The long week of heat has ended! In one of those typical mercurial Bay Area shifts of weather the winds changed direction and the fog came in dropping the temperature by about 45 degrees in under 24 hours. It's actually been cool for a few days now, but I'm still celebrating. I think I actually did a little dance when the fog first appeared. A lot of my exotic plants were a bit put out by the very low humidity, but I just misted them with a spray bottle. This worked on the plants from the lowland tropics but others, like my Brugmansia sanguinea, just did not like the excessive heat (neither did I) But the natives out front were another story. Even though I just planted them about two weeks ago and they were being seared with 100F sun they didn't even wilt! A hummingbird fuchsia (Epilobium sp.), Salvia clevelandii, Eriogonum fasciculatum, Grindelia platyphylla, and Penstemon palmeri were the sturdy denizens that withstood those harsh sunbeams. Which of course is just one of many reasons to plant native! But a lot of the non-natives are pretty well adapted also. What really suffered were container plants! I'm just glad we only have a few spells of really hot weather per year!
At any rate the garden is looking quite lovely right now with hummingbird beckoning blooms all about and the first autumnal hues coloring the leaves. The tawny bunchgrasses move in the breeze and the ravens fly overhead.
In other plant news - my latest acquisition was Cuphea "Starfire" from the UC Berkeley Botanical Garden. Like most Cupheas the flowers provide much excitement! Pictures soon!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment