Gordlinia grandiflora flower closeup
Well, I missed last month’s posting to GBBD (first time in ten years) and I feel somewhat guilty so I have a couple of special items for this posting. Back in April I received as a gift one of the largest plants I’ve ever gotten in a box in the mail (from ForestFarm).
Gordlinia grandiflora arrival
It was a Gordlinia grandiflora, a relatively rare hybrid derived from a cross between Franklinia alatamaha and Gordonia lasianthus in 2003. It’s a relatively small tree with absolutely gorgeous camellia-like flowers.
Gordlinia grandiflora
It’s begun flowering now and should continue through September…
Another special item for us this year is the Princess Flower. I started this from a small 4 inch pot from Putnam Hill Nursery last year and it didn’t flower. So I carried it over in the greenhouse and repotted it at the beginning of the season. It has taken off over the last two months and it’s now 5 foot tall and still growing. In the meantime I found another specimen growing in a pot twice as big as mine and just coming into flower. Nonestop flowering is what it yields.
Princess Flower (Tibouchina Urvilleana)
Princess Flower (Tibouchina Urvilleana)
It will need to go into the greenhouse again but wow, what flowering!
Otherwise it’s pretty normal summer flowering for us.
The Allium are flowering in a couple of places
Allium ‘Millenium’
The Crepe Myrtle is finally in flower for the season
Crepe myrtle white
the Cestrum has recovered from its winter dieback
Cestrum ‘Orange Peel’
And the Crinum is showing its numerous hanging flowers
Crinum powellii
In the vegetable/cutting garden the Glads have yielded abundantly
Gladiolus
Picking Glads
and the Tithonia and Sunflowers are ten foot tall at least.
Tithonia (Mexican Sunflower)
Sunflower
In the greenhouse there are multiple pots of Cyrtanthus in flower
Cyrtanthus elatus
as well as a particularly nice Sinningia
Sinningia eumorpha
If we weren’t so busy picking fruits and vegetables I might actually finish weeding the greenhouse:)
Crispie Pears (these are very sweet)
Oh, I should mention that my excuse for missing last month’s posting was a trip to California where we relived our youth by driving down the California Coast.
Drake’s Beach Point Reyes
It was a wonderful trip…
Skipping a bloom’s day in exchange for reliving your youth? Absolutely. A trip to the beach would rightfully win every time, and a gorgeous beach at that.
I hear Cestrum is a butterfly magnet. Was that your experience?
Huge bounty of pears. Is there liqueur making in your future?
Well, the Cestrum is ok for the butterflies, but i would say the Tithonia is a bigger draw (literally and figuratively). Right now those Crispie pears are disappearing on brie and sourdough, but maybe the September crop of Potomac pears will see some other experiments.
Hi from NYC. As always, I enjoyed seeing your bloomin pictures. This looks so professional. It is very impressive. A drive on California 1 is priceless. The same drive using California 1 and Memory Lane divine! We too that drive recently. For us it wasn’t a trip on Memory Lane but it was unforgettable. There was a fire that broke out just to the North when we stayed at a State Park in Big Sur. ,Electrivity where we were staying went out because of the fire. It was good that we were traveling south on the hiway because they closed it heading north then. I love looking at the garden you came home to tend. Eat a pear for me.
Hi Maureen, we stayed in a campground in Big Sur years ago when we first went to Nepenthe. I’ll send you a link to the full trip…
You have lovely flowering plants in your garden, and even pears. Those beautiful Gladiolus take me back to my childhood when my dad grew many different varieties in our front yard.