What's happening in your spring garden #2

This morning in the front yard, I have tons of white freesia

A red one

It's got a pretty yellow throat

Mmmmmm, I can smell them now!

And if anyone ever spots an Osteospermum in this color, let me know! I bought it last year, just one and it just now is coming into full bloom. I lost the tag but I love this unusual clay color!! They are not yet fully open in the cool morning, they open completely as the day warms and then curl up again in the evenings. Osteospermum are just a great carefree plant.

Here's a closeup

This golden feverfew self seeded itself right in the middle of my favorite orange Erysimum

The euphorbia blooms are fully open by the front walkway. I have to prop them up to prevent them hanging over the walkway, they are so huge.

And my first roses! This is Outrageous, which is usually a brighter orange but I am loving this apricot, peachy coloring with pinkish tints. The fragrance is wonderful so it sits next to my computer now so I can enjoy it all day.

And the first bloom on Gruss an Aachen

Amazing that you already have roses sue. Your garden must be really beautiful, not to mention fragrant right now. And those freesias tootsie are a really pretty color.

This is lorapetalum in bloom right now.

doss, that looks HUGE! I've only seen lorapetalum as shrubs, but those look like trees....???

They are like trees. I think that they are at least 10 feet tall. They can be kept smaller than that but these are happy being tall.

Those are just beautiful ! The epitome of Springtime.

Hey Sue, check out jkom51's Oakland hill slideshow thread--she has an osteospermum in one of her pics that might be similar to your mystery one. I think the name was Autumn Sunset but check it out.

That's it Liz! What a coincidence she happened to post it the same time. I am going to take cuttings and watch for seeds, I really want to spread this one around, i just love it!

It probably won't come true from seed...but I'm sure the babies will be pretty anyway!

hey, anyone want this daylily for postage? I dug it last week and left it in the shade and forgot to get back to it to replant elsewhere. Now, taking inventory of the room (or rather lack of room) I have left, I decided I didn't want it anymore. Rather than toss it, I would love for it to go to a good home. I will trim the leaves back and once replanted, it will recover nicely and send out new leaves, these things are tough!
http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/100584/

I think my osteopermum is actually this one, Sunadora® Marbella
http://www.sunadora.com/marbella.htm
looks exactly like mine, even down to the different growth compared to the common ones found at most nurseries. I couldn't find anything officially named 'Autumn Sunset' so that may just be one of the nursery names.

This is my favorite jasmine...wish that it were on my property, but sadly, no.....Hope with time my jasmines will get this large:

Wait! There's more...lol...and the fragrance!!

Lovely to see all the flowers blooming. I found a mystery bulb/bloom in my yard today.
WIB,
SW

My other Wisteria is beginning to bloom.
WIB,
SW

Forgot to say, that yes, that is a freesia. I have the purple, yellow and a white, but have never seen a blue one before. Gorgeous! The freesia outside haven't started to bloom yet. I have hopes though. My gardenia is in the greenhouse, but I probably should plant it outside, but can't figure out where.
Calif_Sue, I think Jungleman was looking into planting Daylillies.
That lorapetalum is gorgeous Doss. It's going on my wish list. ^_^
WIB,
SW

I love this time of year, with the garden really coming to life. We do have blooms of one sort or another all year, but spring is when everything gets fired up....

Here's one of our favorites, our California Mountain Lilac (Ceanothus impressus) tree in the front yard, in its blue spring splendor. Not only does it look great, but it perfumes the whole front yard, and the bees love it too.

Here's our Clivia, which didn't bloom last year but is making up for it with two stems of flowers this year.

And here's one of our Pacific Coast Native Iris hybrids -- this one is Sea Admiral.

This is a Madeira Cranesbill (Geranium maderense) in our back yard. This is its one blooming season, and it's making the most of it.

just gorgeeeeeee-ous weatherguesser. The Ceanothus is beyond beautiful..... intoxicating is more like it !

Your ceanothus is just stunning. Isn't it fun to have such springlike weather this week?

Here's a weeping crabapple tree and you can see the raph behind it beginning to bloom

Wow, Weather, that Ceanothus is beautiful. I looked it up and there seems to be two impressus varieties: impressus and nipomensis. Do you happen to know which you have? Did you train it into a tree yourself? Not that we don't have enough C. around our place, but that's a nice looking small tree, which we don't have many of.

Love your crabapple, Doss.

Very pretty Doss, I do love crabapple,that one is a great shape.

KaperC,

As nearly as I can tell from looking at lots of pictures and descriptions, the Ceanothus is probably variety "Frosty Blue", a hybrid of C. impressus and (someone speculated) C. thyrsiflorus griseus. The leaves and flowers don't look quite right for either C. impressus impressus or C. nipomoensis. Here's a closeup showing the leaves, flowers, and buds. To make matters even more confusing, the name "Frosty Blue" is applied to at least two very different varieties, mine and one closer to my C. thyrsiflorus hedge.

I didn't train it into a tree -- it was here when we bought the house. I have continued to prune it (minimally) and remove dead wood under the canopy after each blooming season.

One thing I find a little curious in looking at the various Ceanothus varieties is that few if any of the writeups mention the fragrance. Ours is quite fragrant while in bloom. The only downside of this tree it the flower detritus (I call it pixie dust) that accumulates in drifts at the edges of my driveway. Right now it's mostly pink (from the buds) but as the flowers begin to depart it will make blue drifts.

Thanks, Weather. No, you don't hear about the fragrance much. I brought some cuttings into the house a few weeks ago (won't do that again - talk about pixie dust!) and they smelled like grape soda - very sweet. They aren't called mountain lilacs for nothing, I suppose. :-)

We have one called Wheeler Canyon that is just solid dark blue this year - guess it just matured and really came into its color. It's right in front of the kitchen window and every day I look at it and just marvel.

Pixie dust sounds kinda, well, magical. I want some!
Seriously loved the photos. I finally have something else to share! Another photo of my wisteria. Wait til next week. When the blossoms fall off, I collect them and spread them on the tops of my potted plants in the gh. It keeps the weeds from even thinking about it. LOL!

DH trimmed the honeysuckle that almost ate the back part of the yard, and I found this under it.
That's it for now.
WIB,
SW

SW, what is it? It is lovely. Linda

Love that wisteria. And yes, I want to know what that other pic is, too.

Looks like Cistus x purpureus http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/31470/