What's in Bloom at the End of October in Paso Robles?

There's a Lot of Color on the Central Coast in October

Over the weekend I walked to the mailbox a block away with my camera to see what was blooming in my neighborhood. I will share what I saw with you here.  I made sure to walk past the home of my favorite neighborhood gardener, and I wasn't disappointed. This bougainvillea's bright color immediately got my attention. At the very back you can almost see one of the pots containing a yellow pansy in bloom.

Bougainvillea in October, © B. Radisavljevic

I'm not familiar with the purple flowering shrub in the photo below. It's from the same yard. I do recognize the roses surrounding it and the white scabiosa (pincushion flower) in front of it. I'm also not sure of the red flowers next to the wall. Whatever their names, you have to admit this is a colorful arrangement of blooms at the end of October.

Part of my Neighbor's Flower Garden in Paso Robles

The next photo is just to the right of the photo above in the actual flowerbed. I can't make a positive identification of everything below. I believe most of the daisy-like flowers are gaillardias, asters, or African daisies. The flower hanging over the edge is a California poppy, which I was surprised to see in bloom. There is another rose bush on the extreme right.

More of my Paso Robles Neighbor's Flower Garden

Are you convinced yet that one can have a colorful garden at the end of October? But there is more around the corner in the front flowerbed. That plant trying to take over is, I believe,  Lipstick Sage. Some sages will expand if given a chance. This appears to be one of them. It seems to be trying to smother the Jupiter's Beard to its right.

Lipstick Sage

Last but not least in this neighbor's side yard is this lavender-like sage plant. I'm not sure what variety it is.

Sage, variety unknown

Need Help Picking Seasonal Blooms

If you live in the West, there's no better all round gardening reference than this.

What's Blooming on the Rest of the Block

Shades of purple and yellow add a lot of color to fall gardens here. One of the light purple staples is society garlic, pictured below. It's not showy, but it's drought resistant and almost everyone who cares about that plants it. The small white sweet alyssum is a wonderful flowering ground cover to  fill in the bare places.

Sweet Alyssum and Society Garlic

Daylilies are a colorful addition to any garden. These are still blooming in my neighborhood. You see one tiny society garlic flower peeking out to the right.

Daylilies in October

Here's another garden with thriving roses. The roses usually keep blooming well into winter.

A Neighbor's Rose Garden

Oleander is a favorite in my neighborhood. Several of us have it in our yards. One neighbor has several colors, including white, which I don't show here. We like it because it's drought resistant and blooms during from spring well into fall here. Read about oleander growth stages through the year.

All parts of the oleander plant are poisonous, but I've lived with it all my life and no one in any of the places I lived where this was in almost every yard ever died because they ate it. It doesn't seem to invite snacking. Parents tell their kids it's poison and for some reason they believe it about this plant.

Oleander

Oleander

Flowers Blooming in my Own Yard at the End of October

After seeing what my neighbors have, I have garden envy. My health hasn't enabled me to clear the leaves from the flowerbed that the gardener used to take care of. He quit for health reasons. About all I can do right now is photograph what's happening. I had hoped to put in some fall annuals, like pansies. First, though, I have to make space where the Lamb's Ears have taken over. I hope to be able to get back to the garden soon.

My roses in the back garden are still blooming. The red roses seem to be doing best. The yellow, coral, and white ones are also blooming. I think the roses aren't healthy, but I'm not an expert on roses and I'm not sure what to do about it. I didn't plant the garden. I usually only plant what I can take care of. The gardener kept it pruned in winter, but that's about all it gets but water.

Red Rose

Below are my scabiosa flowers. I begged for these when my neighbor was thinning her plants from the lovely garden I showed you first in this post. She gave me a couple she was uprooting, and they are thriving in my yard. This one is doing well at holding its own in the midst of the invading catmint and juniper around it.

Scabiosa (Pincushion Flower)

My gazanias seem to bloom faithfully every day we have sunshine. They close when there is not much light. They can handle drought well. The only thing that's ever killed them are gophers and a hard frost. But after the hard frost was over, they came back from the roots still in the ground. They spread as they grow, and can be an ideal ground cover.

Gazanias

Rosemary usually provides forage for the bees during winter. I see it blooming during almost every season, though it appears to be slowing down a bit now. It's strongest in winter through spring. If I don't keep it pruned back it will take over.

Almost everyone in this neighborhood grows some because it's a useful herb, the bees love it, and it needs no water once established. Some have made hedges of it.

It's not as tall as it looks here. It's really only about four feet high now, but the angle of the camera makes it look much higher. It's the only way I could get the small flowers to show.

Rosemary in Bloom in October

Ah, faithful calendula. It just keeps on blooming as long as it gets a bit of water sometimes. It's an annual, but keeps reseeding. I will post more about its virtues later. It seems to bloom in all seasons. It occasionally gets attacked by aphids, but the ladybugs usually control it. 

Calendula

Lastly, I present my wild watermelon sage. I planted it in 2013 and appreciate that it adds color, the bees like it, and it doesn't try to take over. Compared to my other sages, it has a small footprint and it's only about a yard high. It occasionally gets some water. Other than that, it fends for itself and I prune it if it appears I need to.

Wild Watermelon Sage

Here's one last tidbit from my neighbor's garden. She grows this morning glory in a pot with a support to climb on. She probably wants to confine it because it tends to be invasive. Delicate, isn't it?

Morning Glories

I hope you've enjoyed this informal garden tour of one block in a Paso Robles neighborhood to see what's blooming here in October.

What is your favorite autumn flower in your area?

***

Garden Tasks Finished before Storm

Cutting Back the Lamb's Ears and Jasmine in the Bed by the Garage

Every day this spring I've walked by this poor Spanish Sage plant I could barely see because it was being covered by jasmine from above. That blocked its light. On April 5 I finally made some time to cut the jasmine back and expose the sage to the light again. 

Jasmine Blocking the Light the Spanish Sage Needs

Here is the same plant when I finished pruning back the jasmine. I also cut back some of the sage. Because it's been straining to get the sun, it got very leggy, and you can see its bare branches that were hidden by the jasmine. You can also see the tiny leaves on those stems. I hope they will now grow up instead of continuing towards the sidewalk. 

Next winter I will have to do this job sooner and cut the sage way back, but this winter I had the flu all during January and then had steady dentist appointments during February and most of March. After getting my root canals done I didn't feel like working in the garden or anywhere else, and I was always playing catch-up on other work. In addition to that, it rained a lot and the ground was wet. 

I pruned the jasmine that was covering the Spanish Sage and also thinned the Lamb's Ears that were trying to smother it.

Not far from the Spanish Sage was a Sweet William struggling to survive -- maybe more than one. It's hard to tell in the midst of all the jasmine and Lamb's Ears plants.  Normally the Sweet William plants that reseed return at this time of year, but this year the Lamb's Ears spread so much that they completely covered any of the seedlings trying to emerge. Although I do love Lamb's Ears, enough is enough. I will probably still have to trim more of it back. I took the photo below on March 28. I knew I had to uncover any plants under that Lamb's Ears patch, and I had to just keep pulling and pruning until I found this plant. I was hoping there would be more. Maybe there still will be.

Below is a close-up of the struggling Sweet William after I pulled a lot of the Lamb's Ears away from it. I had not realized the Lamb's Ears were propping it up. It was also very leggy and fell flat. I may have to prop it up with a small stake to keep it upright. I'm hoping it will spread as time goes on. Plants have an amazing ability to recover, just as my butterfly bush did after a storm knocked it down. 

Struggling Sweet William after I Thinned Lamb's Ears Around It.

 

The photo below puts my afternoon's work into context. The star jasmine is in the background against the wall. Left to right: jasmine, struggling sage, Lillies of the Nile between jasmine and Lamb's Ears in middle, the space where the Sweet William tries to gain ground, more Lamb's Ears, blooming calendulas with budding irises behind them. Between the calendula and the car, you see the low green of the gazanias with a tall flowering kale behind it next to the brick trim. 

What I Accomplished in the Front Flowerbed 

If you read my last post, you saw the state of the front flowerbed before I started weeding and thinning and pruning on April 6. The Lamb's Ears were out of control, the hyssop that hadn't been pruned was brown and ugly and taking over, the oregano in the pot needed pruning, and grassy weeds were trying to overwhelm anything the other plants were leaving alone. 

The two photos below were taken on February 13. We had had so much rain that weeding was almost impossible. I was also weakened by all the dental work I was having done. After even more rain in March, by the day I started the work the state of this flowerbed was even worse. 

Since it was February, the daffodils were budding. My chard on the right bottom had turned red. You can see the dead growth on the oregano in the terracotta pot. That brown clump to the left of it is the hyssop. It looked even browner when I started cutting it way back on April 6. Pruning the oregano was much easier. 

The worst job, though, was getting the grassy weeds that were taking over any bare ground they could find. Their roots are very hard to get out. They also entangle the roots of the plants I want to keep. Here they are surrounding my catmint. The catmint itself has escaped from its pot and is now also running amuck, but at least I can make tea out of that.  

Catmint in and out of Pot Surrounded by Grassy Weeds

The photos show only a portion of the work that needed to be done. I was trying to finish the most urgent tasks before the storm that was supposed to hit later at night started. Here is how the area around the catmint pot looked by the time I was through. Not perfect, but good enough to scatter some old seeds around before the storm brought rain to water them. They were very old seeds, but I thought I'd see what happened. Mother Nature often surprises me. 

Catmint Pot After Weeding

Below you see what the hyssop plant looked like when I finished with it. Better late than never. It will grow out again before it's time for it to bloom in June. A few green shoots are already peaking out. I did miss a couple of branches, but I'll get them after I finish the taxes. After the rain, the catmint in the pot perked up again. 

Hyssop after Haircut

Here's how the front flowerbed looked after I finished working and had scattered my seeds. The rain came as promised later and all the next day, so I'm hoping maybe at least a couple of seeds will sprout. On the lower right, in front of the irises, you see a green carnation plant with the leaves of an old daffodil plant in front of it. You could not see that carnation before I cut back the hyssop which was covering it.  I had forgotten the carnation was there. I fed it. 

A Good's Afternoon's Work in the Flowerbed

When I finished for the day, I took the pictures of the flower beds and then turned to get the sky toward the west. The sunset promised rain. And it came. I'm glad I pushed myself to get some of the preliminary work done before it started coming down. 

***

"Naked Ladies" Bloom in August

 "Naked lady" leaves are lying dormant and brown near my pump house wall and along the edges of the mobile home we rent out. In August, though, they will reemerge and shoot up for all to see.  After a period in summer where they look almost dead, the "naked ladies" bloom  in August  on the Central Coast of California. 

They are a tradition for me. I was introduced to them when I was but a toddler, since they grew in the yard of the first home I remember. That was my childhood home in Bellflower, California, where my dad had a large vegetable garden, fruit trees that spoiled me forever after by letting me taste peaches, plums, and apricots fresh off the tree, and a fence that acted as a trellis for climbing berries. It was also the house where my dad raised chickens when I was little.

The naked lady flower’s scientific name is Brunsvigia rosea. It is better known as the Amaryllis belladonna.  It likes a warm, dry summer, such as those we have in southern and central California, though it’s native to South Africa.  In fall and winter it produces a clump of green, wide, ribbon-like leaves that are rather floppy.  It resembles a green fountain.  In this photo taken in mid-April, the leaves are still green, but the plants have had no care this year and were overgrown with weeds.

Amaryllis Leaves in April, © B. Radisavljevic

When the weather gets dry, the leaves die. Just about the time you think the plant is dead, about August here, up pop bare stems that have clusters of fragrant pink trumpet-shaped flowers at the top.  The photo at the top focuses on just the flower.  The photo below shows the naked stems, as well. The top flowers have already faded and are trying to form seeds. I had to cut them to prevent that after all flowers had bloomed.

Amaryllis Flowers in Bloom, © B. Radisavljevic

Amaryllis flowers are great for drought resistant gardens. I had planned to divide these and dig out some bulbs when they finished blooming and plant them in my Paso Robles garden for added color, but I didn't get around to it.

Amaryllis plants prefer to grow in well-drained soil and all their water needs are met by the winter rains. That fits the description of my side yard pretty well. Maybe next year I'll get them planted.

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This is my fourteenth post for the 2016 AtoZchallenge, a Blogging Challenge for the month of April, 2016. My theme is plants, since this is a gardening blog. Here are links to the other posts if you missed them.

A is for Apple Blossoms
B is for Bottlebrush
C is for Carnations
D is for Daisy
E is for Elderberry
F is for Flowers
G is for Gazania
Hollyhocks are Edible
Irises Are Garden Survivors
Jupiter's Beard: A Mystery Finally Solved
Kale for LunchLion's Tail - A Perennial Summer Burst of Orange
Miner's Lettuce is Tasty and Free

F is for Flowers

Borage , catmint, calendula, and
 chocolate cosmos in bloom, © B. Radisavljevic

As I pondered what kind of flower or other plant started with the letter "F" for the AtoZchallenge, I couldn't think one. I could not find any plants that started with "f" for which I had photos. It suddenly dawned on me that "flowers" itself would work. I have hundreds of flower photos to choose from, so F is for Flowers. 

I'll start in my own garden. The photo above was taken in my front flowerbed. The small purple flowers at the top left are borage flowers from a plant that reseeded. The smaller white flower spikes are from a catmint plant which was overshadowed by the borage. I love to throw the borage flowers and the petals of the calendula flower (left, yellow) into my salads to add color. I can make tea with catmint, and the neighbor's cat sometimes comes over to steal a bit. You can barely see the chocolate cosmos, above the calendula next to a borage leaf. For some reason, the chocolate cosmos did not last past its first year. Maybe I only thought it was perennial.

Logan looking at hornworm on borage plant in front of catmint, borage flowers, catmint,
 calendula, and chocolate cosmos in bloom, © B. Radisavljevic

Above you see Logan watching a hornworm on the borage behind the catmint. Later I gave him a leaf, and he became quite intoxicated. You can see the photos of that in a related link at the end of the post. The yellow flowers that look like buttons are santolina. I planted that in a pot from a root division from a mother plant in Templeton. It did really well in this pot until it somehow got too much water. That killed it. The mother santolina plant gets almost no water and lives on. 

By now you have figured out I use a lot of herbs in my flowerbeds. I love them. I got most of my herbs from the now out-of-business Fat Cat Farm and the Sycamore Herb Farm which preceded it. I really miss having them right down the street. I then propagated those perennial herbs with cuttings or root divisions, and some just reseeded year after year. The flowers add color in their season and provide forage for the bees I like to befriend. They love my rosemary and black sage. So do the butterflies.

Bee Foraging on Rosemary, © B. Radisavljevic

Bee Foraging on Black Sage, © B. Radisavljevic

Butterfly on Black Sage, © B. Radisavljevic

Two other flowers that butterflies like are scabiosa (pincushion flower) and gazanias.

Butterfly on Gazanias,  © B. Radisavljevic

Swallowtail Butterfly on Scabiosa,  © B. Radisavljevic

One of my favorite flowers is this yellow rose. My mom used to live in this house, and she had a landscaper plant the rose garden in the back yard. I enjoy the roses, and although they are beautiful, I get more satisfaction from flowers I plant myself and watch grow.

Yellow Rose from my Garden,  © B. Radisavljevic

Below are two plants I've come to love -- Lamb's Ears and Sweet William. I have no idea how the Sweet William got here. One day I discovered it in my flower bed by the garage and I liked it. It took quite a while for me to identify it. It dies down every year in winter and pops up again in spring. It's trying to grow through the spreading Lamb's Ears, which I'm in the process of thinning. The Lamb's Ears have a tendency to spread. It all came from one root division from a plant in Templeton and it is now trying to take over every flower bed I have. I love it, but it needs boundaries. As you can see, it's just starting to bloom this year. 

Lamb's Ears and Sweet Williams Growing Together,  © B. Radisavljevic

In 2013 I planted a lot of daffodil bulbs. Some were very close to the black sage which is now trying to make a canopy over them. Black sage really needs to be pruned every year if you don't want it to grow to six feet wide. I will probably have to move any of the daffodils near it before next season. This daffodil is peeking out from the black sage. 

Daffodil Emerging from under Black Sage,  © B. Radisavljevic

The rest of the flowers are from my neighborhood or in public places. Just below is lantana that was growing in a planter in front of the Park Cinemas in downtown Paso Robles. I love lantana, but haven't had good luck growing it. I'd never seen its berries before. Birds eat lantana berries, but they can be toxic to people and pets.

Lantana Flowers and Berries,  © B. Radisavljevic

I love my neighbor's garden. She grows many plants I love. She and I both like to mix them up. Here she has irises, roses, Jupiter's beard, California poppies, and a red sage. I featured much more of her garden in "Earth Laughs In Flowers." 

My Neighbor's Garden,  © B. Radisavljevic

This is my sixth post for the 2016 AtoZchallenge, a Blogging Challenge for the month of April, 2016. My theme is plants, since this is a gardening blog.  Here are links to the other posts if you missed them.

A is for Apple Blossoms
B is for Bottlebrush
C is for Carnations
D is for Daisy
E is for Elderberry

You can buy these greeting cards made from photos of the flowers in my garden by clicking the images below. You can see my blank floral card collection here. 

 Thinking of You Today Thinking of You Delicate Poppy Friendship

& 

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• The Cat and the Catmint
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