Update on the ubiquitous yellow wildflower.... after some searching, I found this valuable website
http://www.calflora.org. I had already ruled out field mustard, so I determined that it had to be some sort of oxalis. Searching on oxalis species in Santa Clara County (there are four, only one of which is native), I found the identity of the wildflower:
Oxalis pes-caprae, aka "Bermuda buttercup"
http://www.calflora.org/cgi-bi... .
As chance would have it, I have a few plants growing on my property. How this is, I don't know... I would have sworn they came from seed, but this oxalis apparently does not have viable seed; it spreads by underground bulbs.
http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG... I do note that my few plants are all in the ground, not in flower pots.
I took the picture below, today. You can see that it is a perfect match to the calflora.org image, down to the spotted leaves. Unless someone can come up with some other candidate, I think my mystery is solved!
Oxalis pes-caprae, aka "Bermuda buttercup" in my garden
On the non-wild side, one of my two white-flowered society garlic cultivars has started blooming. I have both
Tulbaghia violacea 'Alba', and
Tulbaghia violacea 'Pearl'. My sole plant of 'Alba' is now in bloom; my three plants of 'The Pearl' haven't starting blooming yet (but are showing flower buds). For inquiring minds, I bought both of these cultivars from
http://www.secretgardengrowers... .
(What I would
really like is a white-flowered
variegated society garlic; it would be just the thing for my Moon Garden. Alas, though... apparently such a plant does not exist, so I must make do with the green foliage.)
'Alba' is in the foreground; the azalea behind the small Japanese maple is 'Southern Charm' (please excuse the mess in the background!)
closeup of
Tulbaghia violacea 'Alba'
