On the Road is a weekday feature spotlighting reader photo submissions.
From the exotic to the familiar, whether you’re traveling or in your own backyard, we would love to see the world through your eyes.
Today we have a celebration of color! Bright, happy colors, and kitties. Actually, just one kitty, but that’s enough. ~WaterGirl
Jerzy Russian
We have had a lot of rain recently in San Diego (“a lot” is a relative term of course), but yesterday was clear and sunny. Many varieties of ground cover plants are blooming, so I thought I would share.
I was out walking the neighborhood, and as I rounded the corner I was blinded by the brilliant color. I am not sure of the exact species, but I believe it is a variety of “ice plant”. By the way, the “grass” seen in the left part of the picture is artificial.
I think these are California poppies.
The flowers on this one are much smaller than the flowers shown in the first picture.
More ice plants, I believe.
Who is a good kitty? Oliver is a good kitty! On a subsequent walk I saw the cat’s owner who said “Oliver is not afraid of people.” Indeed he is not. Oliver is only the second cat I have seen on my walks that does not run away when I get near (I never leave the sidewalk when I am trying to approach other people’s animals).
Mary G
The ice plant has been spectacular this year. Thanks for showing all the different varieties. Now I want the darker one in the next to last picture
ETA: These can be so spectacular you can see large patches on hillsides from an airplane as you descend for landing in So. Cal.
?BillinGlendaleCA
In photo #2, those are indeed California Poppies. Nice color on the shots.
JPL
The colors are magnificent and when out and about seeing such beauty one can’t help but smile.
Thanks.
Amir Khalid
Oliver is a handsome kitty, too.
I was last in San Diego 25 years ago, for a hot summer week in August so I didn’t get to see any flowers in bloom. But these look wonderful.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Amir Khalid: Spring is the best time for flowers here in Southern California, but if watered most flowering plants will bloom throughout the year.
J R in WV
Fabulous colors for your walk! And Oliver is a gorgeous boy, our orange and white w red spots kitties have all been wonderful affectionate cats!
Thanks for the taste of San Diego, so pretty!
satby
Now I want to plant ice plants. Thanks a lot Jerzy!
Azelie
We used to have these flowers in the front yard when we lived in California (planted by a previous owner who was a gardener, which I unfortunately am not). I loved to watch them starting to bloom and then taking over the front slope of our yard. Thanks for bringing back this memory.
Barbara
My friend pointed out the ice flowers when I visited her in San Diego a few years ago. When I looked closely, they seemed to have succulent properties.
Jerzy Russian
@?BillinGlendaleCA: Thanks. The colors were especially vivid that day. I guess it was a combination of the nearly noontime sun and the unusually clear sky.
debbie
@JPL:
Seconded. I must look like an idiot with my nonstop smiling while walking through my neighborhood during spring.
The colors of spring are always practically beyond belief. I spent years trying to duplicate the colors with oil paints, dyes, whatever, and always came up short.
Thanks for sharing, jerzy russian, these awesome little beings!
Jerzy Russian
@Barbara: Yes, the texture of their “leaves” does remind you of succulents.. I assume that many of these ice plants are used here because of their relatively low water requirements (it is way too early here now to try and Google any of of this).
Jerzy Russian
@J R in WV: Oliver got another belly rub the other day. He was just hanging out in the shade of his person”s car by the end of the driveway. We exchanged greetings and rubs (his belly and my ankle).
Jerzy Russian
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
The jacaranda trees are blooming for us now. For those not from around here theses trees have amazing light purple flowers when they bloom in late spring.
JPL
Ice Plants are beautiful but unfortunately they dislike clay soil, so it’s not a good option for me.
StringOnAStick
There are now ice plant varieties available for cold climates too, brought into the landscape trade from South Africa. Not quite as heavy blooming, but close and they survive here in zone 5.
WaterGirl
@Mary G: I had never seen or heard of an ice plant until you linked to a picture of yours last week. They are spectacular. I checked, and they will even grow in zone 5, and I am 5.5 going on 6, with climate change. Yay!
pluky
When my dad was stationed at Fort Ord my mother grew to hate ice plant. The stains they leave in clothes DO NOT come out. Something discovered after a round of using the rotting blooms as snowball analogs for a backyard fight one season.
Citizen_X
Ugh. Why can’t they just do some xeriscaping? Look at all the pretty varieties of ground cover that are available there! Or just get some drought-tolerant grass.
evap
Great pictures, thanks! Because of our (relatively) cool spring and lots of rain, the plants are putting on quite a show around here (Atlanta area). I love spring in spite of the pollen.
Jerzy Russian
@Citizen_X: The grass on the right, near the street, is actual grass. There are a few artificial lawns around here, and the one pictured above is one of the better looking ones. They don’t seem to hold up well after a few years, so we will see how it goes.
greenergood
The ice plants are mesymbranthemum crystallina, originally from southern Africa, and now naturalised in many pllaces, including N. America. They’re called ice plants not because of cold-weather tolerance, but because the petals and leaves have a crystallline, ice-like sheen. I’ve grown them here on the w. coast of Scotland, but they looked nothing like the profusion of blossom in these photos. Must be that California sunshine! Funnily enough, California (ornage) and Icelandic (yellow) poppies do really well here depite the damp. I think the photo of the little lavender flowers are a kind of phlox. Oliver is muy handsome!!
StringOnAStick
Just be aware that the varieties of ice plant that grow in CA coastal areas will not survive a zone 5 winter. All of them are xeric, but the cold hardy ones are definitely different varieties that first hit the xeric landscaping market about 25years ago. There’s some really nice colors now, some bloom once a season and some spread it out. A lot of xeric plants for up to zone 5 areas are from the Drakenburg mountains of South Africa, like Red Hot Poker, hardy ice plant, etc.