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I'm Dreaming Of A White Ferox
The wait continues to see if the Aloe ferox that supposedly has white sepals actually will have white sepals (the outer cover of the flower). The genus name Aloe is the Latinized version of the Arabic name for aloe, alloeh, meaning ‘the bitter and shiny substance’. A white Aloe ferox aside, red and green for the holiday in a few different plants today...
Echeveria coccinea
That fabulous Grevillea 'Kings Fire'
The foliage is also very attractive, here with a Gazania flower:
In a family member's garden, a fine Camellia japonica 'San Dimas Variegated':
Not red and green, but from the same garden, a Iris blooming at an unusual time of year. It's a lovely one.
Also not red and green (okay, it's orange) Aloe hardyi x cameronii flowers are beginning to open:
A strange sort of red and green, a variegated and very stressed
Aloe x noblis. I should move this.
The poor Aloe is stressed from lack of rain. The wind has stopped and the temperatures are near seasonal, but no rain and none predicted. A week of beautiful mild sunny weather ahead.
Kalanchoe orgyalis
Protea cyranoides 'Mini King'
The Phylica effect hoped for: backlit. Ahhhh!!! Winter light is marvelous, without the harshness of summer's.
Quite a few roses blooming still. The smaller Aloe 'Hercules' in the foreground of the next photo recently branched into two, forming a "Y" shape. The larger 'Hercules' branched at a taller height, and it did not mess around--it branched eight ways. Each of those eight has branched into two, or sixteen total. No flowers, as yet. Blogger self-portrait in lower left corner:
Aloe vanbalenii
Aloe guiengola developed strange white markings. Weird!
There's that soft winter light again...
Best wishes for a beautiful holiday!
Just beautiful!
ReplyDeleteWish you a wonderful Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Thank you Janneke. The same wishes to you, and many beautiful flowers.
DeleteI like that shot of the Grevillea foliage with the bright red Gazania flower. Best wishes for a beautiful holiday for you too!
ReplyDeleteBest wishes to you Alison! I so enjoy your sense of humor. It cheers me up in these anxious times.
DeletePlease keep us posted on the progress of your white Aloe ferox. The specimen at the Ruth Bancroft Garden is truly white. I've seen photos of others that are yellowish--not convinced they're true ferox.
ReplyDeleteYou have so many beautiful plants blooming in your garden. A feast for sore eyes!
I certainly will--if it is striking white I surely will be obsessed with it. Apparently there is a range of color in ferox from white to red, so yellow and orange are possible if uncommon. I thought the Huntington had a yellow ferox somewhere.
DeleteWhat can I say, other than it's all beautiful. Happy Holidays to you and yours!
ReplyDeleteBest wishes back at you and for Andrew and Lila, too.
DeleteWhat gorgeous light. That 'King's Fire' is going to be quite the Christmas feature as it gets to full size.
ReplyDeleteIt's a dull, dark grey here, but we got the gift of a badly needed long, soft rain yesterday, so no complaints. Wishing your whole region a winter of recharging rains, starting soon!
I'm obsessing/fixated on that 'Kings Fire'. Ohhh is it a stunner!
DeleteEnjoy the long soft rain for us, please? Sounds like the best present ever.
Enjoy more of that soft winter sun.
ReplyDeleteSun. What is that again?
Have a good one.
What's that "rain" stuff, anyway? And what exactly is "mud"? If only we could trade some, and bring balance to The Force.
DeleteI hope your white ferox dreams come true, HB. Protea 'Mini King' is impressive to say the least and that's the first time I've seen those Kalanchoe flowers. (Mine have never bloomed.)
ReplyDeleteBest wishes for a merry Christmas and rain in the new year! AccuWeather is currently projecting a smidge of rain on New Year's Day and more in mid-January and, while I try to treat the longer-term projections with a degree of cynicism, a Christmas wish or two can't hurt.
The news has been so grim on so many fronts, I've shut it out completely for mental health reasons.
DeleteA beautiful holiday to you and yours, Kris. 'Mini King' has fabulous flowers on a less than vigorous plant, while 'Pink Ice' has not totally satisfactory flowers on a happy monster of a huge shrub. Ah, gardening...
Best wishes to you, too, from NE Alabama. I always enjoy looking at your beautiful garden with all the plants I cannot grow. That soft winter light is fabulous.
ReplyDeleteAnd I enjoy seeing all the plants that will not grow here, so we've both got a good deal, don't we? Christmas joy to you and yours!
DeleteWow, 16! My Hercules is still unbranched, and Dustin just told me his big, beautiful Herc rotted away and is no more. I'm dreaming of a rainy Christmas, but we all know that ain't going to happen! Happy holidays to you, Alan, and N&B.
ReplyDeleteOh, bummer about Dustin's Herc. :( I removed the irrigation from mine a while back.
DeleteHappy holidays back atcha to you and your family. N&B send some wags.
Love, love that last photo - it is perfection.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Phillip. I hope you had a great holiday.
DeleteYour garden looks perfectly lovely.
ReplyDeleteWith you I watch optimistically for rain.
Thank you Diana. We all continue to hope.
DeleteHope you had a wonderful Christmas surrounded by loved ones!
ReplyDeleteNow an aloe with white sepals is my kind of girl. Curious to follow-up if it truly keeps its promise.
Love the camellia and the iris with the kind of unusual color.
It really amazes me how floriferous your roses still are.
The no-rain situation is so concerning. Hopefully, hopefully the rain will still come.
Wishing you a Happy New Year 2018!
I hope the same for you, fellow rosarian. Watching and waiting on the Aloe...and the weather. Let's hope for an unexpectedly rainy 2018!
DeleteOooo, this is very festive, and I love it! Especially the red-blooming Echeveria--that's a beautiful plant. The white markings on the Aloe are interesting--any ideas why?
ReplyDeleteThanks!
DeleteWe had powerful drying cold wind for an extended time--that's all I can think that might have done that. Never seen that sort of marking before.
It's nice to see these tropical/spring-like flowers this time of year! The camellia and iris are beautiful. Your roses are very impressive. So many blooms!
ReplyDeletePretty good for December. It's a bit of a comfort while we wait and hope for rain.
DeleteYour Dymondia is so lush. Do you use drip or sprinklers? Thanks, as always, for sharing pictures of your beautiful garden.
ReplyDeleteThe Dymondia section still has sprinklers. 5 minutes 2-3x a week. The soil is light and loose, which is what they want. Soil compaction they don't like.
Delete