Wordless Wednesday: A Golden Autumn Day in San Jose

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day - November 2009

Welcome to my November garden! I'm cheating a little this month by including some blooms seen in my travels this week, but THIS handsome beast you'll recognize from previous posts. Rudbeckia 'Indian Summer' has been blooming for nearly 5 months! Rudy is getting a little tired now, but can still manage a stunning closeup!

Zauschneria californica (California Fuchsia) is a pretty little native that, to be honest, is also looking a little seedy these days, but if you look past that you'll find these exquisite orange flowers that look great with its blue-green foliage.

Fatsia japonica also blooms in late fall/winter around here. Those little sorbet-cup florets are constantly humming with bees and hummingbirds.

Salvia 'Anthony Parker' (a hybrid of Salvia elegans and Salvia leucantha) is just opening its first blooms. See here for more details on this gorgeous hunk of sage.

Callistemon 'Little John' is also putting out his first puffballs of the season; another plant with great glaucus foliage in a neat, rounded shrub 3'-4' high.

Another fabulous winter bloomer is Tulbaghia simmleri 'Cheryl Renshaw' which is NOT stinky society garlic, and in fact has a lovely fragrance. Cheryl Renshaw is actually a friend of mine, and was honored by a British collector to whom she sent some bulbs, sweet!

This is that cute dwarf Crassula that was so cherry red all summer; with cooler weather is takes on more normal coloration...and it blooms!

There are still some lovely roses around, like this pink carpet rose.

Or this single, lovely bud of 'Pure Perfume'

And this single red climber (a legacy from my old gardening neighbor, now growing on the fence between our houses). I love how autumn light makes everything glow!

Here's a few out-of-season head-scratchers to add to the mix. I've mentioned my Cerinthe major before, which is still blooming like crazy. I won't argue if it's going to keep being this photogenic!

At a client's house this week I also spotted this Cercis occidentalis (Western Redbud) with fall color AND spring blooms??? Somebody is confused here!

Also this lovely dark blue Agapanthus, who must think it's July...

This week I also visited Love Apple Farm in Ben Lomond, CA and grabbed a handful of blues, like this English Lavender.

The farm has many mature oaks and conifers, so the Hydrangeas come by their blue flowers very honestly in that acid soil!

Lest you think we Californians live in some perpetual spring, let me assure you that there will be bleak days to come. I think we have three of them scheduled for mid-January. Until then, our flowers will simply continue their slow, graceful decline.

Thanks, as always, to Carol from May Dreams Gardens for being the heart of Garden Bloggers' Bloom day. Visit her site for links to Bloom Day posts from all over the world.

"We can have flowers nearly every month of the year." ~ Elizabeth Lawrence

'The End Of The Line' For Gardening Gone Wild

Ah, but which one?

Macro Monday 11-09-09

Welcome to 'Macro Monday' on InterLeafings; I hope you enjoy getting up-close and personal with some of my favorite November garden stars, like this cyclamen.

Succulents are fabulous, but lavender succulents? Ooh-la-la!

I love the subtle colors of this variegated English Ivy.

And the not-so-subtle colors of Japanese Maple!

This dwarf tree fern might hypnotize you if you stare at it too long!

The last of the Jalapenos...

Fatsia japonica flowers; boy do the bees and hummers like these!

Still some life in the old coleus yet!

I've had this cultivar of Mother Fern for years, so lovely...

Arbutus 'Marina' has the nicest little lily-of-the-valley flowers, hummers love these too!

Cool nights are bringing out the hot colors in my Leucadendron 'Wilson's Wonder'

Just as nice are the subtle colors of purple sage...

The Diascia is STILL singing away...

And the Loropetalum is humming right along. Thanks for taking a closer look with me!

As Simple As A Windowsill...

When days start getting shorter, and nights start getting colder,

I start to look for ways to keep the summer garden close.

Like cuttings from the courtyard, in simple green glass vases,

Gathered before winter comes, to lead the way to spring.

California Fallishness

We had a gorgeous California fall weekend; warm and sunny, blue skies. Great gardening weather, but while I managed some drive-by weeding and tidied a bit, I was a lazy gardener (again!) I get so distracted by the colors, the shapes, and the light, the way plants change, like the Dodonea donning its glossy, maroon winter costume.

~Click any photo to enlarge~

Or how this stone plaque is now so nicely framed by the Boston Ivy; it used to just hang on a bare fence.

I notice how the plants in the courtyard are now flowing into each other, and how the Honeysuckle is on its way to being a venerable old vine, twisting around the post.

I'm still putting my new camera through its paces, and have learned a few things; I love how I can capture so much of the garden in one simple frame.

Nandina 'Firepower' is lovely in the afternoon light. The Isotoma groundcover is perking up after the recent rains.

Fuchsia thymifolia is a lovely little shrub, I've had this in a pot for several years. Yes, those flowers are extremely tiny!

I'm not a big fan of boxwood, except for this variegated variety. I love how it glows, in its tidy way, where I dot it through the garden.

Begonia richmondiensis is SUCH a sucker for a close-up; please click on this one to see the larger version, but only if you love a shot of iridescent pink on a Monday!

The only thing cooler than Manihot leaves are Manihot leaves on a bamboo-dappled October afternoon.

Moonlight Yellow Nasturtiums are one of those plants that you will always find in my garden. I give it some suggestions, but it really decides where it wants to be...

Like in the middle of the carpet roses!

Fig leaves! That's it, just Fig leaves!

Another Nandina shot; I love the subtle, curling contours of the leaves as well as the color.

The cats attended my photo shoot, so with no (sensible) hummingbirds around, they will have to do! Zen enjoys lurking in the grasses; she thinks she can't be seen.

And Haku enjoys snoozing in the grasses; he doesn't care much whether he's seen or not!