The Other Side...

As I mentioned in my previous post, I have not only California natives, but non-native flowers a-bloomin' in my yard. So shoot me.  :-)

I have several colors of Nasturtium blooming around the yard.

It's native to South America and is classified as "invasive" in Hawaii and New Zealand. And I can see how that could happen. I have not bought Nasturtium seed in over 10 years. They freely re-seed themselves and continually surprise me with the variety of blossoms they come up with each year and each season. The ones that come along later in the year are sometimes quite baroque.

Next we have Freesia.

This guy is native to Africa, but doesn't seem to be classified as "invasive" anywhere. But these little bulblets are seriously robust around here. I say that because the ones I planted (in pots) over a dozen years ago just keep coming back year after year. Later this season the purple, pink, and yellow ones will show their faces. (They're budding up nicely right now.)

Next up we have the Wisteria.

This beautiful vine is most decidedly invasive... including in my yard!!! The gorgeous clouds of purple flowers have a heavenly scent (unless you're right under them on a warm day when the wind is still, then they're almost sickly sweet -- maybe like the dichoronium creature from ST:TOS). But I have to keep the grabby vines from grabbing every nearby thing, like the trees! Lots of vine-cutting maintenance. Oh, and if the roots of a potted one get into the soil, you're screwed. Just figure on a life of continuously re-digging them out as any remaining fragment will re-sprout. (Yes, I've been fighting one of those for nearly 10 years.) 

OH! and if you allow the seed pods to ripen on the vine, you can look forward to an entertaining fall and early winter. When the pods are ready to release their seeds, they do so quite explosively. Yes, explosively. I had told my brother about this. I told him about the seeds firing and hitting the windows and sounding like somebody shooting a BB gun at the window. Yet, when he, a former soldier, had it happen when he was standing near the window when it happened, he was diving for cover till he saw me looking at him with amusement. 

This is also another thing contributing to the invasiveness of the species. I found these seeds fired completely across the yard from the vine. And trying to sprout where they landed. I have to pull them before they get their taproot into the soil or, well, re-read the paragraph above about roots.

But I love the vines and the flowers and the scent and the color and, well, the roots are already in the soil. No, I don't water it.

The next non-native, potentially invasive flower blooming in my yard is the Calendula.

Again, I haven't planted seed for this species in at least 10 years, but I have more and more every year. Note that the original blooms were extremely double. These days, they're barely double, as you can see. I figure that after all these years the o!-so-double commercial hybrid is reverting to original type. That's fine. There are plenty of yellow and orange blossoms in that bed. One of these days I'll get around to pulling them out before they go to seed and put in an equally hardy native.

Also starting (quite surprisingly!) to bloom is a climbing rose of unknown pedigree.

I acquired the climbing rose with the house, so I haven't a clue what it is. I did move it to a corner of the yard where it could climb rampantly. And it did... until I planted a Western Virgin's Bower (Clematis ligusticifolia) about five feet from it. The Virgin's Bower is simply taking over the entire area. Where a joint touches the ground, it tries to root. Heck! Where a joint touched a fence rail it tried to root! 

So, the Virgin's Bower has completely covered the climbing rose and insinuated its vines throughout. You can see the leaves peeking through above and to the right of the rose blossom. But the rose clings to life and has started blooming again this year.

Also blooming (but no photo) is a vine that came with the house. I'm pretty sure it's one of the solanums, but it's got large clusters of small white flowers with yellow centers. (Maybe rattonii? I'll post a photo one of these days and get it ID'd.)  The solanums out front are blooming, but they usually are. I'm pretty sure this is the one called "Purple Potato Plant" or "Blue Witch" or some such thing. Again, I'll get a photo up one of these days. Oh, yeah. And I have some red Impatiens that have been in their pots and coming back year after year for at least 7 years.

Next post, maybe I'll do the plants that are blooming INdoors.