'Snowbird' There are flowers out there--best to go get some pics. I've been gardening, just barely. We've had a week of Santa Ana winds blowing stuff around. It's uncomfortable gardening in winds blowing dust and leaves into your face. It's blowing pretty good right now, but I'll brave it with camera in hand.
Arctotis 'Pink Sugar' just starting:
The little Aizoaceae continues:Aloe aculeata x cryptopoda opening. Each flower has slim green stripes and turns from orange to yellow as it opens. Blurred out Aloe striata in the background:Aloe aloodies just opening:Aloe 'Moonglow' and Aloe ferox (white variant) in full glory now:The waving, curving,undulating foliage of Drimia maritima is fresh and green in winter:Looking good overall now that the plants have finally filled in. All I had to do was wait. It only took years: Hellebores!
The pinks in Aeonium 'Mardi Gras' nicely echoed in the background Hellebores. Dumb luck on my part, yet again:'Wilson's Wonder' Leucadendron continues wonderful:Rhodanthemum in its wintertime beauty:The volunteer Verbena grew bigger thank to our Christmas week rain:Aloe marlothii candelabra emerging:Aloe van balenii finishing up. Dasylirion bloom stem emerging in the background. It will be 10 feet tall, at least:Aloe capitata x about to open up:The mistakenly purchased Gazania continues to bring joy. What a wonderful mistake I made buying them. If only all my mistakes were so good.
'The Ambridge Rose', of course:TB Iris, probably 'Frequent Flyer':Close up of Metrosideros 'Springfire', a valuable nectar source at this time of year. It flowers off and on as it sees fit:Time to clean up the Hydrangeas:Still a few nice "mopheads" looking down at the Hellebores:I pinched off a few flowers for the photo:Tall Pentas still looking good: Magnolia 'Royal Star' woke up. It was 80F today:Metrosideros 'Spring Fire':'Souvenir de la Malmaison'Another 'Springfire', the one in the back gully:Abutilon 'David's Choice'. David chose wisely:And Austin rose 'Bishop's Castle'There were more flowers than I expected.
Thanks for braving the Santa Ana winds (and 80° degrees?!?!) for this bloom day post.
ReplyDeleteMy gardening is definatelt a combination of 'dumb luck' and 'happy accidents'. I always need a little luck and try to learn from my mistakes.
I love that sunshiny orange Gazania blooms, bunny fodder in my garden; the star Magnolia is top notch gorgeous!
Chavli
It meant to be 'definitely'...not 'definatelt'. Gosh! -Chavli
DeleteYou hit a sore spot: I have so much trouble writing the word "definitely"--never get the 2nd "e" in the right place. Because it defi-NET-ly doesn't spell like it sounds. (That's my excuse, anyway.)
DeleteYour garden's looking splendid despite the wind. I have many of the same flowers waking up in smaller numbers (except for the roses and the bearded Iris). Happy GBBD! (My post is still in the works and won't go up until tomorrow.)
ReplyDeleteYou have tons of flowers and your garden looks so tidy and cared for I've been spending so much time and energy on Young Dog (who goes 100 miles an hour) and Old Dog (who needs 100 hours for a mile), and then it was really windy here for a week--too windy to garden--and then too hot...and then the news is so horrible I've stayed off the internet...sorry for delay responding.
DeleteDespite all the wind, you've managed to make the garden look serene. I like the photo of the hellebores posed on the sedum. I'm usually not a big fan of wind myself. I always think that there isn't much weather that wind doesn't make worse. Hopefully you feel better for having gone out anyway. Sometimes I physically dread going outside, especially when it is freezing or really wet, but I usually feel better after having gone outside even if it's only for a few minutes.
ReplyDeleteThe plants do the serenity. I'm a mess! Same here--I always feel better after even a few minutes in the garden with the plants.
DeleteYour garden looks wonderful, you'd never know it was getting battered by wind. The aloes! Of course, you are a few weeks ahead of me - mine are mostly on the verge. "It only took years" made me laugh, so true.
ReplyDeleteThe plentiful rain we got in Oct/Nov/Dec made a huge difference in how well the plants held up to desiccating Santa Anas. We were lucky.
DeleteOh, I so enjoy your posts at this time of year, especially, while my garden is asleep. Thank you, sincerely. The Drimia maritima is simply...dreamy. And your roses...swoon!
ReplyDeleteSo glad you enjoy the roses! They are smaller in number in Dec/Jan here but if we've had some rain the quality can be the best of all in size (big) color (no bleaching) and lack of thrips damage.
DeleteStrong wind is punishing, we're currently experiencing Gorge winds and they're painful. You somehow managed to capture focused images, something I find challenging when the wind blows. The image "Looking good overall now..." is gorgeous!
ReplyDeleteI've been cringing about that "looking good overall now" area for years. And then all of a sudden it looked sort of...right.
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