Magnolia stellata at the Brookings Botanical Garden yesterday...

Lovely!

I thought so also....one of those things I always meant to plant and just never did....

That is beautiful..looks so serene

Blooming this April:
Lampranthus Pink Kaboom


Pel crispum 'Prince Rupert'


Pel hortorum 'Pink Happy Thought' - I thought I will lose this plant last winter, glad it has recovered and in bloom:


Sedum mexicanum


Ornithogalum dubium

The Violets are in flower.....I don't know 'which' Violets these are. My neighbor down in Fallbrook had a whole field of them, naturalized through the years, and the same in Iowa when I was there. The first year that I was there, my friend, Candace, and I made Violet Jelly. These are 'tighter' growing that I have here, smaller. They multiply rapidly and I'm transplanting to other borders, these are right at the front of the house, foundation planting that had been overgrown with grass.

The Salvia / Pineapple Sage was out of flower only briefly and has now come back to thrill the Hummers...protected in a large tub against the East wall...

Pretty display of violets! We get those weedy little ones here occasionally, but if they bloom it must be beneath the leaves because I never see them. Salvia is looking good!

The Ceanothus Dark Star has really come into its own this year...and my little Johnny Jump Up, still hanging in there through 85 inches of rain, many, many frosts...









And the Cooconut Geranium ! Never grew this lush in SoCal, thriving right through a tough Winter, even put out a few volunteers...








The Sensation Lilac...soon !

Love the Ceanothus! They don't do very well here though.

I just never got around to them down in FB...

They probably did well there, but the bloom period is rather brief. We had some in a planter at work, but they never bloomed.

Perfect timing to bloom from Phal Baldan's Kaleidoscope Happy Earth Day!

Cistus salviifolius...I really like this cistus. This is the prostrate form, planted on a nice bank, I've planted the upright form....

Phal Baldan's Kaleidoscope in bloom! Always fun to have something blooming indoors


Now these ones are not mine, found them on our church's sidewalk garden. Love the colorful mat of colors! Very eye catching!

All pretty colors !

Not my flowers again, but these flowers, I think they are roses climbing nicely on the fence. This is inside the private garden of Mrs. Ruth Bancroft in Walnut Creek as we headed towards her iris garden, when we visited there last Saturday:



And of course her lovely iris garden:

Nice way to spend the day...we lived in Martinez / Pleasant Hill for several years, years ago and I never did go to the Bancroft Garden !...dumb, OTOH, I was quite busy chasing my son around then...

Things are waking up...

Very first flower on the Cistus 'Sunset'...




Cistus Skanbergii waking up, has a few flowers...





Lilac Sensation...

Love the Lilac! One of the things I can only wish and remember in this zone. Those so called southern ones just aren't even close.
I have lots of stuff blooming, but haven't had the time for pictures. Maybe tomorrow.

Everything here is bursting now...all that rain and then warmth...spent the day with the weedeater mostly, more of that to do yet tomorrow...am enbarassment of riches !

The Raphiolepis across the front of the house was spectacular after all the rains, but has gone to seed and was over the window, so time to prune. While I was doing that, I kept looking at the bougainvilla so took a break, then did that until the breeze starts blowing it all over the park. Too late to drag out the ladder, so I took pictures.

Bougainvilla, rosa tabu, rosa brandy, with purple daylily, California poppies, grape poppies, Borage, dwarf Alstromeria peeking through , another daylily , Arctotis, and sweet alyssum. There's even a single bloom on a red Mum!




Pots to come