Yard Heading Into June

Thanks to continued mild temperatures and the inch and a half of rain we received late last week, the yard is still going strong, lots of new growth and some things still blooming.

Usually this Turks Cap is going into survival mode about now, but it's covered with these little red blooms, and is looking very healthy. A very strange plant, whose blooms never fully open, very similar to my Indian Mallow. Over in Superior, where it's about 10-15 degrees cooler in the summer, these plants get to be over 6 feet tall and very bushy. Mine is maybe three feet tall and spangly, but still alive after three years in a harsher environment than it's used to. It helps that I planted it under the canopy of a mesquite.

I gave these orange jubilees a high and tight yesterday afternoon, took me about an hour and a half to trim them back to what they look like here. The ones on the right side of the walkway are getting bushier, I'm hoping in a year or so they'll catch up with the ones on the left.

The calomondens are finally ready to be picked, and I'll be doing that this weekend. With the mild weather it's started blooming again, so we should have a nice crop this fall as well. This tree is loaded, it must have at least 50 or more mature fruit on it.

Same tree, wider view.



Despite not seeing many blooms on it this spring, our lemon tree is putting out lots of fruit also. These will be in my iced tea come December.



The creeping trumpet vine is getting close to blooming. This is by far my favorite plant in the entire yard. It's constantly putting out new plants from underground runners, which I'm moving to various parts of the yard, and the color of the blooms are incredible.

Another nice surprise with the nice weather, our strawberry guava tree has not only bloomed for the first time, but it's setting fruit. Here is a nice look of a bloom yet to open, and one that has. If you click on this picture for a larger view, you might be able to see the tiny fruit centered in the middle.

And finally, one of my favorite trees in the yard, the Mulga, is blooming again. This is another plant that's constantly doing something, blooming or setting very attractive seed pods that the birds love eating. A very low water tree that's grown to at least ten feet in a barely two years.