March 2025

[Too Many Plants!]

Moraea Aristata - pics from yesterday, and today fully open in the rain.

This is the same plant I posted pics last year of its very first flowering in my Garden, making a four pedal flower. From a 2023 BX.

[Robert_Parks]

Many of the Ceanothus are fire followers, including at least one of the parents of the purple-blue hybrids. They come up like grass following a fire, grow like crazy (1 - 3feet/30cm-1m per year), and are senescent within 10-15 years. Their response to pruning varies, but most of the fire followers respond like Hydra to pruning, proliferating branches in the area.
This all, of course, from the perspective of trail crew trying to keep Ceanothus from closing off trails in a single winter season.
There are some truly amazing species out there, Uli's C. leucodermis (and some allied species) with white stems contrasting with blue flowers, and a prostrate species from the northern part of the state (shades varying from white to light blue from plant to plant)...but they are notoriously picky about conditions. C. leucodermis, grows only in a 500ft/200m elevation band on the dry side of the third range of coastal ridges from the ocean, with different species above and below...elsewhere from me, it is similarly restricted where the conditions are similar.

Robert
in fogbound San Francisco

[Too Many Plants!]

Many of the Ceanothus are fire followers, including at least one of the parents of the purple-blue hybrids. They come up like grass following a fire, grow like crazy (1 - 3feet/30cm-1m per year), and are senescent within 10-15 years. Their response to pruning varies, but most of the fire followers respond like Hydra to pruning, proliferating branches in the area.
This all, of course, from the perspective of trail crew trying to keep Ceanothus from closing off trails in a single winter season.
There are some truly amazing species out there, Uli's C. leucodermis (and some allied species) with white stems contrasting with blue flowers, and a prostrate species from the northern part of the state (shades varying from white to light blue from plant to plant)...but they are notoriously picky about conditions. C. leucodermis, grows only in a 500ft/200m elevation band on the dry side of the third range of coastal ridges from the ocean, with different species above and below...elsewhere from me, it is similarly restricted where the conditions are similar.

Robert
in fogbound San Francisco

I suppose, different types of habitats, could develop very different Ceanothus over time. I know I tried some variates that I found out were more northern Cali coastal based sp., and did not do well with them in our dry hot summers, and low rainfall winters, even though I supplemented their watering.

[Too Many Plants!]

Many of the Ceanothus are fire followers, including at least one of the parents of the purple-blue hybrids. They come up like grass following a fire, grow like crazy (1 - 3feet/30cm-1m per year), and are senescent within 10-15 years. Their response to pruning varies, but most of the fire followers respond like Hydra to pruning, proliferating branches in the area.
This all, of course, from the perspective of trail crew trying to keep Ceanothus from closing off trails in a single winter season.
There are some truly amazing species out there, Uli's C. leucodermis (and some allied species) with white stems contrasting with blue flowers, and a prostrate species from the northern part of the state (shades varying from white to light blue from plant to plant)...but they are notoriously picky about conditions. C. leucodermis, grows only in a 500ft/200m elevation band on the dry side of the third range of coastal ridges from the ocean, with different species above and below...elsewhere from me, it is similarly restricted where the conditions are similar.

Robert
in fogbound San Francisco

Interesting your comment about trails. I too build, and maintain single track trail networks. But in our area, Ceanothus are not generally our problem. They're a smaller % of the native Chaparral. AND...I don't like to cut them as the color and smell is amazing when they are in full bloom!

[CG100]

Some of them smell wonderful in flower!

I have heard that but I don't recall having ever found any scent on any here - occasionally one has a smell, not unpleasant, but not something that I would actually call a scent. They must exist otherwise, the comment would not end up in print here. (If I am at a nursery/garden centre, I am the one who sniffs any flower that I don't know, plus any that I know should be scented.)

For sure in the UK they will be positively pampered compared to most? all? of native habitat. The driest part of the UK gets around 24 inches of rain per year, the wettest around 70 inches, both reasonably evenly spread through the year - surprisingly perhaps, both places mild enough in winter for Ceanothus to do OK.

They don't really float my boat, so I have never planted any and never inherited any by chance when moving house.
If I had to guess, I would say that their popularity here has waned/is waning, possibly as a reaction to previous popularity, or their reputation for being short-lived.

[Robert_Parks]

The best I can say about some of our Ceanothus is that some of them don't resprout when you lop them at the ground...and they won't germinate without fire. But even if you clear a trail jeep wide, the tall canes just bend into the trail if you get any significant snow or even heavy rain with wind.

With solid fire follower stands, they ARE visually spectacular, turning hillsides pale blue or patchy white. Mostly a weak sweet scent, but pervasive, except for Greenstem (oliganthus?) which can be sickly sweet, especially in massed growth.

Dragging it on topic for a tidbit, after a fire, Calochortus albus will produce a firm set of leaves and flower strongly (the first season from bulb storage), after a couple years it is shaded out by the Ceanothus, reverts to making large lax fragile single leaves that are produced every year in the deep shade until the next time the canopy is opened or a fire comes through.

Robert
sunny, cool, windy, with daffodils and a sprinkling of other fascinating exotics.

[Arnold]

Bunch of flowering plants for today

[Arnold]

Bit more.  some labels long gone.

[Uli]

Thank you for this lovely picture of wild Ceanothus. I am trying hard to establish Ceanothus in my garden, Blue Jeans is a success. It never gets any irrigation. Whenever I can lay my hands on a Ceanothus here in Portugal, I buy it. They do sometimes appear in the trade but not regularly. Establishing is another job, there are a few small ones, some look promising, others..... Blue Jeans was raised in Rancho Santa Ana Botanical Gardens and  is is a relatively new hybrid.

[Uli]

Hello All,
Back from a nice hike on a crisp Algarvian spring day, I would like to share some impressions with you. It was cold, around 5°C, but sunny, some wind and the occasional raindrop. 

Zantedeschia aethiopica naturalizes beautifully in wet spots. Lots of simple water catchment there, so there must be a spring.

Primula acaulis, also near running water but higher up. I have not seen it before in the Algarve. On a steep north facing slope.

This magnificent cork oak is a survivor of the vicious 2018 wildfires. It's valuable cork had been stripped in 2016, hence the figure 6 still visible. Had it not been stripped two years earlier it would have survived in a better shape.

[Too Many Plants!]

Bit more.  some labels long gone.

I have a large clump G. Tristis, and that top Gladiolus sure looks like Tristis to me...

[Too Many Plants!]

First Sparaxis Tricolor flowers for the season. Should have many more variations to come...

[Wylie]

Melasphaerula graminea is a small flowered bulb that has a lot of flowers on a single stem.

[Too Many Plants!]

Cyanella Orchidiformis. (I'm pretty confident now)

Flowers FINALLY opening.

Any thoughts or opinions are welcome...

[Too Many Plants!]

I forget the name...don't know if any remember I posted these flowers last year n they almost looked white. Well, this years a different story. Wonder what the deal is..?