Fabulous April Favorites

I completely zoned out on the fact that yesterday was the last Friday of the month and time for the parade of favorite plants hosted by Loree at danger garden.  Even though the weather has turned decidedly warm (some might say hot) and the winds here have been relentless, the garden is still demonstrating buoyancy in the afterglow of the heavier-than-normal rains winter brought us so I hustled outdoors today to take photos of those clamoring for recognition.

Alstroemeria makes the most of spring's cooler temperatures.  As it heats up, most will retreat but I've enjoyed a plentiful selection of flowers this April.  From left to right, are 'Claire', 'Inca Husky'and a noID pink variety that came with the garden.  The first 2 have short stems but are semi-evergreen.  The pink variety has taller stems but goes completely dormant in summer.

Anigozanthos 'Yellow Gem' gets about 5 feet tall in my garden and creates a see-through screen.  Its yellow flowers have a green cast in contrast with another (unnamed) variety I have elsewhere.

Centranthus ruber is a weed here but I can't help appreciating its vigor in the driest areas of my garden.  This mass of blooms in 3 colors on my back slope grew from a few seedlings I transplanted our first year here.  I doubt I could get rid of them if I tried now.

The winds and spiking temperatures have taken a toll on the flower spikes of Echium candicans 'Star of Madeira' but the bees are making the most of the flowers while they last.  The plant on the left is in my front garden and the smaller one on the right is in the garden on the south side of the property, where it happily keeps company with succulents.

Gaura lindheimeri has sprung into bloom in various locations.  Some of these plants, like the ones in the middle photo, are self-seeded.  Gaura looks delicate but it likes a certain amount of heat, just like the Pelargoniums seated around each of the plants shown in this collage.

All my large-flowered Grevillea seem to bloom year-round once established but 'Ned Kelly', shown here, has a produced a particularly strong flush of blooms this month.  Its flowers are somewhat larger than those of 'Superb' and also more red than coral in color.

I made several attempts to get a good photo of Lobelia laxiflora but this was the best I could do.  It echoes the colors in Grevillea 'Ned Kelly' and Leucadendron 'Jester', both of which occupy the same bed.  When we moved in, I found this plant, which a neighbor described as a weed, in one of the shadier areas of my garden but it disappeared when we removed the Eucalyptus tree and dug up the garden on the south side of the house.   It appears to handle sun as well as shade and it makes do with moderate water.

The self-seeded grass here is Lagurus ovatus, aka bunny tail grass.  It doesn't seem to be invasive and I love the furry-textured flowers, which can easily be dried.

I featured Limonium perezii as one of my favorite plants back in February (left) but I couldn't resist showing you how floriferous it is now (right).  This is a tough heat and drought tolerant plant, easily grown from plugs here.

Here's another pretty weed, Oenothera speciosa, aka pink evening primrose.  Like Centranthus and Gaura, it self-seeds freely, especially in the drier, less cultivated areas of the garden, like the back slope.  It didn't produce many blooms at the height of the drought but it appears to have recovered its vigor this year.

Polygala myrtifolia 'Mariposa' blooms sporadically during the year but it's covered in blooms this month.  I was surprised to discover that this plant also self-seeds when I discovered 4 good-sized seedlings in the front garden.  I pulled out 3 shrubs in the front garden 18+ months ago so I can only assume that it needed regular rain like that we received this past winter to germinate.

My last selection is Salvia lanceolata, a shrub native to South Africa, also known as Rocky Mountain Sage.  Like a couple of my other choices this month, it's difficult to photograph.  I originally purchased it for its silver foliage with no idea what the flowers looked like.  The flowers, similar in shape to those of Salvia africana-lutea, are unusual but very interesting.

For a look at more plant favorites, visit Loree at danger garden.


All material © 2012-2017 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party