Spring in Salinas

Spring comes early to the Central Coast area; in fact, we hardly had a winter this year. Some of my plants have already done their blooming, while others are hard at it. Here's some of what's blooming now. The first picture is of my bulb garden, which surrounds a big rock in the front yard. Blooming the moment are daffodils (small-flowered and larger doubles), Hyacinths (a variety of colors, though mostly only pink ones are left now), Bermuda Buttercups, Spring Snowdrops, and Anemones of various colors. Still to come are species tulips and Mariposa Lilies.

Next is a double Hellebore (although they turned out to be mostly semi-double). This is almost finished blooming for this year.

Osteospermum and Paper Daisy. The Paper Daisy hasn't stopped blooming since we planted it last spring.

Snapdragons, Violas, and a dwarf Fuchsia under one of the Birch trees.

Million Bells (Calibrachoa) under one of the Birch trees.

New Guinea Impatiens, double Impatiens, and Million Bells under one of the Birch trees.

Primroses in a shady spot along the front of the house.

Camellia 'Bob Hope'. This is one of several Camellias we have; some have finished blooming already, others just getting ready.

Hebe 'Coed' by the end of the driveway. This was marked as 'Coed', I'm not totally convinced of that yet. Just planted last weekend.

Gazanias.

Pieris japonica.

Rosemary. This is one of two large rosemarys trimmed into 'hedges' flanking our garage.

Our crown jewel, the California Lilac (Ceanothus impressus) tree in our front yard, getting its blue on. It's also quite fragrant, and the bees love it.

Sweet Pea Bush. This is another plant that blooms year round.

Hellebores.

Petunias and Bacopa in a hanging planter.

African Daisy (Arctotis)

Chasmanthe. These things are basically weeds in my yard. I started with one and now they're all over the yard.

Azalea 'Red Bird".

Azalea 'Barbara Morland' just finishing up its bloom. A week ago it was covered with blossoms.

Fuchsia 'Dark Eyes'. These are the first blooms on this one after it was trimmed back hard during the winter.

Shade garden along the back fence. We just put this in last year, at the base of a 'privacy hedge' of Hopbushes (Dodonea). Blooming now are Cyclamen, Fairy Primrose, German Primrose, Lamium, two types of Hellebores, blue Bacopa, and several Fuchsias. I also planted a bunch of shade garden seeds, hence the green carpet.

Fuchsia thymifolia.

Pink Jasmine on a trellis in the back yard. Smells delicious.

Orange wallflowers.

Queen's Tears (Bilbergia nutans). These actually survived a winter outside.

Fuchsia magellanica.

Clivia.

Gold Dust Plant (Aucuba japonica). These tiny, almost unnoticeable flowers give way to red berries later.

Fuchsia in a hanging planter. Just bought; don't know the cultivar yet.

WG, your neighbors must love you. Beautiful pictures and I LOVE that Ceanothus!

Nice variety of plants. You are about two weeks ahead of me. I have a chasmanthe too - but I plant it by itself in it's own space to control the spread. This is it's second year, so it is easy to control.

Yeah, beautiful! You're ahead of me, too.....thank goodness, as I have pruning left to do!

WG - What a tease you are. Imagine, a moist shade garden. In my dreams! Your garden is certainly beautifully planted and growing so lovely. How old is your jasmine on the fence and your California Lilac tree?

quiltygirl,

Not sure how old the Ceanothus tree is -- it was here when we moved in nearly 5 years ago. It's very undemanding -- I just clean out the understory of dead stuff every year after it finishes blooming -- and doesn't want to be watered beyond what it gets from rainfall. In fact, overwatering seems to be a good way to kill Ceanothus. We also have a different form of Ceanothus as a hedge in front, and it's in bloom too.

The jasmine is about 3 years old now. We had a Bougainvilla on that trellis when we moved in, but it got killed by a nasty frost we had a few years ago, and we replaced it with the jasmine. It was just a little plant twining up a stick when we planted it, but it fairly quickly took over the trellis and now has extended itself onto another trellis a couple of feet away. It needs trimming occasionally to prevent it from taking over the world. But I'm used to that; on the fence on the NW side of the house we have a Trumpet Creeper with the same idea. And in the front of the house we have an 8 foot New Zealand Flax that has to be hacked back occasionally so as not to block the sidewalk. It's a rare weekend around here when I don't fill up a large yard waste bin with all of the pruning, weeding, and general cleanup.

But I love it anyway!

Soilsandup, watch out for that Chasmanthe. Mine was in a confined space the first year it came up. The next year, there were a couple clear across the yard. Since then, they've spread everywhere. Maybe the secret is to make sure they don't go to seed -- they must be spread by birds or something.

Anyway, happy gardening, all.

Jim

Thanks for the warning, Jim. I'll watch it like a hawk. I was planning on picking the flowers for a bouquet anyway, so that will take care of any potential seeding problems.

Lovely photos of your yard. I really enjoyed the tour, weatherguesser. I've been out taking some photos, but mostly trying to get things transplanted and watered. This heat spell is not so good for some our inland valleys, although I'd have to agree it was a mild winter. I'm still doing some trimming too.
Thanks for sharing. I love shade gardens, and have been working on achieving one for years.
Start with dirt, plant tree, and water. Wait for 20 years. LOL!
Glad you didn't have to wait that long!
WIB!
SW

SW,
Thanks -- I've certainly enjoyed your walks (and your hummers) as well. Our shade was built-in when we bought the house -- on our side of the fence, we have a large Coral-Bark Japanese Maple, a big Sycamore (really a London Plane, but I like the Sycamore name better), and a bunch of Australian Hopbushes that were apparently planted as a privacy hedge. There was nothing going on under the Hopbushes, so last year we trimmed up their bases and built a planter box around them. We're just starting to reap the benefits, and finding out which shade plants like it here and which don't. For example, we planted both blue and white flowered Bacopas; the white ones all died and the blue ones are thriving. Go figure.

Anyway, I love our yard, and so do the local bees, butterflies, and hummers! It's not a big expanse like yours (about 1/3 acre), but it's pretty well packed full of plants my wife and I really like; besides the flowers, we have lots of ferns, tree ferns, and Fuchsias, plants I've always loved but could never get to grow until we moved here. Something new pops up just about every day. We had little Chinese Ground Orchids (Bletilla striata) pop up three years ago, and this year we suddenly have a white one, which we never had before. I don't know where the new things come from. I don't pull anything any more unless I'm firmly convinced it's a weed.

I joined Dave's Garden in part just to help me figure out what was here when we moved in. Since then, I've found that Dave's is not just an invaluable resource, but a great community of really nice people whom I never would have known without my curiosity about my garden. Thanks to you and everyone at DG for making it so much fun to be a gardener.

Jim

Aghh!!! Chasmanthe!!! The bulb that ate Los Angeles, or at least my yard. I like them in moderation, but they don't believe in moderation. I dig them up and I still have twice as many the next year. I can't even make a cash crop out of them and sell them on eBay.

I don't think the birds or mice spread the seed. The seed hangs around so long that I don't think anything is eating it, but I don't know. I think the wind just blows them along.

Warning well taken, Kelli. Did you ever get it out of your yard? I never knew it was a problem in LA. I saw a lot of it in the bay area. That was where I got it from.

Since it has finished blooming in my backyard, I will be cutting off ALL the flower stalks to insure that there will be no seeds. I also have it enclosed in it's own concrete block so the corms should not be going anywhere either. I have had so many problems with plants that were "invasive" and I did not know it. I am constantly pulling out those onion-like bulbs with white flowers and the purple Japanese anenomes.