Late Flowers, Early starts..

[Silas_Sancona]

After a busy year, a time of rest in the garden. While most things have finished up for the year, and await the new year to come, the yard is never completely void of any color / flowers.  Taking advantage of continued good weather ( so far ) and getting a few things going for the year ahead  ..with more on the way. Awaiting a delivery of deep pots / trays and different seeds to play around with, on top of all sorts of other stuff.. anyway..

Yellow Necklacepod, Sophora tomentosa ( seed grown and survived 5 years in the desert, in a pot,  so far )  Started a touch earlier than in years past, but full of flowers/ a few developing pods atm. Interestingly, appears these are attractive to the neighborhood hummingbirds as well.



Saffron Plum, Sideroxylon celastrinum,  Tough, extremely fragrant and dependable winter flower-er, just starting it's cycle. Unlike past years, 2nd of the two plants i have is finally old enough to start flowering.. Hopefully this will increase the chances of fruit since both are loaded w/ buds, top to bottom..



One of two things guaranteed to draw in Queens ( butterflies ) this time of year,  Gregg's / Palm leaf Mistflower, Conoclinium greggii.. Found nice plants at a nursery for installing later.


As mentioned elsewhere, Queen, Danaus glippus go nuts over these in the summer. Other plant, Sometimes referred to as Fragrant Mist Flower is more of a bush than a low growing Perennial. Other than that, flowers look almost exactly the same / are a similar shade of bluish lavender ..and attract Queens ( and Monarchs ) by the dozens. Unlike Gregg's Mistflower, Chromolaena odorata can be a bit of an aggressive seeder in some areas. In Australia, it is considered a noxious ( and much despised ) Weed.


Early start seedlings..

Muhly sp. collected at Oak Flat.


Mexican Hat Cone Flower, Ratibida columnifera,  Picked up seed of a couple other Coneflower sp to trial here this coming year.


That NOID bushy thing from Boyce.. after surfing through every Genus in the Rose family, think i may have found out what it is, though the Blue colored fruit is throwing me off.. ( everything else matches though ) Anyway, appears to be a species of Osteomeles, " Hawaiian Rose / U' uhlei " being the most well known sp. Other 2 < or 3? > sp. appear to originate in East Asia and apparently are cherished as Bonsai subjects.

5 seedlings up as of today, so far..


1st of the Agave chrysantha seed collected at Oak Flat starting to sprout.. We'll see how soon others start popping.




Other stuff down, but not sprouting, fully sprouted just yet ** no picts **:

* Southwestern Pipevine, Aristolochia watsonii

* Sandpaper Tree / Anacua, Erhita anacua.. Reading thru some research papers, appears seed on these has to go through a process of weathering before germinating.. Supposedly, 6-8 month old seed will germinate better than freshly collected / sown seed. We'll see what happens.

* Eve's Necklace, another great small tree from Texas, from fresh seed..

Next up, once the deep pots arrive, 4 sp. of Milkweed, among other things, inc. a plant that many horticultural " experts " religiously assumed was extinct, ..and sterile....
 

[Silas_Sancona]

A couple progress notes:

First Ehretia anacua seedlings emerging.. 4 out of 5 so far in one batch, 1 out of 5 in the second.. Probably going to put down more.



Slow but steady progress on the Agave chrysantha.. Figure now that it is cooling off, the rest of the seed in this batch will take their time sprouting..Sowing another batch soon.


Sophora affinis ..slow but steady. Furthest along i have managed to get seedlings thus far.. Can tell these will be touchy.. out of 5 seeds in this test batch, this is the only seedling that didn't rot out before germinating, while germinating, or have it's first leaves fail to break through the seed coat after germinating.


Sideroxylon celastrinum ..blooming their heads off, filling the yard with a White Forsythia / Elaeagnus pungens- like fragrance, ..and attracting lots of attention from Bees..  Should be able to tell if any of the flowers stick ..and develop further.. in a couple weeks.




W/ what looks to be a break from the " heat ", and couple weeks of cool-ish weather, just about time to get Milkweed seed, and some other stuff that needs a little chilling before germinating down..  Good time to start on some other yard related projects too..