Spring in coastal Southern California is rapidly giving way to summer's advance. While temperatures have temporarily returned to spring-like levels after weeks in the upper 70s and 80s, spring blooms have been giving way to those more characteristic of summer. Last week I noticed the first
Jacaranda trees coming into bloom in my area. Yesterday I noticed these trees were blooming everywhere. My own garden is also showing signs of summer. Buds have appeared on
Agapanthus and Shasta daisies (
Leucanthemum x superbum) throughout my garden.
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| In December, I finally broke down and bought myself a dwarf Jacaranda, 'Bonsai Blue', despite the plant's still exorbitant price-tag. It's easier to fit into my garden and won't create issues with neighbors under my community's "view conservation" ordinance as the full-sized version could. It isn't quite blooming yet but it has buds! |
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| The first bloom appeared among the large collection of Agapanthus I inherited with the garden the week before last but other buds are close to following |
Achillea 'Moonshine' provided perhaps the most dramatic evidence of summer's arrival, with flowers bursting into bloom seemingly overnight in the backyard borders last week.
Just as suddenly, the first-ever blooms appeared on the
Santolina I planted in November 2015.
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| Santolina chamaecyparissus with its gray foliage can be seen in the foreground on the right and green-leaved S. rosmarinifolia is visible in the middle of the photo |
Meanwhile, after a couple of weeks of high temperatures and drying winds, my sweet peas took an abrupt nose dive. I pulled them all out, added compost to the raised bed, and planted sunflower and Zinnia seeds to greet the summer season.
As our spring gives way to summer, I was sad to note that there's been no sign that my Itoh peony is going to bloom this year despite the gift of winter's heavier-than-usual rains. It also seemed that my bearded Iris were destined to disappoint me again this year. A dwarf variety bloomed on my back slope when I wasn't looking but the taller bearded Iris planted elsewhere in the garden showed no sign of doing anything. Then, late last week, I noticed a bloom stalk on a single plant in one of my backyard borders. And yesterday morning, I found this:
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| This is Iris germanica 'Haut les Voiles'. Planted in 2012 and moved in 2015, it stopped blooming during the height of our drought, like virtually all of my bearded Iris. Dare I hope that some of the others will bloom as well? |
The Iris stands as my Wednesday Vignette, a salute to spring's performance or a nod to the incoming summer season - see it whichever way you wish. I'm just happy to see it show up. For more Wednesday Vignettes,
visit Anna at Flutter & Hum.
All material © 2012-2017 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party
