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Saturday, July 16, 2011

What's Blooming Today Plus Fruiting

I am participating in the  Garden Blogger's Bloom Day  for July 15 with this post.  An exciting bloomer that just began is Crocosmia 'Lucifer'-
Mine always seems to flop and had to be tied up again.  Another new bloomer is the native Fireweed, now called Chamerion angustifolium.  It appears by itself in my yard and comes up every year.  It also tends to flop.
Another native flower that takes care of itself is Pearly Everlasting, Anaphalis margaritacea, which is not very open yet.
Lady's Mantle, Alchemilla vulgaris, is a tough herb that can be used for tea and blooms with profuse tiny chartreuse flowers that last well in an arrangement.

 It also self-sows and can be used in those tough dry places, and on banks.
Tansy Ragwort, Senecio jacobeae, also self-sows and takes care of itself.  It is on the weed lists but I grow it as a host for the Cinnabar moth caterpillars, aren't they cute.  Last year I had lots of them so expected more moths, but apparently there were enough.  The moths are so beautiful!
Lavender has just begun to bloom recently as well,
Lonicera heckrottii 'Gold Flame' is continuing to bloom, it's easy to see how it got its name, hopefully the hummingbirds will like it better than Halls' which is also blooming.
Roses have been blooming for a while, and the once blooming Gallicas are past their prime but still blooming. I have lots of photos of them in other posts so will show some daylilies, which are showing off now.
Here are some nice red "spiders"-  Spiderman
Open Hearth is ablaze.
Then for some cool colors, there is the delicate and prolific clematis 'Viola violacea-
Spirea japonica 'Little Princess'-
And the irrepressible lawn weed and famous medicinal Self-Heal, Prunella vulgaris.
The charming and profuse Campanula pocharskyana
Exuberant Lychnis coronaria
The delicate but long-lasting Baby Blanket-

And now to pique your appetite, some examples of What is Fruiting Now!
The wild native Salmonberry,
The native and irascible Thimbleberry,
The extremely invasive, small native Blackberry Rubus ursinus, AKA vegetable barbed wire-
Raspberries, I think this is Meeker-
Scarlet Goumi
The weeping form of Mulberry, whose berry is small and earlier than the others-

Blueberries
Red currants
Black currants
And, surprise, the first sweet cherries that have set in many years, but it rained and they are splitting,:-(
Finally the native Blackcap Raspberries, Rubus leucodermis, with their pale greenish-blue stems.  The red ones taste better than the purple ones.


Hannah

8 comments:

  1. I love the Crocosmia 'Lucifer' - I'm about to plant these in my garden too. Your clematis is lovely and the baby blanket - a lovely Bloom Day showing!

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  2. Thanks, I looked at your Bloom Day post, I can't feel sorry for you still in winter- sigh. So many lovely Camellias! I used to live in San Diego, it was a lot like South Africa. I have a couple of Camellia sasanqua's that are supposed to bloom in winter here but I must abuse them terribly because they never do.:-(

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  3. Oh, this is the first salmon berry I have seen, real or photographed, since I was perhaps maybe 14. We lived in SE Alaska, the hills covered with salmon berries. I remember as a child picking the berries, the yellow ones made me pucker and the red right sweet. Thanks for reminding me, and for sharing the glories of your gardens.

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  4. The Salmon berries are early, but mine never get red or really sweet. They only grow in this one Red Cedar that has branches to the ground, for some weird reason. They probably don't get enough sun there. I like the thimble berries more for a sweet taste and really small seeds. The native blackberries are also very flavorful for their small size. They make the rampant vines everywhere but don't fruit everywhere. One vine always fruits well in my wire cage around my York Elderberry, for some reason, so I leave it alone to get a few berries.:-P

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  5. Correction: you have a picture of himalayan blackberry (Rubus armeniacus - aka barbed wire!!) but you give it the latin name of our wonderful tame native blackbery Rubus ursinus. Please correct so that the two are not confused!

    thanks. Nice article otherwise :)

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  6. ...FYI, here's a good picture of Rubus ursinus in this blog post: http://fat-of-the-land.blogspot.com/2010/07/wild-berry-tartlets.html

    it shows the less prolific, smaller berries, withouth the bright red stage of the himalayan, the smaller more delicate pointy leaves, and the much thinner vine stalks that aren't thick and woody like himalayan, and have much smaller less agressive thorns.

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  7. Jenny- Thanks for visiting my blog and commenting. However, the photo IS of Rubus ursinus, identical to these photos from official websites-

    http://www.calflora.org/cgi-bin/species_query.cgi?where-calrecnum=7206

    http://green.kingcounty.gov/gonative/Plant.aspx?Act=view&PlantID=77

    The Himalayan blackberry has larger more rounded berries that are in clusters as here-

    http://www.oregon.gov/ODA/PLANT/WEEDS/profile_himalayanblackberry.shtml

    Thanks, Hannah

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  8. Which blackberry has that nickname? Another opinion-

    Trailing blackberry (Rubus ursinus)
    Our only native blackberry winds a sweet but vicious vine through brushy open places seeking sun and it’s called “vegetable barbed wire” for its delicate but determined prickles.

    http://www.parentmap.com/article/summer-urban-foraging-pick-wild-berries-in-local-parks

    I first heard that nickname from experts on the Gardenweb Northwest forum.

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