In Bloom: March ’14 (Part 2)

‘Canyon Snow’ iris

This is truly an exciting time in the garden. Daily visits reveal new blooms, singing birds and myriad insects busily darting about. These same visits also bring to light plentiful weeds, aphid infiltrations and half-eaten avocados littered underneath their parent tree. You’ve got to take the bad with the good, I suppose, but let’s focus on the positive. Here in late March, the coral bells and ceanothus continue to shine, but many other plants are beginning to awaken. Irises, monkeyflowers, sages, buckwheats, yarrow and others have begun to flower. The giant coreopsis, now in its second year, has sprouted its numerous yellow daisy-like flowers. Also, the island bush poppy, easily one of my favorite natives, continues to flower profusely and to send beautiful large grey-green leaves skyward. I have included some photos below, but for a more comprehensive display of garden happenings, I invite you to visit my Flickr photo sets, which I hope to update regularly. https://www.flickr.com/photos/8742964@N08/sets/72157643163691855/

Pacific Coast Hybrid iris

‘Eleanor’ monkeyflower

red monkeyflower

island bush poppy

hummingbird sage

In Bloom: March ’14

Mar11

Many varieties of Coral Bells (Heuchera) flank a shady sitting area

With six weeks until the garden show and two weeks until the official start of Spring, the garden is beginning to come to life. Bolstered by alternating periods of rain and warm sunshine over the last month, plants are displaying copious amounts of blossoms and fresh green growth. This is probably the healthiest and most well balanced the garden has looked to date — just in time for the public viewing next month. Coral Bells (Heuchera) and flowering currants (Ribes) are peaking right now, providing quite a display of creams and pinks. Also blooming: California lilac (Ceanothus), manzanitas (Arctostaphylos), California phacelia (Phacelia), monkeyflowers (Mimulus), beach and woodland strawberry (Fragaria), island bush poppy (Dendromecon), California buttercup (Ranunculus), penstemons (Penstemon) and cliff-maids (Lewisia). Some eye candy:

Island Bush Poppy (Dendromecon harfordii)

Ceanothus ‘Dark Star’

Cliff-maid (Lewisia cotyledon ‘Magenta’)

Woodland strawberry (Fragaria vesca)

California phacelia

Point Reyes kinnikinnick (Arctostaphylos uva-ursi ‘Point Reyes’)

Red-flowering currant (Ribes ‘Barrie Coate’)

Monkey-flowering Around

May13

Mimulus bifidus ‘White,’ star performer in the garden

Shrubby monkeyflowers (genus Mimulus) are a common site in the Bay Area, especially in the coastal scrub plant communities where they grow happily alongside sagebrush, chamise, coffeeberry, and others. In the spring, the plentiful orange flowers of Mimulus aurantiacus add a welcome dash of color to the greens and grays that typically dominate the landscape. Leaves have a characteristic sticky feel and plants can have a gangly, disheveled appearance in the wild.

In the garden, monkeyflowers have become very popular because they come in a wide variety of colors (orange, red, yellow, white, purple, etc.) and they bloom for a relatively long time over the spring and early summer. Native monkelyflowers are also available at most Bay Area nurseries, including Home Depot, where I recently saw the ‘Jelly Bean Yellow’ and ‘Pink’ varieties.

I have experimented with many types of monkeyflowers with mixed results. My first attempt was with a central coast cultivar called Mimulus bifidus ‘Junipero Serra’ that I obtained from East Bay Wilds. Unfortunately, the branches are extremely brittle on this plant and it was trampled over time. This was a full sun site and I think they prefer partial shade.

Mimulus bifidus ‘Junipero Serra’ in happier times, Spring 2012

Thankfully, I’ve had much more success with my Fall ’12 plantings. Most of these plants were purchased at Annie’s Annuals in Richmond, which, from my experience, has the healthiest, most robust young plants. The current crop of monkeyflowers began blooming in early April and seem to be peaking now in May. To the photos: