Thursday, July 05, 2007

Amazing color in the garden

Yesterday when I was snapping pictures of our 4th of July, I took a few of some of the flowers blooming in the yard right now. As I was looking at them on my monitor this morning I was really taken with the amazing colors that nature combines.


This red crocosmia is new this summer. We have had yellow ones, but were noticing the incredible reds around town and Ray found some to plant. The red color is delicious in itself, but combined with the purply buds and teal blue/green stems it is glorious. These grow quite tall, on slender, gracefully arching stems, (you can see then in context in the last picture in the previous post) and I learned they are native to South Africa and related to irises.

A couple of days ago Ray and I went out to Al's Garden Center, which has become one of our favorite nurseries. We had discount coupons to use on bedding plants and I found these little flowers, which I had never seen before. I fell for their soft, coral color.

They are called Diascia and I learned they are also native to South Africa and are a recent import to the US. I love the color combination with the lavendar.

This is a mystery plant, purchased at the plant sale earlier this spring where we sold garden art.

These leaves are just as purple as they look—gorgeous! I have no idea what it is called, but it would not surprise me to find out it comes from South Africa. Anybody know?

Update: Jeannie identified the purple leaf plant as Persian Shield Strobilanthes. Lots of info on the web. It is native to Myanmar (formerly Burma), not South Africa. I guess not everything beautiful and colorful comes from South Africa! Thanks, Jeannie.

3 comments:

  1. Anonymous1:02 PM

    I don't know what those purple leaves are either, but I love them!

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  2. It is a Persian Shield Strobilanthes. It gets 3-4' tall - mine tend to top out at 2', probably due to the heat. It looks great in a pot with lime green licorice plant and violet petunias. I overwinter mine in the house and you can take cuttings and root them in water. One of my favorites. I love the crocosmia, as do the hummers. Cheers.

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  3. Thanks for identifying the crocosmia for me! I was particularly taken with one in a neighbor's front yard and took several photos of it, but I had no idea what it was called.

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