FLOWERSThese are teeny tiny flowers on this Euphorbia....It is planted across the street from me, by me! It was very dull and boring across the street...nothing really planted there, so over these twenty years we have planted a lot of cuttings there and many 'extras'...things that could be planted in my garden, but that we already had plenty of...this particular Euphorbia is very very slow growing especially if it is a cutting as apposed to grown from 'seed' (That's a actually even slower come to think of it...)....cuttings of this particular species take a long time to root, but once rooted, they flower and then, with any luck they grow new tops...
Here is another cutting of the same Euphorbia that has some new growth...
I LOVE new growth...it is so filled with hope and the knowledge that there is a continuation of the life force...this is the new 'top' that has taken many many months to appear...but now that it is here, it is growing pretty fast...I happen to love this particular Euphorbia because I think the shape of each arm is so very sculptural...and in a mature plant, there are many many arms and the whole plant is absolutely gorgeous...somewhere I have a photo of a mature one...which I will try to find so you can see what I'm talking about...It's proper full name is Euphorbia Cooperi...and it's because a man named Cooper discovered it in the year 1862 in the Transvall (Africa)....the first place it went to was The Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew and Cooper's son-in-law, a man named Brown, named this species Euphorbia Cooperi in his honor. 
There is a great description of this plant in Volume 3 of the series of books called "The Euphorbia Journal", which says it better than I could, in which the shape of each segment of each arm is described as a reverse heart...(No wonder I love this plant so much)....here is a close-up of the very beautiful new growth....in the year 2006 on this cutting that came from my garden. I find it fascinating to kind of study this growth closely, because here in this photo you can see the beginnings of spines and those soft looking little pads....I will try to keep watch over this new growth and keep taking pictures so we can see how this continues to develop...Nature is quite simply, breathtaking.While ambling along today, I noticed a number of other flowers..some would call them wild flowers, I guess, and maybe some of them are..but many are coming from various different succulant type plants...
Here is a flower that grows on a very beautiful succulant ground cover called Rosea. Before I really knew what I was doing in my garden, we put a lot of Rosea down underneath my house hoping to stave off problems when the heavy rains would come....this particular ground cover really holds the dirt wonderfully because it has a very complex root system. It also has very beautiful flowers.
The problems with the Rosea and my particular garden was that it grows so fast and furiously that it can easily cover smaller plants, obscuring them and then virtually choking them out, and that is exactly what happened down below, so we had to take it all out and we ended up planting a little bit of it across the street. These are a few flowers from that Rosea that is across the street...it is a very very hearty plant and a GREAT Ground cover....you see it all over Southern California on hillsides and on the banks of the freeway system...There is a plant called Lantana. And in fact there was a film with that name a number of years ago...I think it was a metaphorical use of the name, but it also showed the plant quite a bit. Lantana grows almost anywhere here in Los Angeles like a weed...you see it on the hillsides and other places...it is a strange plant that often can choke out other plants because it is tenacious in it's ability to survive and grow...I had some down below in my garden that clung to the fence which encloses my property at the lower regions...
many years ago we planted a lot of Bouganvilla close to the fence because I love Bouganvilla and I love the many colors...but we had to tear out the Lantana so that it wouldn't kill the Bouganvilla...the flowers are really beautiful on Lantana, as you can see from this photograph...this is a patch of Lantana that is across the street...I love the delicate lavender of these sweet little flowers and the color of the leaves, too...you can see some Jade plant in the background there...there are so very many kinds of Jade and they too grow everywhere in Southern California...(They may grow in Northern California, too...I am not sure about that...)I don't know what this next plant is...it appears to be a 'Wild Flower' type plant on first glance, but on further inspection the plant itself is some sort of succulant that grows just about everywhere here in Southern California, too...
I'm sure it has a name...I just don't know it! These flowers are very very small, as is the plant they grow on...Nature is so amazing...I know I say this every time I post about the plants and flowers that surround me in my life here on the hill...I do find it awesome, truly...and am constantly and consistantly amazed by all the beauty that is growing all around me....
And another plant....again, I don't know the name of this...(I apologize for my ignorance about this)...I do know that is is growing on the side of the hill a short way down my street where I walk sometimes...it is growing out if this decomposing granite that this whole hill is made of....Well, that's not really a correct term...the hill isn't 'made of decomposing granite...it just IS decomposing granite...and by the way, they say that decomposing granite is some of the best soil for cactus and succulants, because of the drainage....pretty amazing, isn't it? These flowers are quite complex in their shape, and they have been growing here for years and years and years...and truthfully I have never noticed them before, ever!
And here's an update on George...that's what we call him...he's the plant with the 'buttons' that turned into 'nipples' which are now turning into...well, I'm not sure what to call them...but they are growing slowly but surely. I've left this photo on it's side because you can see them better this way...the fuzzy part seems slightly more fuzzy to me...and they have grown a bit more since I last posted a photo of them...so, here they are...
More to come, as always....
- had this to say:
OH WOW I love the photos. The flowers that you have in your garden are so totally different from the kind that we have over here. I love looking at them.
PLeeeeeeeeease can we have some more ??? please can we???- Wednesday, March 22, 2006 at 9:59:00 AM PST
- had this to say:
Nice. So how big are the fuzzy bulbs in the last picture? They look pretty cool.
- Wednesday, March 22, 2006 at 10:12:00 AM PST
- had this to say:
It is so much fun to look at your pictures because I recognize some plants from this area. And I recognized my tecomaria capensis! it is the orange pic, the one before the last one, I planted 3 of them about 6 years ago. Isn't this fun!
- Wednesday, March 22, 2006 at 11:18:00 AM PST
- had this to say:
Naomi, I love all your photos and the wonderful descriptuions of your cacti, but I still like the "buttons" the best. They look so soft and fuzzy.
- Wednesday, March 22, 2006 at 3:06:00 PM PST
- had this to say:
At our old house we had a huge lantana bush that just kept growing! It was pretty red, yellow and orange.
I like the look of bougenvilla but it is SUCH a mess if you have a pool.
Michele sent me today.
-atpanda.blog.com-- Wednesday, March 22, 2006 at 4:00:00 PM PST
- had this to say:
What beautiful plants. Thanks for sharing a glimpse at them. We have a big wooded lot across the street from us. I often think it'd have been work tossing in a few wildflower seeds if nothing else. Now there's talk about a house going up in the space though so I suppose I've missed my chance. It sure would have been nice to see some flora out my window though!
Thanks for visiting earlier. ;)- Wednesday, March 22, 2006 at 6:26:00 PM PST
- had this to say:
Oh lovely pictures. You make me want to buy some cacti, though I've never had good luck with them. Probably over watered them! I had a jade plant too. I think they are really beautiful when they are so thick and bushy! But it also died, again I think from too much water.
- Wednesday, March 22, 2006 at 8:58:00 PM PST
- had this to say:
Michele sent me again your way to look at these beautiful pics!
- Thursday, March 23, 2006 at 2:13:00 AM PST
- had this to say:
They may be called wild but to me they are beautiful.
- Thursday, March 23, 2006 at 4:00:00 AM PST
- had this to say:
What a gorgeous flowers and plants, Naomi! Love all them! You made a great job and your photos are beautiful, too!
- Thursday, March 23, 2006 at 4:52:00 AM PST
- had this to say:
Hi, I just wanted to come over and thank you for visiting my site. Love these pictures. I'm going to read more as I'm trying to plan new flowers for the garden that hubby made me for valentine's day. Those orange flowers are gorgeous and I want to see if they will work in my climate. Beautiful!
- Thursday, March 23, 2006 at 6:57:00 AM PST
- had this to say:
Sweet pictures. Any more like that & I'll need to go out and buy more cacti!
- Thursday, March 23, 2006 at 10:33:00 AM PST
- had this to say:
The wild plant of the southeast that chokes out everything in its path is.... the Kudzu. I had never seen any before moving from Oklahoma to Mississippi. In the summer it drapes everything, even telephone wires across the highway and in winter the dead brown leaves cover the embankments along the roads. I don't see it so much here in Virginia. It is fun to hear about similar "wild" plants that are succulents... who'd of thought.
- Thursday, March 23, 2006 at 12:05:00 PM PST
- had this to say:
what a lovely post. i spent a lot of time in la between '99 and 2002. one of the things i loved the most was the flowers and the scent in the air (we always stayed in santa monica). i miss it a lot, but get a 'feeling' of it sometimes here on a warm spring day... this was a beautiful reminder. thank you.
and thanks for visiting earlier*- Thursday, March 23, 2006 at 1:50:00 PM PST
- had this to say:
the rosea is lovely!! reminds me of sea anemones! and how i'm going to miss my bougainvillia...i've got 2 varieties i absolutely love, barbara karst & james dean. they're great.
thanks, once again, for the lovely walk through the 'hood! :)- Thursday, March 23, 2006 at 3:53:00 PM PST
- had this to say:
these are brilliant picture! it always amazed me the beauty of cactii blooms. its a neat surprise!
- Thursday, March 23, 2006 at 4:46:00 PM PST
- had this to say:
I love how you planted them across the street to pretty up the scene. It speaks volumes about your character: always looking out for others.
How do you get such wonderful pictures? Floral photography is a crap shoot on the best of days, yet your pictures always look like they came out of a studio. Amazing!- Thursday, March 23, 2006 at 6:23:00 PM PST
- had this to say:
I love the cape honeysuckle (or as mar called them "tecomaria capensis". They plants get sooooo huge, it's amazing.
I love all these photos, so beautiful.- Thursday, March 23, 2006 at 6:48:00 PM PST
- had this to say:
Nice entry. Glad I stumbled across your blog. Love the fact that you name them too!
Will come back.- Thursday, March 23, 2006 at 7:15:00 PM PST
- had this to say:
Ohhhh, don't touch that cactus. It will get you before you know it. Cactus is beautiful when is blooms in the spring.
- Thursday, March 23, 2006 at 7:21:00 PM PST
- had this to say:
Those are all such beautiful flowers. The Euphorbia looks like they're made of fragile wood. And the Rosea looks like its made of straw. The color of both are so beautiful, they just scream SPRING!
- Thursday, March 23, 2006 at 7:39:00 PM PST
- had this to say:
And I was so excited today because the first crocuses appeared in our side garden. Finally the snow is all gone and the ground seems to be unfrozen, so maybe I'll edge the perennial beds this weekend.
Your garden is so beautiful. But what is across the street? An empty lot or some person that just lets you garden in their yard?- Thursday, March 23, 2006 at 10:41:00 PM PST
- had this to say:
I love to look at those pictures. You just take such awesome pics! I thought maybe the "unidentified" red plant was Indian Paintbrush, but upon closer inspection, it's not. I love to grow plants from cuttings. I hated to leave my few, but well-loved and tended, houseplants in the states when we left. I will have to start all over again when we go back...sigh.
Michele sent me!- Friday, March 24, 2006 at 12:59:00 AM PST
- had this to say:
Hi Oldoldlady. Here in Plymouth Euphorbia (also known as spurge) grows like a weed. I spent all my time in my old garden pulling it out as I couldn't stand it! Perhaps it needs a wetter climate to grow more quickly. Thanks for visiting my Sheweevil blog.
- Friday, March 24, 2006 at 1:09:00 AM PST
- had this to say:
Another great set of photos, could I make a suggestion? I'd love to see you wander a bit further afield and show us some of the countryside around LA or perhaps some sea/coastal shots!
What do you think, go on?
Best regards
Dave- Friday, March 24, 2006 at 1:15:00 AM PST
- had this to say:
Michele and Sheweevil sent me - thanks for your comments on the above!!
- Friday, March 24, 2006 at 6:19:00 AM PST
- had this to say:
I love to see the pictures of your flowers and I don't know the names of many flowers...but I still love to look at them. We have a little purple leaved weed with tiny blue flowers that grows like a ground cover...it is beautiful...So weeds are pretty to.
- Friday, March 24, 2006 at 11:17:00 AM PST
- had this to say:
I work in a green house and I just planted a whack of Lantana yesterday! Such beautiful pics, Naomi! Glad Michele sent me back.
- Saturday, March 25, 2006 at 4:00:00 PM PST
- had this to say:
Magnificent photobotany. I hope to do some floral still life paintings this spring, and I'm rarin' to get outside and do some landscapes. Not many succulents in my neck of the woods, however. The weather back east is just about right~,:^)
- Wednesday, March 29, 2006 at 1:55:00 PM PST
x4
