Random Picture Monday

I got to spend a little time in my own garden on Sunday.  Here is a collection of random pictures  that made me happy to be outside!

 

This was Begonia 'San Miguel' when I first brought it home.  It's already grown quite a bit.  You'll have to take my word for it as I didn't take a current picture.  Love this hirsute bear of a begonia!

 

 

Eryngium x zabelii 'Big Blue' and Ranunculus constantinopolitanus 'Plenus'   waiting to be planted.

This is actually already in a pot and is one of  the Christmas cactus cuttings that Sally Priest from WeHop gave to Alison and Me when we visited her.

 



 Clivia miniata.  Never grown these before and am excited to try.  One has variegated foliage.  House plant during the winter.  Will I kill them?

 

 Grevillia 'Ned Kelly' is now full of buds.  Yowza!  I can't wait to see the beautiful blooms in my garden!

Grevillia rivularis has cool foliage!

Got this Geranium pamatum at Far Reaches recently and was excited to have it again.  They used to seed themselves in my sunny parking strip until the tetrapanax foest took over.  Funny thing, I was in the parking strip weeding the other day and what should I see but one of these in full bloom and another about the size of the one I bought.  Do you suppose that the seed waited a few years to germinate?  They're pretty hard to miss as the blooms are bright pink and numerous.  It's a mystery!

 Meconopsis paniculata, one of my favorite foliage plants for winter.  The leaves form a large rosette of golden fur covered leaves that glow when the winter sun hits them.  Kelly's description - "One of  the good foliage plants in the genus with attractive evergreen rosettes of hairy leaves which capture and hold raindrops displaying them as if they were fine bits of prized crystal. In their 2nd or 3rd year, these send up an impressive bloom stem with a bunch of tissue-paper soft yellow poppy flowers. Usually this effort is the end of the plant but it makes a lot of seed.."  I've never had them reseed on their own and haven't tried to harvest seed myself so I get a few each year so that I can enjoy the foliage.

Echiveria that made it through the winter very well and even bloomed.  This puppy is nearly a foot across!

Purple clematis.

Also love this one even though it never blooms at the same time as the 'Joseph's Coat' climbing rose that it scrambles up.

'Nelly Moser' grows up a purple smoke bush - Cotinus coggygria.  I like the purple/pink combination.

 

 

 Another NOID clematis. I could search for the names but am tired and want to leave some fun for you all!

 

 I'm not really a huge fan of this powdery and delicate pink color but this is one of my favorite Camellia japonicas because of it's serrated edges and late bloom time.  Makes me think of the song "A White Sport Coat and a Pink Carnation." 

Really, pink is not my color but the fragrance of 'Cecil Bruner' is pretty swell!  This covers an old lilac bush that also has Kerria japonica and buddlea growing through it.  Kind of a weird thicket at the corner of the garden producing a variety of fragrant flowers through the season. 

Cool foliage on Acer palmatum 'Trompenburg.' A steal at 19.95 at Means Nursery.

Phormium 'Guardsman' from Dragonfly Farms made it through the winter unscathed.   One of my two or three favorite Phormiums!

That damned Rheum palmatum 'Atrosanguineum'  taking over  this bed.  Maybe it just needs to go away. 

 Shady goodness.

I finally put a bench in this part of the garden so it doesn't seem so much like a passageway from the front gate to the back yard.  You can actually sit down and enjoy the garden for a moment.  Yes, I know that the path needs to be rescued from the plants threatening to take over!

Podophyllum 'Spotty Dotty' flowering.

Agapetes came out (of the glass room) blooming this spring!

So much work to do, so little time! 

 

Now stop looking at blogs, get outside and weed.  Preferably in my garden:)