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Blooming on Thanksgiving

Seattle hasn’t had a frost yet so it isn’t as surprising that plants are still blooming. The witch hazel is in full bloom and the dahlias and marigolds in pots on the driveway are still throwing flowers here and there, though they are soggy beyond belief.

Soggy Dahlia.

Here are some photos from the memory garden:

Society Garlic blooming.
More Tulbaghia, Society Garlic.
Erodium ‘Sweetheart’
Iberis
Rose
Nicotiana sylvestris
Erigeron karvinskianus
Calendula

I have about six or seven different kinds of houseplant that started from seed form a Chiltern mix this spring. Photos follow. I have no idea what any of them are!

Greenhouse Loaded, orchid food, and Halloween blooms

We had a wonderful weekend full of bright sun and calm winds. I watered the plants in the greenhouse well. It will be the last watering for the Clivia and Cymbidium plants before February unless they start to shrivel. On top of that, I used liquid orchid food on all the Clivia and orchid plants today to coax them to bloom more in the spring.

Later, I loaded all the patio plants into the greenhouse for the winter. The temperatures were down to 34 degrees last night. Luckily nothing outside suffered from frost damage of any kind. All the Dahlias are still blooming and I left them out in the driveway for now. I may move a few of them into the greenhouse. Most, however, will stay outside for the winter.

A very interesting find in the orchard garden today–I found two full-grown plants of Nicandra phyalodes near the cherry tree. I haven’t grown Nicandra for at least 20 years. The seeds must have been dormant in the soil and they came to life when we dug up the area next to the driveway. Amazing!

There were a few other fun flowers around the greenhouse and garden today.

Winter Prep of Tonsai and Autumn Colors

We had a deluge again last night and all the plant trays filled up with water again. To prevent any root rot or other problems in the coming weeks/months I moved all the potted plants out of trays today. It took a few hours, but it was obvious that it was good timing. All of them were soaking wet.

I took a few photos of some of the trees that were showing particularly nice autumn color.

Maple (I think Acer ginala) from seed–probably 5 years old.
Ash seedling.
A different maple–not sure which one, but love the color.

Boy, there are a lot of seedlings–both trees and shrubs for tonsai and native plants for the garden and giveaways.

I took a few minutes to photograph some other autumn colors around the garden, too.

I found these seedlings next to the “Sweetheard” Erodium plants. I’m curious if they’ll come true from seed. There are a lot of them.

Greenhouse Migration

I cleared my schedule today to move the Clivia plants and Cymbidiums into the greenhouse. The weather is getting cold fast and I’ll be traveling the next two weekends so it had to be today.

In an effort to make up for spring and summer neglect, I sprinkled organic plant food on these plants about a month ago just ahead of the first autumn rains. Today, as I cleaned them up and topped up their potting soil, I watered each pot well with Orchid Love organic (smelly) orchid food–a capful to a two-gallon watering can full of rainwater. My hope is that the food will help the plants set lots of buds for next spring. It might be too late, though. Most of the plants looked pretty healthy and happy.

I stuffed them all into the greenhouse and did a little clean-up in there. The patio plants need to come in, as well–I’m hoping to have time to do that tomorrow.

Greenhouse filling up with Clivias and Cymbidiums.

There were a few other things to photograph around the greenhouse and yard today.

Gorgeous leaf that found its way from the neighbor’s Norway maple to the native plant garden. A million more of those leaves will end up there in the coming weeks as that big tree sheds all its leaves.
Lots of fungus among us this autumn, including some big ones–this in the memory garden.
These huge mushrooms are in the raised bed with kale and blackberries!
Lovely flowers on this Streptocarpus.
Spectacular color and markings.
Late-blooming Nicotiana sylvestris in the memory garden.
Closer photo–this plant could bloom for another month or more.
Colchicums blooming in the memory garden. These were just planted in August.

Another Colchicum showing off.

Just Before the Rains

We had some gorgeous autumn weather in the last few weeks, and then the rain really started in earnest yesterday. Maybe that’s the most gorgeous weather of all!

Below are some pictures from around the garden the last few weeks.

Fuchsia ‘Cardinal’
Love this fence display
Chasmanthium latifolium, northern sea oats
21 Gaura seedlings got potted on this past weekend.
Vietnam violet, Primulina tamiana
Lots of begonias in bloom in the greenhouse
Both male and female flowers
Cane begonia just getting started with flowers.
Streptocarpus flowers
More Streptocarpus flowers–such intricate patterns.
I have about 11 Dahlia ‘Collarette Dandy’ started from seed in August. This is an experiment to see if I can get them to develop tubers before it gets cold. I moved them into the greenhouse to help them along because the nights are already cool.
I have more than 60 forget-me-not seedlings that I will grow along and set out in the spring in the memory garden under the tulips. I’ve always had a soft spot for forget-me-nots.
Lots of asters around the memory garden, the native garden, and even mixed in the driveway beds.
Newly planted Colchicum starting to show off.
In my head, I thought this aster was an ugly color and form and every time I watered it or looked at it, I cringed a little. But my memory of it was faulty. It is a lovely soft pink color and the form is nice. And I had to take a lot of bee photos. Had to.
Nicotiana sylvestris appears to be perennial in the memory garden. There are some fresh flowers coming on in the younger group. The older group set a billion or so seeds and I clipped it back and it is possibly going to throw up more flowers.
This Yucca is getting going. It is at least five years old–arrived via mail order as a tiny division. I believe it is Yucca rostrata.
Another view of sea oats. I love the pattern.
I spent the weekend cleaning up and potting on greenhouse plants–got through seven trays! This is Veltheimia bracteata, extremely potbound with three large bulbs in the pot. Veltheimia is a winter grower, so hopefully, I haven’t thrown flowering off by potting it on now.
Verbena bonariensis with a macro lens is kind of fun.
This Haworthia is prolific. I divided it last year and it rewarded me with a bunch more offsets. I peeled off a bunch more so I can give them away next spring/summer.
The original of this Masdevallia goes way back–probably 20+ years. And I’ve divided it a few times, so now I have eight pots of them. When well grown, each plant will throw 10-20 brilliant electric magenta-pink flowers in later winter and throughout spring.
Begonia ‘Gryphon” got a late start, but is putting out massive leaves now as autumn arrives.
Funky Pink Begonia is still funky and still pink.
Better late than never, the morning glories I started from seed months ago are vining up the pod sculpture by the driveway and they got their first flower buds this week.
Poor morning glory opened its first flower during the wettest morning–not much glory in that.
Another Dahlia flower, though imperfect, still striking.
This aster clone has spread beautifully in the easternmost edge of the memory garden. It isn’t native, but the native pollinators love it.
The leaves aren’t too bad with black spot this year.
This remarkable hybrid tea rose gives several flushes of bloom with very little pampering. The color is hard to describe (possibly due to my color blindness)–but a brilliant red, for sure.
Shrub rose in the memory garden. It never really puts on a big show, but the individual flowers have nice color and form.

Favorite Dahlia and other labor day weekend highlights

The garden reflects two different worlds right now. The first world is a very dry, hot summer world where plants are just trying to survive. The second world is the world of pampered plants that have been watered all along and who love the heat–they aren’t struggling to survive and some are blooming wonderfully.

Seedling Dahlia–really love the form and color of this one.

I barely spotted this camouflage bunny in the front yard.

Pampered begonia on the patio below. This is Funky Pink in its third year from seed.

And a seedling heliotrope below. This one lives up to the heliotrope hype. The color is deep and rich and the fragrance is sweet vanilla honey. Even Leon noticed this one.

And in the greenhouse, the Sinningia and most of the Streptocarpus are blooming.

August update

I’ve been working a lot and just trying to keep the garden and greenhouse plants alive! Due to the lack of rain, it is quite a struggle.

There are always highlights, though, so below are a few.

Hippeastrum seedlings from the bright red-flowered clone that bloomed this spring.
Scutellaria of some type, I believe.
The whole plant.
Texas striped sweat bee on Douglas aster.
Amaryllis belladonna in the orchard garden.
Heliotope–love the color and the smell.
Fuchsia “Cardinal”
Incarvillea “Cheron”–only one of the many seedlings went on to bloom.

July Updates

The flowers start to wane by mid-July, but there are still some summer stalwarts that carry the garden into the autumn. We have had very little rain all spring and summer so any flowers seem somewhat miraculous at this point. I have been supplementing with hand watering, but as little as I feel I can get away with knowing we are looking at a potentially serious drought.

I’ll just dump a bunch of photos here and label them as I have time.

My clone of Glaucium flavum usually sports reddish-orange flowers, but due to heat/drought stress, this year the flowers were light orange.
Eryngium “Blaukappe”
Nicotiana sylvestris, which came back for a strong second year. The yarrow behind has grown and bloomed really well this year, though it is mousy shade of pink.
Campanula with goumi berries behind.
Silene seedlings–they started out spindly, but then started filling out.
The clematis bloomed late this year, but bloomed well. I think this is Polish Spirit.
A beautiful red-flowered Hippeastrum set seeds. This pod eventually popped open and I immediately planted the fresh seeds in some 4″ pots in the greenhouse. I’m not sure I have room for more Hippeastrums, but I couldn’t resist.
Sinningia leucotricha blooming in the greenhouse. They flowers are less showy than some years but the leaves are world-class.
Daylily flowers and grass blooms near the driveway.
The Dahlia “Bishop’s Children” seedlings finally filled out a bit and set flowers. And the Silene here is really proving its worth.
Love the shape on this Dahlia bud–wouldn’t that make a great sculpture?
The Phlox paniculata is blooming near the driveway; Marigold seedlings are just starting to flower, too, providing a brazen contrast.
Blackberry season is just starting .
Dahlia “Bishop’s Children” seedling flower. Nice, deep magenta color.
Another “Bishop’s Children” seedling–nice color, but it bleaches in the sun to almost white at the tips.
The fragrance of this Phlox is so sweet and cheering.
Propagation efforts on the dwarf form of Euphorbia characias.
Sinningia flowers faded fast this year, maybe due to high heat–but the leaves are impressive.
This fortnight lily finally opened a flower when I was around to see it–such intricate, elegant beauty!
Begonia boliviensis got a late start, but that didn’t stop it from putting on a brilliant display on the patio.
Oxalis triangularis blooming on the patio with Pelargonium “Petals” nearby.
Lily hybrids blooming in the memory garden. I haven’t created a garden around these yet, but they are getting bigger and stronger every year.

Hippeastrums and More

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.

Mid-June Updates

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.