Monday, November 16, 2020

November Bloomday, are there any flowers out there?

Flowers? We don't need no stinkin flowers!

As I went out to photograph flowers to share on November's Garden Blogger's Bloomday (hosted by Carol at May Dreams Gardens), I kept hearing my husband quoting that infamous line from the 1948 film, The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (which actually turns out to be widely misquoted, FWIW). Yes, guess I was feeling a little defensive about the fact I have very few flowers to share this month...
I thought this erica (Erica arborea 'Estrella Gold') might have opened it's flowers and they were just teeny tiny, but no, upon further inspection those are still just buds. More excitement ahead!

The coloring-up of the leaves on a fascicularia (this one is, I believe, properly referred to as Fascicularia bicolor ssp. canaliculata 'Spinners Form') usually means a bloom is imminent. That's not the case here, the plant and I are confused! That sort of dried patch in the center of this plant is from an earlier bloom.

There are two Fatsia japonica blooming in my front garden, well, one's actually around the corner by the neighbor's driveway. Anyway, this one is visible from the window above the kitchen sink and I can officially report that hummingbirds do love these strange blooms. Thank god, there are a lot of them in my garden so the busy little guys should be fixed for food for awhile at least.
The ever-blooming Rosemary. I mean really, this plant never takes a break!
Plus it doesn't mind that I keep cutting off huge pieces either. What a trouper!
It feels like the Mahonia x media 'Charity' is a little behind this year. Soon, very soon...
I hear what you're thinking. Where are the flowers? I know, there's not a single flower in this photo. But! There's color. I realized that's how I was hunting for flowers, I was looking for unexpected color and the Fothergilla gardenii 'Blue Mist' qualifies in that department.

We're in the back garden now, here's Eriobotrya japonica, the loquat. Another couple of weeks and the scent of these flowers will be filling their corner of the back garden.

No scent here that I'm aware of, but the pendulous blooms of Stachyurus salicifolius make up for it by appearing in such large numbers. Obviously these aren't yet flowers, but the yellow foliage of Hamamelis x intermedia 'Rochester' looked so festive behind the blooms-to-be that I included them anyway.
Mahonia eureurybracteata 'Soft Caress'. Oh and check out that nice carpet of fallen fir tree needles. The patio was clean just yesterday. It's been very windy here...
I think my garden might be the first where Chasmanthium latifolium (aka northern sea oats) gets smaller every year, rather than taking over. I got just a few of those fabulous oat-like blooms this year.
Here's another of the fatsia, this one Fatsia japonica 'Murakumo Nishiki'.

I neglectd to photograph the tall clump of Tetrapanax papyrifer in the front garden. It seems like it's my usual poster-child for wishing those buds would open. Instead, this month, you see the back-garden plants. The one that arches over the patio...
And the one next to the shade pavilion, they're both in about the same place, as far as pushing out the knobby-spikes. 
Finally, we wrap up with the first bloom of my Thanksgiving cactus, Schlumbergera truncata. The ultimate pass-along plant this came to me from my friend Ann, the Amateur Botannist...

Weather Diary, Nov 15: Hi 56, Low 47/ Precip .05 

All material © 2009-2020 by Loree Bohl for danger garden. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.

14 comments:

  1. Looks gorgeous to me. Things are so done blooming in my garden, that I completely forgot it was Bloom Day. I won't mention that Mahonia or I will get jealous.

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  2. Still lots of colour in your garden. Most of my garden is under the snow but when in spots where it has melted little violas are blooming their hearts out. Gotta admire their toughness.

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    1. That is tough! As are you...snow, I am not a fan.

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  3. Your garden provides plenty of drama without flowers, Loree. Your Mahonia 'Charity' is also well ahead of mine, which I don't believe is even thinking of blooming - maybe it's waiting for rain? And I've never seen bloom on my Fatsia.

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    1. Never a bloom on your fatsia? That's crazy. They're reliable bloomers here.

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  4. Yep. I'm down to rosemary and mahonia blooms too. Coincidentally, I just picked up a small, mostly white Schlumbergera with magenta stamens at the hardware store... for an added cheer in my house. Years ago I had Stachyurus in the garden, but it was a deciduous shrub. Yours seem to have all the leafs still green and happy.

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    1. My stachyurus is mostly evergreen. It drops old leaves in late winter/early spring, but is never bare.

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  5. That's a lovely color of cactus, nice and soft, with the bright pink 'tongue' sticking out. It may be November, but you still have lots growing in your garden. I'm a bit envious!

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    1. My climate is to wintery for me, I don't know how those of you with a real winter do it.

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  6. Oh yeah, I enjoy the buds a much as the flowers; sometimes even more. Color of any kind this time of year is fabulous. I really enjoy the Mahonias--such interesting shapes, buds, foliage, and flowers.

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  7. Lovely Mahonias ! Beautiful Blooms .It would be my pleasure if you join my link up party related to Gardening here at http://jaipurgardening.blogspot.com/2020/11/garden-affair-happy-diwali.html

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