Life in Winter

It's not entirely true that winter gardens have been put to rest. at least not in the milder zones of the Bay Area. And especially not when one considers that evergreen shrubs and cacti or succulents can be just as beautiful in winter as flowers are in spring or summer. Beauty is of course always in the eye of the beholder. Here is a sampling of winter interest in my garden in mid-January, sampling from all corners of the horticultural palette.

Christmas cactus offers brightly colored flowers in winter, whether indoors or outdoors. This is the first flower on this specimen that was started from a cutting. Vivid!

Camellias are a great way to bring color into a mid to late winter garden. Here's my Camellia japonica 'Silver Waves.' Huge pure white flowers and yellow bosses make a great combo.

Though it isn't colorful right now, my front yard walkway bed is filling up with bulb shoots. There's tons of Dutch iris, Ipheions, Freesias and Sparaxis all up. The freesias are only weeks from blooming.

Winter is also the 'promise of spring.' Here is my Leucospermum 'Veldfire' filling up with fuzzy flower buds, the first of which will open in mid-February.

Median strips need not be wastelands. Here I have a Smoke bush as the central plant, plus a dwarf bottlebrush tree, Bouvardia and dwarf African honey bushes, and a host of perennials in pots, many with bulbs within.

Though not done intentionally, this 'difficult' area under a fir tree is now being populated with dwarf conifers in pots, as well as newly potted bromeliads.

I just noticed that my Aloe striata has the beginning of  a flower spike nestled in its center. It's beautiful in its own right but the orange flowers will provide lots of nectar for attentive hummingbirds.

Here's a shot of my planted dwarf conifer bed. It has matured into a densely planted bed, from what once were tiny specimens in a somewhat bare bed 8 years ago.

Aloe plicatilis. I never did find a home in the ground for this fan aloe so it's stayed in a 5 gallon pot. It's tripled in size in just 4 years.

Art is a nice part of the garden in any season but I appreciate it just a little more in winter. Here's my metal sundial, resting against the wrought iron railing of the front house.

This curious plant is a Dodonea sinuolata (the shrub on the right). Very different from the more instantly recognizable purple hopbush, this species eventually forms a mass of little red 'wings' (seen here) that are its seedpods or fruit. Their miniature size but proliferation gives the shrub a most curious look.

Rhipsalis variety. I love Rhipsalis for the tangled collection of multi-branching segments. 

Begonia acetosa. Here's the underside of my favorite Begonia of 2019. Large broad leaves are a vivid burgundy-red underneath, though that pleasure is normally hidden from sight.

My Daphne odora marginata is just now opening its first flowers. Famous for providing both winter color and that intoxicating fragrance, daphnes come in a variety of forms and even flower color.

Last week I took a somewhat hazy photo of my Camellia Frank Hauser. Here's a close-up of the flower, to show what all the fuss is about.

Impatiens apiculata. Though yet to bloom, this newly added Impatienns is growing quickly and filling out. It will eventually produce lovely 2-lipped orchid pink flowers.

Winter is also the bloom time for many Hellebores. Here's my H. argutifolius Pacific Frost. It has the signature green flowers of this species but here the leaves are speckled with white.

Bulbs native to South Africa, such as this Lachenalia aloides 'Orange,' are usually the first to bloom and Lachenalias as a group are often up first.  They offer up a range of colors in their tubular flowers, as well as many sporting spotted leaves or flower stems.

This photo isn't an attempt to capture the Hebe that takes up most of the photo but rather the tiny blue flowers of Salvia bullulata that are dangling in front. Robins-egg blue flowers aren't common and the petite tubular flowers add to this plant's charm.

Last week's entry was on bromeliads and here is one of them - Aechmea correia-araujoi. Its feature are the dark horizontal bands that decorate the undersides of the leaves.

My Helleborus Tutu didn't bloom for several years but made up for it this year by being the first of the japonicas to bloom.

Even bulbs sometimes have interesting foliage and that's certainly true for Babianas. The several clumps here show the signature 'pleated' leaves that make them instantly recognizable.

Many would not recognize this guy and if I said it was a jasmine that doesn't easily bloom you'd be forgiven for not seeing it as a jasmine. It's Trachelospermum asiaticum and it does indeed feature tri-color leaves (yellow, green and pink). VERY slow growing but makes a nice mat forming ground cover aver time.

Cyclamen variety. Nothing says winter color for shade like cyclamen. Lovely!

Beautiful Bromeliads

My latest obsession is bromeliads. For those of you who might not be familiar with this mostly epiphytic group of sub-tropical plants, Tillandsias (air plants) are the most recognizable. There are many genera within this group but the most common (and popular) would be Aechmea, Billbergia, Dyckia, Guzmania, Neoregelia and Vriesea. I've recently ordered a dozen different varieties of these winter hardy plants and thought I might post photos - taken from the web - of both the ones I bought and some I considered.
Bromeliads are sought after for both flower and foliage. Even when not in bloom, leaf color can range from the palest green or cream, through a spectrum of yellows, pinks, oranges, reds, purples and of course every shade of green imaginable. That is enough for some to add these beauties to their garden but for many a collector it's the pronounced spotting and/or banding on the leaves that is the main attraction. With that in mind, here is a spectrum of varieties that I considered, in this case all falling within the Aechmea, Billbergia, Neoregelia (Neo) and Vriesea genera.
A word about the photos. They show these varieties at their idealized color and markings. It sometimes takes full maturity and/or long exposure to sun to bring out the depth of color and marking.

Aechmea chantinii 'Ebony'

Aechmea correia-araujoi

Aechmea triangularis

Aechmea fosteriana

Aechmea Red Raspberry

Aechmea Valencia

Neoregelia ampullacea x concentrica Plutonis

Neoregelia Betty Head

Neoregelia Big Blue

Neoregelia Carolinae x Concentrica

Neoregelia fluminensis x olens

Neoregelia Hannibal Lecter x smithii

Neoregelia Johannis x Vulkan

Neoregelia Johannis

Neoregelia Lorena

Neoregelia Marion Oppenheimer

Neoregelia Opal Blast

Neoregelia Orange Splendor

Neoregelia Plum Goode

Neoregelia Prince Kuhio

Neoregelia Savoy Truffle

Neoregelia Silver Chalice

Neoregelia Rainbow

Neoregelia Specktickle

Vriesea Splendide (above) + Vriesea ospinae v. gruberi (below)

Billbergia Appaloosa

Billbergia Casa Blanca

Billbergia Darth Vader

Billbergia El Capitan

A better year?

Let me start with wishing everyone a better year in 2020. It was a tough year for many of us this year. And nationally (and internationally) it was a bit of a struggle. I remain cautiously optimistic that this year will be better.
Today it's just photos of my winter garden. Obviously, this time of year, the focus is more on foliage than flowers. Winter is also a good time of year for succulents and for evergreen trees and shrubs. So today's photos reflect these garden conditions.

Helleborus argutifolius Pacific Frost. This speckled leaf variety features the same pale green flowers much beloved by those who covet the rare beauty of green blooms.

Nandina Firepower. This variety of Heavenly bamboo gets its variety name from the red leaves it produces, first in spring and then again in the colder winter months.

Lachenalia aloides Orange. Not sure where the 'orange' comes in as this cowslip's flowers are clearly bright pink with a light tip but in any case it's always one of the first of my Lachenalias to bloom.

Tillandsia tectorum. The most spectacular of all air plants (in my humble opinion). Spidery, pure silver leaves multiply over time and even though the flowers aren't dramatic, that foliage is to die for (this shot was taken under cloudy skies so doesn't accurately reflect how luminous the foliage is).

Good things come to those who wait. That's certainly true for my Duranta Gold Mound. It took forever for it to establish but now it makes for quite a commanding show of color year round. 

I took this photo as much to show off this lovely ceramic pot as for the snapdragon it contains. Carefully chosen pots add their own sense of color to one's overall garden scheme.

My Erica canaliculata Rosea keeps adding more and more flowers. Bees adore the flowers so I'm very happy to have this winter bloomer around for them.

Anisodontea 'Strybing Sunset.' This lovely malva is just getting going (It was started from a 4" pot). Malvas can be prolific in both leaves and flowers, as my Sphaeralcea Newleaze Coral has proven.

Here's a full shot of my driveways bed out front. It gets all day sun so I've filled it mainly with Australian natives and succulents.

I mentioned foliage in my intro and this Coprosma Pina Colada is a great example of how to add color to a garden through use of foliage. 

Callunas are, like Ericas, types of heather and here is my Calluna Firefly. It sports attractive dark foliage in the winter time, providing a nice contrast to the predominant greens of other shrubs.

Chamaecyparis Barry's Silver. One of my favorite dwarf conifers, in large part due to its silvery green foliage. 

 Here's a close-up shot of my dwarf conifer bed. I also refer to it as my Japanese garden, as many of these conifers are found in traditional Japanese gardens. And though not visible here, I have two pieces of Japanese statuary and some mossy rocks to complement the look of the conifers.
    

Adenanthos sericeus. Better known as Wooly bush, this Aussie native has the softest foliage imaginable. And though you need to look closely, it does indeed bloom, producing tiny orange tubular flowers.

Though the lack of sun and the slight overexposure of this shot doesn't show the beauty of this Camellia reticulata Frank Hauser's flowers off to best effect, I'm including it anyway. The combo of the wavy petals and that rich color make these flowers one one of the most striking in any garden.

Microlepia strigosa (Lace fern) is one of my favorite ferns. As you can see, it's also an evergreen species. A classic looking fern!

Camellia hybrid 'Winner's Circle.' This Nuccios Nursery selection is very hard to find, if you can find it at all. A semi-double with ruffled leaves, it features a yummy orchid pink color. Spectacular!

Finally, here's a new piece of art added to my garden. The body is made of glass and the rest is metal. Very intriguing.