it starts growing the other direction. I also planted a new Digitalis obscura in there. We really like to cram stuff in.

Coreopsis gigantea love

Hooray for Coreopsis gigantea! It’s not only weird, it’s a California native. According to the description, large 4″ wide sunflower like flowers will start to pop out in February. If we’re lucky, it will grow four feet tall on its freaky trunk.

Before Matti's Makeover

I saved the best for last. Matti’s been itching to rehaul the overgrown corner next to the Agave americana for quite some time. Here’s a shot of the corner from last year (it was even overgrown and crappy looking back then).

In progress

He cleared out a big mess of Aeonium, Senecio mandraliscae, and a bunch of other stuff for a massive rearrange. I made him rip out an Opuntia from a different part of the garden (it was blocking the view of the Aloe plicatilis) and shove it in the new space (or chuck it).

The Dramatic After

Matti went crazy with the revamped corner! He jammed all kinds of good stuff in there, including brand new Aeonium rubrolineatum.

Unobstructed Aloe plicatilis

No more big honking, pokey, Opuntia to block the view or attack us when weeding! We blogged about the planting of this cool dude back July.

Matti's first Primula

I was a little surprised when I saw Primula auricula ‘Angelo Hayes’ on Matti’s wish list. It’s cool! These are just a few of the new plants that went in yesterday. I’m sure the rest of the new plant babies will turn up in blogs down the road. I have big plans to turn the middle of the yard space in to a California native wonderland, instead of the plant dumping ground it is right now.