A Garden Surprise

The Bush Morning Glories (Convolvulus cneorum) are now in full bloom. I've lost quite a few of these perennials in the last couple of years, but the ones left are now quite large and present a spectacular display of flowers for a three week period in March.

My Garden Monk looks like he has picked one of the Bush Morning Glory flowers, but actually the stem has grown in the space between his hands and robe.



There are only a few California Poppies (Eschscholzia californica) blooming in my landscape this year. One of the reasons is that we are near the common area along a roadway, and the landscape crews came through on a breezy day and sprayed their pre-emergent and weed killer combo along the roadway, and the stuff drifted into my yard. Wildflowers are very sensitive to both chemicals, so I've found many dead ones in my front yard.

We won't have a profuse display of wildflowers in the desert this year because of the rain pattern for the months between September and January. A certain amount of rain is necessary to assure a massive display. We had one last year, and it's rare to have several in a row, so I'm not surprised. Even my Desert Bluebells, which are normally prolific, have left a lot to be desired.


This was a surprise! I swear that it wasn't there on Saturday, and when I strolled through my garden on Monday, there it was! This Agave lophantha stalk will grow rapidly and then put out some type of inflorescence.



Agave plants have three types of flower stalks depending on species. One type is the raceme, or an inflorescence having stalked flowers arranged singly along an elongated unbranched axis. Another is a spikate inflorescence where the flowers cling to the stalk in pairs or clusters. The third, is a paniculate inflorescence where the flowers appear in clusters on lateral branches, like a candelabra. This is definitely not a paniculate type, so it will be interesting to see what emerges as it grows.


The Agave will die after the flower stalk is mature. Usually Agave pups emerge to replace the dead plant. I don't see any pups, so this might end up being a bare spot in my garden.

This is a close up of the Agave flower stalk. In the close up, it looks like the inflorescence type may be a raceme. It's really hard to know as Agave species easily cross pollinate.




I thought this Blackfoot Daisy (Melampodium leucanthum) was gone for good when it dried up this past summer, but it has come back larger than ever. I wish it would drop some seeds and spread!