A long-time Alaska resident told me that back in the boom years of the 70's when the Trans-Alaska pipeline was being built, single ladies in search of eligible gentlemen made the trip to Alaska. The standard advice to these ladies was: "The odds are good, but the goods are odd".
Today. perhaps that saying is more appropriate for the very first roses of the year. The odds are good there will be roses blooming at this time, but they are rarely the best the plant can produce. The goods will be odd: rain, colder than usual nights, and less daylight create unusual flowers.
Take this 'Lady Emma Hamilton', which has a yellow segment in an apricot flower. How did that happen?
A 'Barcelona' has less than half the petals it usually has, and double the pollen:
'Ebb Tide', normally grape-jelly purple, is nearly red...
...while 'Firefighter' is pale!
Normally unblemished 'Black Bacarra' is spotted and dinged.
Though 'Comtesse de Provence', which is usually toasted and crispy, looks superb. Cool-weather rose, I guess.
Not only the Comtesse enjoys cool weather. A hybrid Echeveria is intensely aqua:
And Graptopetalum superbum is lavender-pink, and producing a very delicate flower spike:
The puppies, and the gardener, enjoyed the cooler weather today, too, though the gardener didn't get much time to garden.
I was unsure of the flower color of Metrosideros collina 'Spring Fire'--red? But no, it's orange, and will agree with its neighbors, either in flower or foliage color.
'Spring Fire', just opening:
Open, the flowers are very bottle-brushy. The display will become spectacular in time, as the shrub matures and becomes a petite tree.
The silvery-grey foliage of the Metrosideros agrees perfectly with the silver grey Puya, which is visible only briefly each year:
The Puya gets swallowed up each spring by the Tagetes lemonii. It reappears only when I cut the Tagetes back in early winter. So far, this has not seemed to bother the Puya, except perhaps to slow it down, which is fine by me.
The orange of the Metrosideros flower also matches the orange of classic California poppies. When my nephew was very small, just four or five years old, I explained to him that the little poppy flower covers are used by fairies as rain-hats. He rolled his eyes as me and sighed. He didn't believe in garden fairies.
I love how the flowers unfurl like scrolls:
I love the intense color of the silky petals:
Lots of orange.
I'm still too tired to think. The puppies are a handful, especially at 5 am. Their personalities are becoming apparent. Boris is sweet, dignified, not overly brave, and ready to cooperate.
Natasha is a little bully and smart. Uh-oh! Making herself right at home:
'
Azure (from the great rose blog Rareroses.com) and her family graciously brought over a rose that needed a new home, 'Comtesse de Segur'. It went in the front yard (yes! a place in the ground!) between 'Molineux' and 'Marilyn Monroe'. Azure's family visited with the puppies and went home with a rooted cutting I had an extra of. Between the puppies and not having space, the Comtesse, along with my Lowe's Death Rack 'Cinco de Mayo', will be my only new roses this year.
'Comtesse de Segur' in her new home:
Before leaving, after playing with the not-overly-clean puppies, Azure's family practiced good health habits by washing their hands. Unfortunately the house was a disaster and I was mortified by the state of it. Flooring people had been here all week and everything was covered with sawdust, along with furniture being crammed into odd spots, spilled coffee grounds, a bucket of floor wash water to...eww..never mind. Azure and her family were very kind about the mess, saying "We understand, we're parents!" Well, hey, the garden was clean...
xAloe 'Blue Elf'
I've been busy, busy!
Instead of neatening up the house for our visitors, while the puppies had an afternoon nap, we assembled a new raised bed. Taking the two left over from the Fall Project, we made a double-height one for an empty corner. This will become the succulent growing and propagation area I've wanted for a long time. Little pots are too difficult. The new bed will also use up the rest of the extra soil down in the gully garden. Win-win-win.
Hmm...where'd that new Graptosedum come from?
Nap time! I'm not sleepy! I'm not! I'm not!
My eyelids are just a wee bit heavy, that's all!
Zzzzz...
Busy, busy, busy. At least I took a moment to drink in the colors of a winter sunset. No, not the sky--the way in which the fading light brought unusual colors to the garden.
One should never be too busy to take a moment to admire the beauty of the world. It brings peace to the soul. The rush and tumult of life vanishes; serenity blossoms. Indeed serenity is always there, patiently waiting for us.
Wednesday it unexpectedly rained. Thursday it was horribly windy. Friday was lovely, and I was able to get outside and enjoy the garden. I tried to make a "foliage follow-up" post, but flowers and puppies distracted.
It was only after taking many photos of bees feeding on Calandrinia pollen that I realized I should be shooting the bee's face, not its rear end.
I was taken seeing the pollen all over the bee's backside. They get covered with pollen, like miners get covered with coal dust. Worker bees indeed.
The Coleonema pulchellum started blooming this week. I used to have three of these shrubs. One remains. They are extremely beautiful for several years, and then suddenly die. The Marilyn Monroe of shrubs.
I tried for foliage shots. Next to the Coleonema is a Duranta 'Golden Buddha', which really is this golden:
Common ordinary old Fescue 'Elijah Blue', looking it's cool-season best.
Euonymus japonicus 'Chollipo', complete with one orange seed. The foliage looks tired and faded in August heat, but comes back into beauty in winter and spring.
The orange seed looks perfectly coordinated with nearby Clivia flowers...
The foliage on Aloe plicatilis was looking really superb. Then I noticed that the first flower spike has emerged.
So much for foliage. I tried to get some puppy photos. Puppies are about as easy to photograph as bees. I did get the face instead of the rear end--some of the time, anyway.
It was a very busy day.
