White blooms at Walnut Creek

More spring garden blooms

Coreopsis

First bud on the Indigo spires

The front bed is filling in thickly

Two shades of red autumn sage are happily blooming

I took a pitchfork to the roots of this self-planted flame acanthus last fall trying to remove it (bad location), but this plant is a tough survivor. At least the butterflies will be happy.

Chinaberry tree blossoms on my walk this morning

This morning at Walnut Creek

Survivor stories

So, there are certain plants in the landscape I was sure hadn't made it through those stretches of below freezing weather this winter. The Pride of Barbados that went in last summer looked like a goner, and one gardener suggested I just replant because I wouldn't know if it was alive till May. Well, last week I saw this:

And then I noticed some new growth at the base of the firebush, another one I thought was beyond hope.

The comeback of the sweet potato vine also surprised me.

And as I got ready to pull out a dead geranium (this is what it looked like in Feb) to put in a new one, I noticed this:

What can I say, I love a plant with survival skills.

Behold my bejeweled yard

Finally: a rainy morning! I could be wrong, but this feels like the driest spring we've had in a while. Of course, officially spring is just a week old, but we've already had several days in the 80's with full sun. And I'm just happy to have a light rain this morning and coolish temps. If we get a thunderstorm this afternoon, even better.







Above: artemesia, mountain laurel, kale, Texas sage, standing cypress, honeysuckle (first of the season), and Tropicana canna.

Below: not quite as jewel-like, but definitely benefiting from the rain, a newly potted bougainvillea, bed on the north side of the house with everspreading inland sea oats, sea oat seedlings in the patio and spent blooms from the neighbor's honey locust tree, one of the freesia blooms has fallen into the gregg's blue mist, more freesia (the scent of the damp blossoms is pretty amazing), and a soon-to-bloom butterfly weed.

Garden scenes from the weekend

Blank spots in the front bed got planted with lambs ear, wooly thyme, gaura, and hummingbird sage seed.


Love the color on the Sunlover's Coleus and the dianthus has sent up its first bud.

The primroses are filling in and hopefully the larkspur will bloom soon.

Wildflowers on this weekend's hikes:

First evening primroses of the year

I thought it might be a couple more days before they opened, but this morning I saw about a dozen pink blooms in the front bed. Pretty soon: hundreds! In the second photo, they're mixed in with larkspur and copper canyon foliage. Below: the zucchini started blooming yesterday.