Blood, Sweat, and No Tears

The first of the new arrivals bloomed today - passiflora sanguinolenta, which means "that which expels blood" in Spanish. The flower is a mauve-ish color and there are no thorns, so I think it's a bit of a misnomer. Nevertheless, with the heat the first little pretty flower popped open.

Update: I'm sorry to report that the pesticides used to kill the thrips also whacked sanguinolenta. I don't do so well with the smalls (aka Decaloba subgenus). I've killed two cintrinas now. They just can't handle the poisons like the others.

Sequoia National Forest Flowers

I went backpacking into Sequoia National Forest over Memorial Day weekend. The weather was as spectacular as the scenery. I took the obligatory pictures of the trees, which don't really translate into photographs so well because you just can't capture their massive size in one picture. Also, there were plenty of wild flowers in bloom. Enjoy!

Fremontodendron californicum

 

Star of Surbiton

There's no real story to tell today. I just spent a little time sweeping the patio clean of some bamboo flotsam, and taking a picture of the latest blossom in Pergola-tory. The Star of Surbiton hybrid is very bright white with little blue filaments. I also noticed that two of the newer arrivals have buds - 'Manta' and P. sanguinolenta. It's getting exciting as the real star starts to heat up the weather.

Hapeony Mothers' Day

I recently wrote about how I transplanted all of my bromeliads to the patio planter in Pergolatory from the front yard. That decision was partly to prevent the raccoon (I suspect) from destroying my plants in an attempt to eat the snails, partly to fill the shady planter with something that would survive, and partly to put something more inviting in the front yard. Well, I think I've done that. I put a few new plants in most notably an Itoh Peony. I have zero experience with these, but from what I can tell it's going to do great.

I was out of town this last week, and at a friend's house they had several pink and purple double peony varieties, which was a strange coincidence. I hadn't realized until then that there were Japanese, semi-double, double, and bomb varieties, but there are as it turns out. So, when I got home it was great to see that mine was a semi-double and smelled pleasant.

Typically, for Mothers' Day you give a spring bouquet with daisies or lilies, or perhaps you go with something more formal like roses. But, I think peonies would make a nice choice. Come on florists, let's see some variety and peonies. OK, so since I've been over-worked as of late, I'm going to have to just dedicate the following picture to my mom. Hapeony Mothers' Day.

Searching for Monika Fischer

I had to ditch work today in order to meet the electrician. It's an overcast day; in the upper 60's, and I did not except to find two passion flowers blooming boldly through the gloom. It has been such a long time since I've seen any of them blossom that I had to go through my list to figure out that they were 'Monika Fischer' blossoms. The pair of them were inches apart, reminding me that the stress of last year's fight against the mites was over and that more goodness was to come. At least I am only waiting for the electrician now, and Spring seems to have made it's proper commencement announcement.

Transplant (Literally)

I did promise to write about the Bromeliads that I planted in the front yard. Well, it turns out that they were cranking out pups and were making the front yard a little congested. So, as nothing seems to grow in the one shady planter next to the house, I transplanted some of them. They're basically disease and pest free as a group of plants. The only problem seems to be that the racoons or opossums rip them up a bit if there are snails to be had. Nevertheless, they should look great in their new location especially when they send up their inflorescences. I'll have to wait to see if my predictions come true.

Phyllostachys Spectabilis Leviosa!

I returned to Pergolatory from my vacation to find that not much had changed. The weather here had been rainy and overcast much of the time that I was enjoying 80°F on Maui. However, today I walked out to do my usual rounds and found that my phyllostachys spectabilis bamboo was pushing up culms everywhere! The extra daylight and sun heated cinder block wall must have triggered their arrival. The black bamboo phyllostachys nigra doesn't have any new culms yet, but it's on the opposite side of the patio where it relies on the afternoon sun - the afternoon sun that we haven't been getting yet. The spectabilis culms are fairly large in diameter, so I'm really excited for the added privacy that they'll provide.

 

Update: A few weeks later and there are 40+ new spectabilis culms, with a few of them taller than the 6' fence already. Their diameters are about what you would expect for a first season of growth. The black bamboo started coming up recently too. And the culms are thick. One of them is easily 1.5" in diameter. They're not yet as tall, but given last year's growth, I expect that they'll reach 20' at least!