Haemanthus humilis ssp. humilis
Let me lead off with this lovely South African native that I featured in my last post. It is still fully flowering following our recent travels and you can see how lovely it is. Like many of the South African bulbs it is growing in our greenhouse (probably would go to zone 8, but that’s not us). It’s well worth the wait to finally see this in flower.
Haemanthus humilis ssp. humilis
Outside we have many flowers in bloom right now, as do most gardens I suspect. The staggering fragrance of lilies calls for first attention.
Lilium ‘Anastastia’
Every year the lilies seem to come back and dominate the summer. Anastastia is a particularly tall and strong Oriental/Trumpet hybrid.
Lily Oriental-Trumpet ‘Anastasia’
Another reliable Orienpet is ‘Scherezade’.
Lilium Oriental/Trumpet Scheherazade
It makes for a spectacular display in the house.
Lilium ‘Scheherezade’ arrangment
Other lilies of note follow
Orienpet Lily ‘Pretty Woman’
Lilium ‘Casablanca’
And then there are the daylilies, a different genus but similar in many ways.
Red Daylily
Outrageously golden daylily
And let us not forget the iris family. Several types of Crocosmia are in bloom right now too.
Crocosmia – x crocosmiiflora ‘George Davison’
And our winter was gentle enough that the gladiolas that I failed to dig last year all came back in abundance. It’s the best crop of glads we have ever had. They’ve been blooming for a month now.
Glads in abundance, including ‘Margaret Rose’ and ‘Jester’
The Echinacea in the front bed are putting on a fine show right now.
Echinacea in the front bed
And the sunflowers are abundantly flowering in the vegetable garden in many sizes and colors.
Sunflower
Burnt-colored Sunflower
In the alpine bed the first flowers are showing on the Gentian paradoxa, and this earlier than I ever remember seeing them in bloom.
Gentian paradoxa
Altogether it’s a fine showing for Garden Blogger’s Bloom Day, as evident by Beth’s flower vase arrangement.
Some of Beth’s flower pickings for today in the late afternoon sunlight
A Lesson in Patience
Haemanthus humilis ssp. humilis in bud
I have been growing Haemanthus humilis sap. humilis since 2013. The seeds were obtained from a contribution from Jim Shields to the Pacific Bulb Society as part of their bulb and seed exchange program. The plants came pretty quickly the next year but I have waited and waited for any indication that they would like to flower. And then, as luck would have it this bud appeared the day before we were scheduled to leave on a ten day trip to Colorado. And as I looked more closely I saw that other pots were also in bud.
Haemanthus humilis ssp. humilis budding
Fortunately my son was able to get a couple of shots later in the week showing their progress and it looks likely that they will still be in bloom when we return home.
Haemanthus humilis ssp. humilis in flower
Haemanthus humilis ssp. humilis
This is all a testament to patience as you wait for plants to reach their potential. These pots were full of plant with no indication of flowering, so I was beginning to wonder if they were worth repotting. It’s also another endorsement for the Pacific Bulb Society which is a wonderful resource for bulbs from all over the world, not just via the bulb exchange which they carry out but for the comprehensive information that is provided by members.
As another example of a plant obtained from the PBS this Eucomis was in flower when I left.
Eucomis vandermerwei
Eucomis vandermerwei
This was obtained from small bulbs distributed by the PBS (also in 2013).