Worth Waiting

I'm growing orange crocosmias in a pot. These are 'George Davison' and I had given up on them all spring and summer. I planted the corms in early spring, and then there wasn't anything for months, no sign of life at all. I stopped watering after a while and put the pot out behind my potting bench in sick bay.

Greenery started to appear in mid summer, long after it was supposed to have flowered.

Then it finally started flowering in September. This is a spring / early summer bloomer, late now by more than two months. But the orange blooms are so worth the wait. They remind me of spurred columbines with their delicate curved shapes on thin, tall stalks. They look like butterscotch candies.

I grew 'Lucifer' crocosmia in Connecticut and it was a big bold plant, with large arching sprays of screaming hot red flowers. Very striking. This crocosmia is much smaller and more delicate and more refined looking, if you can call any orange colored flower refined.

I waited for the annual black-eyed susan vine (thunbergia) to do anything and decided it was just in too much shade on the front portal. It barely put out a weak flower or two. Now it's looking great. Late, but much admired as the tangerine orange flowers spill down the side of the urn.

Too much orange? Yellow Maximillian sunflowers are opening along the garage wall. At least they are on schedule. They know it's September and they are on time, but you do have to wait all summer for this.

Nothing in this climate behaves the way I expect, and few flowers are aware of their destiny as forecast by plant tags or plant profiles. They show up when they want and they flower when they are ready, and when I want some butterscotch or tangerine or sunny yellow in my garden in September they oblige.