From skilled gardener / photographer / commentor Scout211:
In addition to all the extra rain this year filling up our reservoirs and ending the drought in most of the state, we are having amazing super blooms of native wild flowers.
You may have already seen photos from the California Poppy super bloom this year. Here is a nice You Tube video (with music!) taken at the Antelope Valley Poppy Reserve:
Here in rural NorCal, we have a Blue Dick (Dichelostemma capitatum) super bloom this year! We always have a good crop of Blue Dicks in the spring but we have never had a super bloom like this before. It is just amazing and I refuse to mow these fields until the flowers start to fade and the fire season is just around the corner.
Here are a couple of photos I took on April 11th, with a bonus photo of one of our cantankerous hens, an Appenzeller spitzhauben in a field of Blue Dicks.
***********
In Boston, it’s Lilac Sunday at the Arnold Arboretum… and both the lilacs and the weather look to be in excellent form today!
What’s going on in your garden (planning / prep / planting), this week?
NeenerNeener
I have voles living under my air conditioner and a skunk living under the small deck on the back on my garage. The voles are killing the grass from beneath and the skunk is digging it up from above looking grubs. I’ve paid a pest control firm to kill the voles but I’m not sure it’s working, and the lawn fertilizer guy hasn’t been around yet to put down the stuff that kills the grubs because it’s been too cold. And I’m getting behind on killing the invasive honeysuckle that keeps popping up in my fence. Right now my garden is more work than I have time to do.
David 🌈 ☘The Establishment☘🌈 Koch
wow, they have a flower that looks just like a chicken
satby
I wish I had timed my trip west just a week later to really see the superbloom in all it’s glory, but the beginnings of it I did see were delightful. So much green and wild flowers everywhere, in places my friends assured me had been brown scrub for years. I know that it’s a mixed blessing: all that lush growth eventually drying out and fueling wildfires. But what a sight!
Amir Khalid
So there’s a kind of flower called the Blue Dick. I most definitely did not know that before.
satby
I received a bunch of gladioli bulbs I had ordered a few days ago and pulled the ones I overwintered in the basement out to plant today or tomorrow depending on the rain. Most of them will go into the bed where the squirrels ate all the tulip bulbs. Squirrels like glad bulbs too, but a gardening site suggested using coffee grounds to deter them. One thing I have in abundance is ☕ grounds!
satby
@Amir Khalid: Good evening Amir, hope you’re doing well.
Van Buren
Yesterday I traded some dahlias for some sunflowers and hollyhocks with a gardener friend. I also tidied up about 60 feet of edging between lawn and flower beds. I’ve had blueberry bushes for years, never actually got any before the birds, but this year, someone has stripped almost all the leaves off( looking at you, Mr. Bunny) so I doubt even the birds will get anything.
If I could let my dog run free, she’d keep the rabbits away.
raven
My wife trashed her back overdoing it the garden so we had to cancel our 10 day beach trip. Fuck some gardens!
raven
@raven: I did get 10 bales of pine straw and we’ll do some mulching today before it hits 90!
Spanky
@Amir Khalid: It seems most dichelostemma varieties are red.
I suspect the “dick” is from dichelo.
satby
In my garden of kitties, an update on the young orange boy. We moved him to a different foster to get more socialized and have his immunizations and neuter done. Poor guy has a minor ear infection from scratching at mites we can get cleared up too, so glad we got him before he got sicker. Sick cats fare poorly outdoors.
JPL
@Amir Khalid: All the news that’s not fit to print and the balloon juice motto!
satby
Happy Mother’s Day to all the moms, aunties who are like moms, dads who are both mother and father, grandmoms, and the rest of the village who act as moms to the children who need them.
Dorothy A. Winsor
I love flowers scattered in grass.
prostratedragon
“Mother and Child” from Suite for Violin and Piano, W.G. Still; Randall Goosby and Zhu Wang
CCL
Halfway through “no mow May” and we have again decided to extend it to “no mow June and beyond!”
I am way behind on potting up my over-enthusiastic seed starting. Sometime this week I will be planting a lovely Japanese anemone gifted to us by a friend when we admired his colony.
And ditto satby’s mother’s day wishes to all those who serve (as well as those who appreciate their nurturing).
satby
@prostratedragon: lovely, thank you!
OzarkHillbilly
Thanx for the pics Scout, beautiful.
I am now putting out 3 large servings of nectar for the hummingbirds every day, I gave up on the small feeders years ago. The Rose Breasted Grosbeaks are taking a break from their migration at my bird feeders now. I love seeing them, it means Spring really is here. In a couple weeks they will move on to their final destinations. Still no sign of the Baltimore Orioles, I have my fingers crossed that they too put in an appearance. I saw my first catbird ever last week, or at least that I know of. Kinda hard to believe it took almost 65 years for that to happen. It made me happy. I hear the Summer Tanager every morning but have yet to spot him. Being 60% deaf in my left ear makes it hard for me to tell in what direction I should look for him.
We got a nice gentle summer rain last eve. It seems like it’s been forever since we had one, these days they are all frog chokers. I sat out on the front porch for an hour, just watching/listening to the rain come down. Speaking of frogs, they’ve been having sexy time in the Zen pond. The standing pools as well as the main reservoir are chock full of tadpoles. I hope the local Republicans don’t hear about the nightly porn show they are putting on, they would definitely object.
As far as gardening goes, I’m working on my flower beds. I cleared them of weeds back in early April and now I am pulling all the weeds that came back from missed rootlets, etc. Then I sow the seeds for all my annuals. If the rain holds off today, I may be able to finish up the last of that chore. Fingers crossed.
Then I can get started on the veggie garden, which this year is going to be much smaller.
WereBear
@satby: orange boy love!
WereBear
I have ordered four Canadian rose bushes to rebuild the garden after someone with a mental problem tore it out.
My downstairs neighbor is contributing a shovel and a sack of cow manure. Mr WereBear will be saving his banana peels.
satby
@WereBear: 💙 He was pretty subdued after capture and I hope it was just fear at the changed surroundings, not illness. This year has been a real financial struggle for our group.
frosty
I’m so jealous! We went to the Antelope Poppy Reserve during our cross-country Road Trip in 2021 and I was looking forward to seeing them.
There were six poppies along the entrance road … and that was it. The rest was a huge field of brown, dead sticks. It was the height of the drought.
I’m so glad they’re back.
Wapiti
We have California poppies up here in Seattle. They’re a cheerful flower, often found in rockeries/retaining walls. I have more than a few – they’re prolific self-seeders. Curiously, mine get two blooming seasons each year, like June and September.
My brother is an avid gardener, and says he lets the California poppies serve as filler when he’s not doing something else with a patch of ground. But he reasons that they’re all over the place. He doesn’t lose a moment to pull them if he has something else to plant.
Scout211
Ahhh, the Blue Dick super bloom. I remember it well . . . last month. All the Blue Dicks are now dried up and going to seed. All those green grasses are now dry and brown, or as we say around here, “golden.”
We do have an abundance of White Brodiaea right now but they look kind of sad amongst the dry grasses. It’s time to mow and cut the grasses and weeds as fire season approaches. Ugh.
Most of our native wildflowers around here are bulbs, or as Mr. Scout’s colleague at the university (a botany professor) used to call them, onions.
Here is a little bit about our native Blue Dicks.
Mousebumples
Two questions/requests for recommendations from the crowd –
Thanks, all!
We planted some strawberry plants yesterday, and did some weeding and trimming while the weather cooperated.
For mother’s day, I was brought coffee in bed. 😍
Happy mother’s day, to other moms!
Denali5
@Gardeners in the group:
What do you recommend for edging? The pachysandra continually intrudes, with help from the violets, into my two flower beds. They are basically a mess.
OzarkHillbilly
I composted the hell out of my clay soil and the creeping thyme does just fine. Depending on how big the area you are trying to plant is, you may or may not want to do that work. The area I have the thyme in is only about 60 sq ft.
dww44
@NeenerNeener: Were right there with you. Overgrown shrubs and invasive vines trying to take over our large azalea beds. While the physical work is beyond our capabilities we’ve been unable to hire the help. There is apparently a huge demand and not enough workers to fill it. Local garden center tells us the problem is widespread.
frosty
@Mousebumples: I bought one of these; it’s too much, better suited for a bigger yard than mine. My main objection is that it has too loops of string instead of just one, which makes it more than twice as much effort to reload.
https://www.dewalt.com/product/dcst925m1/20v-max-13-cordless-string-trimmer-charger-and-40ah-battery?tid=578616
Dan B
Had a Seattle meet-up in my partner Mike’s garden. It was 86°! The 1/4 acre garden was glorious. We ate (ravaged) Dim Sum and discussed many things, even a little politics. There were plants that have gotten huge in the 23 years since the garden was installed and a couple errant kitties eyeing us while lurking in the shrubberies. Pictures and reports soon from four Jackals.
OzarkHillbilly
@Dan B: Nice, looking forward to the pics.
StringOnAStick
@Mousebumples: You might want to consider setting aside a grass area for your kids, then shrubs and trees for the rest. We live in a high desert area, and the city is pushing the idea of “as much grass as you’ll use, low water plants for the rest”. My approach is to first make a map of your lot to help focus your thoughts and approach to the planned changes that arise. Look at how you use your yard, and plan grass areas and hardscaping accordingly. The single biggest mistake people make in do it yourself landscaping is not starting with a comprehensive plan (or getting some assistance in creating one) and then just randomly plugging in whatever plant catches their fancy each time they go to the nursery. The result is always something they’re never satisfied with and looks like a complete hodge podge.
In the 2.5 years we’ve lived here, all the grass has been removed and rock walked raised beds built in the back (by me, a pro in native landscaping just completed the front). The pathways are compacted decomposed granite, with large area of that in the back so there’s an open space to simulate the open flat expanse of grass we are all used to. We only have indoor cats, no outside pets so my plan to turn the backyard into a pollinators paradise has gone super well and it’s pleasing to look at. The front was just planted, mostly with native bunch grasses of various heights, 3 serviceberry trees to feed birds and provide intense autumn colour, and various native penstemons, sulfur buckwheats, and pussytoes to fill in amongst the lichen covered boulders on the berm built with soil. The idea was a more “civilized version” of the native Ponderosa pine forest around this area, anchored by the 80 year old Ponderosa in front of the house. It’s shockingly different from the grass-scapes here in suburbia, but native landscaping is growing here because water is scarce and lawns require 30″ of irrigation water per year. The city is really pushing people to get rid of grass street strips because they waste even more water by poorly adjusted sprinklers and that’s grass no one uses for kids, dogs etc., so short shrubs, ornamental grasses and flowers are much better suited to those islands of landscape.
StringOnAStick
@Denali5: Metal edging is the only thing that stays in the ground, the black plastic stuff always works itself up out of the ground by expansion and contraction with the sun every day and is a waste of money and effort. Get the stuff with a rolled top edge because without that edge, dogs and kids can cut their feet on it.
Mousebumples
Good to know, thanks! I may have to go bit by bit, to make sure it does okay, but we can try to work on adding compost to the lawn. Thanks!
Thanks for the suggestion!
@StringOnAStick: I never water my grass (except for whatever falls when my kids are playing in the sprinkler), but Wisconsin has a different climate! But that’s a good idea. I have been planting spruce/firs to serve as a natural fence from the road and intentionally leaving a grassy space between the trees and the house. May be worth exploring more…
MobiusKlein
In our San Francisco backyard, we have 3 lupines – 1 bush lupine, 2 silver. The bush lupine has gone nuts, and is almost 4 feet tall, 5 feet wide. Was 2 by 1 in winter.
The fronds of yellow blossoms smell a bit of jasmine, and on warm days, wafts into the house. The entire backyard is now junglish. The dutchman’s pipevine is creeping everywhere, and Ms Mobius is finding remote park areas to plant more, to encourage a specific butterfly to come to our neighborhood.
Camped in the Marin Headlands, and saw a vibrant black/blue Pipevine Swallowtail, so they just have to come 15 miles across the city and bridge to get here.
Also a few weeks back, went up San Bruno Mountain to the south. In the prior fall, we planted three varieties of lupine in a remote gulch, as part of an official replanting effort, and saw the fruits of our labor. And the reward was seeing the Boisdaval Blue butterfly racing from plant to plant. Might have been the endangered Mission Blue – but hard to tell without capturing and killing.
The Ravens and Crows in the backyard are going nuts. Both kinds, depending on the hour of the day. Flying around and grabbing sticks, grabbing pizza crusts. Croaking, cawing, quiet and loud. There is always ongoing drama with those fellows.
Kristine
@OzarkHillbilly: Here in my little patch of NE Illinois, wow. I spent a chunk of yesterday morning watching the backyard scrum. More orioles than I’d seen in the previous 10 years. So many catbirds–they like oranges as much as the orioles do–and several pairs of rose-breasted grosbeaks. In addition to a dish with oranges, I put out the hummingbird feeder–that draws orioles and goldfinches in addition to, well, the intended breed.
Oh, and in the midst of all that, an indigo bunting stopped by. I’ve reached the point where I’m ho-hum about the goldfinches and I shouldn’t be because that yellow is gorgeous.
J R in WV
Amazing horticulture, thanks for sharing with all of us.
Yesterday I saw a bunch of wildlife as I lazed in bed. There was a woodpecker doing a job on some dead limbs, in fact a dinosaur type of woodpecker known as pileated, with red top knot, black and white markings — so beautiful to watch him (her?) working so hard just across the creek from the house.
Not very long ago I watched a red fox stroll from west to east behind the house, was beautiful as well, red and white, totally relaxed as it climbed up and over the stone wall on the east side of the ravine. I was on the phone with a good friend talking about my chemo trips, 8 hours of drips of a wild variety of drugs, in the morning to prep for the 2 actual chemo treatments that come in the afternoon. The nurse who I mostly have is a traveling nurse from Mississippi, very helpful and supportive, preps medications, some small doses administered via injection into the port, mostly large bags of fluids with cis-platen or other terrible mineral substances. Nurse went home for Mother’s Day, should be back Tuesday for my next treatment — a very sweet, supportive and compassionate person… Cis-platen is a mix of platinum, chromium and ammonia in a liter of saline. So far side effects are minimal, mostly tiredness, so I rest a whole lot, and watch the wild life outside. I feel a nap coming any minute now !!
Thanks for all the flowers !!!
Kristine
Gorgeous photos. I love wildflowers.
It’s been mostly cooler than normal here in NE Illinois, and that combined with the rains mean the yard is looking pretty lush. All the astilbes–I have 40+–are like bushel basket leaf mounds; I do have to move a bunch to the shady side yard because they’re currently in places where afternoon sun roasts them. My native columbine transplant has exploded. Buds are opening. So many buds.
Over the years, more and more native flowers have shown up in the shady side yard. Trout lilies all over the place. Wild violet, which do get out of hand. A few varieties of Solomon’s seal. I was thrilled to spot a red trillium amid some wood anemone. Can never have too many trilliums.
I do need to cut back the false starry Solomon’s seal bed, which is way too big. That will be a chore because I need to dig up the rhizomes. Just pulling out the plants doesn’t cut it.
Dwarf crabapples are also blooming. Boy, do they need to be pruned.
StringOnAStick
@MobiusKlein: Excellent job growing more butterfly habitat! I’m hoping to see a monarch butterfly since we’re in the potential flyway but this high desert isn’t their best bet for getting back and forth from Mexico.
Last week I started my volunteer project of installing drip irrigation at a local wildlife rescue and rehabilitation centre that planted a gorgeous pollinator garden last year, but without any way to water it other than a person standing in the sun with a hose. It has been quite the puzzle because it is the now terraced walls of a former large irrigation pond, and working the 1 /2″ inline emitter tubing around existing plants and terrace rocks is a real challenge but I got the most difficult zone completed Friday. The next two zones are not as complex to lay out and half is thankfully in the shade. I volunteered to do this last fall and wrote up a materials list, which they then got a nice grant to cover the cost of that and of my other suggestions about mulch to keep the dust down, gravel paths with fabric underneath between the rehabilitation enclosures, native plant seed mixes for other areas; other volunteers are handling those projects. It’s an old farm house with some small acreage but the lawn is long dead and is now munched to cut the dust and weeds. It looks like at least 1/4 of the work there is teaching kids about wildlife through various education programs, so appearances count. However, I am dragging myself through a slow recovery from Covid that has really knocked me out and if I hadn’t agreed to do this work last fall, I wouldn’t be volunteering to do it now. I’m taking it in small bits with the knowledge that hot weather will be here very soon and I want to get it done as fast as I can to avoid too much of working in high heat, but not work so hard that I delay my recovery. It’s a great group of people doing excellent veterinary and educational work for sure.
StringOnAStick
@J R in WV: I hope your treatment journey continues to not be too difficult, and that it is hugely successful! I value your voice here and thanks for keeping us posted on your progress.
Kayla Rudbek
Question for those who have peonies: do they increase the amount of ants in your house? We have a recurring problem with ants coming into the house, and I’m not sure whether planting peonies would keep them out of our kitchen (as they would have something else to feed on) or increase the ant population overall and increase the chance that we would get ants in the house when it rains or when the peonies finish blooming. Any suggestions?
BigJimSlade
@Amir Khalid: Yeah, they’re great little bunches of flowers. And you get to make Avatar porn jokes.
kindness
Here in my region of N. Cal the grasses are already drying out & turning gold. Yea, that’s really where ‘Golden State’ comes from. The outdoors go from spring green to summer gold so fast.
Wanderer
@J R in WV: I am glad that you can see beautiful birds and wildlife from the window as you rest and restore yourself. Woodpeckers always make me smile. Imagine having to eat by hitting one’s head against a log all day. “My” local hummingbird returned 3 days ago and it is wonderful to see him/her again.
Old Dan and Little Ann
We planted about a dozen hostas yesterday. I did the hole digging and the girls did the planting. Several aches and pains today.
Denali5
@StringOnAStick:
Thanks for the tip. I hate the black plastic; it always shows and that is worse. I have the brick edging, but it is tipping sideways and not really working. I garden for therapy, so I need low maintenance plants and shrubs. Plus we have hungry deer. Why do they hate weeds?
WaterGirl
@OzarkHillbilly: Am I right in thinking that creeping thyme only flowers for a small number of weeks?
WaterGirl
@StringOnAStick:
I don’t start with a comprehensive plan; I get plants I like and work them in. I don’t think of that as a mistake – I see it as an evolving adventure. :-)
Mousebumples
@WaterGirl: from what I’ve read, it varies – depending on climate and what exact species of thyme is used. But they tend to not require much water or mowing and ate foot traffic tolerant.
🐾BillinGlendaleCA
@frosty: I think that video was taken in the area near the Reserve. The Reserve is hilly, not flat. I visited this year and the poppy bloom was much better outside the Reserve than inside.
Anyway
Love CA wildflowers. Thanks for sharing, Scout. They’re beautiful.
Yutsano
Don’t you have to go to Camden Yards for that? :P
Happy Mother’s Day to all the Balloon Juice moms!
OzarkHillbilly
@Kristine: Ach! You reminded me of the first Indigo Bunting of the year too! I love Goldfinches, don’t think I will ever be bored with them . :-)
OzarkHillbilly
@Kayla Rudbek: I planted our peonies well away from the house, so can’t really say. We get ant invasions (the small ones) from time to time and I put out ant traps, they usually do the job.
OzarkHillbilly
@WaterGirl: I don’t know, I have it for ground cover. I see the flowers from time to time but pay them no mind.
OzarkHillbilly
@Yutsano: I KNEW that was coming.
Geminid
@Denali5: Loew’s has 4″ by 8 foot pieces of metal edging. It’s flexible enough for curves, and comes in a green or black baked-on finish, with 4 stakes for each piece.
It’s easiest to install if the dirt is moist and relatively soft.
A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)
@Kristine: OOOhhh I love Trout Lilies! I first was introduced to them as FAwn Lilies. The foresty shade wildflowers (and maidenhair fern) are my favorites, since they are so brief and fragile.
StringOnAStick
@WaterGirl: “Comprehensive plan” encompasses a range of planning; even just a general idea of “grass here, patio there, trees and flowers in these areas is still a plan with an end state in mind. I guess I’m a bit touchy on the subject from having a neighbor who is completely out of space and asks for advice constantly, and then goes and buys another shrub that needs full sun (she has none left) sticks it someplace up against the house where it will either die or have to be ripped out in two years because it will get 8′ across in a 2′ wide planting spot. The topper is that she asks for tons of detailed advice, uses none of it and then wants to whine at every opportunity that they “should just pave it all” while also asking me to fix their irrigation system. I’ve been putting my foot down and she’s getting increasingly frantic about not having me be her free advice and labor anymore. I’m willing to help people but some folks cross the line on expectations. She constantly tells me she wished their yard looked like ours, but doesn’t listen to any advice on how she could get there!
Kristine
@A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan): I was so happy when I saw them spreading into my shade garden. I also have wood anemone and several types of Solomon’s seal, all of which have just showed up over the years. It helps to live a stone’s through from a wooded bike trail and nature preserve.
Kristine
@OzarkHillbilly: I was so startled when mine popped into view as I was trying to photograph an oriole. I hope to see more.
Denali5
@Geminid:
Thanks. I will try them.
Geminid
@Denali5: I know this is kind of late, but- if you need to install more than a couple pieces of edging, and don’t already have a square-ended spade, you may want to buy Loew’s “Kobalt” brand spade. It’s all-steel and on the heavy side, but it will cut the channel for the edging very well. Also good for edging beds without edging, and various tough digging projects.
WaterGirl
@StringOnAStick: Oh that would be frustrating!!!
I do totally agree on the bigger space layout, grass here, plantings there, patio here, trees there. But when it comes to individual plants, I prefer the spontaneous, eclectic version. :-)
Have you tried mentioning to your neighbor, nicely of course, that you enjoyed helping her at first, but it became less than fun for you after you realized that while she is under no obligation to take ALL of your advice, it feels like she doesn’t take ANY of your advice, so you felt it was better to bow out?
StringOnAStick
@WaterGirl: Its weird, we’re only 5 years apart in age but she feels like my grandmother and treats me like someone her daughter’s age. Her own daughter lives here but refuses to get roped into the garden projects, and since they are well off, drop $500 gift certificates on their parents. The last thing these folks need is another$500 to spend at a nursery, but she just received that for mothers day. What they really need is a few grand in landscaping Labor to clean up the many years of neglect from before they bought the place 4 years ago.