Bloom Day, June 2013

Although I am typically more focused on foliage and form in the plants here at Longview Ranch, June is a month when I enjoy a garden full of flowers. I have so many blossoms to share today that I'm revisiting last year's color-wheel convention to organize them for you.

Red

Grevillea juniperina 'Lava Cascade'. After taking a full year off after being planted, it has decided to join the bloom party.

Delosperma 'Jewel of the Desert Garnet'.

Aeoneum species. Not strictly a flower, but flower-like to be sure!

Orange
I absolutely adore this plant: Clivia miniata 'Belgian Hybrid Orange' is blooming for the third time this year. It's easily worth dragging the pot indoors over winter to enjoy these intense orange blooms in spring.

 Abutilon 'Tangerine'.

Kniphofia 'Timothy' is just getting underway. When fully open, the blooms are an unique salmon color.

Helianthemum 'Ben Nevis'.

Lilium columbianum, our native tiger lily.

Finishing up orange and leading us into yellow is Kniphofia northiae.

Yellow
A NOID Kniphofia species.

The first of many blooms on Zantedeschia 'Flame'.

Halimium ocymoides, loving the heat in my hell strip.

A bullet-proof, NOID yellow rose that puts up with my indifferent attention to it.

Sedum (pachyclados?)

Green
I've been waiting over a month for the blooms on this hybrid Syneilesis to open. Maybe they never will, so I'm calling them green and showing them here now!

Juncus effusus 'Bay Blue' is a recent acquisition from the new Xera Plants retail shop.

Blue
Just one blue flower here: The seemingly inexhaustible Ceanothus 'Victoria' bloom show continues.

Purple
A native Penstemon species, keeping the Castilleja miniata on the right company. Indian Paintbrush needs to be planted with a companion plant to share nutrients as it intertwines the plant's roots.

Another native, Erigeron glaucus, Arthur Menzies Beach Daisy.

Acanthus spinosa. Its name is a clue to the fact that this is one sharp plant!

Sooner or later several of these place-keeper lavenders will make way for new species on my hell strip. For now, I'm loving their look and smell along the sidewalk.

Magenta
Cistus 'Sunset'. I love the big crinkly petals on this one.

Geranium cinereum 'Subcaulescens'. This tiny plant has been pumping out one or two blooms at a time for months.

White
As I've noted before, I have more white-flowering plants than any other color. Maybe it's my fear of color clashes: White goes with everything, right? In any case, I do love the glow of white at dusk.

Our lovely new native shrub has an equally intoxicating scent. Philadelphus lewisii shines against the neighbor's chocolate-brown garage.

Also new this year, Abutilon vitifolium 'Tennant's White' is an unusual size and shape for an abutilon. The flowers look more like those of a cistus to me.

Trachelospermum jasminoides is doing a nice job of covering the fence. The flowers have a lovely scent and I appreciate its evergreen foliage through winter.

The amazing airy blooms on a new Saxifrage, Saxifraga stolonifera 'Maroon Beauty'.

The ever-reliable small blooms on Potentilla fruticosa 'McKay's White'.

Delicate, pure-white blossoms on Libertia peregrinans 'Bronze Sword'.

Acanthus mollis has more white parts than A. spinosa, so I decided it belonged in this group. What do you think?

Last year, the tiny blossoms on my Arbequina olive sapling resulted in exactly 5 olives. Although so far this little tree has been a very slow grower, I am cozening it in hopes of a useable olive harvest - maybe circa 2050?

My last white flower is a blossom truss on Rosa 'Darlow's Enigma'. It's crammed between the ever-widening Pampas grass and a Trachycarpus palm but manages to grace the garden and hide the fence nicely each summer.

Bloom Day is graciously hosted on the 15th of each month by Carol at May Dreams Gardens. Click over to see what else is blooming on this sunny June day!