Although I look forward to the flowers that bloom during our cool season, the transition is always difficult. The color quotient in my garden drops dramatically as seeds, bulbs, and plug plants take their time to develop roots, shoots, and buds.
I welcome the relatively few plants that flower during the fall months, one of which is Barleria obtusa, also known as bush violet. I'm surprised that I've never seen these plants in local garden centers. I picked up my original plant at the botanic garden located roughly five miles from my home years ago during one of their fall plant sales - when they had such sales, as well as an in-house propagation unit staffed by volunteers. Perhaps my biggest disappointment with that botanic garden, where I was once a volunteer, is that both the plant sales and the propagation unit have been abandoned.
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| I selected a single stem of lisianthus (Eustoma grandiflorum) to flatter the bush violets. Planted as plugs early this year, I was surprised that the lisianthus produced new flowers as temperatures cooled, especially as the plants took a hit during September's heatwave. |
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| Back view |
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| Top view |
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| Clockwise from the upper left: Barleria obtusa, Centaurea 'Silver Feather', Correa 'Ivory Bells', Eustoma grandiflorum, Lavandula multifida, and Vitex trifolia |
I collected a grab-bag of other flowers to fill a second vase focused on the few pink flowers currently found in my garden.
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| Two bulb flowers, an Amarine and a Lycoris, provided the starting point |
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| Back view, fleshed out with stems of Leucadendron and Plectranthus scutellarioides (aka coleus) |
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| Top view |
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| Clockwise from the upper left: Amarine belladiva 'Emanuelle', Lycoris springeri, Plectranthus scutellarioides 'Florida Sun Rose', Leucadendron salignum 'Chief', Pelargonium hortorum 'Dynamo Hot Pink', Persicaria capitata, and Eriocapitella hupehensis (aka Japanese anemone) |
It remains very dry here. Last week's rain didn't materialize and there's nothing auspicious in the ten-day forecast either. It's windy too, which makes the garden even drier and the marine layer isn't expected to pay us a return visit until at least Wednesday. However, in the meantime the garden soldiers on with the assistance of our irrigation system and spotty hand-watering. According to my records, November 5th marks six months since our last real rain in early May, which measured only 0.17/inch. I'm not expecting the bounty of rain we got during the last two "water years" (measured from October 1st through September 30th of the following calendar year) but something along the lines of "normal" rain would be much appreciated.
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All material © 2012-2024 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party
