Re: New Year's plant count

**"* L* B* <S*@cox.net>**

 
I was going to lurk while I worked, but couldn't resist two things: Saxon's
plea for a response from Zone 9 gardeners (come to think of it, I may be
Zone 8 after last January's frost) and two of you who don't like orange
flowers. Ahem. The most spectacular flowers in my north-San Diego garden
right now are orange, especially aloes, which produce brilliant orange
spires several feet tall. Hummingbirds adore them, and so do I.
Also in bloom: 
-- Roses. Those I spared from my annual Christmas-week pruning include these
late-bloomers: climber 'Joseph's Coat', 'Pink Simplicity' and lovely
sunset-hued 'Perfect Moment', which I think has the longest-lasting blooms
of any rose -- these have been holding for weeks, preserved by the cooler,
dry weather. They're wonderful cut flowers, too.
-- African daisies (yellow and orange Gazania hybrids)
-- Ivy and zonal geraniums
-- Rosemary
-- Orange nasturtiums
-- Pale orangey-pink cotyledons (lantern-like flowers hang from the tips of
parasol-like stems)
-- Airy yellow Bulbine frutescens (almost finished)
-- Early narcissus, with gaudy yellow blooms and the smell of cheap perfume.

-- Kalanchoe luciae. The plant, which resembles a cluster of ping-pong
paddles, elongates to produce a fuzzy yellowish stem lined with blossom
clusters (hopefully, frost won't get them before they open).
-- Camellias, of course. They were here when we bought the house, and bloom
every winter. (Yawn.) 
-- Red-berried pyracantha
But flowers, eh, they flash and fade. My garden is colorful without them,
year-round, thanks to silvery-purple graptoveria, yellowish pink
graptopetalums, yellow-striped agaves, magenta phormiums and aeoniums,
red-leaved Sedum rubrotinctum (even redder because of the cold weather) and
drifts of pale blue Senecio mandraliscae.  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Debra Lee Baldwin
Garden Photojournalist
Author, Designing with Succulents
            (Timber Press, 2007)
www.debraleebaldwin.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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