Indian Mallow

Here are a few pictures of one of my favorites in the yard, the Indian Mallow. This bush nearly succumbed to the freeze last winter, but has rebounded and is covered with blooms again.

The leaves are soft like velvet, and fuzzy, very nice to the touch, and the blooms are curious in that they only open about three quarters of the way. Despite putting out hundreds of seed pods, I've never been able to get get any of them to produce new plants. No matter, I don't have room to plant any more, anyway. I also love the color of the blooms, they're nothing like anything else I have in the yard.

Mystery Plants Identified

Tonight I picked up at random a book on annuals, perennials and bulbs that Emily's mom gave me last Christmas, and started flipping through the annuals section.

Lo and behold, two of the wildflowers that have come up in the yard were in there.

The first, is called Five Spot (common name), which makes sense given the coloration of the petals. I have maybe three of four of these coming up.



This one, which I've pictured numerous times already this spring, is called Scorpion Weed, or California Blue Bell. The book indicates that it's commonly planted around agricultural crops because they attract pollinating insects. These are taking over my wildflower path, I have at least fifteen individual plants that are spreading everywhere, and have at least forty blooms now. I read that they're long blooming and heat hardy, so we'll see how hardy they are come June.

A Few More Yard Shots

My three dollar columbine now has about six blooms on it. I suspect it will succumb to the heat this summer, but I'm going to try and limp it through the next six months. I have bought some seeds that are assorted colors, and will try and sprout those in this nice heat we're having. I also have two pots worth of seeds from my mom that are slowly growing (and might need some thinning out to continue growing).

The second picture is another bulb that's recently bloomed. I still have some Iris that haven't bloomed, and some day lilies, as well, so there may be more to post as we move into April.

Yet Another Yard Update

Below is another round of yard pictures, including:

The completed/bolted down pergola. I still have to sand and finish the deck itself, but otherwise this project is a done deal. I managed to save the cats claw vine off the old arbor and hope it comes back from its shock to be a useful cover/shade for this summer.

Each of the posts of this pergola have a built in plant tray and hatch, I'll be putting a few of my smaller guys in each of those, including my columbine (pictured further down), fuschia, dutchman's pipe, and lambs ear.

Mom tells me this is a lupine. Although the flower stalk resembles the wild lupines that are blooming along the highway here, the leaves are completely different, so it must be a relative. Nonetheless, it's in full bloom now.

My jujubee and chinese pistache trees have both finally started to leaf out. Below is the former, starting to leaf out. Last fall I had some good fruit off of this guy and I hope this year is just as good.

Another unidentified wildflower that's blooming everywhere now in this area. Nice to have some blue color, as I don't have anything else like this in the yard.

Here's an odd bulb that just bloomed in and around my jonquils. Not sure what this is, it appears to be the only one.



The citrus are starting to bloom, the smell is heavenly first thing in the morning and early in the evening.

Here is a columbine that I bought at a local nursery about a month ago. It's grown nearly six inches already and is covered in buds, this one just opened today. I have another pot of columbines that started from seed from my mom, and while they've sprouted, they're still barely an inch high and don't seem to be progressing any further in their growth.

The gazanias are still blooming and spreading.

Another emu bush blooming, this is the pink variety, very pretty, I think. The easter egg emu is about to bloom, I'll post pictures of it as soon as it happens.

Ode To A Globe Mallow

In four or five years of having this bush, I've never seen it get out of control like this. I'm sure I can thank this winter's rain for it's growth, but am still amazed at how it seemingly doubled in size when it started warming up earlier this month. Usually it's nestled neatly in the top of this planter, and doesn't explore outside of it's boundaries, but this year it's encroached upon my Indian Mallow, Gold Emu Bush, Hopeseed Bush, and has smothered dozens of aloe plants around it. I'm guessing it has a spread of about six by four feet at this point, and will have to take a hedge trimmers to it, once it's finished blooming.

Below are a few shots of the plant and some of it's neighbors.

New Yard Stuff

With Brenna taking a marathon bath tonight, I'm going for the hat trick, updating all three blogs. Good for me, I rock.

This past weekend I caught this fella sitting on our Chinese Pistache tree. He had no issue with me getting up in his grill. But then again, I've seen pictures of people taming these guys to eat nectar out of their mouths (gross), so I shouldn't be surprised.

The last picture below is an update on the odd annual that came up in my wildflower path.

Another Yard Update

This is typically the only time of year where you're receive nearly weekly updates on the yard. In another few months you'll be lucky to see a few radar pictures of monsoon storms missing us, me grumbling about the heat, and not much more.

For now, enjoy some more shots from around the yard, including:

Our blooming bulbs, on the south side of the yard. Last spring I was lucky to get a few blooms, amazing the difference a wet winter makes. I might even get some Iris blooms, they're the spiky shoots in between the others that are blooming. The day lilies are actually growing as well, last year that barely came out of the ground before retreating during the summer.

In the background along the fence are some pepper plants, and directly in front of them along the arch is a climbing rose that's doing well so far, and some wild primrose that's come up every spring. It'll be covered in huge pink flowers before too long.





Here is a wider shot of the north side of the yard, the cassias have never bloomed this heavily before, and you can actually smell them if you're up close to them, a slightly sweet fragrance.





Here's another view, turning to the west a little. The lilac vine, which started blooming on the arch back in February, is about at the end of it's run. Last spring it didn't bloom at all thanks to our 20 degree morning in January. The calamonden, which is loaded with maturing fruit, is not only leafing out, but starting to bloom (soon to be more fruit). In good conditions you can pick fruit off this tree year round, excellent in tea!




Here is a somewhat blurry, but up close look at our non fruiting pomegranate, it's leaves are redder when coming out than the fruiting variety, for some reason. Off to the left is our creeping fig vine that one day will hopefully cover the north side of the house.

Here's another look at the cassia bush, up close view of the blooms.

This is a wide view of the planter on the southwest side of the house. The globe mallow is slowing being taken over with red blooms. The walkway below is covered in wildflowers that I planted as seeds back in November.



Besides the poppies that are blooming, which I posted the other day, here are a few new mystery plants that are also starting to bloom. I wish I had saved the package, as I now have no idea what any of these guys are.

This is the only plant to sprout out of those seeds that looks like this. The leaves follow the sun as it goes across the sky, and it's starting to bloom at the top of a cone. I'll post another shot of it once it's matured.

I have dozens of these guys coming up all over the place. The first shot is of the bloom before it opened, and the second is when it opened right before sunset.

The Grand Tour

You'll never see this long a post here again, I promise you that. Everything is blooming, things I didn't even plant in the yard are blooming. It hasn't rained in over two weeks now, but we've had over nine inches in the past four months before that, and with mild temps and lots of sun, things are coming up everywhere.

First off, my current exercise in futility, putting the pergola together and bolting it to the underside of our deck. I'm starting fresh by flipping all of the 2x4s over, and that in itself has been an ordeal, as many of the screws are snapping off rather than coming completely up. Times will tell if this pergola will withstand a monsoon storm, I can't tell if the first eight bolts have really anchored it any better than when it was freestanding. Check back in July for that update.

And now the yard update.

The Valentine Emu bush is into it's second month of blooming, and it's going stronger than ever.

Here's a close up of a desert cassia.

Two more cassias, in fool bloom. Emily calls these the sneeze bushes. There's an orange tree somewhere in between the two of them.

A close up of one our pomegranates leafing out. This bush is beautiful every part of the year, from leafing out, to blooming, to fruiting, to turning golden yellow in the fall. And it's completely no maintenance, very heat tolerant.

Ah, calamonden, you will be mine very soon. My tea awaits you.

The globe mallow has started blooming in the last week. It's almost doubled in size from our winter rains and has taken over the top portion of our raised planter in the corner of the yard. Once it's done blooming, I'll be taking the hedge trimmers to it like nobody's business. But what beautiful flowers, this is about the only red bloomer I have, so I enjoy it thoroughly this time of year.

A california poppy, recently blooming. This was a seed back in November.

Our three leaf sumac coming out of dormancy. I'm hopeful that it will turn a bright red this fall, if I can limp it through the summer. Last summer didn't kill it, so I'm hopeful.

And finally, our little one enjoying the bulbs blooming on the south side of the house.

A Nice Two Dollar Plant

In honor the upcoming holiday, I couldn't resist buying this Shamrock (Oxalis) at a local nursery this past weekend. The leaves close completely up every night, as well as the blooms, only to reopen every morning, very cool. There is also a more striking purple leafed variety, but I didn't see it for sale where we went.

Here's another pleasant surprise this spring in the back yard. Last spring I bought a three leafed sumac tree and planted it against a south facing wall, under a much larger mesquite tree (with an enormous canopy). I hoped for the best since this tree isn't zoned for this area (heat, no humidity), but was hoping to nurse it through the summer to see some bright red leaves this fall. The color didn't happen (the leaves simply died and fell off), but it showed some vigor in the hot weather and grew quite a bit. Now, coming out of it's winter dormancy, it's not only leafing out, but is covered in these tiny little flower clusters. I had no idea this tree bloomed, didn't read anything of the sort, and there you go.