Beschorneria Bloom: An Update

Beschorneria yuccoides

(Note: This is an updated post with the spelling corrected: The plant is not blooming now, but ... it has had pups!  Multiple plant offsets have formed at the base and I'm in the process of detaching a few.)

With each passing day the Beschorneria flowering stalk continues to unfurl.

The weather persists in a strangely cold and wet pattern, despite having entered the Bay Area's dry season. Still, the garden has enjoyed a thorough, natural, watering and that's a good thing!

Part 1 - Mexican Lily .. Countdown to Bloom

Amber Lanterns & Fiery Sprays: Clematis and Cuphea

Rare Clematis tibetana, with its delicate amber lantern-like flowers, scrambles up the rather brittle stalks of Cuphea ignea in Alice's Garden. The silky seedheads are shown below!

Hummingbirds adore the fiery blooms of C. ignea, a tender perennial sub-shrub that thrives in my Northern California garden. I've grown various Cuphea species and cultivars, but C. ignea has proven to be the most vigorous of all, blooming for months on end except in the coldest weather. If you garden in a colder climate, I recommend growing C. ignea as an annual: it's a great selection for a wildlife habitat.

As my garden has matured, plants such as this Cuphea deserve pride of place in the garden's beds the borders, having proved themselves worthy of repetition in the garden design.

Clematis tibetana, a late-bloomer is only now putting on a show. It boasts lovely blue-green ferny foliage that's an asset throughout the season. And I love the fluffy seedheads that follow.

Of course the plant's tendrils have made it famous!

In a good year, a new plant will pop up in an unexpected spot, even as the 'mother' plant vanishes.

Stapelia ~ Striking, If A Bit Stinky Show

In a small, terracotta planter,

a Stapelia plant has been growing in my garden for a number of years.

Maybe I imagine that it might have bloomed once before.

But did I jump up and down when I discovered this flower the other day?

Yes, there was a dance of sorts to witness had you been around.

Huntington Library and Botanical Gardens - Desert Garden

(Photo: Wikipedia)

More than a decade ago I visited the Huntington Library and Botanical Gardens for the first time, touring the magnificent Desert Garden while

researching my book, Gardenwalks in California.

I'll never forget seeing a mass planting of Stapelia gigantea, with many of the large, strange blooms like starfish... resting on the earth. Each, perhaps 12 inches across.

My flower measures about 2 1/2 inches. I don't mind that it's tiny in comparison.

Also called the Carrion Flower, Stapelia has a reputation for being stinky

to attract flies that pollinate the plant.

Before opening, the flower's early stage begins as a strange, puffy pod-like form.

Altogether odd.

It's been one of my favorite, if all too rare, sights since entering the gardening realm.

Now my own pass-along plant has rewarded me after years of benign neglect.

Succulent plants are fascinating in their diversity. So unlike the beautiful blooms I generally cultivate. But Stapelia stands alone in my mind. I really couldn't conjure up a more intriguing flower form if I tried.

Worth the Wait... Mexican Lily - Countdown to Bloom

Beschorneria yuccoides : Emerging Bud of Mexican Lily

Photo © Alice Joyce

Another milestone in Alice's Garden: Truly, I nearly fell over the other day when I happened to glance at the garden's one and only Beschorneria yuccoides. Emerging after a decade more or less, the succulent with gorgeous leaf color is only now preparing to send up a flowering stalk, which will tower above the strappy leaves.

In 2004 I witnessed a stunning mass planting of the species growing in the Mill Valley garden of artist/photographer Don Worth: Featured in one of my 'Garden Walks' columns for the San Francisco Chronicle, Don's garden opened to the public at the time as part of the Garden Conservancy's Open Days Program.

You can read the original story by clicking here.

There's an interesting back story, as well.

Don and I crossed paths 2 decades prior when I studied for a Master of Arts in Sculpture, and he was a senior faculty member in the Art Department at San Francisco State University. Life so often seems to surprise us with such serendipitous encounters.

Stalwart and Spiny: Structural Succulents!

While visiting Malibu, I toured Serra Canyon Ranch Nursery. My good fortune included a chance to walk through the landscape with a group that included Gary Lyons, Curator of the Desert Garden at The Huntington. Gary offered enlightening details, such as the identification of strikingly exotic, structural specimens on the property. 

Rarest of the rare: a mature form of Cereus v. monstrose - Photo © Alice Joyce

The property had once been the location of another horticultural destination: Serra Gardens Nursery.

Ceiba speciosa (formerly Chorisia speciosa) .. the magnificent deciduous tree in background: Brilliant Aloes blooming in foreground.

(Photos Copyright © Alice Joyce)

Arrays of drought-tolerant succulents of various sizes; potted and ready to plant.

For more information about plant availability at the nursery's growing grounds, visit:

www.serracanyonranch.com

Asian Species .. Quarryhill Botanical Garden

Photo: Christine Walker

(Photo: San Francisco Chronicle)

Some years ago one of my San Francisco Chronicle 'Garden Walks' columns

highlighted Quarryhill Botanical Garden

The site is a horticultural paradise that is surprising to discover when touring Sonoma's Valley of the Moon in wine country. What sets Quarryhill apart is the fact that most all the plants - trees, shrubs, bulbs, roses - have been grown from wild collected seed gathered during plant expeditions undertaken by the garden's director, Bill McNamara, who travels extensively to China, Japan and the Himalayas. You can click below to read...

...the original feature in the archives on SFgate.com...

More photos of the garden are posted on Alice's Garden Travel Buzz

Writing about garden travel is especially gratifying when sharing information about a place like Quarryhill.

Plant Hunting! 'Blue Heaven' .. VanDusen Botanical Garden

(Photo courtesy VanDusen Botanical Garden)

Wish I could attend this upcoming event at VanDusen Botanical Garden in Vancouver, BC.

Bill Terry will be presenting at 7:30 pm in the Garden's Floral Hall on November 11, sharing vignettes of his plant-hunting sojourn at 2700 km while traveling through Sichuan and Tibet.

Bill's tales include sightings of lovely alpine plants, including Meconopsis, the mythic blue poppy known to provoke plant lust in many a gardener. Author of 'Blue Heaven - Encounters with the Blue Poppy' (book will be available), and a grower of the genus, Bill can boast the most diverse collection of Asiatic poppies in North America. Visiting the collection is going on my bucket list!

Tickets in advance or at the door subject to availability.

If you're on FaceBook .. check out this link:

Cedar Lecture: Poppies and Plant Hunting on the Roof of the World

Link to Meconopsis grandis on Bay Area Tendrils

Bewitching Blue Poppies

Link to VanDusen on Alice's Garden Travel Buzz

Rude, Rustic Rose Relative .. Rubus r. 'Coronarius'

Rubus rosifolius 'Coronarious'

Plant lust can make a gardener quite mad. In the early days of Alice's Garden, I would read about an unusual specimen in a gardening magazine and simply have to have it. The photo - scanned from a slide - illustrates a particularly spiny... or let's just say a painfully bristly, barbed relative of the genus Rosa: A Rubus species grown for its fluffy white multi-petaled blooms.

As mentioned, the beauty of Rubus rosifolius 'Coronarious' had been highly touted in-print by a beloved and renowned writer/plantsman. And I did swoon when the glowing flowers of this humble yet elegant long-blooming bramble appeared along the back fence in my secret garden.

Yet after a time I decided to remove it.

Plants come and plants go in the life of any garden, and certainly in the small space I cultivate in Northern California. I often look fondly upon this beauty when perusing my collection of 35 mm garden slides, recalling my tussles with its canes, as well as the excitement of observing the way the flowers would light up an out-of-the-way spot in the garden, alongside a narrow pathway.

Do you grow R. r. 'Coronarious' ... or another ornamental bramble?

Rarest of the Rare .. Plantaholic's Pendant Perennial

Campanula takesimana 'Beautiful Trust' ... a Heronswood Nursery introduction

during Dan Hinkley's tenure as owner-in-residence.

A plant that has complete power over me. It's true.

C. t. 'Beautiful Trust' was ordered from Heronswood Nursery during the garden's early years, when each and every plant was carefully chosen to fill in the new beds and borders being created from scratch.

Other unusual Heronswood varieties did not survive. But I kept an eye on this rarity, and when I noticed it failed to thrive in the summer-dry conditions of my hand-watered garden, I lifted the unusual specimen from the ground and moved it to a prime spot where it could be pampered and doted upon.

Now it grows in a large galvanized tub in the sunniest spot on our pebble patio. Anxiously, I await the bloom each summer, and when the first flowers appear, I gaze delightedly from a bench alongside the planter, admiring the purest white "strap-like ...reflexed petals."

In an email, Dan Hinkley shared an often-quoted story with me about the uncommon plant:

"The ... name is somewhat humorously incorrect. The gentleman who found this and gave it to me in South Korea, Song Kihun, showed up with the plant labeled 'Beautiful Trust' the morning I was about to leave the country - (after a) night of farewells and a great number of toasts. He realized he had written the label wrong at that time - it was meant to be 'Beautiful Truth', a literal translation of his daughter's name, and told me so. By the time I got home with it, the correction was long out of my memory and it was thusly introduced under the wrong name."

Solitary Survivor .. Dendrobium Orchid

Hundreds of species and cultivars grow in Alice's garden ... but there is only one orchid:

Dendrobium x delicatum 'Extra Fine'

is blooming rather late this year. A single stem sends out flowers, unlike previous seasons, when sprays emerged from multiple stems. A dear friend passed this plant along, a savvy plantsman and native San Franciscan with impressive expertise in the sphere of orchid cultivation. I've managed to keep the plant alive, although a more tender specimen - Masdevallia coccinea 'Leywoods' did not survive. I'm appalled to report that I failed to provide winter protection for the tender Masdevallia orchid and it perished.

The Dendrobium receives a bit of coddling during the rainy season, when it's placed outside the french doors on the back porch. There, it avoids the worst of my micro-climate's winter frosts that drape the floor of the garden, and the onslaught of drenching rainfall, resulting in soggy conditions. Only .. one .. orchid.

Magnificent Succulents at Mrs. Bancroft's Garden

(Bancroft Garden Photo: Brian Kemble)

The Ruth Bancroft Garden in Walnut Creek is hosting a Workshop Series,

to include a Succulent Propagation workshop on Sunday, May 9th, 2010.

Visit: www.ruthbancroftgarden.org for details.

Link to an earlier post:

Remarkable Australians! Australian plants at The Ruth Bancroft Garden

Scented, Sensuous, Darkly Dramatic! - Chocolate Flower Farm

Whidbey Island, Washington is a gardener's paradise...

And the home base for Chocolate Flower Farm, a unique plant nursery. 

Marie and Bill specialize in dark flowers and foliage,

offering tender specimens & biennials, long-lived perennials & seeds.  

Here's a sampling! Above: 

Nicotiana 'Chocolate Smoke,' this hardy annual is a strain of N. 'Hot Chocolate,' 

developed by Chocolate Flower Farm.

Aquilegia 'Single Black' .. "the little black dress" of Columbines, elegant & simple, yet quite rare.

Photos: Chocolate Flower Farm

Berlandiera lyrata - Chocolate Daisy

Grow in Zones 4 - 10 in full sun: Considered by Marie & Bill to be the best chocolate scent of all. 

A night bloomer, the flowers offer up their cocoa scent in the morning and drop their yellow petals each day.

Dierama 'Cosmos' 

Started last year from seed. It will take 3 years for plants to reach bloom stage. Be patient!

Delphinium 'Kissed By Chocolate'

Elegant white English delphiniums boasting gentle brushes of chocolate over the inky black colorations produced on 

the majority of 'Black Shades' cultivars (now known as 'Chocolate').

Dianthus 'Sooty' -  Chocolate Sweet William

Biennial in Zones 4 - 10: Grow in full sun; an excellent selection for cut flowers.

An all-time fave in my garden!

Click on link below to read one of my San Francisco Chronicle 'Plant Pick' columns, featuring 

Chocolate Cosmos

www.chocolateflowerfarm.com

Mysterious & Strangely Alluring - Carnivorous Plants

Nepenthes - the weird beauty of pitcher plants - on display at California Carnivores, Sebastopol: the premiere U.S. nursery for carnivorous plants and a destination featured in my book,
 Gardenwalks in California .. an INSIDERS' GUIDE.

Stunning plants in every way.




UNDER CONSTRUCTION ....

Cape Sundew (Drosera capensis) ... its hairy leaves produce a sticky sap, bewitching to insects.

Nepenthes ... A tropical pitcher plant: "Nepenthes .. Euphoria (its reputed drug property)." Quote from The Names of Plants by D. Gledhill, Cambridge University Press - acquired on a memorable visit to Cambridge, England

Sarracenia ... native to Eastern United States and Canada.

Sarracenia leucophylla hybrid

The owner of Cal Carnivores, Peter D'Amato is the author of The Savage Garden.

Peter's working on a revision of this best-seller.

Sarracenia show-stopper! A hybrid specimen of an American pitcher plant.

The color I find most alluring these days... chartreuse!

Gorgeous color interaction: Live sphagnum moss growing with carnivorous Cobra Lily,

the California Pitcher Plant (Darlingtonia californica)

www.calcarnivores.com

A brightly patterned Bromeliad ... not carnivorous.

Aechmea 'Ensign'?

Mexican butterwort ... Pinguicula 'Oaxaca'

Pinguicula gigantea

Recurring theme? I am strongly attracted to chartreuse foliage!

A visitor dropped by while we were having lunch at HopMonk Tavern.

Cape Sundew on display at Cal Carnivores.

Propagation Area - Cal Carnivores

Once again, we see kiddie pools utilized in horticulture!

Click on link to:

Noble Rot, Portland Oregon Destinations

Fall Planting Party - Drought Tolerant Plants, Annie's Annuals!

Digitalis obscura

Digitalis obscura 

A drought tolerant foxglove from Spain, growing 2 feet by 2 feet.  

I love the rusty orange flowers of this gorgeous specimen for sun or "a bit of shade."

Plant in lean soil: hardy in Zones 4 - 10.

A personal favorite, Philadelphus mexicanus 'Flore Plena'

A charming, fragrant heirloom shrub: Spring bloomer that often flowers again in Fall. 

Plant in sun to part-shade; low to average water.

Fall planting ideas: Drought-Tolerant & Low-Water Shrubs & Tender Perennials.

Inspired by my recent visit to Annie's Annuals. 

Annie Hayes 

at this year's Fall Planting Party in Richmond, California.

The Bay Area wouldn’t be the same without Annie’s Annuals,

supplier of rare & wonderful plants for the past 15 years.

Annie Hayes shares the desire for rarities that drives plant-a-holics.

Plants are no longer for locals only ... Annie's Annuals are now available by mail-order.

Clianthus puniceus ‘Albus’

'White Lobster Claw' - Clianthus aka 'Kaka Beak'  or 'Parrot's Beak'

A fast growing evergreen shrub or small tree for a sunny setting; not fussy about soil type.

Average to low water; USDA zones 8-11 but web site mentions plants surviving 

  13 degrees fahrenheit. 

Nursery, growing grounds & display gardens are a vibrant habitat for bees, butterflies & hummingbirds.

A glimpse of the display gardens at Annie's Annuals.

Zaluzianskya capensis Albus

'Night Phlox' aka 'Midnight Candy' -  Zaluzianskya capensis

A richly scented, uncommon South African species, growing 12” tall & wide with multi-branching stems. A profuse bloomer for the night garden, Z. capensis boasts

white flowers backed by maroon. Easy to grow in sun; average to low water.

USDA Zone 9-11 or as an annual.

Arctotis grandis

"Steel blue eye encircled by a golden ring... pearly white daisy from South Africa.

...behaves as a perennial in USDA zones 9-11 - grown as an annual in colder winter gardens. Flowers ... close up at night. 

Plant in well-drained soil in sun; average water/No summer water."

(Photos of available plants, courtesy Annie's Annuals)

Link to Annie's Annuals

http://anniesannuals.com/

Meconopsis grandis - The Blue Poppy at Garden Valley Ranch

Meconopsis grandis at Garden Valley Ranch

And furthermore....

Ron Robertson has graciously shared photos of the blue poppy growing at GVR, located in Petaluma, California - about 45 minutes north of San Francisco.

Ron raised these blue poppies from seed, and tells me that they grew very well during the summer, and even multiplied, before the gophers got to them the next winter!

Ron is now growing the Himalayan poppy, Meconopsis x sheldonii, 

(a hybrid of M. grandis & M. betonicafolia)

- a more robust form -

and they are planted in gopher baskets.

Meconopsis grandis opening....

Link to Part 1 - Garden Valley Ranch

http://bayareatendrils.blogspot.com/2009/09/fields-of-roses-fragrant-oasis-and-blue.html