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| Yesterday's sunrise was evident only as a glowing pink light beneath a thick marine layer. The morning marine layer had largely disappeared of late but it paid us an unexpected return visit yesterday before the sun burned it off by mid-morning. |
It's looking - and feeling - a little more like Spring with every passing day. Much as I appreciate the warm sun on my back as I work in the garden, I'd happily put Spring's advance on hold for awhile if we could get additional winter rain. That said, I'm enjoying the early Spring blooms as they appear.
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| This is Anemone coronaria 'Admiral', making its earliest appearance in my garden yet. A few additional blooms of the same cultivar are queued up to follow. |
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| After December's heavier-than-usual rain, Arctotis 'Pink Sugar' has responded to January's warmer temperatures with a bounty of blooms |
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| The paperwhite Narcissi tazetta usually get a slow start in January but the sheer volume of flowers in both the front and back gardens is greater this year |
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| Like the African daisies in the Arctotis genus, the Osteospermums are also taking off. Most of those shown here are a self-seeded trailing variety, but my personal favorite, O. '4D Silver' (closeup, right), has self-seeded this year as well. As you can see, self-seeded Alyssum (Lobularia maritima) is showing up everywhere too. |
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| The ornamental pear tree (Pyrus calleryana) unofficially signals the start of Spring in my garden. The tree dropped the majority of its remaining leaves over the last few weeks and it's suddenly covered in white flowers. |
A traditionally late winter arrival also showed up a couple of weeks ago and it's rapidly spreading along the property line at the south end of my garden.
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| This is a wild cucumber vine, which reappears annually in the same area. It grows over an old tree stump I planted with a Yucca gloriosa years ago in a feeble attempt to deter raccoons from using the cavity as their onsite toilet. The vine grows rapidly and produces cute little flowers that turn into small, spiny cucumber-like fruits. All parts of the plant are reportedly poisonous. |
If online sources are to be credited, there is more than one genus of wild cucumber but frankly they look identical to me and possess similar characteristics. One of these, Echinocystis lobata, is said to be native to a large part of the US (but not California). The other, Marah macrocarpa, is native to Southern and Baja California. You can read more about California's native the wild cucumber here. For more Wednesday Vignettes, visit Anna at Flutter & Hum.
All material © 2012-2022 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party
