Recently in Flowers Category

Today is garden bloggers bloom day, where all the garden bloggers post pretty pics of what's flowering in their gardens. As I don't have many ornamentals and I'm sure if you see another tomato flower pic you'll puke here are some pics of my Iris plants blooming in the front yard.

These are my ideal plant, they require little in the way of care and attention, and honestly I hardly ever water them either. They seem to thrive on neglect which suits me just fine :) And now for your close up Iris :)

They add a nice burst of color in the front garden, I just wish they were located better. I may have to move some of them soon as they are taking over. Guess I'm doing something right, or not doing anything lol, as they seem to be reproducing just fine without any help from me :)

Just a little update on what's flowering in the garden right now. I posted about the poppies already this month, but I managed to get out one day this week and snap them in their full open stage soaking up the Southern California sunshine!

Of course not all things flowering in the garden right now are things I want. There is a weed flowering which although a weed is still quite pretty. I'll take a photo of pretty much anything in the garden :)

And of course my favorites - Tomato flowers! Gotta love em right? I am so looking forward to 'mata season this year! Finally got a decent trellis up (more on that with pics soon!) and I have plants in the raised beds and growing :)

What's blooming in your neck of the woods? I still have a few pea blooms, squash blooms , citrus and a few other things. I need to get busy in the garden though and get planting! Hopefully this weekend!!!

I say name that flower cos basically I have no clue really about the flowers side of gardening. I mean I know a lily when I see it, or a daffodil etc but pretty much clueless when it comes to the pretty side of gardening. Probably because I consider it a waste of space, lol. Anyway we have these flowers in the back garden that I am considering relocating to the front. My hunch is geraniums... anyone?

One thing I know, they sure do smell strong! As you can see they are bright red, but I've seen them in other colors whilst on my walks in the neighborhood.

Any identification appreciated!

Just doing another update of garden photography, trying to catch up with last years photo's with some posts. I grew Zinnea's in a container last year just by the front door, and snapped this shot of a Manti having a little break and checking me out! Love the head turned towards the camera, I don't think I could have gotten a better position if I'd asked!

In the side yard we have Ivy, TONS of it. I keep it in check as much as I can but it grows like a weed. I'd really like to remove the lot but that's a while down the road as far as goals go. The one thing about Ivy is it's home to a host of insects, which means great practice for macro shots.

No idea on the species of Spider but she was protecting her eggsac which was under the leaf. Strange but before we moved here I was afraid of Spiders, but now I see all the weird and wonderful sizes, shapes and colors here in California my fear has lessened. I don't like them close or touching me, but I can leave them be and not freak out if they are in the house or around the garden. This rule DOESN'T hold true for Black widows which have a swift execution.

I really can't wait for Summer this year, armed with my camera and videocamera (new purchase in winter) I'll be a wildlife photography nut! Nothing more beautiful than a squash flower, ladybugs, or vegetables you grew yourself!

It's GBBD day and this month I just HAD to share these California Poppies! They are popping up (pardon the pun) all over the garden! I just let them self seed and do their own thing, and boy do they!

We pretty much get these in the garden from March - October here, one of the joys of the California Sunshine! As you can see from the pic below some have already set seed! Those long pods dry up, the seeds get black and they the POP open bursting the seeds out all over the garden. I certainly get more and more each year, which is great as they are NO maintenance on my part :) Other than pulling out the dried up stems when the plants are done I don't do a thing for them all Summer, not even watering! And in return I get beautiful bright orange blooms all Summer long!!!

Wish I could have gotten pics of them fully open but I was out bright and early first thing this morning, maybe at some point in the Summer I'll get a pic of them basking in the suns midday rays.

I know very little about the ornamentals in my garden (except the poppies) so I can't wait to be joining in more. I took some photo's of other plants blooming but I need to postpone those for antoher day as I have to walk the dogs then get to work!

Enjoy your gardens!

I post last week my first Peachy Keen photo. This tree was a freebie from Freecycle, one of 4 trees we picked up and one of two survivors.Well I have an important update! I mentioned last week that the tree was flowering, not many just a few blossoms that were beautiful, and I have to post the pic again cos it's soooo pretty!

Well I went out Friday to water the plants, potter around in the garden, make sure the trellis was still standing, you know the usual stuff. Anyway I found this:

Is it? Is THAT the start of a fruit? With my limited knowledge of fruit tree gardening (non citrus) that sure looks like it's a pollenated flower that has formed a fruit!!! I have NO IDEA how old the tree is, like I said it was a freebie, but it's around 2-3' high so I'd estimate around 4-5 years old. It's in a 10 gallon pot, and watered 1-2 times a week. Sheesh now I need to do more research I have no idea how to look after a Peach tree, I figured I'd have another year at least before I needed to know. Guess I do have green fingers :)

I thought it would be good to show that I'm not JUST growing veggies in my garden, I do have some non edibles, just plain flowering plants (and tree's but they are being ripped out soon). We have these which I believe are freeway daisies or "osteospermum".

They grow like weeds, self seed and are a pretty ground cover if you keep them dead-headed which is a massive task if you have a lot of it! We have several different colors in our front garden including the orange above, a pale yellow and a pink.

Also in bloom right now are the peas!  Yes I know they are a veg, but we have lots of pea plants blooming!!! Love these as they are edible and pretty :)

Figured this would be a monthly feature after seeing a challenge on a blog recently,  the challenge is called garden bloggers bloom day and you can join in here.

I've been pretty busy sowing seeds and last weekend came the time for the first round of "potting up" where the little seedlings roots were bursting through and searching for more room! Always an exciting time to see them growing so well, and so fast! The first to grow fast were the zucchini and pumpkin which are BIG seeds anyway so no surprise there, but the next were the tomatoes! Yay! These are Amish paste, growing up a storm and with there first true leaves :)

I mentioned in a previous post that I'd overwintered one tomato plant (my accident due to laziness and curiosity), and wouldn't you know it the plant is flowering!

How cool is that though? I've had the odd tomato off it in Dec, Jan and Feb but the flowers mean more to come! Who knew there was a chance of overwintering tomatoes? Just to prove it, here is a small tomato on this plant

This variety is Imur Prior Beta which is sized between a cherry and a slicer, usually around an ounce+ each. Just enough in a couple for a salad :) Which is perfect for me. I'll be growing this variety again this year!