April Bloom Day

Truly this must be one of the most beautiful times of year-- so much is changing every day. Here's a smattering of photos taken today, with some of what's blooming now (click here to see more from around the country). The conventional wisdom has it that this is the final frost date for our region-- which has seemed like a stretch in the past, yet there was frost this morning on the rooftops.

1) this shows wallflower (orange, in foreground) backed up by yellow bulbine, california poppies, borage, scabiosa, snow-in-summer (a great un-sung groundcover in my garden); distantly: ceanothus (blue, at right, blooming this year like never before) and chinensis mutabilis rose (with the pink, middle left).

2) Bearded irises. Love 'em.

3) Cerinthe, the 'IT' plant of a couple of years back-- still much beloved here. Backed up by a euphorbia.

4) Lady Banks rose--in her spectacular spring display. I hack this one way back each year; driving around the county you can see these going crazy (scrambling over buildings and up trees) in full glory this week.

5) My one really successful clump of Spanish lavender-- and what do you call those little red flowers, again?