skip to main |
skip to sidebar
I do have some Spring pictures to contribute today, even though I didn't get it together to take them on the 15th for Bloom Day. Further, J actually took the best of the bunch (I asked him to, as I wasn't able to get good pictures). The weather has been fairly cool here--in fact, we've had morning frost, which is unusual for March here. (It's been a very frosty year generally, punctuated with short periods of unseasonably warm weather.) Plants that would ordinarily be in full bloom are just starting now, and some of the pot plants have either nestled down below ground for a couple more weeks or are, in fact, dead.
It was warm on Thursday, so I took a bunch of pictures. Mercifully, I deleted most of them. The cats welcomed the warm weather by doing what they most enjoy, sleeping in the sun.
The little white flower is from my thyme-leaf rhododendron, which features tiny leaves and tiny, but perfectly formed, rhododendron flowers. J took this picture, posing the plant in front of the deep green foliage he thought would show the flowers to best advantage. Oh yeah, I thought, I could move the plant before taking the picture.
The azaleas are blooming--slowly. Some years they've finished up by the end of February, but this year they started in January, then stopped, and have now begun blooming in earnest. 
Many years the deciduous azaleas (which are semi-deciduous here) bloom before putting out their new growth which presents me with perfect flowers on a plant that appears half-dead. This year, though, the bloom and new growth have mercifully appeared at the same time.
The cistus above is also blooming, as are the little violas I purchased for annual color. Supposedly, we should be able to plant pansies and violas during the winter, but I've not had success with that for several years, so I just waited until this month to plant them. I've also got a few bulbs, which I'll plant in the front yard once they've bloomed out. I've never been able to get bulbs in pots to rebloom the next year, and don't bother to try anymore. (Hear that, Secretary Geithner. It's okay to give up after a few attempts and just take over the banks.)
And I see all sorts of flower buds forming--on the dianthus, the fuschias, the roses. If the weather warms up a bit, I should be able to get some decent pictures. And if I can't, I can always enlist J in the project.
I dragged J to a plant sale today, where I began planning my garden for this year. Well, actually I bought some plants and will have to figure out where to put them, so I guess that qualifies as Planning. Spring is late this year, so lots of plants are still dormant or semi-dormant, but I did get a couple of blooming bulbs, which I'll have to remember not to kill when they go dormant in the summer. I also found a cool dianthus with red foliage and a couple more geraniums (cranesbill). As all geraniums went dormant this year, even those that sometimes bloom a little in warmer winters, I don't know what color the flowers will be yet.
I'm also planning the revision of the back garden again. I killed most of it and replanted it last year and, although I'm reasonably happy with one side, the other side is going to be ripped out. I'm eliminating the Mexican marigold--it's gangly--and moving the cistus that's behind it forward to make room for a tree mallow. I have a tree mallow on the other side, one that grew much taller than I expected, and the back garden looks seriously unbalanced.
I've torn out two flowering maples (abutilon) next to the path to the gate and am planning to plant Ceanothus. I want something that covers up the air-conditioning unit, but doesn't require that I hack my way through the thing to get to the gate.
The roses are putting out new growth, a little later than usual--like everything else. My Cecil Brunner was in full bloom by the middle of March last year, but has only started putting out new growth this year. My front yard Chinese rose has already put out it's first bud, but it's one of those roses that will bloom all summer and into the fall if I remember to feed it.
I should have cheated and gone out yesterday to take my February bloom pictures. But I didn't, and today was fiercely windy. I've lot a pot, part of a pelargonium and a chunk of one of the flowering maples. And the yard's a mess, of course.
So I ventured out and obtained some really pathetic pictures. That's why I'm going to record what's in bloom and limit the pictorial representations. In bloom: Camellia japonica Nuccio's Gem and White Dove, although the White Dove has just started blooming. Unfortunately the rain has turned the petals of both brown. The azaleas are just starting to bloom; they're a bit late this year. The cyclamen has been blooming since November and still hasn't quit. The hellebores have just started blooming, but they come into full bloom at the end of the month and bloom until mid-April. The bacopa (both lavendar and white) is blooming, as are the violas I planted last month. And the various flowering maples have a few blooms each, but haven't put much energy into blooming yet.
The fancy-leafed violas I bought in September, and which I thought had met their demise this winter, seem to be springing back from the roots, as are the geraniums. While we had odd periods of near-summer this winter, we've also had many frosty nights, and plants that are usually only semi-deciduous (just look like they're dying all winter) lost all their leaves and went into hibernation. But they seem to be slowly coming back to life.
However, spring is not quite here yet. The dicentra that, for the last few years, has put out it's first leaf at the end of January, is juuuust about to put out a leaf--but not quite. And the campanula have a few buds, but not flowers as yet. The same for the various cistus.
My friend A and I went walking this morning. A reminded me that I had predicted a warm, wet winter and a warm spring to follow. (She reminded me of this because nights have been in the low 30s for months now, and we were being stung by a breeze that seemed to have come directly to Sacramento from Alaska.) Maybe I'll be right about the warm spring, but I guess I shouldn't claim any predictive power.
The cold nights have been hard on some of the plants. A few of them (like the three hibiscus I developed an enthusiasm for at the end of the summer) were put out of their misery several weeks ago. Two tiny Japanese painted ferns are only a couple of weeks from the garden waste bin, and I think a few others are in jeopardy if the night-time weather doesn't improve soon.
The azaleas, which were early last year, seem to be waiting for warmer weather. The buds are there, but only a few blooms so far. I know when to do the first spring fertilizing--one of my dicentras puts out a little frond. I can see the green, but a frond is likely ten days to two weeks away. Last year it was just at the end of January. It's possible that it will be a warm spring, but I don't think it will be an early one.
Erigeron with sunroses.
A view from the front door. This is the first time the New Zealand tea tree has produced more than two blossoms.
Roses with cistus.
A native penstemon, noted in Lester Rowntree's Hardy Californians: A Woman's Life With Native Plants. It's Penstemon spectabilis. 
Roses, some in bud, some with aphids.
I do have some Spring pictures to contribute today, even though I didn't get it together to take them on the 15th for Bloom Day. Further, J actually took the best of the bunch (I asked him to, as I wasn't able to get good pictures). The weather has been fairly cool here--in fact, we've had morning frost, which is unusual for March here. (It's been a very frosty year generally, punctuated with short periods of unseasonably warm weather.) Plants that would ordinarily be in full bloom are just starting now, and some of the pot plants have either nestled down below ground for a couple more weeks or are, in fact, dead.
It was warm on Thursday, so I took a bunch of pictures. Mercifully, I deleted most of them. The cats welcomed the warm weather by doing what they most enjoy, sleeping in the sun.
Many years the deciduous azaleas (which are semi-deciduous here) bloom before putting out their new growth which presents me with perfect flowers on a plant that appears half-dead. This year, though, the bloom and new growth have mercifully appeared at the same time.
I should have cheated and gone out yesterday to take my February bloom pictures. But I didn't, and today was fiercely windy. I've lot a pot, part of a pelargonium and a chunk of one of the flowering maples. And the yard's a mess, of course.
So I ventured out and obtained some really pathetic pictures. That's why I'm going to record what's in bloom and limit the pictorial representations. In bloom: Camellia japonica Nuccio's Gem and White Dove, although the White Dove has just started blooming. Unfortunately the rain has turned the petals of both brown. The azaleas are just starting to bloom; they're a bit late this year. The cyclamen has been blooming since November and still hasn't quit. The hellebores have just started blooming, but they come into full bloom at the end of the month and bloom until mid-April. The bacopa (both lavendar and white) is blooming, as are the violas I planted last month. And the various flowering maples have a few blooms each, but haven't put much energy into blooming yet.
The fancy-leafed violas I bought in September, and which I thought had met their demise this winter, seem to be springing back from the roots, as are the geraniums. While we had odd periods of near-summer this winter, we've also had many frosty nights, and plants that are usually only semi-deciduous (just look like they're dying all winter) lost all their leaves and went into hibernation. But they seem to be slowly coming back to life.
