Whorled Peas and Other Botanical Musings

2011/04/24

2011-04 Around the yard

In between the raindrops, some flowers grew.

Two seed grown plants of Dicentra formosa oregana, Oregon's very own variety of this western native bleeding heart. These came from seeds that were from the same place in the wild, so I have no clue as to the dimorphism.

My very first South African bulb from seed to flower: Geissorhiza radians. Started in 2009 from Silverhill. I should have lots more next year!

A cute little Primula-esque rock garden plant that I got from a friend.

A tropical blueberry, Agapetes smithii. Sweetish tasty berries late summer.

Cyrtanthus breviflorus. South African from the Drakensbergs.

Polygala chamaebuxus. Hope this one does ok. They're sometimes tough to keep alive for the first year, but afterward are pretty easy, supposedly.

My Rhododendron spinuliferum is growing like a weed (a very well behaved weed, tho).

Some tulips that came free with an order of interesting plants. Nice to have some easy color.

A Mexican tropical shrub for the patio (once the patio exists). Cuphea cyanea.

My Ferraria divaricata arenosa finally bloomed! What a bizarre flower! It's sort of redish brownish with a crinkly little yellowy margin.

My Lewisia tweedyi each have about 30 flower buds. This is one of the first to open. Plant is from Rare Plant Research out SE of Portland. Lewisia tweedyi is native to the Wenatchee NF in WA.

Mimulus douglasii. Wow! Really cute and amazingly colored. This was the only plant that grew from the couple of seeds I could scrounge up from the ground in Southern Oregon last fall. I hope it's self fertile. It's also musky scented to attract flies, I think.

Lisa's Rhododendron serpyllifolium is doing well.

Inside the house, the Eucharis grandiflorus is blooming with something like 10 spikes. To force blooming, just let it dry out for about a month.

A Pachypodium cf eburneum from Plants out of Africa, though this is a seedling.

My Pygmy Drosera are blooming. Each flower lasts only for one day, but there are usually many in succession. Drosera dichrosepala.

Drosera callistos.

This is the first time the Drosera barbigera have bloomed.

2011/04/16

2011-04-16 Eastern Washington

An early visit to the far east side of the mountains was surprisingly floriferous. Despite the cold wet spring, the native flowers are right on cue ignoring the obvious discomfort of the various tropical invasive species (Homo sapiens) and are expressing their own tolerance and even enjoyment of the natural conditions. This desert receives less than 10in of rain each year, maybe a little more this year, all during the winter and early spring. They have to bloom and set seed fast before the oppressive summer heat hits.

Antennaria dimorpha. I've seen A sufructescens in SW OR, but didn't know there was a species way out here. Pretty cute. Unfortunately, hard to grow from seed, I imagine, if it's anything like its cousin.

The Balsamroot were open.

Up in the boulders on the mountain, I found a little colony of this Lithophragma.

Near the next boulder, I found this little Mertensia longifolia, Sagebrush Bluebell (desert-dwelling relative of the much more famous Virginia Bluebell).

Lithospermum ruderale. One of the very few Stone-nut species native to the west.

But, of course, the real reason you go to the desert is for the Phlox. I think it's all Phlox longifolia, but I could be mistaken. It was remarkably spectacular with all the pink and white. The Western Meadow Lark was singing amongst the phlox, (with a much better song than the Eastern Lark)

A particularly nice patch going right up to the mountain. The only reason it's so visible is because the Sagebrush was burned (this patch by a lightning strike). It takes many years for the Sagebrush to come back.

2011/03/19

2011-03-19 Tom McCall

First trip out this year on a nice sunny day.

Out to the gorge where all the flowers are kept. The Oaks haven't budded out at all, but the bulbs are starting.

Lomatium columbianum, a wild Parsley. It lives in a nice spot.

There were a couple Saxifrage hanging on a rock.

There were thousands and thousands of Olysinum douglasii.

The photo doesn't do the thousands of little purple bells waving in the warm breeze justice.

Out of the thousands (maybe millions) there were two white ones.

A little Crocidium multicaule.

The Fritillaria pudica were also blooming. Hundreds if not thousands.

They usually don't clump and they're so little that a photo of a grand sweeping view with hundreds of dainty yellow bells is unimpressive. Here's a couple together.

A placid lake with frogs calling.

I walked down to this bizarre rock formation. Neat to climb around on.

2011/02/24

2011-02 Wrap up

Just a couple things from mid-winter. It has been bleak...

My Rhododendron phaeochitum X laetum from Bovees that I god back in 2006 or so. It has a bunch of buds that haven't opened yet so I'm expecting an additional spring display in a few months. These tropical Rhodie's seem to do whatever they want to with regard to flowers. This one is a hybrid so it's pretty strong and puts on an increasingly good show each year.

The Acacia baileyana purpurea that was a seedling in spring 2008. The new growth (in May) is dark purple and very nice. It always blooms in the middle of February when we're still having some hard freezes/frosts, so I always have to drag this 15ft tall tree somewhere safe for a few nights.

Lachenalia alioides quadricolor from South Africa. Likes to be cool in the winter, but it did ok in my heated sunroom last winter. This winter I decided to try it in the GH where it did exceptionally well.

The Drosera scorpioides gemmae from last fall have grown into tiny monsters already catching many tiny prey.

2010/12/17

2010-12-17 Lyon Arboretum again

Last time we were rushed through the arboretum because it closes at 4pm...

There were lots of various ginger things. These were about 18in tall.

My favorite native Hawaiian plant: Metrosideros polymorpha.

Emphasis on the poly: the lemon yellow form.

Tacca chantrieri. Black Bat flower.

Something tropicalesque.

The plant this was on looked a lot like a Podocarpus... it obviously isn't... Don't know what the heck it is, though.

Hey, I have one of those... not quite that big, but close.

2010/12/15

2010-12-15 Cactus Garden and Manoa Falls

The Kapi'olani Community College dedicates copious land to its ever expanding cactus and succulent garden. They also have an awesome farmers market which was a bit touristy, sadly. But, that didn't stop their jam from being voraciously devoured by me and others related to me.

Kalanchoe in bloom.

Check out these Pachipodiums!

So cute! They were crawling all over the Aloe licking the nectar.

We went for a leisurely hike up to Manoa falls. By leisurely, I mean sweaty. And by hike I mean up a jogging up a rocky hillside in 80F weather. Can we perhaps be less used to this? Absolutely! Just make the humidity 103.2% and you're set! It turned out we had too much blood and we had to sweat it out.