Plants
The Feijoa Blooms again
Feijoa (pineapple guava) only blooms on second year wood. After a hard pruning and no flowers last year, it's back and blooming big this year. Spectacular!
Pride of Madiera
A volunteer Pride of Madiera (Echium candicans) covered in big spiky blooms anchors the dry shade garden in front of Sage's Acre in San Diego County in May
Thunbergia Ate the Duck Enclosure
Bought this thunbergia as a scrawny stick for $1. Twenty years later, it's so huge and covered with bright orange flowers it shows up on satellite images.
Chinese Lantern in Bloom
Warm weather (77F / 25C), crisp blue skies and varigated Chinese Lanterns (Abutilon) blooming above the courtyard bench equal a spectacular Monday.
Lemongrass Then and Now
From the "If you water it, it will grow" file comes this lemongrass (Cymbopogon citratus) rescued from the dry herb garden. In March I planted a small, mostly dead clump. In June it began to show life. By October it ruled its section of the tropical garden
Gasteria Ellaphiae
Gasteria Ellaphiae is an interesting succulent that does quite well in light-to-medium shade as long as the soil is kept warm and dry. This plant was a thumb-sized pair of leaves and no roots last spring, but, as you can see from the photo, it now has half a dozen new leaf clusters that can be separated into new plants.
Towering Tithonia
Tithonia diversifolia in autumn The Mexican Sunflower (Tithonia diversifolia) grew 20 feet tall over the summer, but now that autumn is here, all but the uppermost leaves have died back. Standing below, the effect is kind of Dr Seussian, a forest of towering sticks with a few green feathers sticking out the top.
Guava Season
I bought a couple of guava (Psidium cattleyanum) seedlings, one red/strawberry and one yellow/lemon, about 15 years ago and planted them at opposites ends of what is now the tropical garden. Both grew to be big shrubs that flowered once in a while and produced a bunch of pellet-sized bitter fruit that tasted nothing like strawberry or lemon. In the winter they froze easily, loose all their leaves and spend the better part of four months looking like dead brush on the hillside. I was not impressed with guava and if I were more ambitious, would have chopped them down [keep reading...]
Gasteria Nigracanus
Gasteria nigracanus,, like all gasterias, is from South Africa and loves the hot, dry weather. When the plant is happy, it sprouts thick, flashy leaves in pink, green and gold.
Little Succulent, Big Flower
This little baby tiger doesn't look like much during the day, but just before sunset, it throws out a very impressive flower. Use the before and after slider to see how it changes