We met my Dad and step-mom in Carmel for Thanksgiving. We’ve been doing this off and on for a few years. We stay in a hotel togther, eat out and play tourist. This year, we went to the Carmel Mission

In the mission square, there were gorgeous bottle-brushes blooming.

The native grape of California, Vitus californica, puts on a great autumn display.

I am very fortunate to have a number of beautiful hibiscuses around my yard. Hibiscus flower year-round where I live, so it’s a bit of the tropics every day. They are, however, prone to White Fly, aphids and a host of other problems. I am good about watering and fertilizing and I’ve been rewarded, so far.

Above is a Fiji Island Hibiscus I bought from Florida. I was advised to keep the plants in the pots that they had arrived in but found much more success planting them out. I don’t think that I have enough moisture here in California to compensate for the loss via leaf evaporation. Florida is much more humid and can get away with keeping the plants pot bound. I am making a hedge around an orchid tree. I am guessing it will grow in, in about 2 more years.

Hibiscus arnottianus immaculatus is a treasure-it’s endangered with very few plants left in the wild. Found only on Moloka’i, I nursed this from an 8” cutting to a 4 foot by 4 foot bush. Besides it’s lack of red in the flower proper, it has a scent! One of a but handful of hibiscus to have any fragrance, I planted this next to my front door and I am always grateful for its welcoming perfume.

I first saw these at the Mildred Mathias Botanical Garden at UCLA. I bought a few plants from Bovees in Oregon a few years back and found that they are super easy to grow-fertilize every quarter, rinse daily. These tropical relatives of the rhododendrons found up in Northern California have a great advantage-they are sweetly fragrant!

These grow on the north side of my house and could get more sun. I am waiting for some of my palm trees to get gain some height and then I will mount them near the crowns of the palms, much like folks do with orchids.

Alstroemeria aurantiaca or Peruvian Lily is a very easy flower to grow in Southern California. It needs compost or fertilizer once a year, regular water and has few or no pests. It retires from the limelight during the warmest months and then starts sending up new shoots after Fall arrives.

I grow the same varieties in four big pots. I have plenty of flowers for the house about 6 months out of the year, with lots of blossoms still left to enjoy in the garden.

Downsides: No scent; you have to be sure that you pull the whole stem out and don’t cut the stem or you will rot the tuber; self seeds everywhere.

They only last one day and smell faintly like Gardenias, but boy, what a sight and smell in my backyard. Now to wait for ripe beans…