Flowers A-Plenty

Today's post is all about the flowers. So, without further adieu, here are the photos. Don't forget to enlarge! Above is a new lily, simply listed as Lily Asiatic mix. They almost glow in the indirect light.

I recently added 3 dwarf conifers + some Viola labradorica to my Japanese garden. This is one bed where it's all about the foliage!

Also 'all about the foliage' are bromeliads. Here's my Neoregelia 'Orange Splendor.' And yup, you're not colorblind. It really is red not orange. Odd.

Alstroemeria psittacina. Note the narrower, tubular flowers. This straight species is hard to find these days.

Kniphofia 'Orange Crush.' One neat thing about red hot pokers is that most start with a more deeply colored bud - here red - then slowly progress in this case through orange, ending in yellow.

Scabiosa 'Harlequin.' A fabulous low growing or spilling pincushion flower.

It took 2 years but my Salvia sclarea 'Piemont' eventually put on a spectacular blooming show.

Melaleuca micromera. I love the fine-textured foliage on this Aussie native.

Mimulus 'Anton.' A new monkey flower addition to my garden.

Gomphrena decumbens. Unlike any other Gomphrena you've ever seen, this long lived, ever blooming perennial is a force of nature.

Hibiscus Adonis Pearl. This is one of the varieties in the new HibisQs series, produced to have blooms that stay open much longer than traditional hibiscus flowers. That has proven true for mine.

Salvia uliginosa. Also known as bog sage, it's one of the few salvias that likes regular water.

Dahlia Mystic Illusion. The Mystic series features this super dark foliage, with flowers that are yellow, orange or red.

Oxalis variety. Love the green shamrock leaves and the pure white flowers.

Fishbone cactus. Took this photo to show how the bright green new shoots sprout on old growth.

Plectranthus Troy's Gold. A ground cover plectranthus that brightens a shady bed.

Phyllitis scolopendrium. This 'single' (broad-leaved) fern goes dormant but comes back each year.

Rhipsalis variety. Love the profusion of multi-branching stems.

Hakonechloa macra Aureola. Japanese forest grass has become popular in recent years.

Stephania rotundifolia. This vining caudiciform sends up quickly growing vines of large heart-shaped leaves in late spring.

Trachelospermum asiaticum. This tri-colored bush jasmine may be very slow growing but it's worth the wait. Like many a gardener, I use it as a ground cover.

Gladiolus 'Las Vegas.' One of my favorite species Gladiolas. Though the species types have smaller flowers than the hybrids, they often have interesting markings.

Tecoma x smithii. This rambunctious vine produces tons of these peachy-orange flowers in summer and fall.

Nandina 'Firepower' has a neat trick, putting out chartreuse foliage in spring then turning bright red in the fall before going dormant.

Lily Patricia's Pride. This Asiatic lily has been a real success story this year.

Daylily 'Bela Lugosi.' For you younguns, the actor Bela Lugosi was famous for playing Count Dracula, thus this 'blood-red' flower is aptly named.

Bouvardia ternifolia. Love the bright red tubular flowers on this hardy bush.

Punica 'Legrellii.' This pomegranate has double form, orange and white ruffled flowers. Unusual!

The yellow flowers are Calylophus drummondii and that one burgundy flower is a Wine Cup (Callirhoe).

Evolvulus variety. To me this relative of ground morning glory has the bluest flowers of just about any plant.

Nicotiana mutabilis. Its species name owes to the fact that the flowers change from pink to white.

Lily Pink Perfection. This trumpet lily always produces huge flowers and for once the actual flower outdoes the photo on the vendor's site.

Centaurea Blue Boy with bee. Not sure what kind of bee this is. Too small to be a honey bee so maybe one of our native species?

Tiger lily - yellow. This is part of a mix. The first four stems produced reddish-orange flowers but the fifth stem was the charm for getting a different color.

Cryptomeria 'Spiraliter.' I love the chartreuse new growth on this Japanese cedar.

Speaking of cedars, here's an unusual one - Cedrus atlantica 'Sapphire Nymph.' Icy blue foliage really makes it stand out.

A moth has landed on my Echinaea 'Sombrero Yellow.' Echinaceas produce nectar-rich flowers so are popular with bees and butterflies.

Pavonia missionum. This mallow family member puts out rich coral-red flowers in summer and fall.

Aechmea fulgens. This bromeliad is tough and regularly produces these branches of orange bracts. They are adorned with purple tips.

Hydrangea 'Nikko Blue.' One of the truest blues of all hydrangeas, so much so that I rarely have to add ammonium sulphate to 'blue it up.'

Bush jasmine. Same fragrant white flowers as the 'pink' jasmine but usually stays lower to the ground. This one has managed to crawl up over my neighbor's fence into my back yard.

Nandina domestica. Heavenly bamboo as it's called it not actually a bamboo but the foliage reminds some of that plant. Tough, vigorous, easy to care for and beautiful.

Japanese maples

For those of you who subscribe to the SF Chronicle, or at least the Sunday Chronicle, this Sunday's Wine & Food section has an article of mine on How to Choose a Japanese Maple. This piece was to originally run in early March, timed for when these beautiful trees start showing up in retail nurseries. But restaurants and bars make up the main ad revenue for this section and with 90% of them closed due to the coronavirus, that section shrunk in size. And that delayed the appearance of my piece. So check it out if you can. It's an introduction, helping the novice choose the right cultivar for their garden. Beautiful photographs too, many courtesy of Monrovia Growers.
Today's blog is all about the flowers. The Agastache are in bloom, the lilies are coming on, my Iris Shaker's Prayer came into bloom and things like Cupheas and Callunas are coming into bloom.
Enjoy!

Tiger lily mix. Although the classic tiger lily has orange flowers, they have been hybridized to create colors ranging from yellow to orange to light red to deep red. Love this color. 

This is a new Asiatic lily in my garden and this morning I happened to be near that pot of these flowers and they literally glowed in the bright indirect light! This is an earlier photo.

The hard won victories are often the sweetest. Here's one. I've been waiting 4 years for this Louisiana-type iris to bloom and it finally has! Love the patterning/markings.

This Salpiglossis is from a 6 pack but I believe this variety is called Chocolate Royale. Exquisite color and yummy enough looking to eat. 

The thing with bulbs is - you buy them months in advance, then you wait after they're planted for them to bloom and only then do you find out whether they've 'come true.' Sometimes the seller simply puts the wrong bulb in that bag and sometimes the photo doesn't accurately reflect the real life colors. In the case of this lily, sold as Golden Joy, I think it's the former. Golden Joy has a pronounced orange throat and there's none of that here. Still a pretty golden yellow; just not what I'd hoped for.

Here's one that has come true both years. It's an Asiatic called Orange Electric. The sun has somewhat bleached out the margins but you get the idea. Of the 6 main groups of lilies, Asiatics are usually the first to bloom.

This photo may be puzzling but if you look closely on the insides of this Sideritis cypria's cup-shaped bracts, you'll see tiny yellow flowers. In this case, it was towers of funnel-shaped bracts that were the feature attraction.

One more shot of that reddish-orange tiger lily. Note the recurved petals that is a hallmark of tiger lilies.

The bromeliad on the left, with the dark banding, is an Aechmea called Savoy Truffle. Perhaps the namer was a Beatles fan (see The White Album for the reference).

My Cuphea purpurea Firecracker has burst into bloom early. This is one of the 'cigar' cupheas.

Calluna 'Bradford.' There are two main genera commonly called 'heather' and Calluna is one (the other being Erica). I'm a fan of both and am slowly amassing a collection.

Coyote mints (Monardella) are famous for attracting hummingbirds but I find them to be a magnet for bees too. Here's a bumblebee collecting nectar. This is M. odoratissima and it almost blooms year round.

Another bee magnet is my Helenium 'Mardi Gras.' I've had this plant for at least ten years and it returns faithfully every year, then blooms its heart out.

Aquilegia Flore Pleno. This sweet little bi-colored columbine is also a regular year after year.

Brodiaea 'Rudy.' This prolific bloomer adds a nice splash of purple in early summer.

Another 'long time coming' plant, my Crinum moorei finally bloomed in its fourth year. Soft pink when it opens, flowers fade to pearly white in short order. This relative of Amaryllis is native to South Africa.

Begonia 'Autumn Ember.' I collect begonias too and this is a lovely new addition.

Agastache 'Coronado.' Bees and hummers love the nectar-rich flowers on this plant.

Another tiger lily, new to my garden this year. Lilium 'Red Flavor.' Notice how much deeper a red this is than the tiger lily shown above.

Neoregelia 'Takemura Princeps.' A new 'Neo' added to my collection.

Clarkia 'Burgundy Wine.' Almost certainly the clarkia with the richest color. Though the flowers are small, they make up for it with that intense color.

Kniphofia 'Orange Crush.' This guy is just beginning to open its buds and like all red hot pokers (as they are known), it does so from the bottom up.

Lastly a little change of pace. Here's my Ilex dimorphophylla. Otherwise known as Okinawa Holly.