Foliage Follow Up - August 2010

A day late but hopefully not a buck short.

As usual, my foliage contributions are combinations of silver and gold. Gold Sedum x adolphii, hammered silver Geranium harveyi leaves, my new silver Gasteria and a combo I'm still mad about - Encelia farinosa and Stipa gigantea.

A mystery Aloe I've had for years. It has small pink flowers. Anybody? Anybody?

And this is my mystery Agave that I posted pictures of the flowers in the last Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day. It is very grassy, not too prickly, quite silver although it is getting green because it is in too much shade from neighboring plants. Next is my 'Alphonse Karr' bamboo with Dicentra scandens trailing through, Amorphophallus konjac, a Voodoo Lily that puts up interesting leaves every year but no stinky flowers and lastly the lovely blue leek foliage, which I would grow even if it didn't give me something to eat.

I probably should water my sunny parking strip. The Cotyledon is looking a bit dehydrated. Plus it's been such a cold foggy summer my squash plants are all mildewy. I had to pull a couple of plants out that were too gross. But hey, silver and gold, even when I don't plan on it!

I do have some yummy things to harvest right now. I'll try to get some pics posted soon.

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day - August 2010

I missed the July posting of Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day, so I wanted to make sure and get a posting up today.

Seems like there isn't much going on in my garden right now, other than way too many squash. I haven't been watering that much this summer so everything is just "resting" (aka: trying not to die). I found a few toughie drought tolerant wonders still doing their thing though.

Bouvardia ternifolia with Bidens 'Golden Goddess', Hedychium gardnerianum 'Tara' - a very fragrant ginger, Amaranthus (which reseeds and returns in my garden every year) and Tecoma 'Orange Jubilee' - one of my favorite plants ever. I was visiting Las Vegas and hit a couple of nurseries while I was there and found this baby in a 5 gallon. Couldn't resist and ended up smuggling it back in my tall camping backpack. Yes, a 5 gallon pot in carry on backpack. I earned my plant freak badge on that trip. I know Tecomas are pretty common in Texas (where I grew up) but out here in California whenever my plant goes into bloom everyone in the neighborhood wants one. The hummingbirds are big fans too.

The Gasteria blooms are quite lovely, the Jovibarba are blooming, and the Deppea splendens are starting up.

I've had this Agave for years that I can't seem to remember the name of but it's lovely and silver and small and not too sharp. Here are the rather discreet flowers. I'll post the foliage tomorrow on Foliage Follow Up. Maybe somebody will know which one it is.

The Marigold 'Harlequin' still has a few blooms and my Bupleurum, that I threaten to remove every year, always wins me over again when it starts to bloom.

Thank you to May Dreams Garden for hosting Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day. See you at Digging for Foliage Follow Up tomorrow!

My very late posting on the Garden Conservancy 2010 Open Gardens - East Bay

This is a really late to be posting these photos but this summer's been so busy!

On the day of the tour I had only enough time to get to 2 gardens in Oakland. I had hoped to get to 3 that were close to each other but the gardens were so big it took awhile to get through them. The first garden I saw was Sherry Merciari's lovely home. Lushly planted with amazing pots, sculpture and furniture tucked into a myriad of different nooks and spaces.

First, some deer resistant blade-leaved plants outside the gate as I walked up to the house:

The entrance was really cheery and I loved the old gate.

The garden was full of wonderful details. Check out the upside down bamboo. Very cool.

What a fantastic bench. Where do they find all this great stuff?!

More nifty things: Love the Tillandsia balls

Great stonework in the garden - giant round boulders for seats, round stones for pavers.

An old grapevine acting as a bean trellis, and a very ornate bird house.

Found this vine off in the corner of the property. Anyone know what it is? It looks to be in the Asclepias family.

More scenes from the garden:

A beautiful gate made of recycled materials and a blue sculpture that coordinates wonderfully with the pool.

Lush plantings around the pool - the masses of carex were newly planted and will be gorgeous once it is soft and floppy and filled in.

Perfect steps into the spa and lovely shaded walks around the perimeter of the house.

The garden felt like being in a tropical oasis, I found it hard to believe I was only a few miles from Highway 580 in Oakland. Sherry Merciari's garden is beautiful and I'm sure the gardens she does for clients are fantastic as well.

The other garden I made it to was Raul Zumba's garden. I'll post pictures of it next.