Well and truly Spring in California...

http://www.snopes.com/critters/crusader/stuffedtoys.asp

Two of my Japanese Maples with their spring foliage. It's always so fresh and new at this time of year.

Your yard is so neat and tidy.......
Here is my chaotic front yard - azaleas, pink dogwood, rhododendrons, Bletilla striata, camellia, and freesias...along with overgrown weedy saplings, deadwood, and stray pots. I know what I will be doing this weekend LoL.

It's so beautiful. Love how the dogwood is blooming. I tried a couple and they never went anywhere for me but it turned out that nothing does very well in the two places I planted them. Under a walnut tree and a redwood tree.

Soils, your yard looks neat - at least compared to el rancho Kelli.

The bearded irises are getting started. These are always prolific. I can't tell you how many hundreds I have given away over the years.

It is very windy today.

elegant clarkia - That's what it's called. It's nice, but I wouldn't call it elegant.

leucocoryne

Kelli - my family has always shaken their heads at my "garden" and wonder why it cannot be neat and tidy like the lawn/sheared shrubs/etc of the neighbors. They do not realize that I definitely do not want that look. I like your wild and woolly landscape much better.

I especially like the color of the maroon-pinkish one. If you ever want to thin that out, I will be in line.LoL

Kelli, you have that 'full' rustic look. I have the 'sparse' rustic look. See? rather than picking a theme and planting for that, we can look at what we ended up with and name it.

KC - your Lady Banks look so much different than mine and mine do not a a scent. Here is this AM's photo. Mine need some deadheading so they keep producing?

Soils-I like the cottage garden feel of your yard. I am with you. Those neighborhoods with the standard patch of grass and a tree are so boring. Plus it takes so much time and resources to keep boring looking nice. I realize some HOA's require that, but I have seen photos of people that twist those requirements and go for creative, leaving an absolutely tiny patch of grass. That all said we, physiologically speaking, need to see green. I believe it is restful to our minds. I appreciate that when I am back east, but not those beasty mosquitos that come with it, LOL.

And then there is Doss who has a neat and tidy garden and yard, but full of wonderful plants and creativity and is anything but boring.

Lynda, Lady Banks alba is known to have a delicate scent, perhaps you just don't notice it. I think mine is sparse, but it is getting better. They only bloom for a short time in early spring - no reblooming. You might remember the yellow one I have, it looks very different and has no scent.

http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/showimage/68203

Thanks for the link, that photo looks like mine (anyone is a better photographer). I did get right up next to it and also clipped some and there is no scent. Bummer that they only bloom in spring. While waiting for a Rx at drugstore, I was looking st seed packets and thought of interplanting vining seeds that each have a a slightly different time of DAY when they bloom. Moon flowers, Morning glory, and something else I don't remember.

Yes, KC, I DO remember your yellow Lady Banks, that is what spurred my excitement that I had already palnted one (now 2 years ago), but it did not bloom at all last year. Then again, not much did. Better this year!

I weeded today - a much overdue task. It was a gorgeous California spring day in the low 70's. Here is my Bletilla striata patch.

Weeding could be done with a bobcat around here. I took one of the goats out on leash and she was not interested! She was sure interested a week later when one of the horses opened the gate at night and they were all 5 of 'em grazing on the weeds. If they would only discriminate and eat only weeds, I would let them all out, however......

I would like to have a goat down in our "back 40" too, especially if it could eat cactus! Anything down there is fair game, except our Toyon, which is so big a little pruning would just make it better. :-)

Love your Bletilla patch, Soils. I have a pot of them that are blooming - would love to have the white variety, too.

Oooh, love your lavender, KaperC. Looks like Spanish, but it's greener than the ones I've seen in the nursery which tend to be very gray. I like yours.

Beautiful Anthony Parker. Like the greggii-like blooms. I thought Anthony Parker had whorls like Cleveland sage, but I like the color and blooms of the AP a lot.

This message was edited Apr 9, 2010 7:34 PM

I whish spring would come back were did it go yesterday ?

Please send the wetstuff over my way!! I love all of the spring blooms you all have. So many things that will not grow here!!

Here is my Bletilla striata . I got this from my sister in laws garden she also gave me this old pot she had.

Some pretties in our pond today.

WOW Kathleen. I was telling Lisa about yours and John's pond yesterday. She'll really want to see it now. She thought it was funny that John less impressed about the plants around the pond and more concerned that they blocked the view of his rocks.

Gorgeous flowers and the way you compiled the photos, all with the bright colors turned out beautifully. You should enlarge this as wall art.

Thanks! I think it was the light - very overcast not long before we had a rain storm. Usually, it's so bright around here things get washed out. Google Picasa is great for creating collages like that - takes no time at all.

I'll have to try that K.

Great program and it's free!

Thanks, took an Apple class today and they could not tell me how to do that within iPhoto on the iMac, but did say their software, iWork, could do that. Yours is so beautiful because of the color saturation, clarity and no borders/lines between.

Picasa isn't compatible with Macs. :-( But it's good to know that it's possible with iwork. Thanks!

My DH is viewing photos he has in Picasa on his iMac right now. But, apparently not creative work.

I'm going to have to visit that Picassa and learn how to use it. Assembling stuff in Powerpoint and then copying it to Paint and then saving it as a pdf file is kind of a drag.

I've got some rose bushes in bloom. My "peeps" in other parts of the country talk about roses being difficult, but they're pretty much no-brainers here. Some years I prune them, some years I don't. I deadhead when I'm in the mood. I feed them two or three times a year. I have never sprayed for anything. The only thing I need to really keep on the ball about is the suckers. These all came with the house and some are probably as old as I am.

"Love"

"Mister Lincoln" This one is worth having if for no other reason for the fragrance.

"Brandy"

Hmm... This might be a good time to go see the roses at Descanso Gardens.

Beautiful Kelli. I love the way Mr. Lincoln smells - like a real red rose should.

Is Brandy a climber or just so tall? People buying roses at nurseries and in the garden sections keep saying they are easy to grow, but I killed my only attempt last year. Probably too much water. It is hot where you live too, right? There is a house we pass on the way to school that has a huge yard full of roses and nothing to shade them, so apparently they can withstand the heat - or at least the right varieties.

Beautiful roses Kelli. You should join us for the round up this weekend. They're always a lot of fun and it's not that far from you.

Brandy is tall, not a climber. I didn't prune it this year, so that is full size, give or take.

Quiltygirl, yes, it gets hot here, probably about like where you are. Most of my roses (I think I have 15) get no shade. Mine are well-established and I water them no more than once a week in hot weather. They're on a soaker hose. Actually, there are three that are in the lawn and they get watered when the grass gets watered, which is 15 minutes twice a week, as per our water restrictions. They also get afternoon shade.

Pirate, I think I would like to go to a RU some time, but it's too short notice for this year. I'd have to work on DH for a while first. He's really weird about meeting people he doesn't know and he wouldn't want me driving all that way by myself. He thinks I'm going to get crushed in that "little" Honda Civic.

The locust trees on a street near me are blooming. I always like them. You can see them in this primitive little video I made. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tFDUldB2Jk You can skip the first 4 1/2 minutes if you want.

I'll probably get in trouble for posting this HERE, but oh well!!! You gotta see this. I know you'll love it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7xBLvMIBZU

Amazing!!!