When we bought our house in North County San Diego 5 years ago, (Zone 10) the front yard was minimalist-desert style: some agaves, some mangaves, some oscularia and elephant-food ground covers, and a few shaped bushes leftover from previous owners who obviously liked plants more than our sellers did. I jazzed the xeriscape up with more plants that had done well in my previous garden, also in a Zone 10 area, and turned on the water system the drought-mandated recommendations. The following spring one side of the yard was awash in these mysterious blue volunteers. They have no bulb base but grow from fine, hair-like roots, then put out long, sword like leaves with a long central stem, from which numerous flower stemlets branch off. Each stemlet bears a royal blue calyx and then a sky-blue corolla. The corollas are made up of numerous rounded petals, which don't last very long, but the calyxes endure for months while the seed pods develop. The flowers are not all that showy, but they are the first to bloom, well ahead of the daylilies and agapanthus so along with the yarrows they are nice harbingers of spring. If anyone can tell me what they are, I would appreciate it very much!
