July Blooms on the Ridge

Carol at May Dreams Gardens, we thank you for putting on the monthly bloom day every 15th of the month. Here's a few of the blooms on the Country Mouse property. Above, Monardella villosa with some cultivars of monkey flower, and also seaside daisy.

Here are some planted (i.e. not indigenous) California natives blooming around our place. Where I can, I show the form as well as the blossom, so you can consider the plant as a whole, and make a few comments.

Of course, California poppy! Not the local coastal variety - planted these before I knew better.

Dang I forget the name of the above.

Matilija poppy, "fried egg plant," Romneya coulteri - blossoms. Totally drought tolerant.

- Form. Tall - Can be a spreader.

Heart-leaf Penstemon, Keckiella cordifolia - Blossom. Also drought tolerant.

- Form. Sprawling, blossoms at ends. Maybe with pinch pruning it would be bushier. Reseeds. From Southern California. Can be nice in the back-of-border - I like the gangly, fountaining form but it needs something to balance it I guess.

Mock orange, Philadelphus lewisii - blossom.

- Form, distorted because much chewed by deer. I had given this plant up as it got so badly chewed - it is in a half-wine barrel, not watered, and this year it came back and is only partly nibbled. I'm thinking about planting it in the pool garden to give it a proper chance. It has soft green leaves. Las Pilitas says that it is drought tolerant but does better with a little water in dry areas. Also this:

Wild Mock Orange is a deciduous shrub that grows fast to 6 ft. in height. Mock Orange has fragrant, white, 2 inch flowers in May-July.

I think Winifred Gilman sage. Plant not doing so well but lovely intense colored blooms, and nice sagey smell.

Spice bush blossoms fade fast but...

... more to come! See my post on this plant here.

Not quite in bloom but a stunner - Sometimes called queen anne's lace I think, Erioganum giganteum. Deer proof. Not a local native but very happy here, and yet doesn't seem to reseed. Biggish woolly leaves, hard to see for all the massive umbels.

Clarkia Planted from CNPS seed obtained locally. I planted three sorts and am not sure which this is - may be Clarkia lewisii, rare locally. Close up of furled flower in the morning:


Next a few local indigenous natives.

I think this is gnaphalium californicum, California everlasting, and not Anaphalis margeritacea- pearly everlasting.

Local sticky monkey flower, mimulus aurantiacus, with gnaphalium californicum catching the sun in the back ground - I'm not sure now if the pink form has another name, and I'm getting mixed up. They are just budding now.

And golden yarrow, Eriophyllum confertiflorum is blooming still - it's been going for a long time, along with the monkey flower, also still in bloom.

Not the best pic but - toyon bloom beginning, with morning glory intertwined. Below is a better blossom...


Heteromeles arbutifolia. I wonder if the berries will go black again this year. I'm wondering if I can put sticky stuff on the trunks to stop the ants from getting up and setting up their aphid farms. I don't have a picture of the whole plant - they get leggy and rangy but can be endlessly pruned. I keep threatening to coppice them and then pinch prune them to get a more compact growth.

This is a madia - Madia sativa I think. Very sticky and sappy. Also huge. We also have slender madia, but unfortunately, not the gardenworthier common or elegant madia.

It's so huge and the flowers are tiny little things on the top! I let it grow because it's native and I find it interesting - but not in flower beds. I don't have a lot of flower beds as yet.

And now a few non-natives...


Culinary sage growing against a potted native california grape.
Last but not least, a visit to the greenhouse, in use even before finished - a few tomatoes and a sweet pepper.


Tomato blossom!

As I was walking around this morning taking these photos, I glanced out to see a slightly misty valley. Lately it has been very foggy in the mornings, staying overcast till late morning, and remaining cool, but today was light and sunny. (I'm learning to embrace our phone and power wires.)


Off to enjoy visiting other bloom days!