Brave Souls, Autumn in San Diego County

Little 'Ballerina' fuchsia lifting her arm to wave at me as I pass by. 

Even though the temperatures dropped down to the low 40's, I still have flowers on many of my plants. These are both on the South wall of my home and they get a bit of warm sunshine during the day.  This fuchsia grows next to the Iochroma cyaneum seen below, which provides just enough shade for it.

Iochroma cyaneum is a flowering shrub or small tree from tropical South America in the family of Brugmansia.  It has lovely trumpet shaped flowers that the hummingbird and bees enjoy and visit often.  I am happy to see this blooming now with so many of the flowers in my Hummingbird and Butterfly garden spent.  I am training this to be a small tree which will provide a canopy for some of my shade loving plants, like my  madarense geraniums.

This is a repeat blooming Iris, the name escapes me at the moment.

I have 5 Christmas Cactus coming into bloom now, you can barely see the red flowers on the plant below this one.  The white/pink you see here is in full bloom.

A few brave buds and blossoms on one of the two Plumeria plants I have.  This one is 3 years old and I grew it from a cutting.  I did have it in a clay pot but decided in June of this year to plant it directly in the ground.  It is near a sprinkler head, see it at the base of the flower, this provides it with water 3 times a week when needed.  It bloomed most of the summer and is still trying its best to continue.  It is in a somewhat protected area of this Southwest spot, with both a large rosemary and lavender bush nearby to shield it from too much of the hot Southern California sunshine.  

We rarely get below 40 degrees in our zone so I am keeping my fingers crossed that it will do well through the winter.  My other Plumeria is called Golden Rainbow, which I also grew from a cutting in June of 2012.  It flowered once so far and is planted close to this ginger plant shown below. You can see it just peaking over the top of the ginger, at the top right side of the photo.

 Here is my Galangal Thai Ginger plant I purchased in June 2012 from City Farmers Nursery in San Diego.  You may have seen a piece of the rhizome in your bowl of panang curry at your favorite THAI RESTAURANT.  I will need to wait until next year before I begin to cut the rhizomes for my cooking adventures as the plant needs some time to spread.  I am so excited to see it doing so well in this location just off the South side of our patio.

Our loquat tree that we planted a couple of years ago is flourishing.  I am surprised at how many buds are on this small tree. Last year we were able to pick for the first time, and with this many blossoms already on it May of 2014 looks very promising!

I can't leave without showing you a few photos of the pretty fallen leaves from our two Sweet Gum (liquidambar styraciflua) trees. The heavy rains last week and some hefty Northwestern winds left the trees almost bare.

A beautiful carpet just in time for our outdoor Thanksgiving day dinner, providing the sun is shining, rain is in the forecast but I will keep my fingers crossed that we can dine alfresco!

Changing Time

The cloud looked in at the window,

and said to the day, "Be dark!"

And the roguish rain tapped hard on the pane,

to stifle the song of the lark.

The wind sprang up in the tree tops

and shrieked with a voice of death, 

but the rough-voiced breeze, that shook the trees,

was touched with a violet's breath. 

-Paul Laurence Dunbar

Sunday Garden Hopping Adventure and Old Town San Diego

We headed out about 9:00 AM yesterday morning.  My only disappointment for this day was that I left my camera at home.  I had the battery charging and didn't have the camera next to my purse so I walked off without it. I will add links of our trip so that you can view the photos at their sites.

Our first stop was at City Farmer's Nursery.  I have  wanted to go here ever since I had read the article on Bill's place in Edible San Diego's magazine.  I was not disappointed!  They were having a Homesteading Arts Festival when we arrived.  Lots of vendors with handcrafted goods, from pottery to jewelry to hand carved gourds.  Bill has a great selection of plants and we were able to pick-up a Galangal (Thai Ginger) Plant for around $4.00.  Tony picked up a wonderful Pineapple Flowering plant called Eucomis comosa. This plant is in the Amaryllidaceae family and should look great with our other Amaryllis collection.

After leaving City Farmer's Nursery we head to Balboa Park to attend the Cactus and Succulent Show and Sale.  Tony found several plants to add to his ever growing collection. He added one golden color called Parodia haselbergii,  a Echinoceros reichenbadrii, a Adenium arabacum which has a beautiful magenta pink color flower. Also picked up a Pachypodium saundersii and I found a gorgeous Plumeria cutting for $6.00 that is called Golden Rainbow.  The flower on the display photo looked beautiful so I am hoping the cutting roots for me. I have rooted them before with success and this cutting looks very healthy.

(I decided to add a few photos now that the camera is in hand and the battery charged. Here is what we found on our travels yesterday)

Pineapple Flower Eucomis comosa

Galangal Ginger is the tall bamboo looking plant

Pachypodium saundersii

Adenium arabacum

Plumeria Golden Rainbow all potted up and ready to grow.

The display at the Cactus and Succulent show was fantastic this year! Tony has new found inspiration to enter some of his plants in their show; something he has always wanted to do. Maybe next year!

We took a tour of the Rose Garden while at the park and then headed over to the Moreton Bay Fig Tree.

After leaving Balboa Park we decided to head to Old Town San Diego for a late lunch at Casa de Reyes Restaurant.  While we waited for our table we visited a few of the charming shops in the courtyard.  We were drawn to the Temecula Olive Oil Companys shop and ended up trying a few of their awesome olive oils.  We purchased a Hickory oil and a Blood Orange oil along with a bottle of Honey Balsamic Bianco vinegar.

Fiesta de Reyes Courtyard

What a great day, even though I did forget the darn camera!!