December 2016 Favorites

This time of year, my favorite plants are basically anything that's evergreen and doesn't look like a photosynthetic drowned rat. Oh, and houseplants. This time of year, I smother my houseplants with attention, probably more than they want or need. I really don't mention my houseplants on this blog as often as I thought I would, so here's a few of my favorites.

Tillandsia straminea and Hoya 'Minibell'.

Another tillandsia (don't know the name of this one) with Quesnelia marmorata in the background, and Tillandsia caput-medusae peaking out of the top of the Quesnelia. Caput-medusae is one of my favorite tillandsias, one of the easiest in terms of care and one of the few I've successfully gotten to rebloom.

Platycerium veitchii 'Lemoinei' is a bit awkward to make room for, but I love its furry grey fronds.

Ludisia discolor is first and foremost a foliage plant, but it does produce interesting white flowers.

Two Tillandsia xerographica, an unknown tillandsia, and a crested Monvillea spegazzinii.

Shooting star flowers on Hoya multiflora

The smudged form of Vriesea ospinae-gruberi, so called because the dark markings on the leaves appear streaked or smudged compared to the sharper markings on the regular form.

 I also love going out to the greenhouse this time of year to escape the cold. Just a couple favorites from there, really more "Look what's happening!" than favorites per se.

The baby Cyathea dealbata are growing their first true fronds! There are quite a few of them at the moment. Hopefully I can keep a good number of them alive to give Cistus Nursery a crop, since I got the spore from them. Yeah, I couldn't completely stop being a propagator.

I've been watching this bud on Rhododendron himantodes for months now. Yeah, that's a rhododendron, one of the vireyas in my collection. I'm thrilled it's happy enough to form a flower bud. This is a very slow and difficult plant in cultivation.

 Moving outside now. I really do have a lot of favorites at any given moment, so this is really more a random show and tell than a true favorites post. Sorry, couldn't help myself!

I can't help but marvel at Leptinella squallida 'Platt's Black'. I don't water it in the summer and it goes completely dormant. In fall, it springs back up into a lush carpet. It's actually grown and spread quite a bit.

 Carex comans and orange Calluna vulgaris make a stunning pair, even more so with a bit of Blackbird euphorbia peaking in.

 
I love this carex that seeded in at the edge of a heather. The heather has since grown to surround the sedge.

I really don't have a lot of berries in my garden, but that's starting to change.

These turquoise blue berries belong to Viburnum davidii. I now have several plants from different sources, so I hope I'll get berries like this from now on. These have been on the plant since I bought it at the nursery.

Cotoneaster integrifolius, also known as Cotoneaster microphyllus var. thymifolius, has little red berries among even smaller evergreen leaves. I was surprised to find flower buds all over it, too, when I leaned in to photograph the berries. I have two of these plants and they have a lot of filling out to do (they were free rescue plants) but I'm already enjoying them.

The three Rosmarinus officinalis [weeping form - Brentwood Bay] are covered in buds. Will they make it through the cold predicted next week? Depends on how cold it actually gets.

Euphorbia characias is a wonderful evergreen (ever grey) shrub. This isn't the best-looking one, but I'm using this picture because of the surprising favorite covering the ground beneath it. The Galium odoratum hitched a ride with the euphorbia, and amazed me with its tolerance of drought and full sun. I want more of this tough, lovely green groundcover!

I don't know the name of this Baccharis. It's a chunk of a low-growing form in the gardens at Cistus that had to be dug out to keep it from eating the path from the parking lot. I'd love more of it. It's a wonderful green, dense groundcover.

Andromeda polifolia 'Blue Ice' has taken on purple tones for winter, and still looks good with the bronze Carex comans.

Cheilanthes lindheimeri, from Cistus, is my favorite out of the three xeric ferns I have so far. I also have similar, but less blue, Cheilanthes and Bommeria hispida. The fronds of the Cheilanthes hold up better than the Bommeria through winter, though the Bommeria does seem to be growing a bit faster.

The wispy spire-like branches of these Calluna vulgaris, allowed to grow au naturale, are decorated with tawny, silvery seed heads. These plants look great with euphorbias, like the Ascott Rainbow in the background.

One of my favorite heaths, I've sadly forgotten its name. It's a nice chartreuse in the warmer parts of the year, but as the weather cools in fall, it takes on tints of yellow and warm rose. It really looks like it glows.

One of my seedling Erisymum has these lovely cherry red flowers with orange tones in the center.

Why are so many of my top favorites so slow growing? Danae racemosa is one of my very favorite plants, but it is notoriously slow, and thus expensive. I would love to have big specimens of these all over the shady areas of my garden, with their graceful weeping stems spreading and draping over the ground.

 I'll end with a favorite vignette. It's so simple, just an Aspidistra elatior rising above a cover of wild strawberries, Prunella vulgaris, and Carex comans. But I think the simplicity, and the mix of greens and textures, is why I like it. The prunella, especially, makes a great companion to the carex, filling up those spaces underneath and between the sedges.

And that's my random favorites post/garden update for December. Please follow the link to The Danger Garden to see more monthly favorites and, since I won't be posting again until next week, Happy New Year!