Garden Bloom Day 7
Here’s my monthly effort for Garden Bloggers Bloom Day, brought to you by May Dreams Gardens. Just got back inside with the camera, going to add my post to the plethora that’s already there.
This is a lovely Penstemon, just planted during one of the first rains of the season. We had fun planting in the rain, and these flowers are beautiful.
Here is a yellow cosmos:
and one with a damned leafhopper:
A Camillia that was given to us years ago by Dave’s mom, and is still going strong:
Some Ceanothus, or California wild lilac:
I had to include this mushroom, cause it was so impressive, and I think they’re an important part of the garden:
Then I cheated, and walked down the street to the neighborhood school on my block, which has a beautiful garden. Though they’re a little bedraggled, I think this is the first time I’ve seen sunflowers blooming into December!
And last but not least, this spanish sage, which was perhaps the most vigorous flowering plant I saw.
Most of the[intlink id=”900″ type=”post”] flowers I posted from last month[/intlink] are still going strong, except for the white as yet unnamed porch flowers. I wish I could name the mushroom as well, that’s not my strong suit.
Really nice imagery! I do love the mushroom – they are such strange critters.
I KNOW! I want to do a post on mushrooms and mycelium in the garden soon…
I’ve never heard of penstamon before but it is beautiful! Is it really that blue colour in real life? What variety is it? And fab shot with the raindrops.
You know, I think I spelled it wrong, in my rush to get this out in time. It’s Penstemon, also known as beardtongue. They are natives, have seen them growing all over California, first learned of it on our herb school field trips. I will try to find out what the variety is, I remember saving something, but can’t find it right now. That color is fairly true to life, it starts off more magenta-pink, then gets bluer, maybe a little less blue than in the photo. It’s funny, this beautiful color is almost exactly the color of the beautiful but invasive ipomea that gives me so much heartache. Going to correct the spelling…
I had to look up Ipomea, but I know it – Morning Glory. We have it in the park here in Toronto and it does keep coming back after dying off every winter. I love it! It’s rare to see a true blue. Though I can imagine it could be a pest in SF.
I came here by the current GBBD, but had to run over here to this post to see your lovely camellia (my newest obsession). Very pretty. I’m looking for one that will bloom around December here. You caught the light on the bloom just right.
Thanks, Holley,
I don’t know what variety this is, but we just celebrated the 98th birthday of Dave’s mom, who gave it to us. What a great color to have in the garden in the depth of winter. It’s been pretty maintenance-free, it’s planted under a giant yucca and next to a compost bin. I want to see more of your irises!