Home & Garden

We went to the South Coast Botanic Gardens today to see the Dahlia Society’s annual show. We try to attend every year, but missed it last year for some reason. Today, we were glad we didn’t miss this one. They outdid themselves from the last time we were here.

There were dahlias of nearly every size, color and variety. The colors were stunning. Hundreds on hundreds of beautiful flowers and arrangements. I took over 150 photos today and I wish I could show them all. The slideshow below is but a small sampling of the wonderful flowers we saw.

Move your mouse cursor over the images to stop the slideshow; move out to resume.

We went shopping for groceries this afternoon. When we got to the flower concession, I found these pretty mums in a pot. These remind me of the “whirligig” African daisy we see in the botanic gardens in the spring and summer months. Click on the image to enlarge.

Damsel took this picture of one of my favorite plants. It’s called Stapelia Gigantea and is a cactus-like succulent native to the African continent. I like it, but not because it has pretty flowers, not because of lavish green stalks and certainly not because it smells good.

Every summer, the plant produces several pods that grow like great pointed balloons and then explode into five-pointed, hairy flowers that produce an aroma of rotting flesh. While flowers are in bloom, the flies flock to it and consequently keep out of the patio area. I like that about it – it’s sorta like a fly trap.

That’s Damsel’s hand lifting the drooping starfish up to be photographed. The plant can be seen at the left. Click on the image to enlarge.

Here’s more information about this exotic stinker that I lifted from UBC Botanical Garden:

As with many plants, Stapelia gigantea has a suite of common names. These include carrion flower, giant toad flower, Zulu giant, starfish flower and (in Australia) dead horse plant. Most of these are fairly descriptive – it does smell like carrion, it comes from Africa, it’s big, it resembles a starfish and it attracts flies like a dead horse. I haven’t been able to deduce the reason for toad flower, though (perhaps also because of the flies?).

You have probably guessed that this odd plant is pollinated by the blow-flies it attracts.

I should sneak in that Stapelia gigantea is considered an invasive plant in Hawaii and a weed in Australia.

I’ve been trying out the new camera today (we didn’t do our usual Sunday shoot). I took a close-up of several flowers in the patio garden. This was the favorite one today.

Click on the image to enlarge.

I’m not sure of the exact name for this variety of echeveria, but the color and texture are very eye-appealing. We bought this echeveria at a succulent sale at the Botanic Garden and the label on the side of the pot says ‘ranunculus.’ I can assure you that this is not a ranunculus.