Sunday, April 24, 2016

Weekend Gardening

Just some pictures from the garden this weekend... while i take a break from figuring out what to do with the tree I accidentally bought at the Huntington Plant Sale on Friday (oops!)

Our native Opuntia basilaris has started blooming

My new Trichocereus cactus has yellow flowers
 I bought it with buds on, but the fact that it matches the yarrow is pure coincidence...
the roses (i think this is 'Blaze') are blooming too 
 The oenothera speciosa is more white than pink because it's in the shade. I really shouldn't let it grow in the gravel path, but it's too pretty to pull right now...
the iris that's been weirdly happy on the slope is blooming again

the other side of the slope continues to be pink and orange

the first of the opuntia macrocentra blooms are starting to open

this is exciting - my first ever aloe bloom stalk!
 I think this is soap aloe (aloe maculata). I've tried to get pups from my parents' garden to grow for years, but we're right on the border of them being hardy... this one seems to be happy.
Also exciting - the first of the new roses bloomed!
This is a hybrid tea rose, Rosa 'Mr. Lincoln'. It's on the southside of the house, but in the shade of some other plants. The first bloom doesn't look like much yet, but i'm just glad it's not dead!

Now to get back to figure out what to do with my plant haul... I hope everyone has a productive (or lazy!) weekend in the garden!

Sunday, April 17, 2016

Bloom day and foliage follow up

Just a few shots from the garden in honor of bloom day (at Carol's) and Foliage follow up (at Pam's)....

Yucca blooms adding flowers to this foliage dominated vignette

Agave is finally happy in this spot!

This one was a tiny pup 3 years ago... It needs mulch!

This 'cream spike' is like a foliage flower...

Can't wait for the bottle brush to start adding flowers here... There are so many buds this year!

Agave 'kisso kan', in the ground (!), another foliage plant that looks like a flower...
And no post would be complete without a view of the hillside right now...
Every day, there are more ice plant blooms

Orange and pink!


Saturday, April 9, 2016

Random Shots

Here are just some of the gazania rigens that are turning the hillside orange. I always have to smile when I see these for sale - these are self-sown. Although I'm always tempted by the pink-ish ones... maybe introducing some genetic diversity would be good?

the shading on this one is pretty

these are a pure yellow, no rays at all

in person, this one is a dark orange, fading to dark yellow

light and dark orange

this one is orange, no rays

here the stripes go almost to the edge, and look like brush stokes

this one is a very light yellow

I wonder if buying a few pink ones at the store will help get a greater color variety? Although I have to admit, the yellow/orange color scheme on the hill side in the spring is working out nicely:
Almost like it was planned that way!