Wildflowers in Tilden

I'm a little behind on my blogging.  These photos are from about 3 or 4 weeks ago on a hike up in Tilden Park in Berkeley.  It was a beautiful day with lots blooming. Enjoy.\

Sisyrinchium bellum (blue-eyed grass) perfectly scattered about this meadow.

Lupine.  A huge slope full of these big purple bushes.  Really beautiful.

There was a slope full of Indian paintbrush and checker mallow.

And not a picture of a flower, but this branch popping out of the main stem was pretty cool.  Cow parsnip or Heracleum maximum.  A not so attractive plant in my opinion, but I like this shot.

Mt. Diablo Wildflowers

Whoever said April showers bring May flowers was obviously not from California.  Though we do have rain forecast for tonight and tomorrow.  Our wildflowers are already on full display.  I went up to Mt. Diablo in the Mitchell Canyon area to check out the wildflowers on a day off about ten days ago.  I was not disappointed.  A really beautiful section of the mountain with a huge variety of wildflowers.

One of the first things we saw were Ithuriel's spears.  Not my favorite bulb since the flowers remind me of agapanthus, but just opening or scattered about a grassy meadow, I think I could learn to like them.

Some type of allium, either Allium serra or unifolium I think.

Indian warrior and Indian paintbrush.  The latter with some unusual host plants, like a salvia.

Larkspur aka delphinium.  There was also a red one that I rarely see.

Clematis ligusticifolia, chaparral clematis, was all over a couple of slopes.  And some of the trees.

More after the jump.

Green

Gardening Gone Wild's theme of their monthly photo contest is "green."  Looking through my photos I realized that mostly I focus on big landscape photos, or close ups of blooms.  I did find two though that I thought represented green pretty well.

What could be more green than a palo verde, a desert tree that has a green trunk, green branches, green stems and leaves.

Well I thought the sun shining through the leaves of this padron pepper and onto the green pepper itself did a better job.  Especially since these peppers stay green when ripe.

Check out more entries at the Picture This Contest for April.  And for the music that inspired my photo sifting give a listen to Joni Mitchell's Little Green while you look through the green inspired photos and blog posts.

April Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day - Tax edition

So I've moved, my taxes are done, I now have internet at the new place (and faster too!) and can blog once again.  So since I don't really have anything to show from my new place (yet) I rode my bike over to my old place to take pictures.  It was bittersweet.  Lots of stuff is blooming, much of it new in just the last two weeks, so the yards look beautiful.  But sadly, I don't live there anymore.  So here is perhaps the final bloom day from the Essex gardens.  Enjoy.

The snow-in-summer has exploded and looks really nice with the blue-eyed grass.

Some salvias in bloom.  And the sacred flower of the inca.

Columbine in front.

I'm not sure if you can see them all, but there are foxgloves, nasturtiums, columbine, blue-eyed grass, poppies and some flowering ground cover all in full bloom under this lemon tree.

This foxglove is, surprisingly, almost as tall as I am.

And this one (sorry about overexposure) is actually taller than I am.

And a honeybee visiting the brussel sprouts.

Several of the phacelia had just one of their buds per group open.

And this hardenbergia is still going strong.

Thank you for bearing with me through all these photos.  It's a bit of a farewell to the garden.  And thanks as always to Carol at May Dreams Gardens for hosting Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day.

SF Flower and Garden Show - 2010

So I've been a little slow on the posting, but in my defense I still don't have an internet connection at my new place.  So I'm also a little late with my SF Flower and Garden Show post, but I went, I saw and I photo'd so I might as well share it here.  Also almost one year ago (this Friday April 9th to be exact) was my very first blog post also about the show.   So here's to my blog's one year anniversary.

At the show the lighting is terrible and it's hard to take photos.  I did get a few though that I think are OK. 

My favorite garden was the Salvaged Creole Jazz Courtyard designed by Dawn Engel.  It was a pleasant little courtyard, one I could actually see having on my own property, and they spent a lot of time on detail.

Like this wrought iron fence in the shape of musical notes and staffs.

Or this hellebore hybrid named "Mardi Gras black" in a drum.  There was also an aeonium "voodoo".

I also liked this Tuscan inspired garden.

And this treehouse like retreat.

More after the jump.