Blooms December 2024

The roses are slowing down.

More buds than blooms today. We've had some wonderful warm days over the past month, but fairly cool nights. Perhaps that has slowed down the Aloes.

Many flower stems, most all of them still developing.

Climbed the ladder to get a photo of A. thraskii:

There. Just about to open:

The flowers are even higher on 'Hercules':

Way up there:

Just appearing on A. ferox:

Further along on the white A. ferox:

A. van baleni farther along still:

One of the two A. capitata hybrids I grew from seed a long time ago. This one still hasn't flowered. It's not getting any supplemental irrigation. It lives on rain alone:

The other seedling gets some irrigation, and has three stems:

A. chaubidii--did it flower last year for the first time? I'm not sure. Seems like it did, the flowers emerging tiny, but expanding.

Aloe taurii doesn't flower every year. It has two stems this year, one just emerging:

A. rubroviolacea puts on a huge slow. Nine stems this year. They open very slowly over months, not weeks

'David Verity' is still a relative youngster in the garden. Not quite open yet.

A. suprafoliata doesn't have the tidiest flowers:

The leaf tips have reddened in the cooler weather, so it is quite attractive anyway:

Tough to get a photo because of lighting, but A. capitata var quartziticola has two stems. Got a shot of one stem:

A. hardyi not open yet either:

Nor is A. cameronii:

Close is A. candelabrum. Side sweep of the foliage is cool:

That's about all the Aloes for now. Other random sights that caught my eye, including a few more roses.

'Pink Gruss an Aachen':

'David's Choice' Abutilon rising through a Hydrangea that has grown much larger than advertised. Old flowers turn burgundy, middle-aged ones are pink, new ones are white:

'Rouge Royale' . This one smelled heavenly:

Chopped back and fertilized a few weeks ago, Salvia 'Mystic Spires Blue' is completely refreshed:

A lovely gift left behind by a Praying Mantis--an egg case that will open next spring, with tiny Mantis emerging and scattering through the garden.

The Mantis seem to always lay their eggs near roses. Do they sense that aphids will be there for their children to feed on when they are born?

'Julia Child':

The guys who mulched the west slope in...October? also (on my request) cut the Russellia clumps to the ground. The Russellias are growing back, and flowering again:

This one is a shrubbier form:

Kalanchoe beharensis has multiple flower stems this year. Again, no flowers open yet. The fuzzy tan flower stems are the showiest--the flowers themselves are very small. They attract many bees, but are not showy.

Shrubby Senecio vitalis has very un-showy flowers as well, but pollinators, especially tiny native butterflies, love them too:

There's Aloe lukeana on the lower right. It has not flowered yet. I think it doesn't get enough water. It gets no irrigation and survives on rainfall alone. Aloe marlothii in top center background; its flowers emerge just as Aloe ferox's finish up:

I wonder if Agave parrasana has finished flowering, or if there are more stems yet to emerge?

Early this summer I chopped this volunteer Lavender down to the ground in preparation for digging it out. The heat arrived, the removal didn't get done, and the Lavender grew back.

It fooled me. Thank you!