I'll just tag on to Town Mouse's great bloom day set for Garden Blogger's Bloom Day, hosted by Carol at May Dreams Gardens. I forgot it was Bloom Day this morning.
Tonight I've been hunting through my files for the last couple of weeks looking for bloom pictures. I am sure I have pictures of our manzanita blooming, but darned if I can find them and it's dark out there, so I missed out on that. They have certainly been blooming here since around end of November, very pretty too. You'll have to use your imagination!
But I am very happy to see the sugar bush, Rhus Ovata, is budding out beautifully. This little shrub is about 5 years old and has been slow to grow, but is very pretty with glossy and fairly large leaves, and the critters have not touched it. It is in shade in the morning, gets a few hours in the afternoon. Not a local native; I planted it before I got that focus, but it is a nice garden plant. It grows in Southern California on dry sunny slopes. The fruit can be used to make a drink similar to lemonade, I hear tell.
In that same area, I also planted a Chaparral Currant, Ribes malvaceum (or someone said it might be a Ribes indecorum because its blossoms are white, but Town Mouse says you can get white Ribes malvaceum too). It has been spectacularly successful and happy in its morning shade-afternoon sun location. Large and bushy, and covered in blossoms.
Some ceanothus are starting to peek out. This is a planted one and I forget its cultivar name. It sprawls very vigorously and is quite large. The local native ones have not yet bloomed.
I'm always particularly happy when indigenous natives appear, and especially when they bloom. I had thought this solanum was a weedy one, but I was told that if they are not white, they are native. It's the white ones that are weeds. However I just checked that and I see on Las Pilitas that Solanum douglasii is white. ARGH. I have been pulling a bunch of white ones. Now I don't know what I have. Well, time to try and ID these ones properly!
Another of my favorite natives is coyote brush, Baccharis pillularis, which grows everywhere around here. It is dioeceous and has fluffy white female flowers on some plants:
And creamier and not fluffy male flowers on others.
The cultivars are all cloned from male plants because people don't like the fluff, but I do!
Tonight I've been hunting through my files for the last couple of weeks looking for bloom pictures. I am sure I have pictures of our manzanita blooming, but darned if I can find them and it's dark out there, so I missed out on that. They have certainly been blooming here since around end of November, very pretty too. You'll have to use your imagination!
But I am very happy to see the sugar bush, Rhus Ovata, is budding out beautifully. This little shrub is about 5 years old and has been slow to grow, but is very pretty with glossy and fairly large leaves, and the critters have not touched it. It is in shade in the morning, gets a few hours in the afternoon. Not a local native; I planted it before I got that focus, but it is a nice garden plant. It grows in Southern California on dry sunny slopes. The fruit can be used to make a drink similar to lemonade, I hear tell.
In that same area, I also planted a Chaparral Currant, Ribes malvaceum (or someone said it might be a Ribes indecorum because its blossoms are white, but Town Mouse says you can get white Ribes malvaceum too). It has been spectacularly successful and happy in its morning shade-afternoon sun location. Large and bushy, and covered in blossoms.
Some ceanothus are starting to peek out. This is a planted one and I forget its cultivar name. It sprawls very vigorously and is quite large. The local native ones have not yet bloomed.
I'm always particularly happy when indigenous natives appear, and especially when they bloom. I had thought this solanum was a weedy one, but I was told that if they are not white, they are native. It's the white ones that are weeds. However I just checked that and I see on Las Pilitas that Solanum douglasii is white. ARGH. I have been pulling a bunch of white ones. Now I don't know what I have. Well, time to try and ID these ones properly!Another of my favorite natives is coyote brush, Baccharis pillularis, which grows everywhere around here. It is dioeceous and has fluffy white female flowers on some plants:
And creamier and not fluffy male flowers on others.
The cultivars are all cloned from male plants because people don't like the fluff, but I do!
Comments
Frances
I also have a Ribes malvaceum, but with pink flowers. Last winter it was in a pot and very small, so I can't wait till it blooms this year.
Not my focus when planted - could be a good blog post theme or people - pretty much everyone has such plants in their garden!
Yeah, Ribes malvaceum is usually pink I have some pink ones under an oak but they are not yet blooming, and they are healthy but not burgeoning as the white one is - different spot, different variety... who knows. I hope yours thrives well for you!
Thanks for stopping in!
Does your rhus ovata get broused by deer and how much do you or did you water it? It's looking good. I like the buds as much as the flowers.
Baccharis - the eastern kind -- is still blooming here, white and fluffy and appropriate to a cool season.
Do you need me to look for pics I've saved of various greenhouses built from windows, or do you have the plan all perfected?
Nell Jean - we are fairly well along in the greenhouse design. I'm interested to see what you've collected though - I did some google searches and found just a few images. The roof is still in question a little, so it might be good to see what others have done on their roofs - thanks so much for the offer. (Email is countrymoosie@gmail.com in case that address doesn't show up here.)