Re: Some late fall showy bloomers
- To: m*@ucdavis.edu
- Subject: Re: Some late fall showy bloomers
- From: d* f*
- Date: Sat, 9 Dec 2000 12:24:40 -0800 (PST)
Just thought I'd mention a few things that are looking
quite good in the garden at the moment, for other fans
of late fall/winter flowers...
Senecio tamoides is a somewhat tender south african
succulent vine which has spectacular lemon yellow
flowers which cover the vine in November and
December(late fall). Mine has grown 20 feet up into a
Japanese Plum and is a solid wall of color at the
moment, enough to obscure the bare tree branches.
Tibouchina granulosa has finally started to bloom now
for the past couple of weeks, after seeming fully
ready to open buds since late August. It probably
would have started blooming earlier in more sun. The
foliage is deep green and jewel like, with a dappled
surface which catches the light. The stems and buds
are pubescent, with reddish hairs, and showy year
round in their own right. The flowers occur only in
late fall through winter here in Berkeley, and are a
soft lavender fading to white at the center. Perhaps
not as showy as the deep purple everblooming flowers
of T. urvilleana, but also quite showy.
Tibouchina heteromalla was also blooming nicely up
until the first cold rains, which seemed to not please
the unopened flower buds, which have refused to open
since and slowly dropped off. This shrub is worth
growing for the foliage alone, as the leaves are up to
6 inches long and appear silvery. The flowers are the
same deep purple color of T. urvilleana, but smaller
in size and occuring on a longer, narrower panicle
than T. urvilleana.
Monochaetum muricatum is a deciduous melastome with
the same recognizable Tibouchina like flowers. This
plant is densely twiggy, with small pale green, fuzzy
leaves which color up red before dropping, on 4 foot
arching branches. Flowers are fall blooming, small
and deep lavender in color, and this plant will easily
survive temperatures in the 20'sF. Not as showy as
most melastomes, but good for colder areas.
At the U.C. Berkeley Botanic Garden, there are several
other Melastomes currently in bloom, Tibouchina laxa,
Monochaetum amabilis, Monochaetum tenellum, and M.
volcanicum, among others. Worth checking out in the
South American and MesoAmerican sections if you like
melastomes...
Illicium mexicanum has been blooming all summer, and
will continue through fall/winter. The flowers are a
deep red/burgundy, and very similar in appearance to
I. floridanum, but blooming over a much longer period.
For Californians, the flowers appear much like our
native Spice Bush/Calycanthus occidentalis. The dense
foliage is glossy light green on a 4 to 5 foot tall
shrub which is hardy at least to 25F, and is available
through Gossler Farms Nursery in Oregon.
Euphorbia tirucalli 'Sticks on Fire' is not blooming
now, but the red/orange stems really light up the
landscape in the winter. This plant is not nearly as
cold tolerant as regular green E. tirucalli, but seems
to do quite well in a pot sheltered under an overhang
with full sun in the winters here, where it is now
about 4 foot tall and 2 foot across. The orange
combines well with the orange tints of the new growth
on Gordonia axillaris,(also in bloom now with flowers
similar to Romneya coulteri), and Plectranthus
ecklonii, and the orange flower spikes of Aechmea
recurvata x comata, which can all be seen together in
my garden.
Heliconia latispatha is another late fall/winter
bloomer here in Berkeley, and adds a definite tropical
touch to the garden. The flower spike is about 2 1/2
foot tall, at the top of 4 to 6 foot of banana like
foliage, with an arrangement of reddish/orange keels
and yellow flowers which arrange themselves in a
spiral as they age. There is a very vigorous,
blooming clump growing in the Palmetum at Lake Merrit,
if you aren't familiar with hardy heliconias for the
Bay Area. I also have several other species which I
have yet to get to bloom.
There are alot more things that are in continued bloom
from summer/fall, but these are some of the showiest
plants at this time of year, and help maintain the
illusion of summer. Now if I could figure out a way
to make it less cold as well, life would be perfect! :)
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