Barbara's Garden

So we drove out to San Diego on March 1st in order to visit family this past week.
From the picture above you might have mistakenly thought we went to Hawaii instead.
Those orchids?
They were blooming away gloriously in my Mother-By-Love's  garden in La Masa, a small town in east San Diego.

Barbara was given the orchid plant something like five years ago.
She stuck it outside when she got it, and let it do its own thing, sink or swim.
This year...it went bonkers.
There were two stalks of orchids, each flower the size of the palm of my hand.
A-maz-ing!

After the snowy landscapes of home seeing a garden in bloom was a real treat.
(The orchids are in the upper left of the above photo).

One day it got up to 92 degrees.
In the first week of March for heaven's sake!

Being outside, taking photos of all the blooms..now that's my idea of fun.

A penny sized blossom with lavender blue pollen.

I am under the belief that most native Southern Californians don't get too excited by the omnipresent Bird of Paradise that blooms in huge clumps all over the place.
It took leaving the area and coming back to begin to treasure the orange and yellow flower.
(And does anyone else besides me remember the Happy Days episode when the character Potsie gave his prom date a Bird of Paradise to wear as a corsage?  Hilarious!  And a big tip-off that the writers lived in SoCal...)

 

Ah shucks...there really should be a way for you to smell how the orange blossoms were scenting the garden. 
 The tree was covered in blossoms and each gentle breeze filled the air with the intoxicating scent.

 

Barbara absolutely LOVES iris.
The unfurling of a first golden iris was closely monitored by all of us.

 

 

 

Our family's two March birth people were happy to see their birth flower (daffodil) blooming about the garden just in time for their birthday.

 

Oh, and if the scent of orange blossom wasn't enough, the freesias were adding their fragrance to the garden as well.

(It was hard not to keep circling back to the iris to catch the secondary blossoms begin to unwind).

Fetal flower... 

 

 

Shooting prone.
(Must remain flexible...must do more yoga...)

That soft golden plush petal...love catching that texture in the photo.

 

The star-like center of each nasturtium leaf really stood out to me.

 

The blue margarite daisies mound up against the front porch this time of year.

 

 

 

 

And if the orange blossom fragrance was wonderful, the fresh picked oranges were totally awesome.
Nothing beats fresh picked oranges eaten right there in the garden in the morning.

 

So that is a spin around Barbara's garden during the first week of March 2012,
Come back by again in a day or two to see the garden birds and critters too!