All is beautiful!!!
My speedy Aloe bloom:
3-27-16


4-7-16

Wow! That's a nice one. My hummers would love it.

Lovely! Like an orange christmas tree!

I seriously lust after this plant...it's about 1/2 block away from my house....echium pininana. I had these in Fallbrook, but they had not had time to reach full size, were only about 6' tall. This one and a grouping of them in front of a property on the way to Brookings are the largest I've seen around here. I would beg to poke beneath this plant, looking for seedlings, but do not want to get to know the people, they're questionable.....

My first sweet flower on this cistus. I think it's cistus salviifolius...it was a grab at HD last year......

Wonderful echium pininana!!!

Aren't they magnificent?!

They look like array of blue diamonds!

I've grown echium fastuosum for years, starting with seed grown which leaned toward the purple in coloration and my resulting generations of seedlings / volunteers were the same. I also grew e. fastuosum 'Star f Madeira', whose bloom was pretty much the same. I did at one time have an e. 'Mr. Happy', more 'pinkish' in bloom coloring.....and some e. pininanas and e. wildpretii...

So...when we moved I brought just a few seedlings with me...one of which I was thinking might be an e. pininana and I wanted to protect it through the wet, cold Winter, and it went under a nursery table, draped with Visqueen. When I uncovered it a month ago, I was surprised to find that it had apparently been growing vigorously through the Winter and was even starting to bloom. Then the buds opened and they are decidedly 'pink'...the structure is mis-shapen because of being under the table, leader is flattened somewhat, side branches reaching out.....but I do like the color, like nothing I've had before, don't know if it might be a 'Mr. Happy' seedling or not.....
Any thoughts?
This year I will have crosses from this and a couple of true blue colored e. fastuosums...I do have seeds from the purple echium I found here in town, but will not have those adding to the mix until a year or so down the line...

I still like the cool blue best.

I do also, but I might like the pink if it turns out to be a 'tower' echium...perhaps a cross between e. wildpretii and e. 'Mr. Happy'.....woulkd not like it so much in the form of e. fastuosum...I will have to wait and see...but I will try cuttings from it and seeds.

I like the color on that ?. My Wildpretii seedlings didn't make it here, I'm sorry to say.

I like the color as a 'picture', but I'm a bit funny about 'pinks'. I can only see this pink form in my mind's eye with a white cottage and hollyhocks and someone living there who likes things more frou-frou than I do....LOL....and I really don't know what its correct 'form' will be or should be as it was so hindered by being beneath that table......

I have 3 wildpretii that made it through the Winter...one was robust, a 4' across rosette and we got a few more icy nights and it's looking tattered, lost its rosette base...then there were two smaller ones next to it, did not think they would make it, but now they've shot up and are going to flower....go figure. I just want to make sure I at least get more seed from them...

Still, I will propagate this pink guy and see how it works out....

Stipa giantea......okay, so it's not exciting, but it IS exciting to me because I've waited at least 3 years for it to reach this stage. It came up here with me in a pot where it was not growing quickly, but I wanted to make sure it was transportable at moving time. Don't even remember where I got it...as 4" from Annie? maybe...

But it IS a bloom......

and it will look like this this year......




Getting ready......

Arctic Fire Dogwood...

Hydrangea 'Masja'...






Ceanothus 'Dark Star'......

Love those Ceanothus!

Amarillas are finally getting enough sun to open


Autum Salvia...A hummer favorite.

I did not expect that so many of the salvias would do well here, so did not plan for it....didn't bring much, am sowing a bunch now...also sorry that I did not buy an 'Amistad' when I saw them last year. I will not make that mistake again should the chance arise....

Ceanothus looks yummy. Where, oh where can I put it? I know, a barrier plant between me and the somewhat eccentric neighbor... hmmmmmm.