Brilliant Winter Light Continues

It was near 90F (32 C) again today.  I followed the deep winter shade around the garden to continue rose pruning and leaf raking in cool comfort.  Meanwhile out front, in the blazing light...
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Bulbine latifolia against Senecio.  
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The tiny individual flowers look a little like daffodils 
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The plant looks something like a miniature Agave attenuata with water retention issues.  It shrunk up for the summer, but woke with the October rainfall and has 4 flower spikes, with another just appearing.  
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I'm surprised with all the sun and heat that the Agave has not begun to open.
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Aloe marlothii's flower candelabra continues to develop.  Tagetes lemonii begins to dry up in the background.  I'll cut it to the ground soon and it will come back afresh come spring.  At least it has for several years. 
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Aloe plicatilis won't be blooming for a while yet.
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I've been photographing Aloe cameronii for several weeks.  The spikes began as a dull brown, yellowed up a bit, then all of a sudden became a sweet tangerine.  They will open any day now.
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I keep photographing and photographing Aloe ferox.  I'm still agog.  
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I would show off my pruning work, and my neatly raked-out beds, but they are not nearly so photogenic, so expressive of the brilliant light of winter.  

Comments

  1. You're killing me with the Aloe photos... I never knew those plants were so interesting, varied, and beautiful!

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  2. Hi Hoover Bo, i will confess something because it is New Year! Do you know that i've long been following you but i thought you were male? I just learned otherwise last December, LOL. Now about the post, if i were you i might absent myself from work and just photographed all those beauties! I love them all, but your great photography skills made them more and more beautiful. Happy New Year!

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  3. Great pictures as always. All though flowering aloes are a site. I love the bulbine, is one of my favourite plants, sadly can only grow it indoors hear, so mine are in pots.

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  4. 90°F? That's crazy! But then it's been 65°F here in the Sacramento area. Your aloes (and the bulbine) are spectactular. I can't wait for my marlothii to get to blooming size.

    Gerhard
    :: Bamboo and More ::

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  5. @Alan, I had no idea they had such wonderful flowers. It's been a delightful surprise.

    @Andrea, Hoover was a boy, all boy. I am just me, borrowing his name. Perhaps I need to revert to my own name now that he is gone, but it's one way for me to remember him.

    @Spikey, I think Bulbine would do just as well in a pot--they seem incredibly unfussy.

    @Gerhard, the heat was pretty bad. We need raaaain!!!!

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  6. In my next life I want to live in a climate where Aloe will grow outside, in the ground, and not just on the kitchen windowsill.

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  7. 90F...I remember those toasty winter periods in SD (but I loved them)...what I disliked was "June gloom". I may need to visit...I recall that light on your recent posts, too! Here...low 50's and sun...brrr, hoping for spring in 2 months, plant growth you show resuming, etc. Thanks for the cheer up!

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  8. @Les, we are lucky here in the amazing variety of plants we can grow, and I try to never, never forget that.

    @Desert, "June Gloom" is somewhat dreary, sure, but it's heaven if you are transplanting shrubs or trying to propagate from cuttings. Hope you get some good sunlight soon (and that we get rain).

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