Category: Flowers

Grow Mexican Sunflowers and Attract Monarchs

Grow Mexican Sunflowers and Attract Monarchs

| January 21, 2015 | 4 Replies

Grow Mexican Sunflowers and attract Monarchs to your garden. Monarch Butterflies are so friendly once they know your garden is a welcome waystation for them.  This male landed on the flower I was holding while taking a picture. I let it go just before I snapped this. Watch the Late Bloomer episode “Growing Mexican Sunflower” (click through to […]

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December Blooms in Southern California!

December Blooms in Southern California!

| December 18, 2014 | 10 Replies

December Blooms in Southern California! While many gardens are buried in snow or frost, and gardeners are dreaming of their spring gardens, a few plants are blooming in the Late Bloomer garden and I thought I would share. Hopefully, they will offer a little sunshine into your day! As I didn’t plant a full-scale winter […]

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Loveliness After the Rain & More on our Water Woes

Loveliness After the Rain & More on our Water Woes

| November 14, 2014 | 2 Replies

Loveliness After the Rain & More on our Water Woes. Last night’s light shower was nothing more than a blip on the radar of California’s vastly reduced water supply due to four straight years of drought. Still, the sight of dripping flowers in the morning light cheered me. I attended a Sierra Club Angeles Chapter water forum last night […]

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Morning Impressions with Monarchs

Morning Impressions with Monarchs

| October 21, 2014 | 2 Replies

Morning impressions with monarchs began my day. I spotted a pineapple guava yesterday and thought this morning it would look nice when the first rays of sun kissed it. As I was photographing it, just after the sun rose past my neighbor’s tree, I remarked (to myself) that I hadn’t seen many Monarch caterpillars, considering that […]

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October Blooms both Ethereal and Lusty

October Blooms both Ethereal and Lusty

| October 4, 2014 | 2 Replies

October blooms both ethereal and lusty grace my garden this first week of October, and feed Monarchs, other butterflies, hummingbirds and bees. I thought I’d take a close look around, now that the summer garden is mostly finished, and see what’s blooming and providing pollen for the pollinators. After the huge squash blooms of summer […]

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My Experience Growing True Comfrey

My Experience Growing True Comfrey

| August 16, 2014 | 5 Replies

My experience growing True Comfrey has been checkered. Last year, I was perusing the Horizon Herbs website, and became determined to buy a live root of something fabulous. I read about True Comfrey and it had so many positive health benefits, I settled on that. Plus this line really caught my eye. Herbaceous perennial native to Europe. […]

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After the Rain

After the Rain

| March 3, 2014 | 2 Replies

After the rain, the Late Bloomer Garden comes alive! You may have heard about the drought in California. Well, we got a proper hosing the past few days. It coincided with cool season crops mature and lush. My new rainwater barrel is full along with several overflow trash cans, and the soil got a deep […]

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Blushing Blooms for the New Year!

Blushing Blooms for the New Year!

| December 31, 2013 | 3 Replies

Blushing blooms for the New Year abound in our Southern California neighborhoods! Because half my garden is taken up with edible plants, at first glance there doesn’t seem to be much color at the end of December. I have the staples that bloom all year, like Princess Flower and non-native yarrow, but I thought I […]

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Late Bloomer – Summer Garden Update – Part 1

Late Bloomer – Summer Garden Update – Part 1

| September 17, 2013 | Reply

Late Bloomer – Summer Garden Update – Part 1 covers what you can grow in 300 square feet in a front yard, in this case, amaranth, corn, cucumbers, zucchini, beans, tomatoes, California native plants and more. The Nanday Conure wild parrot flock return to destroy Kaye’s sunflowers, and amaranth shoots survive transplant. Kaye tries flytraps […]

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A Native Meadow in My Front Yard?

A Native Meadow in My Front Yard?

| June 25, 2013 | 14 Replies

A native meadow in my front yard? Really? Well, I am giving it a try! I have become a fan of Grow Native Nursery in Westwood (an extension of non-profit Santa Ana Botanic Garden) which sells California Native Plants, and I had Ryan who works there, also a horticultural consultant, come to my front yard and […]

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