Spring

Spring is the season when the garden starts bursting with color. Spring is my second favorite season after fall, and I always anticipate spring. I’d like to share some of my favorite spring pictures in my yard.

The pomegranate which is all bare stalks and twigs in winter is now full with it small leaves and bright red flowers.

Every Southern California garden should have an orange tree, it does not grow very tall and always having fruit and flowers all year long; flowers, young and ripe fruit all at the same time.

Roses which has been pruned in mid winter is now full of flower buds ready to bloom, this one is an English rose but I forgot the specific type. It has a strong fragrance but like most English roses it only blooms in spring and then another one before fall.

Fall & Winter Colors in SoCal

Southern California is known for evergreen and palm trees but not for trees with leaves that change color in fall. Except for trees that are planted for fall color, there are no vegetation and trees that grows naturally in Southern California for their colorful leaves in fall.

The pomegranate tree in my yard is one such tree that has leaves that turns yellow then shed sheds them in late fall early winter. It has relatively small leaves that turned yellow in late fall.

Another tree in my yard that turns color is the Japanese maple which is now about ten foot tall. The leaves turned yellow in early to mid fall then turned red in early winter. The red leaves are still in the branches during Christmas. 

Dahlia

 

Dahlias are perennial tubers that bloom from late summer to the fall months. They come in multitude of different colors, shape and sizes. Most can grow as tall as six feet in height with blooms as big as a small plate.

Established dahlias require a thorough and deep watering at least once a week during the summer months. Summer this year in Southern California is unusually humid with a few inches of rainfall. With the mandated reduction in water usage due to the drought, I have watered my dahlias only every other week but still came out with huge and healthy blooms. The rain during the summer months definitely helped.

Besides the pink dahlia that I planted a few years back, I planted a new one during early spring and it bloomed with an orange red flower. As usual the pink one has blooms that are huge but not as huge as the last few years. It definitely needs to be dug out and divided. I will have to do this early January. It should have been done this year but did not have the time.

Apples

Southern California is not well known for apple growing except for some apple farms in Oak Glen, a farming community located in the foothills of San Bernardino Mountains. It is known as the Apple Country of Southern California with private ranches, restaurants and apple farms where you can pick apples from the tree. Julian located in the mountains of San Diego County is also one of the popular locations for apple picking in Southern California.

Bought an apple tree from Home Depot a few years ago and is now full of fruit. The fruit is not as good looking as the ones you can buy from a grocery store but they are sweet, juicy and really crunchy besides free of pesticides which make it organic.

Apple picking season is usually done at the start of fall and we are in the middle of summer but my tree is almost done for the season and have harvested almost all the fruit. Was able to harvest almost 2 grocery bags full from that small tree.

Freesia

Freesias are one of the earliest corms to bloom in spring. These are perennial bulbs, easy to grow and consistently come back every spring with little care.

This bulb is a native of southern Africa from Kenya down to South Africa. It has blade like leaves with fragrant funnel-shaped flowers. The flowers come in many different colors and some have combination of colors.

Freesias grow very well in Southern California. I planted several bulbs a few years ago and come back every year from mid-winter to early spring. They not only come back but also produce more freesia; from a few bulbs I now have clusters of bulbs. You can plant the bulbs in winter and you can forget it but it will surely come back without any additional care. 

Freesia flowers are not only used as a cut flower but also used in commercial use for its essential oil, it is used in perfumes and scented oils and toiletries.

Daffodils

Daffodils or Narcissus are bulbs that look like onions with flowers that have pronounced necks. The leafless stems, appearing from early to late spring bear from 1 to 20 blooms. Each flower has a central bell that looks like a bowl bowl or disc-shaped corona surrounded by a ring of six floral leaves.

Flower color varies from white through yellow to deep orange. The most common color is the bright yellow. Breeders have developed some daffodils with double, triple, or ambiguously multiple rows and layers of segments, and several wild species also have known double variants.

Daffodils don’t thrive very well in Southern California. The ones that I have planted come back the following year but most don’t come grow back by the third year. One exception is the smaller variety. The leaves and flowers are small but they grow back every spring unlike the larger variety. This one measures approximately 4 to 5 inches in height. Each bulb has 4 to 5 flowers per bulb. The flower color is as bright yellow as the bigger variety.

 

This variety may not be as stunning as the ones grown in colder climates but it is beautiful nonetheless. 

Daffodils makes you feel spring.