Re: Spring blooms,
Talk about spring fever.......
Thank you David Feix for sharing about your plants.
Do you have any info on Iris confusa "Chengdu's hardiness? Sunset lists them
at zone 17 (USDA zone 10) but I would
be interested in hearing if others have pushed the limit.
Just 10 minutes away from the Bay in San Anselmo, it was cold enough this
winter to freeze back my Hedychiums and
defoliate the bananas, mountain papayas and Brugsmania. And this was a mild
winter! The few Aechmea I have take the cold just fine (check cold
hardiness chart at
http://www.fcbs.org/articles/cold_sensitivity_of_bromeliads.htm ).
I would be interested in a source for some of the plants you listed in
addition to Baylands Nursery.
regards,
Richard Wanberg
----- Original Message -----
From: "david feix" <davidfeix@yahoo.com>
To: <medit-plants@ucdavis.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, March 28, 2001 11:04 AM
Subject: Spring blooms, especially orange, blue and yellow!
> After this bout of warmer weather recently, my own
> garden has just exploded into bloom. It is incredible
> to see how the plants I have seem to respond to the
> warmer temperatures in the same way I do! Some of the
> things that are looking most impressive at the moment:
>
> Iris confusa 'Chengdu'- like clouds of blue
> butterflies hovering on the tops of 3 foot tall
> branched stems, which look like a dwarf bamboo when
> not in bloom. Up to 50 flowers per stem, and looking
> more like miniature orchids than your typical iris.
> Also combines very well with the groundcover of paler
> blue Ipheion uniflora at its feet.
>
> Gnidia polycephala-NCN-a very free flowering small
> shrub 3-4' tall, with masses of pale yellow flowers
> which completely cover the plant for at least 6 months
> of bloom, on a small shrub with foliage resembling a
> Coleonema, except slightly pendulous, and very drought
> tolerant and easy to grow. Also slightly fragrant in
> the evening, but not very commonly grown. (Try
> Baylands Nursery in East Palo Alto if interested in
> this).
>
> Sedum dendroideum- a great small shrubby/succulent
> groundcover(2 to 4 foot tall) for dry shade or full
> sun, and in brilliant yellow bloom with glossy green
> foliage, and contrasting nicely with an adjacent Aloe
> ferox which is in spectacular deep orange bloom right
> now. Aloe plicatilis is also blooming fully now. The
> Bulbine frutescens var yellow amd var
> 'Hallmark'(orange), are also starting to bloom
> heavily, and make a massive display of flowers for 3
> to 6 months, and a quiet unassuming mass of succulent
> grass like foliage the rest of the year. Also in this
> mix is a hybrid Beschorneria cross received from
> Martin Grantham, which is sending up a bloom spike of
> a 4 inch caliper, and looking like a giant spear of
> asparagus at the moment. This is growing about 6
> inches taller every week now, and should probably
> reach 12 to 14 feet tall before blooming. I hope it
> survives the neighborhood kids, as it is located in
> the parking strip, where the adjacent Kniphofia
> uvaria/Yellow Poker Plant blooms are always just too
> tempting to the kids, and most get broken off while in
> bloom. I am hoping the immense size of the stem will
> be enough to protect the Beschorneria from similar
> damage.
>
> Tabebuia chrysotricha/Golden Trumpet Tree is just
> starting to bloom, and the daffodil yellow flowers
> really light up the garden, especially as the tree
> blooms while bare of leaves.
>
> Abutilons of all sorts,(red, yellow, orange, pink) are
> in full bloom now, the pale orange of A. 'Victor
> Reitor' is particularly nice, as they are wide open
> and face out so they can be seen well, and the flower
> color nicely picks up the apricot new leaf color of
> the adjoining Gordonia axillaris, which has just
> finished blooming. The leaf rosette of a hybrid
> Aechmea recurvata is flushed bright orange as well,
> and sets a nice foreground groundcover with these two
> shrubs, and also combines well with the orange to red
> foliage of the Euphorbia tirucalli 'Sticks on
> Fire'/Pencil Euphorbia, which frames the view just
> outside my back door.
>
> Leucadendron cordifolium/Pincushion Protea and
> Echeveria agavoides continue the orange theme at the
> moment, and give soft orange highlights to the
> sunnier parts of the garden. All of these are good
> oranges to work with if you usually don't like orange,
> as they don't last too long to clash with later spring
> blooming things, but give a real lift in early spring,
> when a dash of vibrant color is a nice antidote to
> winter.
>
> Brugmansia 'Charles Grimaldi'/Angel's Trumpet is just
> starting to come back into full bloom again, and never
> really went into a dormant/bare period this winter, as
> it stayed so mild. It will take another month or two
> for it too reach above the adjoining Hedychium
> flavescens/Yellow Ginger, which are already 5 to 6
> feet tall this spring, as they didn'y get zapped by
> any frost this winter. A pale yellow Cymbidium orchid
> with at least 10 spikes is in full bloom and completes
> this corner. Below the orchid are two varieties of
> bromeliad; one a variegated yellow Aechmea ornata var
> nationalis below(looking very much like a dwarf
> variegated Yucca). The other is a very prolific
> clumper from Santa Catarina, Brazil, called Aechmea
> kertesziae, with 16" tall spikes of narrow red with
> clear yellow petals. This one keeps the red coloring
> of the spike for another 6 months, and remains very
> showy in the garden, even after through blooming.(and
> these both handle frost down to 25F w/o damage).
> These bromeliads are sitting within a sea of Oxalis
> spiralis var volcanicum, also with small yellow
> flowers and attractive red stems, and forming a low
> spreading mat of groundcover.
>
> A Metrosideros carminea- a vining metrosideros which
> clings to walls and will do quite well in shade, is
> blooming for the first time this spring also, with
> deep red typical flowers full of stamens, and makes a
> nice trailing plant for containers. Another good
> container plant which is starting to bloom now is
> related to our local native herb called miner's
> lettuce. This Claytonia siberica is trailing with
> succulent foliage, and sends out long stems which
> contain many small deep pink 1/2" flowers. The
> foliage is a small rosette of green leaves, only 4
> inches tall or less. I like this plant because any
> piece of it will root and form a new plant, and it can
> be divided and replanted right before blooming without
> upsetting it, or damaging the blooms,(similar to
> Ipheion), and is an attractive foreground planting for
> damp shady spots. Not really invasive in our summer
> dry mediterannean climate, but may not be as well
> behaved in higher rainfall areas.
>
> There's lots more blooming at present, but these are
> some of the showiest, and perhaps lesser known plants.
> For those faced with less than full sun and milder
> microclimates, these will all do well here in the Bay
> Area and other areas where it doesn't frost very
> heavily.
>
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