Monday, September 15, 2014

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day: September 2014

Seemannia hybrid
Seemannia hybrid

Bit by bit, the garden is recovering from a brutal winter.  It may not look like much from above: there are a couple of empty spaces where palms used to grow, the hardy banana (Musa basjoo) hasn't grown nearly as big as it did last year (see Everybody loves my big banana), and the figs were killed to the ground and are coming back from the roots, but hidden underneath all that foliage are some plants that are just now hitting their peak.

Garden, mid-September
View of the garden from our roof deck

Quite a few plants are blooming right now but today's GBBD is dominated by two very different genera: Seemannia and BegoniaSeemannia is a gesneriad (family Gesneriaceae), closely related to the genus Gloxinia, with brightly colored flowers that are very attractive to hummingbirds.  I've been breeding gesneriads for 30 years, with Seemannia only the latest of several genera I've worked with.  While I've grown begonias (family Begoniaceae) off and on since high school it's only recently that I've begun to breed them, primarily as foliage plants.  I'm working to develop both genera as bedding and container plants; I've already written about them in the past (see Seemannia: a gesneriad with commercial potential and The begonia that broke my heart) and I'll write more about them in the next few weeks; for now just enjoy the pretty pictures!  For more Garden Bloggers Bloom Day posts from all around the blogosphere, visit Carol at May Dreams Gardens.

Begonia grandis
Begonia grandis (pink), male flowers

Begonia grandis
Begonia grandis (pink), unopened female flowers

Begonia grandis (white)
Begonia grandis (white), male flowers

Ferns and begonias
Begonia grandis hybrid, naturalizing in a narrow crevice with Pteris multifida

Begonias
Begonia grandis 'Nanjiang Silver'; a new wild collection with silver-splashed leaves

Begonia formosana
Begonia formosana, a species from Taiwan that has been hardy for me; male flowers

Begonia 'Charles Jaros'
Begonia 'Charles Jaros' (not one of my own hybrids), male flowers

Seemannia 'Little Red'
Seemannia 'Little Red'

Seemannia 'Little Red'
Seemannia 'Little Red' (slightly underexposed)

Seemannia hybrid
Unnamed Seemannia hybrids

Seemannia hybrids
Seemannia, unnamed hybrids

Seemannia hybrid
Seemannia, unnamed hybrid

Seemannia hybrid
Seemannia, unnamed hybrid

Ipomoea multifida
Ipomoea × multifida, cardinal climber; very attractive to hummingbirds!

Hosta plantaginea
Hosta plantaginea, "august lily" on its last legs

Clerodendrum bungei
Clerodendrum bungei, a "beautiful monster" that blooms all summer

Clerodendrum bungei
What is it with carpenter bees and Clerodendrum bungei?

Clematis
Clematis terniflora, sweet autumn clematis, a beautiful but aggressive weed here

Ageratina altissima
Ageratina altissima, white snakeroot, another common weed

Resources:

American Begonia Society
Potomac Branch of the American Begonia Society (Facebook)Gesneriad Society
National Capital Area Chapter of the Gesneriad Society

6 comments :

  1. Nice selection John, and I find those Seemanias especially attractive.

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    1. Thank you, I have been evangelizing seemannia for the last few years and I'm finally getting some commercial growers interested in it!

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  2. Great pictures of pretty blooms. Yes, the Clerodendrum is a beautiful monster here in NJ, too.

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    1. I love the foliage and flowers, but I do have to keep after it! It keeps popping up all over my garden.

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  3. Your Seemanias are lovely and your begonias always thrill but nothing beats your big banana! Clerodendrum bungei is trying to take over the planet in my garden as well.

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    1. Heh, everybody loves my big banana! Although it didn't get nearly as big this year--the cold winter definitely caused some shrinkage! BTW I almost included Musa basjoo in my "beautiful monsters" blog post but it had gotten too wordy already!

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