Category: flowers Page 1 of 2
The brugmansia is having one of its moments.
The genus Ribes includes currants and gooseberries (the name is derived from a Farsi word meaning “acid-tasting”). Gooseberries bear thorns but currants are thornless. Gooseberry fruits are larger and sweeter, and more often eaten raw (though birds favor the small berries of currants).
Ribes sanguineum, Red-Flowering or Pink-Flowering Currant, is native to the Western US. It produces pendant flowers that are beloved by hummers, in late winter or early spring. This one began flowering in our garden around Groundhog’s Day, that is, the cross-quarter known as Imbolc in the druidic calendar, which is the beginning of our spring here in the Bay Area. The flowers are long lasting, hanging on through our dry summer. Small blue berries appear in the fall, to the delight of birds.
I think we purchased this plant from Watershed nursery in Richmond last spring. It is now about five feet tall in a large container. In the ground it would probably get to be six to ten feet. It seems to like part sun rather than full, and is said to produce fruit even in nearly full shade. It is drought tolerant once established.
Ribes sanguineum has a bushier shape than Golden Currant, Ribes aureum, which is almost vinelike and in our garden seems happy against a fence. The red-flowering variety is also more deciduous, although this one never went fully deciduous. But the new leaves are glossier and greener, while last year’s leaves are more mottled and tend toward yellow. In some situations the plant will produce excellent fall color as the leaves turn. The leaves are fragrant.
This is a great habitat plant for Bay Area gardens, and a real beauty besides.
One of the prettiest flowers in the garden. It seems to prefer a little more shade than Iochroma coccinea.
This fuschia plant was present on our property when we moved in. I don’t know what kind of fuschia it might be. It has suffered considerable neglect, yet has survived. It doesn’t seem susceptible to the mites that have devasted many Bay Area fuschias.*
*cf. Pam Peirce, “Fuchsias Rise Again in the Bay Area” (Pacific Horticulture).
Papaver rhoeas ‘Falling in Love’
Shameless.
With Artemisia californica (California Sagebrush), Eschscholzia californica (California Poppy), and Erigeron karvinskianus (Santa Barbara Daisy).
This has been a good year so far for the Grüss an Aachen rose.
After many years, our aloe has started to flower. I would have said it was an aloe vera, but according to SFGate, those flowers are yellow.
The plant has got rather large, and it is in a large clay pot, I think 16 inches in diameter. Here’s a picture that was taken earlier this year.
Brugmansia ‘Charles Grimaldi’ (Angel’s Trumpet).
The brugmansia is flowering heavily this year.
It might be just a few days after the solstice, but a few brave flowers are still giving their all on the Citrus Burst rose.
A California native.
Scabiosa anthemifolia, Pincushion Flower.
We were delighted this morning to discover a Monarch butterfly in the garden. We hadn’t been visited by one in several years, since the great decline. The Monarchs require Asclepias — milkweed — to thrive (the larvae absorb toxic steroids, called cardenolides, which protect them from predators), and Roundup has been killing all the milkweed. But more and more people in Northern California are, like us, now growing milkweed, and I hope this visit is a sign the butterflies are on the rebound.
Today’s butterfly was particularly interested in the Scabiosa anthemifolia. Though not a California native (it hails from Africa, Europe and Asia), its nectar is popular with all sorts of our local flying critters.
Grüss an Aachen rose flowers.
The Grüss an Aachen rose certainly loved our wet winter. This is just a photo post. For info about this rose, see this earlier post.
This is one of the best times of year here for flowers in the garden.
