What's Blooming At The Huntington Early September 2016 (Echinopsis!)

Above, Agapanthus 'Ellamae'

Lots of flowers, more than I expected, especially in the Desert Garden.  The day was glorious--cool, with a thick gloomy cloud cover.  
Blogger in habitat:
No, I'm serious.  After months of unrelenting heat and intense sunlight,  gloom is good.  
They've been watering more.  From Adenium boehianum...
...to Agapanthus 'Ellamae', the gardens looked great. 
Not in bloom, but how can I not post a photo of Agave ovatifolia?
Rose 'Almondeen'
Aloe africana x cameronii.
Aloe hildebrandtii
Aloe unknown
Aloe known--A. reitzii.  It likes some shade and more summer water than it is getting here.  My own plant is not yet large enough to flower.  This plant was chest-high, the flower higher.  

Speaking of Aloes, I always check on the fallen-over Aloe suzannae that continued to grow long after falling over.  On this visit, it was gone. Awww.
Bananas in the subtropical garden.  Yes those little green things are bananas.
These little green things are apparently the foliage of the Boojum tree.  Huh.  How 'bout that? 
Borzicactus sericatus.  Note the dusting of pollen on the flower petals.  No wonder bees roll around in the flowers.

 A mass planting of a ruffled Echeveria made a great show.
Lots of ruffles. 
Now we come to the most spectacular flowers in the Desert Garden this visit,  Echinopsis hybrids.
'Lochinvar'.  They look like supermodels with their mouths hanging open.  But in a good way. 
'Lochinvar':
 The photos do not do them justice.  They were far more beautiful than what my camera and skill could capture.
'Anastasia':

'April Dawn'. 
'April Dawn'
'April Dawn'
'Anastasia' had a very inconveniently placed hose bib. 
'Lochinvar'. 
No flowers on this fuzzy fluffy cactus, but there was something familiar about it, something likeable...almost petable...reminded me of something...
Oh, yeah.  That's it. 

This cactus flower was hiding behind a shrub of some kind.  It would escape notice but for that wonderful flower.
Gasteria croucheri
Some sort of carrot-relative thing(?) in the Herb Garden
Also in the Herb Garden, sunflowers.  The Herb Garden looked vastly improved over Septembers past.  Even the pros need to experiment to develop a particular place to its best.  Or else they just watered more.  
Near the sunflowers, purple-flowered beans with purple stems and purple pods. 
Desert garden again, the path snaking through Mammillarias and Golden Barrels. 
Pedilanthus (now Euphorbia) bracteatus.
Red Whiskered Bulbul,  descendants of escapees, checking for ripe palm fruit.  There was an effort to eliminate them from Southern California, but that was back in 1985.  Still here. 
Rudbeckias in the Shakespeare Garden.
Stapelia.  It was early and cloudy and cool, so no flies. 
Several clumps of Stapelias were growing in the shadows of Golden Barrels.  Stapelias seem to like afternoon shade--at least my clump does.  Those in this photo look stressed. I might too with a barrel cactus looming over me. 
This Trichocereus flower bud was about 10" long (25 cm).  The open flowers must be enormous. 
This next plant was a surprise.  It was in flower so drew attention to itself.  I've noticed it out of flower in the past, when it had no label.  Now newly labeled as x Poellneria, the flowers looked Aloe-like, or perhaps like an Aloe-Gasteria hybrid, but not quite.  I could not find much information on x Poellneria, other than it might be a cross of Poellnitzia and Gasteria.   More searching:  Poellnitzia rubriflora, a monotypic genus--the plant is now placed in Astroloba(?) so x Poellneria can(?) be called Gastroloba(?)  It's all botany to me.  
All I really wanted to say was...the flowers are purdy!
Reel purdy!

So that is some of what is blooming at the Huntington this week.  It was extremely comforted to see, on our way to the exit, that the Huntington had an Adenanthos casualty, as did I.  I don't feel quite so bad now.

Although perhaps it was the flowers under a cool overcast that made me feel so good. 
Echinobivia 'Watermelon'

Comments

  1. Dear Hoover, so many beautiful flowers and colours, the white flowering cactus, Gasteria, Echinopsis hybrid 'April Dawn', Echinobivia 'Watermelon'...all beautiful and those fluffy white puppies.
    Hugs, Dianne
    xoxoxo. 💐

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  2. Oh, and of course the Agapanthus!
    X

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    1. Isn't that a gorgeous color? I like those better than the pale ones, which look tired in our intense sunlight.

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    2. The colour is gorgeous. My daughter has the deeper colour growing in a rockery beside her swimming pool, they are planted amongst Agaves and look wonderful.
      xoxox. ♥️

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    3. Agapanthus with Agaves! Sounds interesting! We don't tend to pair them here.

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  3. Oh, those Echinopsis hybrid flowers are sooooo beautiful. Good to hear that the herb garden is looking better. Sounds like a new head gardener for that section. Shakespeare better, too? Tough job, these young hires have to blend what the boss wants and what they think is right for the times. Yes, yes, yes. Gloom is good. Repeat 10 times.

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    1. The Herb Garden looked great--vastly improved, and yes the Shakespeare was much improved also. More joyous--"Much Ado About Nothing" instead of "Pericles".

      It's got to be tricky working there--lots of politics, no doubt. Non-profits are tough work environments. As are profits, of course.

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  4. I can almost feel your glee at the garden's beauty. I love the color of that Echinopsis 'April Dawn'. Poellnitzia/Gastroloba is indeed pretty with its rainbow-like flower spike and I applaud your industry in checking into its origins. Best wishes for a happy Labor Day!

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    1. The Echinopsis were beyond gorgeous. Photos didn't reflect their magic.

      Hope your holiday weekend is a good one, Kris.

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  5. I'm always amazed when I see photos of the Huntington Garden. Never have seen so many differen beautiful cactus blooms, but do you guess which blooms I like most? Those are the two white furry ones in the middle of your blog post, I adore them.
    Wish you a lovely rest of the week!

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    1. I adore them too. Wishing you a beautiful week.

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  6. With my fondness for blue flowers, and an opening shot of such an intense and appealing Agapanthus (omg, omg, what a bloooooo), I thought "Why would I want to keep scrolling to see desert plants in gloom? I'll just sit here and drink this in."

    But after a few minutes of drinking in 'Ella Mae' I scrolled a bit, and whoa. WHOA! Do those Echinopsis just bloom once a year? I ask only because of the name 'April Dawn'; I figured that the allusion might be to the apple blossoms and flowering cherries and saucer magnolias of that season, but knowing nothing about cactuses, wondered if there might possibly be two occurrences of these knockout flowers. One is plenty...

    Also greatly appreciated the schadenfreude shot of the expired plant. Heh.

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    1. Maybe you need to sit down--the hybrid Echinopsis repeat throughout warm weather, once they are large enough, and if they get sufficient fertilizer and water. (Those huge blooms take a lot of food). But yes, what a blooooo!

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  7. Hard to pick a favorite - so many beauties!!! Good thing I don't have to... The Echinopsis are all gorgeous, and that blue is my fave Agapanthus color, along with the dark purple of the 'Mood Indigo' variety - so incredibly scrumptious. Seeing your dogs, though, always make me smile. How on earth do they survive your summers, with all that fur?

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    1. That Agapanthus! The color was gorgeous. Agapanthus are very common here but they are usually a very pale lavender blue--this darker color is much more enchanting.

      We walk the pups very early in the morning, and the house stays quite cool during the day (or the A/C is on), and daytime is nap time, so they are quite content.

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  8. Replies
    1. Even at the end of a hot dry summer! Plants are amazing.

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  9. Great photos as always, and the gloom is much more conducive to taking pictures over a contrasty sunny day.

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    1. Thanks. The light was pretty good, especially for the Agapanthus. A bit dark for the Echinopsis which live under trees--they can't take much direct San Marino summer sun.

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  10. How beautiful! Agapanthus, Aloe, Agave... gorgeous! They all get an A!

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    1. It was delightful to see everything looking so good.

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  11. It's so great to get some gloomy skies ;-) That's a splendid Agapanthus; I doubt my remaining attempt will survive, but there's still a bit of green above ground... And I'm looking at those swathes of golden barrels and heaps of mammallarias - to die for! And the cactus flowers... Your photos are gorgeous!

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    1. Thanks! My one Agapanthus is not doing very well either. Maybe it's the drought?

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    2. Or just the extra heat? A few weeks after ordering a couple of named varieties last winter, I found a book that informed me Agapanthus is difficult to grow in the low desert. Oh, well... But I'm having to take all the South African bulbs on a case by case basis here.

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    3. I tried a deciduous cultivar--not sure how they do here. And maybe not enough H2O.

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  12. I didn't know pedilanthus was back to euphorbia again. And bless old man Huntington for leaving us the gardens. Such an amazing resource, and you've captured it beautifully again.

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    1. Yes, bless him, and William Hertrich, who moved an 60 foot tree. That lived, grew taller, and is still in the garden.

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  13. Great minds! Sadly I also have had to removed my very old rose friends due to the lack of rain here in SoCal. Reluctantly I've switched to drought friendly plants finding them a hard sell when it comes to form and beauty. However, I'm totally in love with Grevillia's slender leaves and wispy ways adding wonderful texture in my re-design...Peaches and Cream is a perfect fit. I'm looking forward to your new garden updates.

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    1. There's always room for a few roses no? I love the Grevilleas now, as well. Beautiful, with the added bonus of hummingbird fights over the nectar.

      There are a lot of climate-appropriate plants available now--we have the opportunity to experiment and see which ones we like the best, right? :)

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