Rest assured that the spell check did not like that word I made up, Graptosalvia. It still doesn’t, and would not even hazard a guess at what I was trying to type. Grapto for the grey graptosedum and salvia for the flowers.

The wildflowers in my garden have responded wonderfully to my haphazard fertilizing a couple of months ago followed by lavish rain showers over the past couple of weeks. I have never seen them so big or so green. Another home run for time release fertilizer. Osmocote may be the secret for gardening on sugar sand. The succulents, graptosedum and friends, are also enjoying the heat and food. I never do anything special to the succulents and they just keep multiplying..the instructions I read on the internet for succulents boggle my mind.

The contents:

The funky foliage in the vase – two cuttings of grey graptosedum, these things tend to shed leaves as they are moved, so I arranged the lost leaves into a fan at the base of the vase. The spiky green foliage is a frond from a palm seedling stuffed between the flower stems to make them stand up straight. It looks deceptively like a spike dracaena.

The flowers:

In red, white and pink spikes, Tropical Red Salvia (Salvia coccinea); yellow flowers are Thyrallis (Galphimia gracilis), this is one of my favorite summer flowering shrubs. It would probably be taller if I did not like to cut the flowers. There are a few white spikes of Sweet Almond Bush (Aloysia virgata) and I managed to cut the Gallardias (Gallardia pulchella) off the bottom of the picture. The vase is a leftover florist vase from ..who knows where, but the perfect size.

Happy Summer Monday to all and thanks to Cathy at http://ramblinginthegarden.wordpress.com for hosting IAVOM. Follow the link to see more vases..