Cooler Weather And An Adorable Plant!

Ahoy all!  Two weeks ago we had blowtorch Santa Ana winds, 7% humidity and 105º temps.  My roses and Brugmansia blooms fried!  It was horrible!   I am breathing a sigh of relief that we are FINALLY into real autumn weather here in SoCal!  It was cloudy all last week with high temps in the 60's. YES!  Highs in the 60's and low 70s as far as the weather on my iPhone can see!   It is so much easier to work outdoors and the plants(and I) do better when it's not BAKING! Thank goodness!

Here is my new favorite plant.  I know I say that every time a new plant dazzles me.  It's called Gomphrena decumbens Airy Bachelor Buttons.  I ordered it from Annie's Annuals only about 1 1/2 years ago.  Most people know the bedding annual Gomphrena, sometimes called Globe Amaranth.  It IS in the Amaranth family.  They are native to the range of Brasil, Panama and Guatemala.  This one is perennial.  This past spring, one plant was doing so well in my garden. I looked at it and thought maybe it would do well from cuttings.  And it's so cute that I could plant some more.  So I took and potted up 3 cuttings.  All 3 rooted and I planted them around the garden.  Then about a month later I took a few more cuttings.  All of them rooted.  I pinched the ones growing in the garden a little in the summer.  And now they are blooming! SO CUTE!!!  This plant takes part shade to full sun and grows to 2 1/2' tall and wide.  Annie's site says it may reseed like the other Gomphrena in the garden.  See this blog post  Gomphrena post from 2014 I hope it does!

I had to stake this one because the wind blew it over. 

It was really difficult to photograph the tiny blooms. 

Airy is correct! 

I now have 4 plants of this beauty in my garden.  Do you grow it?  

Happy Gardening! 

SaveSave