Thanks, once again, to commentor Glidwrith for these photos from their lunchtime rambles:
Top photo: These are pretty ubiquitous, sort of a California daisy.
Century plants putting out their spikes.
Unknown tree.
Tiny random blooms in some grass.
Also fairly common, still don’t know its name.
Someone planted multi colored kale. I was surprised that they sprouted bright yellow flowers.
Last one, the ever present bird of paradise.
***********
Some of these are distinctly Dr. Seussian!
What’s going on in your gardens, this week?
raven
We had a century plant in Whittier and I managed to get stuck with one of those spikes! Also, there was a field down the street that had giant tumbleweeds and we’d suit up in our Chicago winter outfits and dive in! in
raven
Oh boy, down the tumbleweed rat hole, it must have been like this!
NotMax
@raven
Did someone say tumbleweeds?
Also too, for respite, the close harmony of The Punch Brothers.
;)
OzarkHillbilly
Unknown tree? That’s Fred! I’d recognize him anywhere!
Jeffg166
@OzarkHillbilly: Looks like a crabapple to me.
AM in NC
What a lovely lunchtime ramble you have! Your flora is certainly different from what we generally have here in the humid southeast. Love seeing all the different plants – thank you!
OzarkHillbilly
@Jeffg166: Growing up, our neighbor had a crab apple that bloomed pink, not that that means anything. If I were to make a serious guess, I’d say it was an almond tree. Or cherry. Or apple. Or…
But his name is still Fred.
rikyrah
Good Morning, Everyone😊😊😊
narya
@rikyrah: good morning!
My flax and nasturtiums and marigolds are blooming . . . and we have to move everything off our porches so the association can clean & stain. I’m hoping a few days indoors don’t wreck everything.
Baud
@rikyrah:
Good morning.
Ken
Is “Fred” the tree, or is this one of those scary forest things where’s it’s part of a much larger organism, like the Pando aspen grove or the “humungous fungus” of Michigan?
OzarkHillbilly
@Ken: Somebody should ask him.
Li-Li D
That first picture looks like it might be Gazania, which is of African origin. I’ve grown yellow and white varieties of it.
Cheerful photos on a gray, wet day. Thank you!
Betsy
I like that you have found such lovely and unusual sights on ordinary lunchtime walks.
MagdaInBlack
@NotMax: Once was driving from Colorado Springs back to Denver when a herd of tumbleweeds came over the hill, across the 4 lane and leaped over my car. It was both cool and scary at the same time. Seeing that clip, I’m glad it leaped over me.
P.S. My package is now back in Palatine, 5 miles from me..again.
OzarkHillbilly
We have actually had some rain here this week. One storm gave us an inch, the 2nd… I don’t know, been too busy to check the rain gauge. We might get more tonight (50% chance of) and there are possibilities of more every day this week (we’ll see). At any rate, it’s nice to get a break from watering the gardens.
Picked my first maters of the year (red grapes and yellow cherries) and first banana peppers. The zinnias are blooming, as are the cosmos. I planted some caladium and elephant ear bulbs in late May. Talk about slow starters, especially the caladiums. The EE have been up and growing for about a month but the caladiums… Oooff, I’m still waiting for the last 3 to come up and the only reason I haven’t given up on them is because just last week 2 others finally decided to show themselves.
C’est la vie.
MomSense
Rain, thunderstorms and tornado warnings today. Guess I won’t be in the garden.
I neglected to pull all the weeds in one of my garden beds and I was going to pull this purple invasive plant but it has been full of bees so I decided to leave them alone.
Mike S. (Now with a Democratic Congressperson!)
Nice Agaves (Century Plant) flower spikes!
The first yellow daisy-like flower is a Gazania as @Li-Li D said. The reddish flower spikes is an Aloe species. I don’t know Fred though.
NotMax
@MagdaInBlack
re: the package — yup, know delivery roulette all too well. Maybe this time it’ll decide to stay.
;)
Ordered six modest items from my ‘probably’ list on Prime Days because the discounts on them were too attractive to pass up. Order sent out for some reason in six separate packages, five via USPS and one via UPS. I realize the costs of ‘free’ shipping is factored in to the purchase price but still, can’t have been less costly than to toss them all into the same box. All have miraculously arrived save for one straggler expected on Tuesday.
MagdaInBlack
@NotMax: Who are we to question the whims and desires of the mail-order gods….I guess.
NotMax
@MagdaInBlack
Mercury (the messenger) is sometimes known to be in retrograde, don’tcha know.
:)
Glidwrith
@Betsy: It’s fascinating that what amounts to corporate landscaping that there is so much variation.
MagdaInBlack
@NotMax: Ouch 🤗
Gvg
@NotMax: they usually give you a choice when ordering to have everything delivered on one day. Offer bonus points if you agree.. maybe you have one touch ordering enabled and it doesn’t stop and ask you those questions? I almost always pass on it because there will be one item that’s going to take 3 weeks or something, but this time I used it so that I could have a Saturday delivery when I was home because I ordered a fairly expensive iPad and after prime day their are thieves that follow the trucks and steal from porches….actually haven’t heard as much of that since door cameras became more common but I wanted that iPad safe.
So, Amazon prefers one delivery and offers it all the time.
NotMax
@Gvg
May be a mainland thing. Never offered any such option here.
Mousebumples
Good morning, all! Beautiful photos to look at, as well.
We’ve finally been getting some rain this past week, and our raspberries are finally harvestable! 😊
Kristine
Stuff’s blooming. I have a resident rabbit stuffing itself on white clover blossoms. We’ve had more rain since last Sunday, a couple of inches over the last week, week and a half. I have a couple of inches in the sump pump cistern now, and it was almost dry two weeks ago. Brown spots have greened up. Hosta are blooming. The white astilbes are fading but the hot pink and red are still in good shape. Sem ash leaf spirea have some fresh blooms but are heading down. Sweet Joe Pye weed is opening. Still waiting for the next round, the liatris, cardinal flowers, tall boneset, and goldenrod
Oh, and we’re under an Air Quality Alert again b/c wildfire smoke. Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups. Supposed to last through the day.
Kay
I’m living part time at a house we have in Michigan now and I’m redoing – or really “doing” the yard. It’s a small cottage and no one ever “gardened” there. It’s smaller than the Ohio property. I just had two garbage trees taken down so now it’s mostly a blank slate.
I’m planning on planting a Larch (or, Tamarack) this fall. I love them and they’re native to this area of Michigan. It’s a big tree for a small lot but I’m thinking of it as the “anchor” for the whole thing, and this garden is going to be simple- just trees, two flower beds and two raised beds for vegetables. No shrubs or ground covers or foundation plantings. Larch can live up to 800 years, so it’ll be around a while :)
NotMax
@Kay
Didn’t Mitt Romney assure us the trees in Michigan are “just the right size?”
opiejeanne
@OzarkHillbilly: Fred is most likely a flowering pear. I couldn’t see the bark on the trunk to be sure, but the clusters of flowers are correct and they have been a favorite corporate landscape tree in SoCal for many years.
opiejeanne
@Jeffg166: except that flowering crabapples are not likely in SoCal.
JFitz
Pretty sure that is an ornamental pear tree.
Kay
@NotMax:
He did say that. I sort of understand it. I can’t explain it, but I think I know what he was getting at.
I planted a Sycamore in the front- another big tree – but I want the front shaded most of the day so I’ll do two more shade trees and nothing else.
delphinium
@Kay:
That sounds kind of nice, to start from scratch and plant what you want.
Every time I see ‘Larch” can’t help but think of this Monty Python running gag.
MobiusKlein
The small yellow flowers (random blooms,) are oxalis, or wood sorrel. We hate them out in the west coast. Kill them now, before it gets worse
hotshoe
@MobiusKlein:
I dunno if kids growing up in CA still do this, but I was “peer-educated” to pick the flowers, take a nibble of the stem end, and enjoy the lemonade-sour rush.
It’s nicknamed sour grass for a good reason.
Of course the adults think it’s a weed.
Well, it truly is a weed — it’s invasive and resistant to being removed once established — but unlike tumbleweeds, puncture vine, foxtails, star thistle and suchlike, it’s harmless to us, our pets, our cars, and our bike tires :)
I weed it out furiously, only because if I don’t, the neighbors think I am neglecting the yard and complain.
Otherwise, enjoy that bright yellow flower!
MobiusKlein
@hotshoe:
I did that too, sourgrass nibbling for fun. But apparently it’s not good to do a lot, as the oxacalic acid does something to calcium processing in your body.
It’s weed for sure.
WaterGirl
@Li-Li D: Yes! I thought gazania as soon as I saw the photo. I plant them as annuals every year.