Fuchsia boliviana | Far Out Flora

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!

September Strybing

September 7, 2011 by Megan | 7 Comments

Bomarea caldasii

It’s been over a month since we were last at the SF Botanical Garden, so we headed up last Sunday afternoon in the fog. I was hoping to see some nice Meso-American Cloud Forest action, and was sweetly rewarded. I have no idea why we don’t have a Bomarea planted out back. I think I’m secretly afraid they’re finicky, but in reality they don’t seem that tough to keep alive. One would be right at home in Fuchsialand out back. There’s a trellis with a half-dead sweet pea and sad looking, heat/sun deprived pitiful Mina lobata that could use a new plant.

Foxy Fuchsia boliviana

The Fuchsia bolivianas were going nuts. Huge trees are covered in blooms which means I’ll most likely be hanging out near these fabulous plants next Saturday from 1:30-3:30 at my Interpretive Station as a docent. Wanna be a docent? Get more info and sign up for the upcoming fall training class here. It’s a fun way to learn more about plants.

Deppea splendens

Just a short stroll down from Fuchsiaville is a Deppea splendens getting ready to bloom like crazy. It’s covered with buds. Anyone know if there’s another Deppea besides this guy? I’ll most likely be setting up my Interpretive Station very near this plant on September 24th from 11:30-1:30 for the show.

Geranium 'Rozanne'

I have to admit, I didn’t understand what the all the fuss about this plant was for earlier this spring at Annie’s (there are a bunch available right now). Customers were getting into fist fights for the few we had available. Well, maybe not that extreme. I get it now. I’ve been watching a mass that’s been blooming its head off for months now. It’s impressive.

Haemanthus coccineus

At first I thought someone had thrown some trash in this bed, but it was really full of fiery little red flowers. They’re cute little South African natives related to the Naked Lady pictured below.

Amaryllis belladonna

Eucomis bicolor

Eriogonum giganteum

We took a little stroll through the California native section where we caught this ginormous Erigonum giganteum going crazy.

Eriogonum grande var. rubescens

The little native/dry section in front of the County Fair Building is starting to fill in. To check out baby pictures of this garden check out our post from last October when it was first installed. All our pics from Strybing are right here on flickr.

May Bloom Day Merriment

May 14, 2011 by Megan | 25 Comments

Viola Village

Hurray for May Bloom Day! Thanks to May Dreams Gardens for hosting Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day! Our backyard is the bloomiest it’s EVER been. People at work have said I’ve crossed over to “Flower Floozy” land, and I think they might be right even though I keep denying it. This container is full of Viola ‘Tiger Eyes’, Viola nigra ‘Bowles Black’, Viola ‘Etain’ with Satureja douglasii (Yerba Buena) creeping around. There’s some Aeoniums hanging out, too.

Echium wildpretii continues to rock!

Container experiment

This is our blue/orange container I planted back in early April. I’m liking it so far. There’s a bumble bee checking out Linaria reticulata
‘Flamenco’. I’m hooked on the Cerinthe retorta and Cheiranthus x allionii.