June Flower Friday

 

It's time for another Flower Friday! I'm enjoying this new rose that I planted. It was a Costco purchase which are usually pretty good. This one is taking off, but it's next to the Jasmine so it got wrapped up in vines and pulled to the edge of the fence. Of course the deer took advantage of that situation. So I have to keep on top of the Jasmine creeping over again. The other rose I bough at Costco was planted in a spot where it's not getting enough sun, but the flowers have been lovely, they're a silvery pale lavender.color.

We visited my SIL earlier this month, and DH helped my BIL construct this support stand to hold up his Passionflower vine. It's quite heavy with fruit and needed some support. 

My BIL is an amazing fruit and vegetable gardener, he spends a lot of time on his garden. It just so happens that Passionflower is a fruit with a truly beautiful flower. Here are some flowers that haven't opened up their buds yet.

Here's a view of part of our garden and house, the fig tree is on the right, the pomegranate is in the center near the house where it is almost entirely blocking a window. There should be iris and peonies near the day lilies in the foreground but the gophers got them. (booooo)

A night time full-moon picture through the redwoods from underneath the Angel's Trumpet.

Santa Barbara Daisy is doing well in the semi-shade, spreading out like it's supposed to.

A surprisingly late plain old purple iris bloomed. These are boring compared to the fancier varieties, but I truly love this color combination of all the purples almost to blue and then out to lavender almost pink.

The Bear's Breech (aka Acanthus) are going great this year. The big exuberant leaves wilt during the hot part of the day and then recover later. But wow, this is the most flowers ever! The out of control Wisteria is looming in the background.

Such a beautiful flower structure.

No really, I could look at these all day, they are so complex and interesting.

Some of the Day Lilies are blooming.

I really like seeing these slowly open and unfurl.

I really love this picture with all those water drops.

The scented Geranium is spreading out well and battling for supremacy with the Jasmine.

Roses, Scented Geranium, Day Lilies, volunteer ferns and Jasmine in the background.

Flower Friday for May

 Well, as it's still May, it is definitely time for a 🏵🌹🌻💐Flower Friday!🏵🌹🌻💐

I'm glad I got this picture of this lovely shade of Gerbera Daisy as the deer ate it that very night.

I saw this plant in a FFA (Future Farmers of America) garden next door to my mom's place. It looks like snapdragons or maybe fuchsia but it is Autumn Sage "Salvia  'Shell Dancer'"

 

My Lenten Rose (Hellebore) which has been changing colors, the outer "petals" are sepals which are leaves, so they do tend to get green.

The Columbines that self-sow every year are a pretty color combination this time.

The Globemaster alliums bloomed again, but they were not even close to advertised 1.5 - 3' high stems.

The Jerusalem sage is really taking over, I promised to divide and dig it up so it's not blocking the path once the blooms are done.

The Watsonia blooms are lovely this year, but this time it is pink instead of white?

This color combination on the Kangaroo Paws really gets me.

Gerbera Daisy, another one I got a picture of before the deer discovered them.

A Lion's Ear blooming outside a restaurant in Redwood City, memo to me, try growing this one.

A Minaret flower, related to the one above, such an interesting structure.

The Pomegranate tree was pruned a whole lot earlier this year so there are A LOT of blooms.

A Lacecap Hydrangea blooming outside a restaurant in San Jose that caught my eye. I wish I could grow these in my garden but they take too much water.

The poison tree (Angel's Trumpet) has been cut back so many times this year, but it Keeps Growing Back. The flowers smell so good after it rains.

And lastly, a new plant that I'm growing, a Silver Sage 'Salvia Argentea'. 

That's definitely enough flowers for now!

Flowers for Monday

 

I got my Covid booster shot today, and then went to the gym, so no sewing today. But I spent some time in the garden this morning. The very out of hand Wisteria is blooming so nicely it's hard to be mad about it.

The old reliable Peace Rose bush is blooming like crazy. All the remaining pictures are of different roses on the one bush.

Seems like a good time for a bunch of Peace to break out and show itself once again.

I love the variation in each flower's colors. 

And the colors change as they age too.

And one last super yellow one.

Wandering Wednesday: Getty Center Museum Gardens

 

On our way back from the LA Convention center area, we finally arranged our timing so we could stop off and see the Getty Center Museum. It was a gorgeous day, as you can see from the blue sky in this picture. The rough cut Travertine exterior of the museum was so fascinating, it has fossilized plants and animals randomly appearing.

I will be honest, the main reason I wanted to go see this place was this particular roof garden planted with cactus. I remember it 1was in Sunset Magazine back when it was established in 1997.

It's really something! I liked that we were up above the smog/haze layer in Los Angeles so that we could see the horizon.

It was quite hot so we did our outdoor exploring first. The central garden was truly a work of art, or as the garden's designer, Robert Irwin said: "is a sculpture in the form of a garden, which aims to be art." I saw the central knot formation on the map, and was looking forward to walking through the maze, but it was all water.

The pathways zig-zagged around the garden beds that surrounded the central water knot planting. 

Gorgeous flowers were bursting out of all the well designed garden beds.

This shows how far down you go to the bottom of the garden compared to the museum plaza level. 

This was one of our favorite things in the whole museum. Those "trees" are actually bougainvillea vines that are captured in welded rebar "trunk-ish" cages with a spreading grid at the top. 

Fascinating!

We sat underneath and admired the ingenuity (and the shade).

After our rest under the bougainvillea "trees", it was time to walk back up and go see some art.

Walking back up from the central garden you follow the flow of water along gentle zig-zagging pathways all planted with succulents and cactus.

It was so varied and beautiful, and very happy in that hot sun.

The movement of water and the beautiful plantings made it a very easy walk back up the hill.

Up at the very top the source of the water is this fascinating concave vessel fountain. A wonderful optical illusion.

The x marks the spot is the shadow of the grating where the water comes pouring down.

And this was all before we went inside and saw any inside art!