First photos of September

3 Sep '07 10:34 am

Well I've finished the first week of school, took the dogs on a good walk yesterday and then came home and watched the Cal bears beat Tennessee in College Football .. yes, american footbal.

Today I was out in the garden and noticed the light was good on a couple of Ornamental Gingers that were in bloom, so I went and got my camera.

3 Sep '07 12:57 pm

What a wonderful display,Mark.
I was looking at my Golden wings only yesterday-each winter/spring it looks dead and I wonder about her-she is always the last rose to decide to bloom.I shifted herlast year in the hope she might be happier-I think single roses get'lost' with others,and they,like Sally holmes, are very delicate-looking.
Is your ginger'Kahali ginger?It is a banned plant here in NZ as it has invaded coastal areas -spread by birds,wind and tubers,they grow into enormous impenetrable clumps and are a terrible pest.I think the perfume is beautiful though.
We can't grow Jacarandas here because of the frost,but I saw it when I visited Australia and really coveted it as it was a beautiful haze of blue.They have a Jacaranda festival every year in some parts of Australia.
Dixie.

3 Sep '07 3:44 pm

I'm not sure which ginger it is (gift from a friend) but I want to move it anyway. It's roots, stolens, whatever are much like that of runner bamboo though not as armored. I'm a little afraid of it invading my Gunnera which has only begun to recover from the beating it took from my black bamboo.

I remembered you were a fan of Jacaranda but mine hasn't bloomed this year. Funny, because it did last year. Maybe the extra cold winter set it back as it did my other blue flowering tree, Wigandia. If it blooms I'll be sure to post some photos for you.

With school back in session I'll probably only get to play on line weekly but I look forward to getting caught up then.

3 Sep '07 4:55 pm

Hi, Mark!

That was another great set of pictures of your garden! The pond looks as if it has been there forever! Amazing, isn't it, how objects that belong just seem to fit right in? Loved the Kniphofia - it looks very much like one of my yellow ones, which is a favourite of mine, too! I think my favourite picture this time was the view of the pond from the dry bed.

Today it poured with rain all day here. I'm glad I went mushrooming yesterday, when I got an ice cream bucket full of Chanterelles. Tonight I made a stew of venison and chanterelles, with red wine, currants and cranberries. Yum!!

There were a lot of folks in the bush mushrooming, as there is a forest strike on here, and the mushroom buyers have opened for the season. I guess a lot of unemployed folks are picking to supplement their strike pay!

I guess in the next few days I'll have to rebuild my back steps from my deck, as a friend fell down them today and broke one of them. I'm sure glad she didn't break any bones, but she's scraped up and is going to have some pretty big bruises, I think. Luckily, tomorrow's Labour Day, a holiday, so she can take it really easy all day, and I'll cook for her as well.

I'm glad that the first week of school went well for you; soon you'll be in a routine and summer holidays will be just a memory!

Cheers, and have a great second week!

-gordonf

3 Sep '07 4:59 pm

Hi, Mark!

That was another great set of pictures of your garden! The pond looks as if it has been there forever! Amazing, isn't it, how objects that belong just seem to fit right in? Loved the Kniphofia - it looks very much like one of my yellow ones, which is a favourite of mine, too! I think my favourite picture this time was the view of the pond from the dry bed.

Today it poured with rain all day here. I'm glad I went mushrooming yesterday, when I got an ice cream bucket full of Chanterelles. Tonight I made a stew of venison and chanterelles, with red wine, currants and cranberries. Yum!!

There were a lot of folks in the bush mushrooming, as there is a forest strike on here, and the mushroom buyers have opened for the season. I guess a lot of unemployed folks are picking to supplement their strike pay!

I guess in the next few days I'll have to rebuild my back steps from my deck, as a friend fell down them today and broke one of them. I'm sure glad she didn't break any bones, but she's scraped up and is going to have some pretty big bruises, I think. Luckily, tomorrow's Labour Day, a holiday, so she can take it really easy all day, and I'll cook for her as well.

I'm glad that the first week of school went well for you; soon you'll be in a routine and summer holidays will be just a memory!

Cheers, and have a great second week!

-gordonf

3 Sep '07 8:14 pm

Dear Mark,

Living in the rainy and green Belgium for so many years, the look of your sunny and glowing garden , full of Succulents, and Cacti, and exotic plants , like the lovely one you call Ginger, is something SO unusual and special to my eyes!

This special glow gives such an exceptional global look to all your captures and plants! But three photos are so special indeed, on artistic level : The Jacaranda Fern photo : I love myself so much taking photos of beautiful stems like this, "reaching" to the blue skies! The colour harmony/contrast, the lighting, the angle taken , are all so very special!

Then, your Knipfolia portrait : such a glowing , lovely presentation, due to this very special light cuddling the lovely creature! And then, this flaming red , adorable Mexican Daisy!! Well; I think that THIS very portrait is the best I have ever seen among all your beautiful flower- portrait-captures --- both in Flickr and here! It is the special sparkling light, the glowing colour of the bloom itself presented contrasting the Formium(?)backround, AND the artistic angle taken!! Delightful indeed!

Thank you, dear Mark, for offering a very special colourful start to this new September week/morning of mine -- little Nicholas started school today ! So!! A happy and creative school year to all teachers and students!

4 Sep '07 12:36 am

Well done, Mark! The pond in particular must give you great pleasure - a summer well spent. As Gordon(?) says - something that's 'right' can look as if it's been there forever.

I love your Mexican sunflower - tell us more about it. As for your Bidens - I pored over the enlarged photo for ages before going back to your post. I was picturing something 2 inches or more across and couldn't figure what it was! The ginger is lovely - a thug with my neighbours and a declared invasive in SA. However mine get frosted before the seed has chance to ripen and I've only once had to 'deadhead' them. Many a year unfortunately they get frosted as they start flowering, because they get off to a slow start for me.

Your Prince seems light in colour ('Pale' is quite wrong for those sumptious tones!) compared to mine - a brooding maroon red. However when we discussed DA roses recently I noticed somewhere that there were similarly pale ones shown on the net.

Good luck for week 2! ( I worked all weekend on the play - the first of two 'closed weekends'.)

4 Sep '07 1:26 am

Well done Mark. Your collection of September photos is outstanding as usual. I also am curious about your Bidens. I have heard other gardeners mention them, but am not sure what they are. The photo looks like such a charming little bloom with its pale yellow color. Do you know the botanical name? I was also taken with your Kalanchoe. I saw some of these in the Filoli gardens and they were so striking with their wavy stems topped by deep purple bloomlike foliage. They looked like roses from Mars or Venus. Something otherworldly anyway. I don't know if I could grow them here because of our normally wet climate. Hope you have a good school year.

4 Sep '07 3:43 am

I often have this feeling at Moosey's that when folks here look through photos of my garden that they have actually been in the garden with me. The difference is that in real life I don't think I've ever had so many hard core gardeners over at one time. Even at our annual studio/garden party the several real gardeners are interspersed with many more non-gardeners. Of course, on these virtual tours guests only get to look where I point the camera. Even so you guys invariably notice things I don't as well as validating many things that I do.

The (unlabeled) close up of Bidens ferulifolia seems to have caused confused. It is low growing -maybe 6 to 10 inches- and usually you only notice it as a field of yellow spots. You can see it in relation to more familiar plants in the photo immediately to the left of it called "NearCenterArch". The flowers are perhaps an inch across.

Gordon your description of the stew you made with the chanterelles made my mouth water. From the photo you like best I suspect that you like to see wider angle shots in gardens as I do.

Liza I also liked that Mexican Sunflower picture the best photographically. I have another photo showing a few blooms which is favored with the same wonderful morning light, but I like this one better. I've just attached it here. I think there is a quality to the light in coastal California that is like that around the Meditteranean. Maybe it it the nearness of large bodies of water which bounce alot of light back up into atmosphere, some of which, perhaps, is relected by the atmosphere itself back down on us - increasing our dose? Of course, all of these photos were taken in the morning so that the light was coming in from an angle making for a lot of shadowed areas that provide darker backgrounds.

Jack I think that Prince flower was a little faded but it was also taken a little later in full sun. The buds are very dark for me but the flowers less so. It isn't a very pure red, is it? There is purple or something mixed in it. What I like about the Mexican Sunflowers besides the color is the shape of the flower stalks. These start out smaller and become larger in diameter as they approach the flower at which point they balloon out markedly. This strikes me as sculpturally interesting and comical in a Dr. Seuss way at the same time.

Faith I suspect you can grow succulents if you give it a really sharp, fast draining mix and put them either in a raised bed or a pot. Most potted plants appreciate regular water and so long as the water exits fast enough the soil won't get boggy and the plant can help itself to all it wants. Most succulents look better with regular water even though they are able to endure without it. Oh, the really dark leaved one in the photo is the Aeonium 'Zwartkof' and the light green guy is my new Kalanchoe. I saw the mother plant which they had planted on a steep hillside (which they water regularly) and it was easily two meters high. I just rechecked my photos from Fred and Sherry's garden but it doesn't show in any of these.

Like Gordon, I have today off for the Labor Day holiday but I've planned on using it for school work. Good luck to Nicolas on his first day back.

4 Sep '07 4:54 pm

Hi, Mark-

I, like some of the others, was intrigued with your Bidens. I've seen it pictured in many English garden books and magazines, but haven't found it to be available here. I've wondered how much sun it needs, as it reminds me somewhat of Coreopsis, which always dies in my garden. Perhaps Bidens, if I could find it or get some seeds (hint, hint Smile

), would be a good substitute.

Loved your Aeonium! Boy, I wish I could grow one here! I saw a green one for sale in my friend's nursery the other day but was afraid to get it, as it was pretty expensive, and I prefer the Zwartkof variety anyway (is that a bit of "sour grapes" surfacing?? Very Happy

)!

By the way, next time I go mushrooming, I'll try not to forget the camera!

Cheers!

gordonf

First photos of September

First photos of September

wonderful display

Thanks Dixie,

A Great Set of Pics!

A Great Set of Pics!

An Exotic Garden!!

Late summer splendor!

Wonderful September treasures

So nice to have you all over to the garden.

Of Bidens and Aeoniums