Guest Blogger: The Man Himself's Ten Favorite Plants

#10, Aloe (Kumara) plicatilis

Posts by Chickadee Gardens,  Danger Garden,and Late To The Garden Party about the favorite plants of their mostly non-gardening spouses was so interesting, I asked Beloved about his ten favorites.  Below are his comments:

Spouse here acting as guest blogger for a day.

My beloved asked me to name what are my current top 10 favorite plants in the garden.  I then asked, do you mean year round or how they look right now.  Her answer was let me know which ones are your favorites as they are right now in their current state here in late summer.

In walking through the garden and picking them out for this post, my looking at plants "now" is still influenced on my thoughts of the plants not just now, but also how they relate to my feelings over time.  In particular, there are plants that I like because they don't or change slowly, while others I do appreciate them for what they are "now" as they do change.  Both are special in their own way.

#10, Aloe (Kumara) plicatilis  

The plicatilis is a plant that for me, there just isn't anything else like it and that is big part of what makes it special.  On first look you see the unique leaves are what first get your attention.  But then on looking at it further, you see the leafless base and branches and you then appreciate the plant even more as a whole.

#9 Hydrangea 'Shooting Stars'.  

While there are several Hydrangeas in the garden, the one that really gets my attention is the 'Shooting Stars' Hydrangea.  First from a distance, it is large and impressive and does a great job filling in that corner of the garden with its size and lovely dark green color.  The thing I really like about the plant is its great combination of flowers and foliage.  The leaves are well shaped with a smooth curved edge near the stem then changing to serrated edges.  Then the flower clusters are like nothing else with combinations of star shaped flowers from mature larger ones to longer smaller flowers.  Lastly it has the classic green foliage and white flowers, but on closer inspection, the mature larger flowers have little bit of pink in them.

I also like the group of hydrangeas there in the garden as they remind me of a trip where I flew a small private plane with my beloved as passenger to Sonoma County Airport for a vacation.  On that vacation we brought back several specimens from a nursery that specialized in Hydrangea.  I still remember visiting multiple gardens and nurseries on that trip followed by flying back home with Hydrangeas and other plants on the floor and seats of the aircraft.

#8 Bougainvillea 'Imperial Thai Pink'

This particular Bougainvillea is on my top ten in that at certain times of the day, the way the sun lights up the mixed pink and white bracts is just absolutely stunning.  In particular it just lights up mid day and as you walk up the back path in the garden towards it, the white and pink bracts just light up.
 

#7 Russelia

This is a plant that fits into the what I like in the garden now as it varies over time in its look due to the varying number of flowers and the light that hits it.  Right now, it is just loaded with these glossy dark salmon red small flowers.  I like this as well as now that it is in its mature state, it breaks up the long horizontal line of our large retaining wall.  Before it was planted, you used to look in the back and say "wow, that is a really large and long retaining wall".  Now you look at the back and say "wow, look at how those nice Russelias drape down over the retaining wall".

#6 Banksia prionotes

This is on the list that although even this plant is small, there just isn't anything else like it.  It has really cool unique thin serrated leaves in a fan shape running up the main stem of the plant.  Also I like how the foliage varies from the mature larger serrated leaves to the new growth that reminds me of new growth on ferns and Cycads.  Like the Hydrangea, this plant also reminds me of the two trips to the UC Santa Cruz Botanical Garden where we walked together through their phenomenal grove of Bansksias with flowers that are like nothing else.

#5 The larger Aloe 'Hercules'  

I like this Aloe in that much like my other choices, it is unique and stands out in the garden.  I really like the impressive large size of the plant and appreciate the plant as a whole.  When you look at it, you see and appreciate the large cluster of Aloe leaves high in the air.  Then as you look at it further, you appreciate the interesting trunk shape with a single large main part, branching mid-way in a very tight vertical fashion covered by a wonderful textured bark.

#4  Acer palmatum 'Oshio Bene'

Our large Japanese maple is on the list as this is a plant that I appreciate year round.  We don't get much seasonal color here in Southern California, but in this one, we get it in spades.  I love how it varies its foliage from green, to mixed green and red, to red and then finally, dropping its leaves so that you see the wonderful underlying structure.  For appreciating this plant in the now, even though this is not its best season, I still like it. In this season, even though the leaves are burnt from the heat, there is still this wonderful mix of light green and red.  That along with the texture and color of the bark.

#3 Hummannia fumariifolia  Mexican Tulip Poppy

I like this plant as it just has this wonderful deep yellow flower along with how it is closed in the morning, then opens up and follows the sun, then closes up again.  I also like how they help tie the garden together.  As you walk though the gardens, you see them scattered here and there with their cheerful yellow color.

 #2  Persea americana, Avocado 'Fuerte'

The Fuerte Avocado tree is on the list because not only does it give us delicious fruit (that makes really good guacamole), but it is also just a beautiful tree.  It has gone from a small tree from the nursery twenty years ago to this large and full mature tree.  I also like how it has these large dark green mature leaves mixed in with new growth leaves that have this mix of light green and bronze red.

 

And #1, the favorite,  Quercus agrifolia, Coast Live Oak

When we bought our home, the first thing we both agreed on is that we wanted to have a locally native California Live Oak Tree.  I was disappointed when the first large specimen in our original landscape died.  However, this one turned out to be even better.  It is better as this is one my beloved planted from a local acorn she found.  For years it was just a little thing in the front of the house.  Then it seemed all of a sudden, it decided it was home and then practically exploded in size.

This is my favorite plant in the garden because it has grown into this wonderful large and full tree that looks great, provides shade to the front and provides habitat and shelter to lots of the local birds on our street.

It is also special in that I know that as the years go by, as long as nobody cuts it down, it will continue to grow, prosper and look great longer than I will be on this planet.  That is something special, even more so in that it was planted by my beloved from an acorn.