DryStoneGarden

Ornamental Laundry

We don’t have a ton of stuff blooming in our garden for November. Our laundry is actually the biggest show of color today, with one of Anita’s shirts nicely matching the bloom color of the Spicebush and the Fuchsia. The spicebush is mostly done blooming, but the fuchsia has climbed into it and from a distance the fuchsia flowers make it look like the spicebush has more than its three or four remnant blooms.

Fuchsia and Spicebush

Sidalcea malviflora

I hadn’t noticed that the Sidalcea malviflora plants have woken up, but one is starting to bloom already.

Arctostaphylos John Dourley

Manzanita ‘John Dourley’ has opened a few flowers.

Bearded Iris

Some of our Bearded Irises decided to do a fall bloom. This is the darkest one of the batch, my favorite.

Blessed Calendula

And Blessed Calendulas. We always have some orange calendulas blooming (and needing to be deadheaded). Alyssum, a rosemary, the last basil plant, two Salvia chamaedryoides, and the cannas in the graywater planter are the other plants blooming in our yard. Check out Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day at MayDreamsGardens to see lots more plants in bloom.

arizona flagstone path and border

This is the flagstone path and border you see when you come in through our gate. We try to keep it full of blooms year-round, and this month, May, is probably the easiest month to do that. In another month the fog season will start, the heat of the Central Valley will suck moisture from the ocean through the Golden Gate and over our garden like a swamp cooler, but for now all the plants are soaking up the sun.

Monardella macrantha

Our Monardella macrantha just started up, flashing the victory sign.

California poppy and Calendula

The poppy is Mahogany Red, pretty variable in how much red the flowers show. I like the ones where I’m not quite sure if it’s a cultivar.

Penstemon heterophyllus and Triteleia Starlight

I think the penstemon is “Blue Bedder,” but it might be “Blue Springs.”

purple breadseed poppy

A breadseed poppy that was too tall to fit into the frame.

Salvia chamaedryoides and Phormium ad nauseum

The salvia actually has some blooms on it but it works better as a foliage combo with the phormium. Most of the other plants in that bed have token blooms, but nothing dramatic; maybe they’re waiting for the poppies and calendulas to quiet down. Thanks to Carol at MayDreamsGardens for hosting Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day. Click thru for links to lots of other gardens in bloom.

Some more bloomers from our outer garden are below. (more…)

Blessed Calendula

This calendula was grown from seed that was blessed by Amma, the hugging saint. The label said “Blessed Calendula,” so for a year I thought that was the common name rather than just “calendula.” And it has indeed grown as if blessed, though Anita says calendulas always do that, that we can’t really attribute their success to the blessing. Ah, well. I guess we’d have to get her to bless some Woolly Blue Curls or Bush Poppies or other difficult plant to really test it. In any case, the calendulas have done well. Two of our plants intend to overwinter themselves and go for a second year, and many of the others live on through volunteers that have come up throughout the garden. Does the blessing continue through subsequent generations? One would hope so.

If you don’t know who Amma is, she’s a saint from India who blesses people by hugging them. To date, she’s physically embraced 26 million people. 26,000,000. That’s getting close to the entire population of California. And I am counted in that number; I got hugged last spring and liked it enough to get hugged again this week. For some people she is a religious or spiritual leader, but, personally, I go as a tourist more than anything else, intrigued by the ingenuousness of a master hugger.

Fortunately, her events do a good job of accommodating casual visitors and devoted visitors at the same time. You have to wait several hours for your turn, but while you wait, you’re free to do pretty much whatever you want — meditate, chant, knit, read, talk on a cell phone, pretend you’re not waiting three hours for a hug, etc… — until it is your turn to queue up. Then the volunteers funnel you into the queue, and it’s then, as you move up, seat to seat and then onto your knees before her, that you get drawn into the moment. When she finally embraces you, it’s with a big strong hug, very physical, with your face pressed firmly into her shoulder, and she mumbles or chants or, in my case, makes a low trilling sound — she seems to vary it from person to person — and when you get that hug, from the hugging saint, the official guinness world record holder of hugging, you do feel as if you’ve never had a hug quite like it. I’m not usually a big one for hugs, but it’s a unique experience getting hugged by a saint, and I recommend it.