I was working on a long post about California's "second spring" [we were laughing the other day about recent immigrants and their sad, predictable complaints about "seasons"], as well as the various failures this year [
this list will have to be updated], but I don't have the energy. I spent the weekend excavating and building the raised bed, which gave me ample time to gauge the progress of my physical decrepitude, and also turn most of the yard into a desolate mud pit (punctuated with bermuda grass stolons). The end is finally near, but it hardly seems like it right now.
These flowers would have encouraged me, if there were more than two of them, and if the color had actually been "blood red" (The alleged "common" name of Distictis buccinatoria is blood red trumpet vine). A bit finer, perhaps, than common trumpet vine, and supposedly less "vigorous" (= weedy), but not long for the garden if it remains so stingy with the flowering.
Labels: bed, California, Distictis buccinatoria, trumpet vine
3 Comments:
Second spring? Sounds like it would be nice.
We all have a list of plants that up and died on us, in spite of our intentions!
Without irrigation, everything would die during our rainless summers, except the native plants, which are summer-dormant. The "second spring" happens in the fall when these plants shake of their dormancy and start sending out green again (flowering mainly waits till spirng).
The interesting thing about it is that a significant number of plants can be observed doing this before any actual rainfall, which is something of a mystery, though it must have something to do with photoperiod and/or soil temp.
But, yeah, I have considerable sympathy for the travails of gardeners to the east this time of year.
I have an impressive list of plants that have died on me, and I only have house plants. And persist in believing that I'm good with plants. Mom gave me a streptocarpus that I killed in a week, and I was too embarrassed to tell her, so I bought a new one every time she came over - all the replacements died in about a week too. I felt like an executioner every time I went to the plant store to select a new victim.
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