August Blooms on the Ridge

Sparse they are but there are some blooms. Over time I'll get more focused on building up a garden with pretty plants that bloom at different times of the year and all that - but right now it's been mostly about weeding and removing things. We did spend a day in the pool area yesterday and made quite a difference though. OK, on to the blooms!

Winifred Gilman, not a lot of flowers but intense color and also aroma when you walk by.

Wee modest crimson-tipped flow'r, Robert Burns called the Scottish mountain daisy. I call this some kind of Astragalus that grows here unbidden.



Some Gnaphalium californicum, or similar - these are pinkish and everywhere.


Mexican sage, non-native - survives on no water and much loved by hummingbirds.

Another modest native, Eriogonum californicum, also survives with no irrigation.


Honeysuckle, non-native.

Seaside daisy, Erigeron glaucus, getting to the end of its bloom period.


A planted sticky monkey flower, Mimulus aurantiacus.


Another planted sticky monkey:


Monardella villosa
, really nearing the end - a short bloom period it seems. Maybe that's the weather this year.

More gnaphalium - it's everywhere, growing wild.

Tis the time for the little dome shaped webs to appear everywhere:


California aster, Aster chilensis - very sweet - very much a spreader:


Reliable non-native hotlips sage, blooms and blooms and blooms, and the hummingbirds love it.


Tiny flower of the ugly Madia sativa that grow here and that I kind of like anyway:


More of same, or related Madia:

Locally native, western morning glory bloom Calystega occidentalis.


While I was there I saw these snowberry berries - this is the creeping snowberry that grows wild, Symphocaripos mollis.


OK, this one is a weed, bull thistle - but it is a thistle and I am a Scot:


Here's our native sticky monkeyflower, Mimulus auriantacus - still blooming away.


Like a little jewel, the blossoms of Bee Plant, Scrophularia californica


Here it is in a delicate messy tangle that I like. Usually it grows straight up and is immediately consumed by caterpillars:

In the pool garden area, these survivors won't die. They were here when we got here. I've decided now that I like them. They don't spread, they don't need water, and they are a lovely color. And I wish I could remember their name but I'm having name blankness - you all know what they are.


Another survivor, a southern native, heartleaf penstemon, Keckiella cordifolia.


Another southern native, Encelia californica. Maybe I'll use more Southern natives in this hot dry part of the garden.


Non-native pea bush - in the same non-irrigated area.

FYI here's how it looks from a distance - a bit gray and not a lot of blossoms right now.


Non-native, Cape honeysuckle - still a few blossoms. This is the one I meant to train along the fence but never got around to...

It grows into a huge straggly but dense bush. The fence helps to support it at the base I think. I'm going to whack it back and see what happens. You're supposed to do it in late winter.

Spilling from a pot, the Sphaeralcea munroana, individual blooms looking nice, but foliage looking quite withered. I think I have it in the wrong place.

Abutilon, non native.


A Canna lily that resprouts in a big pot. I love it! So big and vivid. But they get very messy very quickly.


I love the yellow edge to this one:

And my old English garden standby, snapdragon, Antirrhinum majus, which also refuses to die and now lives a sheltered life in a pot.


Last but not least, St Catherine's Lace, Eriogonum giganteum, a channel islands bloomer. Starts white, then pink, then a nice brown - it's stunning! Gets water from the neighbor yard, I think - I never water it.


White at the start:

Then pinkish:

I love having this month by month record of what's blooming. I hope over the years that it gets better, especially during our dry summers. Though this year, we've had so much fog drip and so many cool days - El Nino year weather - that the blooms are lingering longer.

Thanks for dropping by, and thanks to Carol at May Dream Gardens for putting on the show. Off to see the other blooms now...

Comments

Always interesting seeing your (to me) entirely different flowers. Love the Madia especially.
Town Mouse said…
Great blooms! Is it really the 15th already? And that is an agapanthus, my dear ;->
Brad said…
You have a lot blooming right now. Very nice. I liked the shot of the spider webs. And I liked how you described scrophularia as a little jewel. Though I think it's a plant only a CA native plant lover could love.
RBell said…
Goodness - lots of blooming going on. Gotta love a plant called Sticky Monkey (especially when it has such nice blossoms).
Noel Morata said…
aloha

you have some beautiful blooms today, so much to see here in your mostly native garden

i'm loving the eriogonum, what a beautiful color wash esp when it changes colors.
Your plants definitely seem to be enjoying this cool summer. My Winifred Gilman is about five feet from where I'm typing, the window is open, and the wind is coming from its direction. Love it. Even without flowers it's great to be near.
ryan said…
That's a tremendous collection of flowers. An impressive number of natives, and the non-natives really round it out and add variety.
Queer by Choice said…
Your seaside daisy is beautiful, even at this late date. So is the St. Catherine's lace. And I wish my creeping snowberry would grow and bloom and make berries like yours. I don't think mine has grown an inch since I planted it last year.

I don't know what that "some kind of Astragalus" thing is, but it's not an Astragalus!
Kimberly said…
I love that sticky monkey!!! Your unknown is Lily of the Nile, or Agapanthus. It's very pretty! Mine didn't bloom this year. ?!?!
You have several blooms I enjoy here in FL...the coral vine, hibiscus and canna. I like it that you feature "weeds" too...I like them!! Sometimes I don't pull them because I like the flower.
Diana Studer said…
Small whine - the Agapanthus is from SOUTH Africa, nowhere near the Nile in Egypt. Pea bush with a 'paintbrush' is a Podalyria, also one of ours. Yours is looking good and happy. I always seem to do mine in ;>(
Christine said…
My Catherine has not had a drop of water this summer and ballooned to 10' across since last year, so maybe it's more drought tolerant than you think. I love the cloud of flying insects that touch down to visit the flowers. Amazing!
Also wanted to ask about your Keckiella- I remember some time ago you were on the fence about it (har har). Is it filling in and behaving itself now?
Thanks for the show!
Country Mouse said…
Wow thanks for all the wonderful comments. I didn't know agapanthus was a south african. What about the calla lily? I have those I can't kill so I've decided to go with containment and active management. Yes, Brad - one's aesthetic certainly does change - people into natives just see things differently than they did before!
I also loved the name 'sticky monkey flower" when I first encountered this fine shrubby perennial! I still do!

I'll find out from Jeffrey next time he's up here what the "astragalus" actually is - thanks for the heads up, QBC.
Also re St Catherine's lace being drought resist - good to know. It's always difficult to know what's happening along the fence line, irrigation-wise esp when your neighbor is into fruit trees.

Christine - the Keckiella. yes. Well the fence line changed and I whacked it all back. So I'll let you know how it behaves in fall when it emerges again. My feeling is it wants to be long and rangy with blossoms on the ends. Will let you know if pruning keeps it bushier.
Lovely blooms CM! I have one Winifred Gilman blooming, sparsely, but not the other. I love the aroma of that sage though. My Scrophularia isn't blooming any more since the Checkerspot larvae mowed it down, but at least they were happy! I still haven't untangled all the Madia's, but we seemed to have at least two varieties here this summer, and this year we too seem to be up to our elbows (well mid-shins) in Snowberries. They really seem to be loving it this summer. Unlike my tomatoes...
Laura Z said…
I love the Erigeron! I've grown the Santa Barbara daisy variety. I love the pink monkeyflower! I could never get them to take in my garden.
I like the scrophularia too. Me and the caterpillars... and bees?