California

Last week while shopping for colorful flowers to accent our yard and patio, I saw this interesting flower. The name of this variety is Fox Gloves. (Click on the picture for big.)

This excerpt is from About:Landscaping . . .

According to the University of Arkansas Cooperative Extension, “The name foxglove is from the old English name “foxes glofa.” It comes from an old myth that foxes must have used the flowers to magically sheath their paws as they stealthily made their nocturnal raids into the poultry yards of rural folk. The association is natural for the foxgloves grew on the wooded hillside slopes that foxes chose for their dens.”

The scientific genus name also refers to the fact that foxglove flowers are just about the right size for you to slip your fingers into them, as the Latin, digitalis literally translates, “measuring a finger’s breadth.”

As with many poisonous plants, foxglove was traditionally used by expert herbalists for medicinal purposes. Even today, drugs made from foxglove plants are used to strengthen the heart and regulate heartbeat.

This is one of the “Hen and Chicks” variety of echeveria, a succulent native to the southwest. Hen and Chicks is a stemless rosette that produces bright orange and yellow flowers spring through summer. Depending on the climate, they can also bloom again in the fall.

I took this shot using my old Canon A510 camera. These are currently growing in a hanging basket next to the patio fence. Click for a larger view.

The lilies opened right on cue this week. I have three on it now and more coming.

During my after-lunchtime walks, I frequently pass a flowerbed with several varieties of perennial shrubs including this Kaffir Lily which gets these bright orange flowers in the spring and summer. I just bought one from Lowe’s for the patio, but it looks like we either need to put it indoors with the orchids or find a shady spot outdoors. I took this picture a couple of days ago with my little camera. Click for the 640×480 picture.

From WikiPedia:

Clivia miniata (also known as Bush lily or Kaffir Lily, is a species of clivia, from South Africa. It grows to a height of about 45cm in the shade of trees and shrubs, and flowers are red or orange, with a faint, but very sweet perfume.

We’ve been calling this the “Friar’s Hat” ever since we got it. Now that we looked it up on the Internet we see that the popular name is “Bishop’s Cap.” Same thing as far as I’m concerned. It’s technical name is Astrophytum which means “star plant” due to it’s 5-pointed shape. I took this shot of it yesterday in our patio. Click to enlarge.

My freesia are currently sprouting these beautiful white and red-yellow flowers in the patio. I just love springtime!

From WikiPedia:

Freesia is a genus of 14-16 species of flowering plants in the family Iridaceae, native to Africa. Of the 14 species, 12 are native to Cape Province, South Africa, the remaining two to tropical Africa, one species extending north of the equator to Sudan.

The genus was named in honor of Friedrich Heinrich Theodor Freese (1795-1876), German physician.