The extra care I gave to my Hippeastrum bulbs last year paid off this year with a bounty of blooms. I wasn’t sure that would be the case because I felt very late in sorting them out and starting to water them. But an excellent trait of the bulbous plants is that they have the reserves in their bulbs to be very forgiving. Hurray for geophytes. It certainly explains why I’m somewhat successful with them!
You can tell some of these are seedlings because of the differences in the blossoms. I love that no two of them are alike, even thought they are mostly red and white.
I just noticed yesterday that my Brugmansia “Charles Grimaldi” is blooming with just a couple of lovely trumpets. We just cleaned up our patio and got new furniture. Today, we sat out there and ate dinner with the angel’s trumpet wafting its sweet fragrance our way.
Another flower that just started opening some blossoms is the annual Silene pendula ‘Sibella Carmine’ I grew from seeds this year for the patio pots. In the photos I’ve seen, this is a very full plant, but for me, it is a little wimpy. However, the flowers are fun. I’ve always been a sucker for a swollen ovary and the ovaries of each of these flowers is not only swollen but decoratively striped.
As always, May and June are the busiest garden months with dozens of plants in bloom. So, I’ll just drop some photos and captions here to try to stay on top of some of the highlights.
Sinningia leuchotricha just getting going in the greenhouse.Fantastic leaves! So much shiny hair on their surface as they unfurl.The caudex has gotten really large on this plant. It makes me worry because this plant’s parent was about this big when it decided to not come out of dormancy ever again.There should be a good crop of orangy-red flowers in a month.Only one of the peonies in the memory garden bloomed this year–this single white one.I took a new job at Cardea Services and inherited this sad plant, left pretty helpless through the COVID-19 lockdown. I’ve pruned it back and watered it well–we’ll see whether it will be resurrected.Always impressive, this Epiphyllum from brother Tim had three big flowers this year. It doesn’t bloom very often for me–I don’t have the culture quite right.This Antirrhinum was a surprise, providing all these flowers this year. It has bloomed before, but usually just a few mousy flowers. I fed it pretty well last year and left it outside all winter in a dry spot under the eaves. That seemed to suit it.Possibly the worst-photographing rose in t he world. This bright orange-red hybrid is blooming well again this year. It puts on a great show consistently. Neon bright!The phone camera just doesn’t know what to do with this color!The Peony almost fully blown–but still lovely.All three orchid cactus flowers opened at once.Culinary sage flowers blooming in the same bed as the neon rose.A brilliant red Hippeastrum blooming. I don’t remember the cultivar name of this one, but it is gorgeous and graceful.It’s voodoo lily season–blooming in the Douglas fir bed and spreading its carrion smell along the sidewalk. Neighbors must wonder what we’re up to.A rose from Leon’s mother. No idea which cultivar this might be. It is not very fragrant, but the memories are the important thing.
Foxglove, like so many plants and people, have a mixed reputation. I grew up seeing them growing wild in various settings and in gardens and I’ve always liked them. I’ve grown them from seed in various varieties and species, too, but they haven’t really taken hold here in the garden.
I started seedlings two years ago, though, from a mix bought from Chiltern’s in the UK. I planted them among the bulbs in the memory garden thinking they would be the second act after the tulips and hyacinths finish. For once, I didn’t get that wrong. They are blooming now and they are SPECTACULAR!
There are myriad other blooming beauties in the garden and greenhouse right now.
Vancouveria (Inside-Out Flower)These Tulipa turkestanica seed pods are almost as beautiful as the flowers. I wonder if I’ll get seeds/seedlings?Neon color clash–Dianthus and Heuchera fighting it out in the memory garden.Maybe Dianthus “Zing Rose”–I don’t remember buying these but I’m glad they got added to the memory garden–they really shine.Gorgeous cactus blooming in the greenhouse. Maybe a Lobivia?Geranium pratense–really putting on a show.The flowers are a nice size and color.Eryngium blooming for the first time. This is supposed to be a very blue seed strain, but I don’t see any blue yet. Oriental poppy in a nice pink shade. Several of the seedlings I put in the memory garden bloomed this year and are pink varieties.Erigeron, Santa Barbara Daisy, blooming in the memory garden. They seem very perennial there, likely due to the excellent drainage.Abutilon vitifolium blooming on the south side of the house. This is a white seedling–about five years old, that is as bushy a shrub as I’ve ever seen from this variety.I found this late bloomer on a shelf in the greenhouse today as I was migrating the Clivia and Cymbidium plants to the native plant garden.There are over forty Clivias and about ten Cymbidiums that migrated from the greenhouse to the garden today. This was a late migration but I’m happy I got it done–these plants need to be gone over, repotted and fertilized in the next month or two. They will enjoy four-five months outside under the Douglas fir.
