Snowy Flowers to Cool Late Season Summers

For those folks who have spent the last couple of days cursing the sun and its hot, hot rays, this post I dedicate to you.  To temper the heat, cool your jets with these white blooming natives.  Feel that icy chill as you witness the massive snowball otherwise known as Eriogonum giganteum 'St. Catherine's Lace'.  Growing to 10 feet wide in one year (from a 5 gallon container, but still!), this beauty covers herself with layers of snowflakes for the longer months of the summer. 

 

If you manage not to cut all the flowers for arrangements (looks so pretty with roses), the blooms age gradually to a pinkish rust.  Despite the aging flowers, the bees continue their frantic visits.

Can't even deal with being in the sun?  This shady lady will give you the shivers.  Walk towards the Clematis ligusticifolia in bloom and the sweet scent hits about 10 feet away.  Standing next to it, the fragrance is intoxicating.  Oh, heavenly!

The sweet little flowers have a magical look close up- as if they'll spin in circles and fly away!  Stand back, and you're in for a breathtaking view.  Take a snip of one and keep it by the bed in a small vase.  Sigh.  Inhale the scent.  Repeat.  I'd love a mixologist to design a cocktail based on this flower.

So for all you foggy folks out there hiding out until our Summer (finally, Summer!) retreats into cooler Autumn days, I hope I've offered a little solace for a blazing afternoon.

Mystery Mud-Dauber

And who might you be?  I've seen this one flying around a few times and the orange body combined with the thread waist is just lovely!  I guess it's some kind of mud dauber?  Whatever it is, it really enjoys hanging around the Eriogonum giganteum 'St. Catherine's Lace' and doesn't like its photo taken! 

It's a Ladybug Picnic!

Hey, does anyone remember Sesame Street's Ladybug Picnic song?  One of my favorite Sesame Street skits!


I can't help but tiptoe outside and check on the progress of the garden.  The latest saga?  The ladybird beetles have arrived!  They've made lovely little apartment houses out of my Eriogonum giganteums, making it pretty difficult to go without finding one.  I'm fascinated by all the different species, but my favorite seems to be the smaller ones with no spots and a deep, lustrous sheen.  It reminds me of the fancy paint jobs you see on motorcycles!  I'll hazard a guess and say it might be a Cycloneda Munda?  The white markings don't look the same, but who knows?

I'm pretty sure this one's a Coccinella californica.  I love that black stripe!

I know I should have respected this couple's privacy in their intimate moment, but how could I resist such a shot?  Are they Coccinella septempunctuata?

Of course, the only reason these ladies make my garden their home is because I've got aphid ranches galore.  It also helps that I don't use any icky pesticides to scare them away.  (Even the safer soaps or neem oil are meant to kill bugs, including ladybugs, so I try to let nature take its course unless the situation gets too dire) 

Are you noticing the ladybugs enjoying our sunshiney weather?

Do Saints Make Mistakes? A Question for Catherine & Her Lace

My darling St. Catherine won my heart with her fast growth and luscious gray-green leaves.  However, I feel that she might be a tidge confused.  I planted her around May, when things really started to heat up.  She thrived and doubled and tripled in size (living up to her latin name, Eriogonum giganteum) and threw up a plethora of branching stems just waiting to flower.  Sounds great, right?  Well, this plant certainly takes its time to flower.  Typically, the stems begin to grow in May and suspend anticipation by blooming around July.  My Catherine started sending her branches skyward in July.  The picture below is from around September.

By the end of December, I decided she should probably focus on next year's stems to save her energy, so I cut them back.  While the branches were so lovely, I can't sacrifice next year's blooms!  What do you think? 

Plant of the Week: St. Catherine's Lace

This is hands-down one of my favorite plants. Buckwheats just magically make everything so much nicer and Eriogonum giganteum is no exception. The largest of all the buckwheats (as the name suggests), St. Catherine lives large with evergrayness. Even after the flowers fade from soft pink, the rust colored blooms add interest to the winter garden. It's always the last to get deadheaded in my yard. Much like manzanita or madrone trees, the branches develop lovely peeling bark. It also grows relatively quickly- a happy surprise in my fledgling patch of widely spaced slow-growing natives!



Soil: Well-drained, but happy in clay.
Sun: will take full sun and even part shade
Plant: I've had good luck with early Spring, but they aren't picky.
Buy it: I bought one from the Berkeley Botanical Garden during one of their infamous sales. Annie's also has them.
Good for: adding a bit of elegance without taking the space of a tree. Birds, butterflies, bees: this thing attracts them all!