Los Angeles County authorities have posted an "extreme" red flag (fire) warning this morning and with the wind already blowing like a banshee and humidity levels dropping by the minute, work in the garden isn't a viable option. Time to focus on some of the pretty pictures I've taken over the past two days!
With the dahlia season clearly over, my fall garden has few standouts when it comes to flowers. There are a few notable exceptions.
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| This is Barleria obtusa (aka the bush violet). I picked up a couple of plants at one of South Coast Botanic Garden's fall plant sales years ago and they've bulked up and freely self-seeded. After showing just a few flowers last week, they've suddenly burst into bloom in my back garden. I imagine that the clumps in my front garden will follow suit soon. |
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| Senna bicapsularis (aka Winter Senna) also threw out a few tentative flowers before powering up a full-fledged bloom-fest |
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| Plectranthus ciliatus 'Zulu Wonder' is still keeping things low-key but I appreciate every graceful flower spike it produces, as well as those fragrant quilted leaves |
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| Persimmon 'Hachiya' obviously isn't a flower but I'm impressed that I actually have some fruit this year. I watched a greedy squirrel scamper off carrying a whole persimmon in its mouth yesterday so I don't expect them to last long. |
While making a quick round of South Coast Botanic Garden on Monday in preparation for a tour I was scheduled to conduct on Tuesday, I snapped a few photos of plants that stood out there too.
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| The Silk Floss trees (Ceiba speciosa) are the most dominant features of the garden at the moment |
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| There are still some single-petaled dahlias to be found. I believe this one is called Dahlia 'Mystic Spirit'. |
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| This is a very interesting vine I can't remember coming across before. It goes by the common names of orchid vine (for the yellow orchid-like blooms shown in the photo on the left) and butterfly vine (for the lime-green butterfly-like seed pods, fading to tan as they mature, as shown more clearly on the right). The plant's botanical name is Mascagnia macropterum (syn. Callaeum macropterum). I recently received some seed pods from a thoughtful blogger friend and will have a go at growing it. |
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| My guess was that this is Persicaria orientalis, which goes by the fanciful common name of Kiss Me Over the Garden Gate, but I'm no longer sure of that ID. Can anyone confirm or correct this ID? |
While I was at the botanic garden I thought I'd try to grab photos of the
sculptures on loan from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) as I'd captured only one during a prior visit. All six of the LACMA sculptures have been placed in the "back 40" (acres) of the garden to entice visitors to wander deeper into the grounds. That proved to be a longer hike than I had time for but I managed to photograph three more.
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| This is Firestone by Peter Voulkos |
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| This is Trace by Nancy Graves, which is perhaps my favorite of the sculptures the garden has on display |
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| This is One on One by Richard Artschwager. It seems to be the odds-on favorite of children as I've never seen it without children climbing all over it. |
The sculptures do seem to be increasing traffic in the back area of the garden, which is great. Restoring/reconstructing the lake would also give the garden a major boost but that's a longer-term project on the botanic garden's master plan.
What's grabbing your attention in the garden as October comes to a close?
All material © 2012-2019 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party
