Nice!

my Sparaxis haven't bloomed yet..

I had an "Uh oh" moment the other day when I saw that one of my bamboos was blooming..



Ceanothus 'Julia Phelps'


Azalea that was a gift is just coming into bloom


Dianthus 'Rose du Mai' just beginning

Sherry, I heard on the weather report that Santa Cruz got up to 80 degrees today! Woo Hoo!

From my morning walk today:

http://garden.org/thread/view_...

Gorgeous, Tarev! So nice to see green and other colors!

Very often when you'all talk about your *other* plants -- and especially if you use the latin names -- I have no clue what plants you're talking about. Pictures sometimes help -- but not always. I don't know if this is because there are many plants in California that are just not available out here in the midwest.......???

Anyway -- they all look beautiful, and interesting -- but every once in awhile something is posted that is just spectacular. And so it is with Ceanothus Julia Phelps. I can't even imagine a plant like this -- with blue flowers!!!! Wow! Gotta go and learn something about it!!

Wow. We are rather famously in Rhododendron and Azalea country but ours are easily a month out from blooming this year. Though you west coasters are already getting iris (!!) so what else should I expect!

Ceanothus are also called California Lilacs. They are planted along freeways here and so are quite common. There are many beautiful hybrids, Julia Phelps being one of them. I have this one with variegated gold and green leaves. I am training it into a tree form.

That is stunning!

I love blue in the garden (actually anywhere).

Haha Mary Ann... I don't know the common names as well as the botanic names...

Jan, It was nice out today.. Didn't feel like 80 here, but I wasn't doing a lot in the yard today... Usually we're hotter (and colder) than in town, but sometimes it gets flipped around. I'm going to have to water all my pots tomorrow..

I only have a few Azaleas, and no Rhodies anymore. I love them, but don't have enough shade and water.. and they are hosts to Sudden Oak Death.. The worst are the Bay Laurels, which spread the disease.. As more oaks die, they move in and grow quickly. I believe the drought has made it worse...

On to happier things.... Magnolia 'Butterfly' is coming into bloom.

Ceanothus 'Julia Phelps' is gorgious. I looked them up on the data base, but they don't mention zones. I'm guessing it's not winter hardy or they'd be all over the country. Do Azaleas, and Rhodies act as alternate hosts to Sudden Oak Death?

Taiyo Tree Peony has buds for the first time since 2011.

My tree peony is showing signs of life, too.

I have a friend who does landscaping, and he called me last year to tell me that he had a customer who wanted to pull out a bunch of tree peonies last summer along with some regular ones. He wanted to know if I wanted them. So I took them, even though it wasn't the best time of the year to transplant them. They went into shock and all of the leaves died. I'll have to see if they survived this spring. There were 4 of the tree types and about a dozen of the regular ones. The regular ones seemd to take off and grow fine. I have no idea what colors to expect.

Oooh, you have a niiice friend! Tree peonies can be sulky for a couple of years after a move. Be interested to know how they do.

Very very nice friend Tom! Hope they recover.

Sherry - beautiful shot of your magnolia.

tveguy3 said:Ceanothus 'Julia Phelps' is gorgious. I looked them up on the data base, but they don't mention zones. I'm guessing it's not winter hardy or they'd be all over the country.

Most are listed down to zone 8. They are native to Calif, drought tolerant and do not like regular water so our non rainy summers are ideal and I do not not add supplemental watering once they are settled in. One species C. americanus can be found in the eastern United States and southeast Canada but it has a boring white bloom.

But I just found this on Wikipedia "Plants in this genus are widely distributed and can be found on dry, sunny hillsides from coastal scrub lands to open forest clearings up to 9,000 feet. These plants are profusely distributed throughout the Rocky Mountains from British Columbia south through Colorado, the Cascades of Oregon and California, and the Coastal Ranges of California".

Well after having an unexpected bout of this:



We had one day where it got into the 70's and when it did spring rebounded and gave me tiny clumps of these all over the side yard (yes, they travel for some reason):









Unfortunately the next day we had freezing rain , so I am glad I took pictures of their one day in the sun.

So pretty, Leslie, and so very welcome after a snowy February.