Thanksgiving Color

As the year winds down, so do many of our gardens. At least in terms of flowering. And yet our late warm weather is convincing our gardens to keep going. With that in mind I attached my telephoto lens and went outside to photograph individual flowers that I can't normally get close enough to. Here then is a sampling of color via flower in my mid-November garden.

It's the time of year for cyclamen and I just brought home this pretty pink and white variety. 

For some reason I find that certain types of yellow primrose have the sweetest fragrance. This one certainly does, adding a bit of welcome scent to a late fall garden.

Azalea Court Jester. This accidental sport features mostly white flowers streaked with hot pink. It seems to be a fall bloomer, unusual for an azalea.

Say the word 'clover' and a horticulturist might look at you patiently, waiting for you to be more specific. That word is used for all manner of plants but the genus Trifolium is the most accurate genus for this plant much beloved by bees. Here's my T. 'Coco Mint', featuring dark foliage. Lovely!

Carnations may be common but Dianthus (botanical name) is in fact an amazingly varied genus. The foliage can vary in both form and color and of course the flowers come in nearly every color imaginable, though a great many are pink (leading to another of its common names 'pinks').

Agastache aurantiacum Coronado. Love the color on this highly fragrant hummingbird mint. 

Speaking of 'mints' and delicious fragrances, this Coyote mint (Monardella odoratissima) has both in spades. Plus lovely violet flowers.

Erica canaliculata Rosea. One of my favorite heathers and a surprisingly long bloomer.

I've shared several photos of my amazing Asclepias cancellata in bloom. Here's another one, with a bee on the right side harvesting nectar. The single plant literally produced close to 1000 flowers!

I've shared some nice photos of this Bouvardia ternifolia over the years. I had to move the pot to a much shadier spot in the spring and because of that it got leggy reaching for more sun. Once back in the sun I cut it back hard and within weeks it sprouted new leaves and within a month produced its first small tubular red flowers.

Lastly here are two shots of my Canarina canariensis. This late fall/early winter bloomer has begun to produce its first nodding coral-red flowers. Love them. Below one can see its somewhat scandent habit.

Fall photos

I've had a bit of a break but am back with not one but two new posts. This first is more the usual order, photos of plants in my garden, accompanied by comments. The second will be a posting of an upcoming Chronicle column on Large Non-Spiny dry garden plants.
Without further adieu, here are the photos.

Cornus florida. Most dogwoods offer great fall color and mine is one of those. 

Agave tricolor. A new addition to my garden. Thorny but oh so beautiful. 

Two Billbergias, adding texture even when not in bloom.

A friend gave me this bluebird door knocker and I decided the fence was a better (and more visible) location. 

There are summer oxalis and winter oxalis. Here's one of the latter, with its mint green leaves and white flowers.

Some Moraea flowers are extravagant, such as the Peacock Moraea. This M. polystacha's flowers are simpler but still a very pretty dusky purple. 

My Asclepias cancellata went bonkers in the blooming dept this year. Literally thousands of tiny white flowers. I knew the butterflies would like the flowers but the big surprise is how much the bees love them.

My sunny front bed is still sporting lots of color. There's the red Digiplexis, a red mimulus and a yellow, the CA Fuchsia (Epilobium) pinkish-red flowers to the right and not quite visible another wonderful milkweed - Tweedia - with its sky blue flowers.

Aloe arborescens variegata. One of the 'soft' aloes, it is gradually maturing. No flowers yet but they will come in time.

Echeveria gibbiflora. This species of Echeveria is noteworthy for its dramatically fluted leaves. 

Correa is one of my favorite shrubs. This Aussie native can thrive in sun or some shade, in good soil or poor, with regular water or dry conditions. This is a new variety simply called 'Orange.'

Agastache is truly an amazing plant. This hummingbird mint always seems to be in bloom!  Plus the fragrant leaves, the regular visits by not just hummers but bees as well.

Tillandsia tectorum. My favorite 'air plant.' That's mostly for the exquisite silvery foliage and the way it has clustered out. 

Big event this week was my 2 year old Plectranthus chirindensis FINALLY blooming! You can see why I'm excited. Electric blue flowers that are unlike nearly any other plant. It's huge too, easily 8' tall now.

To quote Foghorn Leghorn from the Bugs Bunny show "I say, I say, I say HOLD ON THERE son!" That would be a suitable directive for dwarf conifer species in a bowl, where the plan is to sort of bonzai them. 

I came acroos this rare shrub Trochetiopsis ebenus. Thought to have gone extinct, it's been preserved in the horticulture trade.

Lastly, 3 new additions to my succulent collection - Echeveria variety on the left, Aeonium Sunburst up top and Sempervivum tectorum Greenii on the right.