Sure, the state of the world is on my mind, and I hope you all are thinking about it too. But...it's a beautiful Spring Day in San Francisco, and while I was mowing the lawn, I thought about all these flowers screaming for attention! So, let's give the little prima donnas their moment in the spotlight, and vote for your favorite colored flower, somehow surviving in my backyard!
Orange NasturtiumI think these plants are weeds, Martha does not.
Cala Lily
These have been popping up since February; how long do they last?
Geraniums with pink highlights
I think these are weeds too, but pretty right now.
Geraniums with purple highlights
I like these better than the pink ones, don't you?
Yellow flowers
Trying to stand out amidst the iceplant (early feedback: Lauren says yellow nasturtiums or coreopsis. I'm thinking yellow clover right now, Margaret says it looks like oxalix, but as Karen says, Dennis will know!)
Flowering purple iceplant
Cameras can't quite catch the psychedelic essence of this color. It probably has some sort of natural fluorescence to bring it out so bright.
So, there you have it. Vote for your favorite color!
Here's a link to the photo gallery of the flowers
7 comments:
I vote for the Cala Lilies. They come up twice a year - early Spring and (I think) late Summer. -Gloria
I'm with Gloria on the callalilies (not to be confused with Cala Market, if any still exist). And yes, nasturtiums are weeds. As is oxalis, which I'm pretty sure is what those yellow things are. We yanked plenty of both out of our Inner Sunset front yard when we redid the landscape. They love the sandy soil, but they're insidious.
Count me in for the purple iceplant!
(But I can't read "cala lilies" without hearing it in a Kate Hepburn voice. "The cala lilies ahh in bloom ...")
Since I just planted 6 bulbs myself, a few words about those "cala" lillies (which DO get my vote, btw).
Per Wikipedia: "Zantedeschia is a genus of herbaceous flowering plants in the family Araceae, native to southern Africa from South Africa north to Malawi. It is neither a true lily (Liliaceae), nor Arum or Calla (related genera in Araceae). It is also often erroneously spelled as 'cala lily'. It grows continuously when watered and fed regularly, is only deciduous when water becomes scarce and can survive periods of minor frosts."
When I was a toddler in San Mateo, my folks took some snapshots of me eating these! Guess that's why I've always adored them.
P.S. Hey Jim, I remeber when you landscaped your front yard.
P.P.S. There is only one Cala left, appropriately on California & Hyde, but I hear it's going to close next year as well. The others all got bought 2 yrs ago & converted to something else.
Geoff,
I appreciate your blogging about flowers, but I can't bring myself to vote for one over the other. That's sort of like asking which friend you like the best. Who needs to compare - they're all wonderful. The yellow flowers are definitely oxalis. I've never heard of nasturtium being called a weed before. The seed growers certainly label them as flowers. They are also an edible plant.
Dennis
Gee,Geoff! Maybe you're not such an irritating know-it-all after all! By the way (from one know-it-all to another!), the purplish "geranium" is actually a pelargonium. Here's some info from the Sunset Garden book:
"...pelargoniums are woody-based perennials (most of them native to South Africa) that endure light frosts but not hard freezes and have slightly asymmetrical flowers in clusterss. True geraniums...are annuals and perennials (some woodybased) native mainly to the Northen Hemisphere, bearing symmetrical flowers either singly or in clusters."
Thanks for reminding me to stop and smell (and look at) the flowers.
Hugs all around, Marsha
Post a Comment