Statice

Posted on by capentalc

Statice is one of the best cut flower you can grow.  They last more than a week in a vase.  I love them for this very reason.  I started these statice seeds sometime in December of 2019 and by June 2020 they were already blooming.  I had a statice mix so some of the plants are blue, white, yellow, and pink.   

The statice plant is not a common plant that you can find at a local nursery.  I found these while stumbling through seed catalogs. I don’t believe the seeds for this plant can be found in the seed section of the nursery either.

Statice are easiest to grow from seeds.  I found them easy to grow in full sun and somewhat dryer soil conditions. I have never had to fertilize mine and they still look great.  It is a tough, long-growing plant from what I can tell.  This is my first time growing them so I’m not sure how long they will live but based on research, it seems they will live probably well into winter.  I am happy to report it is still thriving and growing in my garden so I don’t think it will die back any time soon. 

Just a quick update on the seeds I grew from this post called “Growing Seeds“, I mistakenly left these seedlings to grow next to my sweet pea plants which had been outside.  Some spidery pests attacked the seedlings and now they are dying as you can see below.  I am so sad to see all my poppies dying.  Some of the carrots, beets, cilantro, lavender, and kale were salvageable. I think for my Christmas vacation I will grow a new batch of all of these again.  I will try to salvage whatever I can with these ones for now.  I’m hoping to put these out in my raised bed soon. 

On a happier note, I finally purchased myself an inexpensive amaryllis bulb and it is starting to emerge as you can see from the picture here. I can’t wait for this pink beauty to emerge!

More Succulents

Posted on by capentalc

Winter seems to be the best time to see succulents grow and bloom. When many things out in the garden are dying, you can depend on these succulents to bring out beauty and hope. Below are some of my favorite succulents growing in the garden.

This picture shows one of my favorite succulents so far and I do not know its name. It has little pink, peachy flowers blooming from its stalk. The leaves are green with hints of pink. The other orange star succulent has just started to show happiness at last too. All summer long it was not looking healthy but in the last month it really changed into a beautiful orange-pink color. Love that one!

Not sure what these ones are but they are all looking healthy and happy this winter.

The above succulent is called a Giant Chalk Dudleya. The summer heat had been pretty rough on this little guy and his leaves got scorched even though it is said that it likes hot temperature and dry soil. Well, I left it in the hot, hot sun and he was burnt. He lost some leaves but just recently the inner leaves started to look more improved. I need to figure out where to put him because he is supposed to be a beautiful showpiece once he gets bigger.

The above succulent is starting to have new growth at the very bottom of its legs. Cute pink petals which I am completely enamored by!

These succulents below were little petals I found while walking my dog. The neighbor moved out and left a pile of destroyed plants on their lawn so I picked them up. I have long admired this succulent and was going to work up the courage to ask them for a petal or two. I took them home, left them in a bowl for about two months without water or soil and they sprouted as you can see on the first picture. I later planted them all but the largest petal is the one you see on the below that. It is so adorable! The mother plant had petals that were a dark mauve color.

On Christmas Day, I had the best surprise ever! This Black Dragon hibiscus decided to bloom. It was mostly closed early in the morning but by ten o’clock it fully bloomed. The flower bud is practically screaming “Merry Christmas” when it bloomed. This has to be my favorite in the garden this month and likely to be my favorite forever.

Clary Sage, Dondo Blue, and Bachelor Buttons

Posted on by capentalc

I haven’t written in a while because the weather has been chilly and we had Santa Ana winds which made my whole backyard looked pretty messy. I also had Thanksgiving shopping to do so that kept me indoors quite a bit. I thought about doing a video to show my yard so perhaps that will happen during the Christmas holiday. For now, I wanted to share some of the plants that are still flowering in my garden, most notably clary sage, dondo blue, and bachelor buttons. I always get their names mixed up but by writing this post I will clear up any doubts about what these are.

Clary sage is an herb. The leaves and flowers are used for teas and aromatherapy applications. I have not tried using them for that yet but sounds very interesting. This plant likes full sun but grows well in part shade too. It needs moist well-drained soil. Leave it too dry and it will look like my plant below!

Love this purple clary sage. The color is so vibrant.

Dondo blue is a great easy care plant. It likes full sun but will grow in part shade as well. It likes moist soil. What I love about these is that they bloom from late spring until now. These would make great “fillers” in containers, the leaves are fuzzy and nicely shaped. The blue color is the prettiest, the pictures here do not do them justice.

Bachelor buttons or cornflower is a tall and bountiful plant. They are a bright vibrant blue as captured in the picture below. One plant can have stalks that shoots out as many as 40-50 flowers. They are about 24-28 inches tall and spreads as wide, if not a little more. They were so beautiful when they bloomed for the first time in the spring. They last a few days in the vase so you can take some for your office desk!

These guys like full sun but I have a few bushes in part shade as well and they bloomed the best. They like moist, well-draining soil. Bees love these too.

Below is one of my flower arrangement early this spring. They seem to do best in the spring but continues to flower when the weather is semi cooler in the fall /winter. One plant in the picture is the yellow and white STATICE which I will mention later in a subsequent post. All these flowers lasts more than a week in the vase, so I would say they are excellent cut flowers for your home.