Parrot pot seems to resent the Fuchsia The last of the Sweet Peas:
Roses are still doing well:
Salvia apiana is native to this very area. A local nursery in partnership with the California Native Plant Society was giving them away last year to encourage people to grow them themselves instead of buying ceremonial smoke sticks on Etsy or Ebay made from Salvia apiana stolen from public and tribal lands. I planted several, even though I don't do ceremonial smokeFrom a low growing cushion of silver leaves far below these tree Aloes emerge flower stalks of impressive height, 8' or 10'/3 m or more:By this time next month, new growth will replace the fading flowers of Leucospermums. The flower heads fall cleanly off the plant with no help from the gardener:Rose 'Darcy Bussell':Trachelium flowers starting to open:Sprekelia formosissimaRose 'Molineux'Agapanthus 'Indigo Frost' with rose 'Julia Child' and Saliva 'Waverly':Froggie with a cane Begonia, bromeliads, and a Sanseveria:Agave marmorata. The plant is collapsing, consumed by its flower stalk:Cosmos say "Summer":So do Dahlias. First 'Holyhill Spider Woman' flower of the year:
Summer starts next week. Yuck. Keep watering and focus on the Cosmos and Dahlias until Autumn arrives to give us relief.
The parrot pot and the fuchsia are perfectly suited to one another, whether the parrot likes it or not. I need to find myself some 'Indigo Frost' Agapanthus even if I've no clue where I'd put them. The marine layer deserted us today, at least at our elevation, and temperatures climbed into the low 80s, which I didn't appreciate at all as I'm in spring-summer transition cleanup mode. The squirrels are once again cleaning up all the mature flowers of Leucospermum 'High Gold' for me but for some reason they ignore all the other Leucospermum flowers.
ReplyDeleteCould be 'High Gold' has seeds. Here the birds and something else (rats? squirrels?) go through the cones, pulling off the pollen presenters to get to the seeds to eat. I'm looking for seeds from the beautiful 'Blanche Ito' but not finding any yet. 'Tango' has had a few and I've got three plants growing from those. :^) Can split off some 'Indigo Frost' for you--have plenty.
DeleteYeah, it was hot yesterday. Yuck. The Sacred Layer is back this morning, tho it's thinning already.
"The flower heads fall cleanly off the plant..."?! Wow, I had no idea... This is very 'helpful' of Leucospermum. I wish other plants take notice.
ReplyDeleteThe tall silvery stalks of Salvia apiana are lovely, poking out from the darker green Aloe.
Any chance of Agave marmorata leaving pups behind? Or harvesting new plants from the flower spike? (Maybe a little ceremonial smoke from Salvia apiana could be helpful :-D).
Chavli
The first time one Leucospermum flowered I was quite concerned about cleaning up the plant after bloom, but then the cones all started falling off by themselves. It was a delightful surprise!
DeleteMarmorata has a couple of offsets. Just enough. :^) It did take several years for the dead plant to dry enough for me to dig it out. The beast is a beast!
Sprekelia. How come I don't have one,lol.
ReplyDeleteOne won't be enough!
DeleteBecause for some reason, Sprekelia bulbs are very expensive....
DeleteI have spares if you want to try some. Good detailed growing info on San Marcos website. They multiply fairly fast. Perhaps they are expensive because few sell them?
DeleteSan Marcos website said they were difficult to sell because people buy plants in flower and: "We grew this bulb from 1997 until 2011 and reluctantly discontinued producing it only because it did not bloom with any regularity in the container, which made it difficult to sell, but we held onto some stock plants and released a last crop of it in 2024. "
Ah, yes, the Fuchsias. Great pot for them! Everything else seems happy it's summer, too. We are currently one of the hottest locations in the U.S. for highs, which is unusual, of course, especially for June. I love summer, but our normal highs are in the low 80s. You have such a beautiful, wide-ranging collection of plants!
ReplyDeleteActually that Fuchsia is in the ground, it sent up a huge branch this winter (RainIsMagic) that is hanging over the pot. Pot is empty at the moment trying to decide what to put in there--i have a new Cordyline... Something that can handle a pot in our dry heat.
DeleteI read about the huge heat wave east of the Missisippi--hope you get some relief soon and that your garden gets though this okay. It's early in the year for extreme heat--well at least it used to be...
I do love that parrot pot. Everything is looking great. What a huge agave flower stalk. Do they harden or crash to the ground?
ReplyDeleteIf you leave them long enough eventually they fall over--it can take one to several years. Eventually they are so dry they are like balsa wood--nearly weightless. If this one were to get a chance to fall it would be onto the driveway, so wouldn't harm anything. The plant itself although a shadow of itself and dried out is tough can be tough to dig out because the roots turn into a strong fiber. Some species, the roots vanish almost entirely and those can just be popped into the green waste.
DeleteHa ha ha, the disapproval of the fuchsias. I really need to add Sprekelia, what a glorious bold flower. The big agave stalk is impressive, are the hummers visiting it?
ReplyDeleteHummers, Orioles, Warblers, honey bees, and carpenter bees. And the Mockingbirds perch on the very top singing, and the Scrub Jays chase off the Mockingbirds and perch on the very top to squawk. It's a busy place!
Delete"Summer starts next week. Yuck. Keep watering and focus on the Cosmos and Dahlias until Autumn arrives to give us relief." I want to like summer, really I do. It's just that the extended periods of hot, dry heat make everything look brown and crispy by the end of July. I agree, yuck. Time to get watering.
ReplyDeleteExactly!!!!!!!!
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