New and Old

In Fall 2019 we made kokadama at the monthly club meeting. I chose to use Easter cactus, Schlumbergera gaertneri, since it is an epiphyte and could do well with organic mix and in a hanging posture.  Kokadama do dry out quickly in SoCal and it can be hard to remember to water regularly.  But… 6 months later, Easter arrived and so did the flowers. Posted by BB.

I bet there are many so called “monkey flowers” around the world and despite the absence of monkeys in southern California this is our bush monkey flower, Diplacus aurantiacus. It is perhaps our most common and distinctive flowering plant in the coastal chaparral.  Photo courtesy of S. Castellana.