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What's Growing When?
So far 2011 has been an interesting year, freakishly long rainstorms in December
2010, followed by some periods of nice warm weather, then back to week long cold
snaps.
Random observations on when plants are growing
December 2010
6 days of non-stop rain started Dec 17, 2010, and ended Dec 21. The first time
it rained 24 hours a day for 6 days NONSTOP. Unbelievable
January 2011
Jan 2 & 3, a little rain, nothing like the volume in December though.
Jan 30, some rain
The december and early january rains were followed by really warm weather - the
plants thought it was spring! Here's some flowering plants that decided to come
around early this year:
- California Primrose - a few of these came up early January, didn't
bloom out because...it wasn't spring!
- Stinging Lupine - these plants are HARDY! They came in earlier
than usual this year due to the warm weather but had no problems with the
later cold and frost
February 2011
It didn't rain in February until the 16th. There were a few days early in the
month when it was very cold, with frost.
Feb 16-20 Rain
- Golden yarrow are prolific with flowers
- Phacelia minor has started
- Woodland Star
- Chia started blooming in some places, not ready yet in others
- California Peony already going to seed by the 3rd week of Feb
- California Everlasting flowering
- Wild cucumber has flowers
- White Layia (that I threw out from seeds fall/winter 2008) have
consistently been among the first to bloom
March 2011
- California Primrose - time for them to start growing vigorously
- Phacelia minor
- Cobwebby thistle has flowers, will see how long they last - the
plants die after flowering
- Yellow pincushion are about a foot tall where they found ideal
conditions last year, no blooms yet - will be putting out by April I think
- Chia started blooming in some places, not ready yet in others
- Showy Penstemon is showing buds
- Stinging Lupine has lots of its huge seed pods, still blooming
though
- Baby blue eyes (from the seed mixture 2008) are prolific
- Blue toadflax have come up everywhere. Toadflax, what a name for a
nice little bloom
- Haven't seen any Wild Hyacinth yet. Blue Dicks, now that's a name
- Monkeyflower bloomed best late January, flowers looking kind of
spent now
- Into the 3rd week of March and lots of miniature lupine (from
seeds 2008), along with the arroyo lupine
- Invasive grasses are really going to impact next year's spring
blooms in the area where I threw out native wildflower seeds. Shame.
A rainy first day of spring, started overnight March 18-19, mostly cloudy March
19, then a gloomy day for the first time in years for the first day of spring
March 20 turned into a storm all night.
March 21, what's with this on-again off-again rain?
March 26 - another weekend of rain, followed by temps in the 80's midweek,
followed by another overcast weekend April 2.
April 2011
Hot, then cold. Interesting weather. April 6, 7, 8, 9 rain again. According to
weathercurrents.com this is the wettest season since 2004-2005. The next wettest
was in the 1990's.
- Monkeyflower - had a revival mid-month
- Yellow pincushion - started blooming
- Buckwheat - getting little pink hued flowers on the tips
- Black sage - all of it is in bloom
- Chamise - started blooming
- Blue Dicks - bunch of them have popped up
- Nuttal snapdragon - only a few plants here and there, no blooms
yet
- Twining snapdragon - haven't seen any
- Showy Penstemon - in full bloom
- Fringed spineflower - growing its tiny spines, some still green
- Field sun cup
- White sage
- Eucrypta is showing tiny white flowers
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