Category: Fall and Winter Blooms

Mama Cuna and the Banana Yucca

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There are a zillion daylily gardens that are larger than my little half lot. What makes my garden a little unique (other than my collection of Roberts spiders) is the Southwestern native plants.

Mama Cuna cuddling tha banana yucca in my yard – nearly finished painting

I absolutely adore my daylily-yucca combination photos. Mama Cuna is one of my favorite because of her huge blooms size and purple-red color. It’s a stunning mix with the green-aqua banana yucca leaves.

The first petal appears on the wood

So, this photo of Mama Cuna caught my eye for a painting. This is an 8×8 inch wood panel with lively acrylic paint. The rock bed background is always a fun challenge. And, those cool curly cue yucca spines.

The yucca taking form.

I’ll be listing both the painting and photo prints to my Etsy store tomorrow 11/3/21. Perfect Christmas present for a daylily lover! Www.etsy.com/shop/ArtfromtheHartt

Now, for the rocks and yucca spines.

Bromeliads: Lions, Tigers and Pups

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It’s crazy that 6 months have past since my last blog. I’ve been inside with my houseplants all winter and now the daylilies are starting to push up from the ground. Although, it is a snow weekend, so I decided to do a little blog on my bromeliads.

  • Vriesea Splenriet

I got into bromeliads a couple years ago after reading that they were good companion plants for aloe, snake plant and yucca because of similar shape.

Vriesea Hieroglyphica

The habitats are different, but they tolerate being potted neighbors pretty well. Broms are tough for tropical plants.

  • One of my newest additions: Billgergia Darth Vader

I live in the high desert of Colorado. The yuccas and aloe are close kin to our Native plants. The broms do OK outside in the summer shade if you add some humidity boosters. Sunburn can be an issue in our climate.

  • Bromeliad Marmorata Tim Plowman

Bromeliads remind me of my Grandma Hartt. She had several. She got them from a plant store in Denver. The first ones I got were a tribute to her collection.

  • Bromeliad Aechmea remind me of Grandma
  • Tillandsia Cyanea

The problem with daylilies is that you learn about mail order plants. That’s cool, but makes for endless choices in shapes, sizes and colors. I’ve gotten several beautiful ones locally, but the online ones bring so much more variety to my collection.

  • Bromeliad Aechmea Orlandiana
  • Bromeliad Cryptanthus

I also love the unique patterns. This is what really makes my collection unique from my other plants. Lions, tigers . . . Very unique markings. I grow them for foliage more than the incredible blooms. BTW, they don’t die after blooming. These bitches give birth to pups. Hoping to sell the offspring on my Esty site in a few years.

  • Neoreglia Close of Day
Guzmania – commonly found in grocery stores
  • Aechmea Hellfire and new pup

My colors now are more muted than summer. My broms will be happy for more sun, although the bugs move in. Bromeliads are pretty resilient even though spiders seem to enjoy hiding in them.

  • Neoreglia Savoy Truffle
  • Neoreglia Nosferatu

I love plants with colorful foliage. I need to update you on my begonia winter project at some point. I’m a creative. I think I just like color. My winter houseplant color raises my wellbeing in the cold, dark months.

  • Bromeliad Billbergia Teng Ee
Neoreglia High Voltage

Please enjoy my small collection of (now) high desert bromeliads. I should plan a follow up when they are in full color in the fall after the summer sunshine.

  • My Dyckia variety came from a cactus store in Tucson.

There Ain’t No Cure for the Summertime Blooms

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Sometimes, I feel a little sad that daylilies are the dominant plant in my yard. And, that camping season is superimposed on daylily season. To top that off, I have so many other plants that bloom in summer.

Mesa Peach Blanket Flower added to my Native garden yesterday.

I feel like those plants get ignored. I nurture the plants all winter, many as houseplants. And, boom, I barely notice their gorgeous blooms because 50 daylilies are competing for my time.

My oldest bloomer this day is my yucca. Her yucca patch was here when I first bought the house 20+ years ago.

Today, I walked my yard and took pictures of a dozen or so plants that are brightly blooming right now.

My coneflower is a couple years old, tall and proud member of my native garden.

It’s a weird bunch, from Thanksgiving cactus to white iris. From native to tropical.

This pink yarrow is also a new addition to my desert native garden.

I have more than are pictured here because I ended up with lots of pansies and petunias in color bowls.

My dancing lady orchid adds a splash of yellow to the back porch.

The oldest plant in bloom today is likely my Thanksgiving cactus or the bromeliad. All about 5 years with me. The youngest I planted yesterday.

And, my red bromeliad likes the sun but not the dry heat.

I wish there were more blues to contrast the daylilies – pansies and petunias help.

Thanksgiving cactus enjoying the temp drops at night.
Another white bloom is my iris, about done for another year.
Ice plants add color to the landscape this time of year.
This stunning yellow begonia adds color to the yard in summer.
One of the many bright annuals in my color pot.

I think daylily season starts tomorrow or Friday in my yard. Saratoga Springtime is about to burst. I have 30 scapes up, but none close to blooming. It seems a little late, but not much. I hope my bloom rate is good with the drought. It tends to be worse on drought years.

Saratoga Springtime bud about to burst.

Anyway, if I don’t get too burned out blogging, maybe I’ll do an extra post every so often about the other bloomers.

Where Have All the Daylilies Gone???

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It is January.  Cold, black and white, slippery January.  Christmas is done and work starts Monday.  And, for some reason, my mind craves the color of my daylily garden.  So, I went through and made a video (pardon the length) with all nearly 200 of my cultivators from 2019.  It was a crazy summer in the garden – even though I had to work most of it, I still saw a lot of blooms.

 

I am jazzed to see how my new camera does next summer.  Come on June!!!

A Thanksgiving Cactus By Any Other Name Would Bloom as Bright

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Happy Thanksgiving! It’s a day full of cooking and Thanksgiving cactus. I think I’ve seen a few dozen photos of humungous once on my succulent feeds lately.

Pink and cream Thanksgiving cactus.

I have 4 of them myself. They are different from Christmas cactus because the leaves have several points on the end. Christmas cactus are smoother- and harder to find in my experience.

Bright pink Thanksgiving cactus.

I don’t have to do much special to get them to bloom, although they bloom more prolifically if they spend a few weeks in the poinsettia bloom-forcing closet. They sometimes rebloom in spring under those lights. They like equinox length days.

Red Thanksgiving cactus bud.

Christmas cactus and Thanksgiving cactus are clearly close kin. Siblings. Cousins to these two holiday bloomers are Easter and Orchid cactus. They are similar in that they grow in trees (epiphytes) and are fed by rain and the debris it provides.

Furry leaf tips on my Easter cactus.

I have had my Easter cactus a few years and it didn’t rebloom until I hung it in a planter from my outside plant hanger. It bloomed in June in the high desert without much water.

Easter cactus reblooming last summer.

Anyway, it almost looks furry at the joints. And the flowers look more like daisies to me.

Orchid cactus bloom.

My orchid cactus bloomed for the first time this year. (I started it as a cutting 2 years ago.) It tried to bud in August, but it shriveled. It budded again in September and bloomed after freeze in my kitchen.

Orchid cactus foliage (much larger than its colorful cousins).

My only recipe for success is summer outside in the brilliant Colorado high desert. And, the bloom closet for the holiday cactus. Honestly, they are kind of plain most of the year, but the bright blooms seem to make them worth the wait.

Do you have a Thanksgiving cactus? What is your favorite color?

Echeveria: Colorful And Creative

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Yesterday, I talked about Crassula. They remind me of braids. Echeveria are rosettes – and WorldofSucculents.com has 19 pages of different varieties. There is no way I want to take a stab at the ID, unless they came labeled. It’s like daylilies, there are so many similar hybrids that it’s impossible.

These kids love summer in my desert yard. Summer growers. I’m honestly surprised that I don’t have more because they are so readily available. But, maybe that’s exactly why I don’t have more.

Maybe I’ll start with what I think I know.

Echeveria Blue Rose?

This one is one of my oldest, having joined us on a road trip through Tucson a few years ago. I’m pretty sure she is a Blue Rose. She was 3 rosettes when I got her. She lost a bunch of leaves in a downpour late last summer and by the time I went to clean them up, they had sprouted new plants. Her babies are now in at least 3 additional pots.

Echeveria Licorice.

This one was labeled Licorice Echeveria and is a new addition.

Pearl von Nurnberg Echeveria.

As is Pearl Von Nurnberg. She is in mom’s old button box.

Topsy Turvy Echeveria from above.

A different Topsy Turvy that appears to be a greener hue.

These two I believe are both Topsy Turvies.

Painted Echeveria.

Oh, and my Painted Echeveria.

Echeveria Silver Star.

This one is called Silver Star, I believe.

Large blue tinged Echeveria.

This is my largest one bought on discount a couple days ago due to dog-eared leaves. It’s going to quickly outgrow this pot!

Below are several other varieties. The first one grows under hydroponic lights on the ceiling of my basement closet. it looks like a catepillar inching along.

Echeveria under hydroponic lights – year 3.

Round leaf Echeveria.

Pink tipped Echeveria.

Older Echeveria stays small in a small pot.

Ruffled leaf Echeveria.

Common Echeveria adds color to the pot.

Small blue Echeveria in kokomo.

Fuzzy leaf Echeveria in kokomo.

Enjoying the plant light in a large succulent arrangement.

Echeveria are fun to find and collect. the cool part is that i can put them outside to grow next summer while i focus on my daylilies. These guys are nearly as colorful, too. And, they even come in blue!

The Trouble With Winter-Growing Succulents

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The trouble with succulents is that you can buy them anywhere and they are usually very affordable. So, I’m always dragging new ones home. I need to give some orchids away if I bring many more home.

So, yesterday I got a Crassula Campfire while shopping for T-Day. The most common Crassula is the common jade plant. I love them because their active growth season is winter! But, that only makes them more addictive.

I got looking around at all my Crassula and I have a lot of them!

It took some time to try to classify some of them today. But, that’s what breaks are for, right? Good thing for a snowy, cold Colorado day in my PJs. https://worldofsucculents.com is my favorite site to ID these guys. Disclaimer – I am not a plant scientist so many of these are guesses!

I’ve had some of these guys a long time – like Hobbit.

I’ve had this one on the kitchen windowsill for years.

I also have several living in kokodemas since last year – hung on my pencil cactus.

(Some of them have weird names.)

My year-round ornaments.

I got one labeled “Pagoda” last year, but I think it’s a different Crassula. I couldn’t find it in the listings.

I got little planters that resemble my dogs last year in Moab . . . Two of them have Crassula.

I have some of the cute small stacked ones that I added this Fall.

They are a great addition to container plant groups. the trailing ones are cool.

Some other newer additions are my Propeller or Airplane Crassula.

The Silver Dollar Crassula lives up to it’s name.

And, the curly leafed jade lives up to it’s name, as well.

Honestly, I think I have a couple other Crassulas tucked away on a shelf somewhere.

I will say that I’m glad daylilies are generally name labeled pretty well. My daylilies are all tucked up for the single digit temps this week – under mulch or in the back porch. The trouble with both succulents and daylilies is that they are like Lay’s Potatoe Chips.

Curious World

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Air plants are strange little things. I’ve had a few, but never really got into them until this year. Maybe putting them out for the summer and seeing a lot of growth helped.

Air plant in amber glass container.

I read a book on them called Air Plants: The Curious World of Tillandias. The book showed them in arrangements with succulent, and that fascinated me.

Air plants dance in hanging baskets.

I also like the airy appearance that they give to my winter plant menagerie.

Larger air plant with nice red color.

They come in large sizes, which makes them look more like a real plant.

Small air plants in Native American pots.

Or small sizes, where they look like mineature desert plants.

Air plants perched on holders add character to this large pot succulent arrangement.

They come in lots of colors and add to the variety of the succulents, while mimicking the shape of agave and yucca. And, the blooms are cool!

Reddish color highlights this air plant in hanging glass container.

I’m about at my limit, though, because it isn’t humid here so they need a spritz a couple times a week. I have enough on my plate with work, yard, house, and pet menagerie.

Air plant in a specially designed stone holder.

I have killed a few, but have lots more pups. Cautiously optimistic that I won’t burn out caring for these beauties. I even have one serving as the star on mt pencil cactus with kokomo succulent ornaments.

Air plant perches above my pathos.

They do create a curious world and I’m a curious girl.

Air plant in macrame hanger.

This week, I move my evergreen daylilies into the porch for 3 months. And, then, it begins to turn into spring!

Air plant in pumpkin glass container.

The Strangest Flower Ever!

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Lifesavers. You know the little addictive, brightly colored circle candy? Well, when I saw this odd flower with the name Lifesaver cactus, I just had to get one. I ordered online in August and put it in a south window. It’s near my purple LED boost light, too.

I can’t decide if it’s pretty or weird. It reminds me of Saguaro cactus blooms- the weird wax look.

Then, I got to thinking about some of my other cactus blooms this summer. I was so busy chasing daylilies that I likely didn’t post many of these.

Yucca bloom after a wet spring in my yard.

Pincushion Cactus flower.

White Desert Rose bloom.

Easter Lily Cactus bloom.

Rebloom on my Easter Cactus.

Thanksgiving Cactus bloom.

Orchid Cactus bloom.

Cactus flowers are stunning things. There reproductive parts look like a universe in and of themselves. Or, a chorus of ballet dancers. They don’t ever last long. Maybe longer than a daylily. Or, not. But, I have to admit, I’ve never seen anything quite like this Lifesaver bloom.

Lifesaver Cactus

I’m hopeful that I’ll see more cactus and succulent flowers this winter while the daylilies reat.