Spring blooms just around the corner
- To: m*@ucdavis.edu
- Subject: Spring blooms just around the corner
- From: d* f*
- Date: Sat, 3 Feb 2001 18:13:56 -0800 (PST)
After getting back from a trip down to southern
Mexico, it still seemed like the dead of winter
arriving in the SF Bay Area, but a quick walk through
my garden and a trip to Strybing Arboretum was just
the ticket to appreciate just how much is actively
growing and blooming here at home.
There are many things showing signs of getting ready
to bloom, the South Africans such as Aloe marlothii,
Leucospermum cordifolium, Veltheimia bracteata, and
Mackaya bella among them. The Leucodendron 'Safari
Sunset' are simply spectacular at Strybing right now,
and I wish I had the room and a sunny border to grow
them.
Among bulbs that are already in bloom include Ipheion
uniflorum, and I. u. 'Wisley Blue'- which now that I
have seen it bloom is truly a much showier cultivar,
being a deep lavender rather than washed out sky blue
color, and Anapalina caffra- a small plant with
beautiful deep red flowers. The winter has been mild
enough that the Epidendron obrienianum hybrids have
continued to stay blooming for me as well. The first
of the freesias are opening, and the Babianas and
Sparaxis are soon to come. It looks like the Iris
confusa 'Chengdu' will be putting on a very good show
this year as well, with the buds just starting to
extend beyond the foliage. This is one of my favorite
Evergreen Iris, as the flowers are 50 or more to a
bloom spike, and appear more like orchids from a
distance than Iris. The plant is incredibly easy here
in the Bay Area, but the slugs and snails do love to
chow down on the foliage.
The early blooming bromeliads are also in full swing,
with the showiest of the lot being a bright pink
Billbergia sanderiana- which develops an 18" long
spike that arches down, and the various Aechmea
recurvatas in shades of red, purple and blue giving a
good show right now, as are some of the Acehmea
caudata and Aechmea gamosepalas as well. These all
make great low maintenance and low water requiring
shade groundcovers for me in the garden, and give that
subtropical touch while also being undemanding in a
mediterannean climate. They are so undemanding that I
can get away with only watering them twice a month in
summer, and just a quick spray to wet the foliage and
fill the cups is all they need.
The vines that are in full bloom now are the
Hardenbergia violacea, Hardenbergia comptoniana,
Jasminum polyanthum, Rhodochiton astrosanguineum, and
remnant blooms on Dalechampia dioscoraefolia, which is
a vine that I think deserves more use in Mediterannean
climates(if you like vivid purple bracts-color equal
to Tibouchina urvilleana).
So, spring is just around the corner, it appears my
part of Berkeley will escape winter without a major
frost(only two plants have been burnt, and neither
badly; a Heliconia spp and a Justicia aurea ready to
bloom. Other things which are usually wiped out by
now are still alive, such as Strobilanthes
dyeranus(purplish and silver foliage) and Iresine
herbstii(beet red foliage and softly herbaceous
foliage), which in most years had given up by
December.
So I hope that other people's gardens have come
through winter okay, and have special sympathy for
those in England and the southern USA trying to grow
tender mediteranneans/subtropicals this winter, who
had some really severe winter lows and rains. The SF
Bay Area's has been fairly normal, abit on the dry
side and cold but not freezing, except in all the
usual locations. I wouldn't mind it warming up a bit,
but may just have to wait until mid March. Summer must
be keeping many people busy as well, seems like less
than ususal amount of postings from south of the
equator...
Hope everyone has a great beginning to spring or fall!
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