Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day - April 2011

The tax day addition.  Fortunately for my procrastinating self, taxes aren't due till Monday, and my first appt was a no-show, so I have time to blog a bit.

On my little patio/potted garden I have a couple things blooming, the first four Ca natives.  The biggest surprise were my western bleeding hearts (Dicentra formosa).  They die back completely in the dry season, and I mean completely.  I was a little afraid they wouldn't come back, but a couple of weeks ago they started leafing out and today, blooming beautifully.

My redwood sorrel (Oxalis oregana) has been green continuously, but just started flowering for the first time in almost a year.  I like the second pic.  I looks like the one flower is incredibly shy.

The columbine (Aquilegia formosa) has also just started to flower.  It's also covered in these monstrous giant bugs.  Well they look that way with my macro lens.  Way to go macro lens.  Boo to the bugs.  They were actually pretty small, and have now met their doom.

The last of the Ribes sanguineum glutinosum.  It was actual beautiful last bloom day, but I wasn't around to blog about it.

And this volunteer oxalis in one of my pots.

Happy bloom day, and thanks as always to Carol at May Dreams Garden for hosting bloom day.

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day - February 2011

Spring has arrived here in the Bay Area thanks to several weeks in the upper 60s and there is stuff blooming all over town.  I managed to snap these pics right before the rains started up again today, though.
My own gardening is limited at the moment, but I was very excited to see some blooms on my patio.  And not just any blooms, but Ribes sanguineum, aka flowering currant, one of my favorite flowers.  It's just started to open, so soon the flowers will be dripping in longer pendants.

 

Also flowering is one of my 3 blueberries.  The other two are a different variety.

 

In the house, I just bought two orchids.

 

And I have some cut birds of paradise in the house that were brought over for my birthday party.  This shot just reminds me of many a rainy day in the Bay.

Thanks as always to Carol over at May Dreams Gardens for hosting Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day.

May Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day - Moving on edition

So I couldn't resist.  About 2 weeks ago, I went over to my last garden to see if the iris (Pacific Coast  Hybrid I believe) had bloomed.  And they had!

I had been waiting for them to bloom all spring and they hadn't before I moved.  I was so excited to see them in flower, even though I don't live there to enjoy them.  The next pic is a little hard to see, but the purple of the iris looks great with the white of the snow-in-summer.

And just 2 days ago I went to see if the native honeysuckle had bloomed.  I feel like an addict, I just can't get enough.  It was the last plant in the front yard that hadn't bloomed.  Well that and the Rocky Mountain penstemon, but I've give up on those.  Well the honeysuckle has finally bloomed as well.

There were other surprises as well, like this yellow lupine with Salvia chamaedryoides in the back.

Or this guy.  I'm not sure what it is.  Might be a weed or a wildflower.  But it looked nice in the afternoon sunlight.

And in the backyard, there were tons of poppies and phacelia.

A new renter has been found and she's very excited about the garden.  Seems it was one of the main reasons she wanted to live there.  So that makes me happy.  And Happy bloom day to you all.  Thanks to Carol at May Dreams Garden for hosting this great excuse to get out and take pics of our gardens.

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.

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day - March

So this will probably be my last bloom day from here in the Essex house.  Though I'm thinking I'll have to come by to take some pics in mid-April just to see if anything is blooming.  I'm moving on to different if not greener pastures (see my previous blog post for details on that.)

So though I'm sad about leaving this wonderful garden many plants have decided to say goodbye in a showy fashion.  The most exciting of which is this, my sacred flower of the incas plant (Cantua buxifolia).  It's been in the ground for a year and a half and just started blooming a few days ago.  Only one fully opened flower so far, but I'm so excited.  I didn't think I'd get to see it.  Strange how the aggressive, phallic buds, turn into a swirling, elegant, skirt-like flower.

Sisyrinchium bellum, or blue-eyed grass, one of my favorite CA wildflowers.  They've been blooming since January, but I haven't gotten any good pictures until now.  And they have just exploded.

As have the hardenbergia and ceanothus.

 The Western Columbine (Aquilegia formosa) in front are now competing with those in back.

Here's my Salvia bees' bliss.  This triangle of dirt is usually overflowing with wildflowers this time of year, but my housemates planted some veggies here last summer and they didn't come back.  The salvia is really happy though and will take over most of the area.  I couldn't get a good pic of it, but I did have fun watching this ladybug zoom around.

Quite a few white flowers.  The redwood sorrel (Oxalis oregana) has some beautiful white flowers shyly poking out just in time for St. Patty's day.

And the snow-in-summer has sent up a few flowers, as it has been doing since January.  It keeps hoping for summer.

And this wild onion, has truly beautiful flowers (here contrasted against a fuchsia.  But they are horribly invasive, and since I won't be here to keep them under control, I pulled this one out right after the photo.

A happy bloom day to you all.  Hopefully spring is at least on its way for those of you in colder climes.  And thanks to Carol over at May Dreams Gardens for hosting this show.