Far Out Flora

Gardening in the Outerlands of San Francisco

Tag Archives: Senecio cristobalensis

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!

Senecio cristobalensis Down

October 25, 2011 by Matti | 2 Comments

Senecio cristobalensis catastrophe

Senecio cristobalensis - Red Leaved Velvet Senecio

The winter rains just starting here in SF.  About two weeks ago we came home to find our Senecio cristobalensis toppled over…probably due to the weight of the wet leaves in tandem with a little wind.

Off topic for a second…can you believe this is a Senecio?  It has giant velvet like leaves…green on top and purple on the underside.  It gets big, 6-10 feet tall and wide, easily pruned and one of the most bizarre Senecios I’ve seen in awhile.

qFixing the plant.

Fixing the Senecio cristobalensis

After assessing the damage, there didn’t appear to be an breakage in the stem.  We hammered in a four foot stake halfway into the soil and tied it up at the base.  Not too tight…it can swagger freely.  Should be good to go now.

– Far Out Flora

Ripping Even More Stuff Out

September 30, 2011 by Megan | 8 Comments

Sad Echium candicans

Tis the season to go crazy ripping things out & moving them around. I’ve been on a rampage lately.  Earlier in the month I went nuts on a succulent section. No plant is safe right now. This little corner was so pitiful I didn’t even bother taking a decent before pic of it (sorry about the glaring sun). About every three or four months I get pissed off at the Echium candicans for dropping it’s crappy little leaves all over the spiky Aloe below about to be pulled out. It starts with a couple snips here & there, but always ends with the Echium looking very sad. It’ll fill back in, in a couple weeks. Does anyone think my aggressive pruning could be the reason it’s never bloomed (we’ve had it for at least three years)? We threaten it verbally every Spring when all the other Echiums are blooming all over the place, maybe we made it sad?

Ripping it out

The Aloe you see strewn about was bought when we first moved here in a two inch pot. It’s hard to believe how huge it got in only a couple years. Someone in the neighborhood hit the free succulent jackpot with this rearrange. When we have extras, they get thrown on the curb & we tweet about it. I think we put out five succulent cutting filled flats this time.

Looks a little sad, but give it a few months

Matti brought home a Banksia blechnifolia from the loser pile at work (to the left of the piece of wood holding up the rickety fence). It’s our first Banksia & sounds like it loves life in sand, on the coast. It’s a prostrate, shorty. As long as I remember not to fertilize it with anything that has phosphorus it in. Eventually we’ll have to move the deformed Echeveria subrigida & Agave vilmoriniana (they were both crammed in an unfortunate spots earlier).

Senecio cristobalensis

This corner was too sad for before pics. It’s still looking a little crazy, but much better than the mess it was before. I ditched two of the Dahlias due to powdery mildew & just being sick of them. Check out the nice trunk forming on the Senecio cristobalensis. Maybe this winter it won’t get totally pummeled by the rain & winds.  There’s a Phygelius in the container where our Dianthus superbus sat unhappy for about six months. In another couple months, I’ll probably have to redo this section again. Now that we have ridiculous quantities of plants, moving stuff around has become my favorite thing to do.

Fuchsia fulgens

After doing a little flickr searching, I realized that I didn’t even take pics of my Fuchsia glazioviana massacre a couple weeks ago. Of all the Fuchsias we’ve grown (we currently have over ten) F. glazioviana has been my least favorite. Crappy little flowers you can barely see, along with runners going all over place… it had to go, so I could move poor Fuchsia fulgens in to the spot of glory it deserves (it was crammed behind our Cestrum).

This weekend two of our favorite nurseries are having shin-dings. Succulent Gardens is having their extravaganza today & Saturday & Annie’s Annuals is having their fabulous fall party (plus all plants will be 20% off, this goes for online orders, too). I”ll be working at Annie’s party on Sunday, so stop on by & say hi.