The Calochortus and Alliums of May

 “The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man.”

George Bernard Shaw

Unfortunately lot's of unreasonable people exist in this world. And this is probably why I feel we are going backwards from zero. I did however say I was going to make this blog more positive moving forward from the last four years, so I will digress on the matter. George Bernard Shaw does have a lot to say about adaptability and change though. He kinda reminds me of an international Mark Twain, such a great way of stating blunt observations about humanity, and I feel both of them had certainly no faith in the institution of humanity, as probably any one who observes it and writes about it must eventually end up at that conclusion. I have been thinking a lot about adaptability and change lately. Just with a lot of circumstances in life that have been thrown my way lately, change and the adaptations that come with it are a necessity.  It's really a trait that makes the strong survive. Darwin definitely wrote a lot about that and the science proves it. 

On to the flowers, the Calochortus collection is on now, and a few nice alliums from the western US that add some nice late season color to the rock garden. I'll finish with some observations on what appears to be carnivory in a choice little monkey flower I have growing in with the Dionaea's. 

Calochortus vestae The goddess mariposa from the Northern California coast ranges, is a dynamite show stopper in the transition from spring to summer.

Allium falcifolium An Alplains collection (30054.34) from West facing serpentine slopes in Josephine County Oregon,  looks great in the rock garden.

Calochortus luteus  This one is a standout bloomer, loads of blossoms per stem.

Mimulus tricolor This has been one of the monkeyflowers on my list for a long, long time, I actually put it up there right next to M. rupicola as one that I had to have. This little charmer inhabits vernal pools, it's quite rare in the Valley, but I did often look for it in my days as a wetlands restoration specialist.

One of the things I found super interesting as I was inspecting this plant, is that it's loaded with sticky glands every bit as many as any drosera i've ever seen. In the greenhouse, I grow this in water tray alongside Dionaea muscipula, maybe it's the attraction to the flytraps that is drawing them in but the stems of this sticky sundew like monkeyflower is loaded with fungus gnats and little microbugs as if it's full on making a meal of these critters.

Scotty Fairchild the legendary propagator who spent a long career at the Leach Botanical garden introduced this Allium into our gardens. The name has always been speculated at, but it's looking dynamite this year growing under a purple Elderbery,

Allium siskiyouense  Another wonderful alplains collection, (76476.41) this one is described as a higher elevation, dwarfer version of A. falcifolium, it definitely stays true to form, only topping out at 4" tall in the rock garden. From 6000' in the Northern California Siskiyou's.  A little bit of rain back this week has been wonderful, it was a crazy warm spell, that seems to have gone on for weeks. The ground is still pretty dry but hopefully we get a few more showers this week to really soak things in.  Highs in the 70's and lows in the 40's.  Mark