Wildflowers of Southern California

I have a page on FB called Wildflowers of Southern California. Feel free to look at it. https://www.facebook.com/WildflowersSoCal When nothing is in bloom, I take pictures of seed pods, lichens, or whatever else is outdoorsy and strikes my fancy.

Nice, Kelli! Thank you for sharing.

How far south are you? I know spring flowers are abundant tween San Diego and LA - beautiful areas down there

I am just north of L.A. Due to the drought, things are not blooming. We should have ceanothus blooming now but the plants are losing leaves and not making flower buds.

I suspect blooms are going to be delayed this spring instead of early. The cold is keeping smart plants dormant a bit longer than usual. I like your FB page. Thats teaching a bunch of folks about plants they didnt know, chuckl. Very good idea. Tx is still losing trees to that one wicked bad drought year and some areas have seen no changes yet.

Thank you. I'm glad both of you liked it. One of my goals is to get people to appreciate form and texture when there are no flowers.

Admirable goal, Kelli. I am a huge foliage fan. I think that love began when I lived in CA.

Hi Kelli, I'm a SoCal transplant to Az, but I'm pretty sure you might still be able to help me with my mystery seedlings. I'm great at plucking seeds and pods from whatever I'm curious to grow, but not so good at labeling. These seeds came from one fat pod like a bierd of paradise, but plumper. Could they be bop? Not mesquite or palo verde, I think. I just don't think the leaves look right for bop, but then I don't have one on hand to compare to.

I'm sure a pic would be helpful!😜

Too early to tell without more pictures of the pod or plant it came from. Give us more pictures when it gets a bit bigger...

They look like sunflowers, but sunflower seeds don't come from a pod.

Sunflowers dont have same blooms as bird of paradise. - i wouldnt expect bird of paradise sprouts to look like anything in the sunflower family either.

Uh oh. I did plant sunflowers... I planted a lot of different types of seeds in a 72 pack. I guess I might have labeled my seed map wrong! And I'm very happy to have the sunflowers too. So I guess my mystery pod seeds didn't show 😣. Thanks from a very embarrassed Julia

Don't be embarrassed! Show me any one here who has not mislabeled something! And just keep learning...I've learned a lot just by reading all over Daves Garden.

That's for sure!

Just FYI, there are two things called bird of paradise, depending on where you live. Bird of paradise (Strelitzia regina) is this http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/619/ These are grown in California and Hawaii. I don't know if they are grown in Arizona. The seeds are dark brown and are the size of a pea. They have a tuft of orange fuzz sticking to them that should be removed before planting.

In California, it is called pride of Barbados, but in Arizona, Caesalpinia pulcherrima is call red bird of paradise or just bird of paradise http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/2247/ The seeds are brown and smaller than a dime but bigger than a pea. .

This message was edited Feb 19, 2014 6:30 PM

I planted the caesalpinia pulcherrima then. They grow wild out here along the roadside and wherever. Just not in my seed tray! Probably to much moisture in the potting mix for them?
Thanks for the encouragement, too, Dave's is a wonderful place for these kinds of questions. I'm glad I found this particular thread. I know Kelli is a gold mine in southwestern natives!

Too early maybe, is dry there. Try nex month maybe- andd try a mudball instead of fancy trays- if they grow wild, look for any sprouting and try them in the soil you find em growin in.

So I put the seed in a mudball and just wait? Should I keep it damp? Is a kind of clayey mix ok? That's what my soil is here.

Years ago, we had tried growing pride of Barbados (bird of paradise) from seed and had no luck so we bought a couple plants when we were on vacation in Arizona. We've had a couple seedlings come up on their own since then. It may take a long time or summer heat for them to sprout. Don't give up.

We sprout natives in Tx by rolling em in a mudball and tossing em out. Thing is, certain types of wildflower seeds can wait years for proper conditions- so you never know what will come up when. Get a pot of the dirt the mama plant grew in, make your mudball and thunk it in that pot- , set it out on maybe the edges of a bush or tree on say the southeast edges. Let nature take its course. There may be someone on the askagardner pages who has the trick...

This is from a seed I picked from a deciduous tree on the side of a mountain near my place in northwest az. It wa in a watershed. Canyon is much too big a word of the vee in the side of the hill. The seeds grew in bunches. The leaves come out in pairs. Maybe a kind of locust? This 'tree' is about two months old.

Doesn't look like anything I've ever seen before.

Locusts and mesquites have bean pods, that looks like a winged seed, wish I had pix of the 'bunches' or the tree shape and might be able to help better. Dolan Springs I see north of Kingman, in the edges of the mohave. But instead of coming thru the wash, you picked that seed?

we shall see if it works http://www.azarboretum.org/bigtrees/June2004updates.htm but my guess is an ash...

Hmmm, does it LOOK like a New Mexican locust to you? Robinia neomexicana

The leaves say locust, the seed says ash! I'm just going to have to wait I guess. Just thrilled it's growing!