Local wild flowers in my garden

19 Mar '07 3:47 am

Thanks for posting these new beauties Jack. I love the Crocosmias. I have a growing patch of "Lucifer", the red variety in my mixed border. A friend gave me some of the more common orange last year, but I can't remember exactly where I planted it and have not seen any evidence of it coming up yet. I hope I don't "accidentally" weed it out in a moment of forgetfullness. Anyway, keep posting those wildflowers. We all really enjoy seeing them.

19 Mar '07 1:59 pm

Don't worry, Faith - the orange ones have a much quicker cycle than the reds, and flower later, so they will be behind the red ones!

22 Mar '07 10:04 am

Hi Jack.

What a terrific lot of wildflowers you have around you. I really enjoyed looking through your pix. Some strange and unique specimens indeed.

Cheers.

Christopher

23 Mar '07 3:43 am

Thanks Jack. Actually while I was nosing around in the mixed border this morning doing some spot weeding, I found a single shoot that I am fairly certain is the orange crocosmia. I had put it in about the only fairly empty spot, which was very sensible.

10 Apr '07 9:41 pm

I haven't seen kniphofias colored quite like that before. Eye popping.

We grow a lot of South African plants in California. I like the two color phases we see of watsonia. (Bugle lilly has a nice ring to it.) I have the redder one but like the more golden colored one as well. Dixie, you make it sound like these will crowd out its neighbors. I think they like you better than they like me. My clumps seem to be crowding themselves out but not spreading much. Perhaps I should be grateful.

11 Apr '07 3:28 am

Wow! What a wonderful display of amazingly beautiful wildflowers! Thanks so much, Jack for sharing all these enchanting, colourful and interesting species! I've truly enjoyed being captivated by them! Excellent photography too! And I love your new avatar, strikingly beautiful with the autumn-coloured plant framing on the right! Lovely! Very Happy

16 Apr '07 6:59 am

Leonotus leonurus (actually I suspect our local one is the less impressive and scarser L. ocymifolia) is an unusual plant that will appeal to those who like architectural plants of strong colour. The way the flowers grow, out of baubles along the stem like Phlomis, is quite unusual, and the furry tubular flowers of burnt orange are very attractive too. In addition they are adored by nectar-loving birds - in SA what we call Sunbirds, rather similar to Hummingbirds, love them.

The other is one of the many non-garden worthy but interesting Lamiaceae that flourish in our moist climate. I just love its late-summer exuberance. It is,I think, and for what it's worth, Geniosporum angolense.

16 Apr '07 8:49 am

Jack , I fell in love with this orange Leon... wild flower! Do you find it has any sort of similarities with a....lion? Because in Greek, leon= lion...And otta(ancient Greek) = ears. Leon+otus , "Ears of a lion"?? Dear me,...these botanists..

16 Apr '07 9:53 am

Dear Liza,... With Greek language forming the basis of so much of our language and botanical names ,it is wonderful that you can expand our knowledge to give us the background knowledge of things -it makes life so interesting ! ( Lion's ears ???---Jack ???)
Dixie.

16 Apr '07 4:00 pm

Supposedly the furry orange flowers look like lions' ears. Personally I think Barbarotus would have been more appropriate, because she has furry orange ears!

The Afrikaans name is equally strange: Wilde Dagga = wild marijuana. Many school boys have therefore tried smoking it without any effect... However when I threw some on a bonfire a few years ago I discovered why: the smell is the same as it burns!

But every plant must be sold with a health warning in letters bigger than any other on the tag: WARNING: HAS NO NARCOTIC EFFECT Laughing

Local wild flowers in my garden

New wildflower beauties

Orange ones

Wonderfully Wild!

Orange Crocosmia

Great looking 'Torch' lillies

Two new pics

Leon.

Leon

Lions' ears