My First Poppy

The wildflowers are continuing to come in. I had one lupine, but I set the sprinklers on last night and it broke under the weight of the water. :(

That being said, the rest of them are doing well.

They include my first poppy:


The Chinese houses are also doing great:


Here's how this whole corner looks. The plants with the blue flowers are perennials called "Margarita Penstemon." The Canyon Island Silver Snowflake (in the lower right) is also a perennial. Mixed in between are the annuals: the Chinese houses and the Golden Fields.


Lots of Tidy tips are coming in, particularly along the base of the still-dormant Desert willow:


As are the bulbs:


The Coral bells on the east side of the house have finally begun to bloom. I hope they catch up to the Coral bells on the west side:


The Canyon sunflower continues to defy the odds and remains alive:


The Ceanothus Concha is preparing to bloom:


The orange tree has begun to bloom:


Here's a close up of the Phacelia. It's gotten so tall, so fast, that it towers over the Indian mallow:


The front yard:


The wildflower meadow on the west side:


The wooly blue curls:


This second one didn't look like it would survive, but it decided to live:


The monkey flowers are blooming again. About a third of this plant was killed last week when someone (probably one of the school kids on their way to or from the nearby school decided to walk on the brick ledge and fell on it.


The contractor put in a drainage ditch on the side yard next to the Pink-flowering currants and filled it with pea gravel.

I planted three currants. This is the one doing the best. Luckily, it's closest to my bedroom window. At the Grow Native Nursery last week, I noticed that some of theirs are flowering. Mine haven't yet.


This one nearly drowned in December, but it's making a come back:


This one was doing fine until recently:


Meanwhile the night-flowering jasmine is blooming.


And my container plants are also doing well:


Finally, I've had the ornamental lights on the side of the house replaced (most of the old ones didn't work). I'm going to have more put in on the front (both east and west sides).

Here's the front:


And here is the side:


And here is a close up with the Chapparal Currents (which are growing nicely):

New Developments

I've been making minor improvements to the house.

For example, I now have ornamental, black shutters on my bedroom window. I think they improve the way the house looks.


I've put in new decorative lights and also a drainage trench on the side, though those aren't finished yet.

Meanwhile, the Phacelia is getting really big and the poppies are preparing to bloom:


So far, only one of the Chinese houses is blooming, but the others are getting close:


Finally, both Ceanothus 'Concha' (California mountain lilac) have lots of reddish buds on them, but only one has bloomed. It should look spectacular in a few weeks when the rest are open.

More Wildflowers Sprouting

More and more wildflowers are starting to emerge.

The first ones to flower were the golden fields. The latest are the baby blue eyes:




The fern leaf phacelia have begun to sprout. These are quite tall:




It looks as if the next one to flower will be the Chinese houses. This one (with the lavender and white petals) has just begun.

More Rain, More Damage to the Sunflowers

Another set of rain storms, more damage to the canyon sunflowers. The first time they drowned; this time they keeled over.




I've spent the last three months fretting over my desert willow. It lost all its leaves in November and now looks completely dead.

The twigs and branches looked dead, dried, and lifeless. However, the guides all say this is normal, particularly the first winter, and that it will resurrect itself in the spring, and then bloom wonderfully all summer.

The wild flowers at its base are doing quite well.


Meanwhile, almost all my bulbs have begun to sprout.


The wildflower gardens are coming along nicely. This is a California poppy:


The coral bells on the east side of the front yard have finally begun to bloom. I worried that they may have been too affected by the floods of December.


They're still nothing like the coral bells on west side, but maybe they'll catch up.

Yellow Flowers of February

A few more flowers have started to emerge.

The biggest (pleasant) surprise is the Canyon Sunflower:


I didn't think this one would survive the flood. Now, it's the first to flower.

Early on, I thought this Indian Mallow wasn't doing very well. Now, it's also begun to flower:


Finally, another wildflower has sprouted. This one is called Layia platyglossa (Tidy Tips):

First Flowers of Winter

As we come into February, the first of the winter flowers have emerged (some are also probably early spring).

First off, is the manzanita:


The flowers are small, white, and bell shaped:


The coral bells have been blooming since December (though only on one side of the front yard). The ones I planted on the other side suffered worse in the flood, get less sunlight, and so are only now beginning to show signs of new growth).


Here's a close up the bell-like flowers:


The wildflowers on the westside of the house are still only middling sized:


On the west parkway strip, which has the most arid plants, there still is only one blue sage that's blooming:


The white sages, however, are showing signs of new growth and vigor:


The wild flower seeds in the north parkway strip are growing fast and furious. I'm still not sure what some of them are:


They are really dwarfing the indian mallow (which is also doing far better than I thought last November).

The first of the wild flowers to sprout are the Lasthenia glabrata (aka goldfields):


There are several clumps of these growing across the yards, but I don't know yet what flower they will produce (I suspect that they are Collinsia heterophylla aka chinese houses).


Many of the plants that I thought I might lose in the floods of December have almost entirely recovered, including the canyon sunflowers (which I was sure were goners), which appear to be preparing to bloom:


Also doing well, the pitcher sage (with new blossoms forming):


The island sunflower (sporting new growth)


The lavender is also doing great.


A few plants aren't doing well, however, and I'm surprised by which they are.

The Mexican sage, which seems to be indestructible, seems lethargic:


But by far the worst are the buckwheats, which seem to be just barely hanging on.

This is the healthiest of the bunch:


This one doesn't look like it's going to make it