Spring Has Sprung or The Reason We Sneeze

Spring has sprung in north central California! Flowers or bursting everywhere and pollen rules the skies! Many of us are sneezing, itching, wheezing and miserable! But, it sure is pretty. Here is our front. You can't see by the picture the roses in front that are orange-ish are over 7 feet tall! We haven't measured, but Hubby is 6'3" and they tower over him. That rose bush is called Arizona and planted in memory of my MIL who lived most of her life near Tucson, Arizona.


I don't know the name of my yellow rosebush which is very hard to photograph. The camera reads it as white and darkens everything to compensate. I need to figure out the manual settings on my camera to compensate for these things. Whenever I find "twins" in nature, I love to photograph them.



These photos show my Glamis Castle Rose. If you go to my "C" ABC Along post (look at categories on the lower right of my blog) there should be a photograph and a link to tell you about Glamis Castle in Scotland. This bush is not real strong and I suspect that it would be happier to grow in a cooler climate. The heirloom roses are so beautiful though, I could not resist!

Here is another Iris, about the 5th to bloom on this plant, which survived a bicycle accident the other day and there are a few more blooms. I am so delighted because I purchased it at a farmer's market and planted it in a small bed someone had made next to our shed. There were only a couple inches of topsoil and then our HARD clay. After three years or so of not blooming there (though the plant came up each year), I transplanted it to a pot and figured I had nothing to lose as it wasn't blooming anyway. Well, that obviously worked because here it is in it's first year of blooming and doing so happily and prolifically!


This winter I did not replant my tulip bulbs. A nearly two month long migraine interferes with a lot of plans! The volunteer bulbs did not bloom and the ones planted in front of my mailbox came up, but did not bloom. They are in that hard clay, but bloomed there last year. These along the side were the only ones to come up. Three single blooms next to the car to brighten our day.


After photographing a few of my own flowers I wandered down a few spaces to our neighbor on the corner. Dean passed away almost two years ago from cancer. He kept the most beautiful lot in our park here. Everything he touched grew! His widow is doing a good job keeping up but has had a lot to learn without her master gardener there to help!


I came to photograph the blooming dogwood, but the gorgeous azaleas distracted me first! Reds are hard to photograph as well; many of the details get lost in a blob of color, but these photos will give you an idea.

This distracted me next. In the right garden, I would like to copy this raised bed that Dean built with stones from various camping trips in California and Nevada.

The sun was really intense on these fuchsia azaleas and the green ferns made a lovely contrast along with the stones.

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE ferns. Perhaps it comes from lovely woodland walks of my childhood or hiking along the coast in the Olympic National Park and camping all over Washington State. One day I hope to have a garden that will provide the right environment for growing ferns. Frankly I don't know how these have stayed alive in our intense heat. The last two photos may become cards.

When I drove home from physical therapy, this is what I saw and that is why I fetched my camera and headed down the road before I got so distracted! This dogwood tree blooms profusely every year and is so lovely.

They are not an easy flower to photograph, being awkward as a single flower to get a good composition, but I keep trying.

For my many dear friends, still waiting in the cold... I hope this will give you hope that spring is on its way!