California spring is on the way!

Beautiful blooms WC & Kell. Love the shade of purple on that Jean's Salvia. Different than ones I have seen in the stores.

Kell- Your Harbinger of Spring, does that have another name. I saw one like that (of course MUCH smaller) at Lowes and it had another name ________ vine. At first I though they were wisteria at the store. I loved the look, but it seems it either required some shade or something moist & fertile, neither of which I have. I see yours is in full sun, so is it a moisty soil? And those Ribes are drop dead gorgeous. Where can those be purchased?

CG- A banana tree that lives through winter in Fresno? Go figure, or did it live in the garage or some other warmer place?

Yes, Zillow is not precise. It does give you a general idea. When I put our address and zip in it shows the town of Winchester, not Wildomar. The satellite shots are from about 4 1/2 years ago, as are most of the satellite shots with mapquest, etc. I can tell by where the goat pen and horse corrals were at the time, as we have changed them 4 times! It does give me a better picture of where I'm going when I am getting directions. For instance I could tell how many houses from the street corner Weegy's house was and what side the driveway was on. Silly, but all ways that help me get where I am going.

And yes, it is scary the way people can find you. I mean I am not very good at it and I talk to people on the phone and describe their house and yard and they are freaked (especially if their house looks the same as 5 years ago). Just think what computer raised kids could do.

LOL SW, I just reread your comment for I didn't really understand it earlier. I do not hide under a bushel, I wouldn't fit! I mostly hang out in PlantFiles posting pictures. I have a hot and heavy long term love affair with all things plants and taking their picture. I have thousands and thousands of them. On a typical day outing, I take over 1000 pictures most of which need to be deleted. LOL

Thanks Quiltygirl. The purple vine is Hardenbegia violacea -- Happy Wanderer. The trouble with it is that it is spectacular in early spring but then it sits there taking up so much room being blah for the rest of the year. I need more bang for my limited space. That one shown is at my friend's house. I so enjoy it, it just has to be not in my yard for my admiration. LOL

As far as the Ribes speciosum, that one I found on a walk by the water. I imagine a good Californian native nursery would carry it or be able to locate it for you. I am not familiar with it at all. HD or Lowes could carry it and but unless it was in bloom I most probaby would never have even looked at it. Though the leaves are glossy and fun. It does have stickers. Good for under a window.

The dentist did not go well, my root is cracked and abscessed so it must come out. I do not even want to know how much that will all cost. Woe is me. And of course the pain has increased 10 fold since I now know what is wrong with it. LOL

So I stopped by HD to comfort myself. They had huge Queen's Palms in 15 gallon cans for only $40. I so wanted 1 but no room! What a deal! They had fat hairy cactus in 8 inch pots for $15. Even though I swore I would never buy cactus, I added a few to my no cactus, cactus collection! But my tooth still hurts.

Hi Greg! Those bulbs just have a cheerful effect on everyone who sees them. They are part of the Hyacinthaceae family from Namibia and South Africa. They like water in winter and none in summer, much like our weather here in California.

There are many kinds of lachenalia but these are the most colorful ones and are called Lachenalia aloides var. quadricolor.

I thought those leaves looked too good! You cheated! LOL Mine here are so beaten up by winter's end.

Man Kell, every time you post that Lachenalia, I am in love. I do need one!!! ♥♥♥
And thanks for posting that Silk Tassel, I took a picture of it recently and didn't know what it was.
They have a beautiful specimen of that Ribes speciosum at the entrance area of the SF Botanical garden, is that where you saw it?

Oh but 1 would make little impact, Pretty Sue! LOL You need a lot of them.

Sue is back!

Isn't that a so cool California native? And that bugger is so full of pollen. I was swtiching back and forth between 3 cameras and one got covered in it. And of course I had to take a pic of that too. LOL I so need help.

I haven't been to the Strybing in way too long. I need to go back. I so hate drving in SF. I am such a baby. I will have to go the long way around to get there.

No, this one was found on a walk around town. No way the Strybing has such an ugly fence! LOL

Did you see my haul from HD today? I said to myself I would use the cactus in combo pots and that made it OK to get them all. I hope they are not already rotting. They have that horrid heavy soil that rots everything and of course they are so satuated! Did I tell you I rotted my car with all the humidty the plants give off when I leave them in there for days. The humidty corroded my something which opens the back doors and the rear door. I CAN"T OPEN THEM UP ANYMORE! I so need a new dirtmobile. I saw a huge palm that probably would not have fit in the back but since I can't open it anyway, I couldn't even play with the idea of getting it.

Kell, who told you that you can use your car as a greenhouse?...lol...

Yea, I could plant the Ribes (with stickers) under DD's bedroom windows! Prettier and less obvious than cactus.

So, Kell, you don't want to drive across the bridges to go into the city. I used to enjoy that and thought nothing of it. But after the earthquake and all the pancaking of bridges and freeways, I would have second thoughts driving in SF period. I break into a claustrophobic sweat just thinking of it. And Bart? I'd rather swim across. And why do you leave plants in your car? Are you hiding the evidence from someone?

ima-thanks for the nursery reference in Ferndale. It sucked me in, but fortunately overwhelmed me to keep me from ordering. Hey Kell, they are a third of the price as the Garden Show.

Great photos, everyone! I just found new growth on my Silk Tassel tree - the one that has been a stick in the ground for three years!
I'll have to check on that ribes, but it probably needs more water than we can supply to our down slope.

Hmmm...looked it up on Las Pilitas and it seems a little extra water in fall and spring can help it through hot summers without constant water. It would be a good deterrent on our slope - our recent burglar used it to approach and leave the house (found the footprints). We have a driveway alarm, so if he had come up the drive, I would have known.

LOL, oh an Kell, yes, you need a new dirt mobile but how are you going to get rid of that old one now that the hatch no longer opens??
So, before the next storm came in yesterday, I decided to swing by the only local Target garden center still open around here, see what's new, what's on sale. They had a metal garden arbor I had admired earlier in the year with a 75% off tag, but no price sticker in sight. I asked the cashier and she said it's their last one, they will no longer carry it so she'll let me have it for $19.99. I was surprised since the matching bench was marked down to $38, regular $149. Just checked it online, the arbor was regular $189.99, now on clearance for $95. I like bargains like that!! I will pick it up when it gets dismantled, still thinking about getting the bench set too. They both have these cute little pineapple finials at the top.

http://www.target.com/gp/detail.html/191-8515911-1279716?ASIN=B001GIQ58G&AFID=Froogle&LNM=B001GIQ58G|Sean_Conway_Lattice_Arbor&ci_src=14110944&ci_sku=B001GIQ58G&ref=tgt_adv_XSG10001

KaperC, you are so lucky to have such plants growing in your yard. Do you have a lot of natives?

Want to buy it, Sue? LOL Cheap! How can I even vacuum out all that dirt now? The rear door has no way to get it open within the car. How did they did not even put a key hole in. And I am too fat to crawl back there over the seats. I also have so much fertilizer and shovels and everything else still back there. The good news is I have so destroyed that car, I was not getting much for it anyway. My husband is really questioning buying me a new car just to trash it with plants and dirt and fertilizer etc. I remember the week I got the Volvo, I was loading up a tree with a wooden plant stake and as I heaved it into the back the top of the stake ripped a hole into the cloth on the roof. A big, big tear. LOL. I lived in fear for a few months that Tom would see what I had done. So silly, Tom never ever went into my car again. He hates my driving and hates my mess.

Now if only you can buy that view to go with your new arbor, Sue! Such a GREAT DEAL!

Oh Quiltygirl, it is not the bridges, it is all the fast rude traffic in SF and esp the huge hills. I have a fear of heights and a great fear the dirtmobile will fail me and I will fall backwards down a hill. My husband keeps telling me that my car cannot fall backwards but it has tried to in the past so I think he is full of it. LOL. I actually drive all over. My usual hunting ground is a 3 hour perimeter around my house. But only on flat land. LOL. Sue on the other hand is an aggressive driver and she speeds! I drive like an old lady.

Yes, I hide my plants from Tom in there and also once home I have no place for them so I am in no hurry to take them out. I like the idea of having them more than the actual fact of having them. Getting home is when my reality collides with dreamworld.

And like now, I have lots of plants in there. As Sherry said, I use it like a GH. That is why I got a station wagon. LOL It has been raining so much so I have kept all my South African winter growers I recently bought in there and all my new succulents and cactus. Plus a friend gave me a bunch of brugs the other day so they are in there too in case it gets cold again. Plus I have to crawl into the back half way to reach the doorlock to unlock it to get them all out the side doors. I also have 2 bags of 2 cu feet of cactus soil back there that needs to come out. I dare not ask Tom. My son may take pity on me when he comes home soon.

Kell, I will happily come and take some of your too many plants off your hands, just not the car!

Oh gee, thanks, pigeon....I went to the nursery to pick up coleonema for RODICAP and well, just had to peek to see if they had the daphne odora...guess what?...they did. Yes, a bit pricey, but we'll just eat eggs and potatoes for a couple of days...lol...
Kell, tell your dentist what I tell mine...."DO YOU KNOW HOW MANY PLANTS THAT IS?!"
I defintely did not like driving S.F. with a stick shift, I can tell you that.....
The first thing Jer did for me when I got the Cherokee was to build a shallow wooden 'box' (actually two, one sized for when the back seats are down and one sized for the smaller area in back when the seats are up) because he knows what kinda dirt and plants and fertilizer I carry.....with the back seats down it will carry 42 one gallon plants...ask me how I know...lol...Then he built a second story on risers so I could carry more....lol...he's so good....

DO YOU RENT HIM OUT?

You know...there are some days I'd........well, let's just say that he's high maintenance.....

lol @ Sherry

Happy to pass along the enabling, gypsy and quilty. If it weren't for all the gorgeous pictures everyone posts on here, I wouldn't have HAD to get a digital SLR, the price of which severely cramped my plant-buying....LOL!

So I met my DS's GF's family unit last weekend, and really like them all. GF is graduating from college in May, and DS was going to throw her party. Well, a) his yard is too small and b) we'd have had to schlepp chairs and tables and BBQ and goodness knows what from our house anyway, so I said I'd throw it at my house. Now I'm hysterically going thru last year's photos so I can remember what's in bloom then and what areas I will need to fill in with annuals. Good thing I like her mom (a LOT) because she's gonna have to help me do set-up! Too bad they live in Nevada, or I'd recruit her to help me prune and plant, too.....

What a gift...to like his GF AND her family..you're one lucky duck!

Big (and most welcome) change from the last time around, I can assure you.....

You know, I really do think spring is on the way and that it won't get cold in February. Is this just wishful thinking? If I were rich this year, I could cover my large shade structure with polycarb and be out there during all of this rain getting lots of stuff done, sowing lots of flats of seeds..alas, I'm not rich this year and it doesn't appear that I will be anytime soon in the near future. My dream of a large,warm greenhouse to be working in on dreary days isn't gonna happen soon...sigh...
It is, however, awfully nice to be sitting in a very quiet house, listening to the rain on the roof and the logs crackling in the woodstove.....

Kell, I want to see the dirt mobile!

Yes, we have probably 85% natives on our lot. It was a blank slate when we bought it, so it's taking a long time to find out what will grow and survive the summers with minimal care and water. Lots of Ceanothus, both white and blue; Arctostaphylos; Salvia (with those I've gone out of the native box, but we do have a lot of natives); honeysuckle, roses, ironwood trees, and lots of fillers. We live at the bottom of a hill and have two slopes - one up, one down - that won't hold mulch and are very difficult to plant. One slope is still entirely blank, so I'm thinking those Ribes might be good for color and, seriously, to stop people coming up from the highway. Our biggest problems are gophers and squirrels - the rabbits do a bit of damage, but I can protect little plants against them. Thanks to Sherry (well, DH doesn't thank her, LOL) we plant everything in wire baskets now and that helps with the gophers - but they've killed three heirloom apple trees we planted five years ago before we knew.

Ima, I'm with you - DSS just became unattached and we were not sorry. It's hard not to say something when things are soooo wrong! LOL

What's all this talk about "spring is on it's way" ???
It rained all afternoon here yesterday and all night long, again. Everything around here is once again, under waer. The ground hasn't even dried out from the last storm.

Do I hear the voice of 'unappreciativeness'? That's a word, isn't it? In a few months you'll be wanting rain.....

Yes we will want the rain later....but come on now, this is way too much all at once!!

I don't mean to sound like an ingrate, but the spacing of these rains COULD be a little better ! lol

JD - You must be a native Californian. You know it does rain in other seasons than winter outside of CA.

KC - Didn't you say you were working in the yard when they stole your computer? And they came up through your yard? Ballsy turds!

I was thinking of Sherry this week as I bought a new supply of chicken wire and some 1/2" hardware cloth. I have lined planting holes with chicken wire before, but seems gophers have sharp teeth, that and the fact they can come in from the top. Thought I would try the stronger hardware cloth. How big of a basket do you make for a tree? How much larger than the root ball?

Just starting the BF thing here with 16 YO DD. Met his family and they seem nice, also have the open door policy for when 'friends' visit in their room. They have invited us to family parties and Christmas eve. Too serious for me!

Saw the Harbinger of Spring At Lowes. Very strange, the have what appear to be EXACTLY the same plants next to each other and some are labeled Harbinger and the other as Pink Coral Vine. Same PURPLE flowers, same leaves.

I've never had to resort to hardware cloth..even on roses which is one of the gophers' favorite foods. Between this property and the one in front, we've been here 27-28 years and nothing planted in chicken wire has ever been eaten. I take that back, they got one tomato. The wire obviously must even rust out within that time frame, but with the fruit trees and roses, I can only assume that the roots by then are old and tough,not as tempting..I don't know. The in-ground roses here have been here for about 10-12 years now and still no gophers have gotten them, likewise with the fruit trees. I make my wire cages just large enough (cylindrical, with bottoms folded in, overlapping) to hold the one gallon, or five gallon plant and it really doesn't leave much room for the gophers to go in through the top. I think the only thing I would go to the expense and work of hardware cloth would be for fig trees. Gophers love fig trees. I'm not positive, but I think their favorite foods are roses, fig trees and tomato plants.

I had chickenwire in one of my former yards, but it rusted out and they ignored it, and chewed through it. They even got through hardware cloth, which is a lot heavier and denser than chickenwire. However, they still don't seem to like going through areas I have heavily "seeded" with daffs (which are highly toxic), so I have them coming up in some rather odd spots in my gravel paths where I saw mounds last year. I've never had a problem around my roses, I think because when I planted them I threw daffs and hyacinths (also toxic) in the holes.

I've been told by a local grower that he's had great luck with the gophers not liking areas planted with tulbaghia / Society Garlic, but I have not planted enough of it to prove that for myself and I think I also read somewhere that gophers like garlic, so I'm not sure about the correlation of that. Pigeon, you should know if gophers like garlic...hmm?I think I'll be planting a lot of Society Garlic to check for myself....soon.

I have lots of Society Garlic, too! The gophers don't seem to borrow any of my alliums, daffs or hyacinths----or anything closely interplanted with them. When I had my landscaping done 18 months ago & added my wee grassy knoll, I completely bordered it with daffs to try to keep the llittle buggers from decimating it----so far, so good.

Although I don't have a deer problem, I've read the same combo works for them. A couple of blocks away (where there are hills and deer) the city has done street plantings of Society Garlic and red Barberry. Really pretty, and between the smells and the stickers, they seem to thrive. I read something last year about daffs repelling deer, too. I know they're poisonous as the dickens, so unless the deer have a Darwin death-wish, I suspect they'd leave them alone during the growing season.

And the Society Garlic doesn't seem to repel gophers?

I think it does. In my narrow front strip between my driveway and sidewalk I was having a big problem with them when I only had Santa Barbara Daisies planted. I added 3 Society Garlic plants and a bunch of miniature daffs 2 years ago and haven't had a mound there since. I still see them near that area, but never IN it.

My SoCal gophers don't eat my Santa Barbara Daisy/ erigeron...I guess this is the problem with gophers, deer, rabbits...in different areas they seem to like different plants so it's hard to say they definitely won't eat such and such...in any case, this next week my beds will all get decorated/ garnished with Society Garlic..it's much cheaper for me to do than lots of daffs and can be divided more often.

My nursery boss used to say "Deer don't read Sunset's deerproof plant list, so they don't know what they're not supposed to eat!"

True, true....

Thank goodness for all my problems in the garden, I do not have gophers or moles are any root eating rodent. It must be so upsetting to come out to dead plants in the morning!

QuiltyGirl, no, I was in the house when the burglary happened!

I guess I'm going to try the Society Garlic, because nothing else is helping with gophers. I just can't bring myself to plant daffs, though - they would just be so wrong in my wildscape! LOL Erigeron don't last at all here - the bunnies eat the whole plant. They also eat yarrow down to the ground. A friend has been digging it out of her garden to make a veg bed, so I'm planting it like crazy - maybe some of it will survive if I get enough in the ground! Still, I'd rather put up with the bunnies than the squirrels!

Didn't mind the rain at all today - I'm still wrestling with computers and DH is almost ready to plaster the new wall in the living room. ^_^

As a retired CalTrans landscape leadworker, I am laughing as I read this. Keep using the chicken wire! The only plants gophers won't eat, that I know of, are Society Garlic and Lantana montividensis, and they will eat those if they're starving! Once the plants get older, they will leave them alone. I have stood on the shoulder of the 005 freeway, in Irvine, and watched raphiolepis and Texas Rangers being sucked into the ground, like something from Caddy Shack. We also watched our sod and new plantings of sod, Raphiolepis, and Euonimus dissapear at our yard , due to gophers and rabbits. The rabbits would dig burros under the society garlic, but didn't bother it.They ate the sod down to the mesh! The only plants that neither bothered were the Philodendrons! Like deer, there some plants that they don't like...but they will eat them if they have nothing else.
Carol