The garden of recent light rains

We've gotten about 0.35" of rain in the last few days--rather remarkable for this time of year. I tweeted that it was also cold, but that is incorrect. It's been in the 50s and 60s; not cold at all, for San Francisco.

Anyway, I used about 40 gallons from a full rain barrel today for directed, deep soakings.

And I took some pictures. 'Mohagany' nasturtium (Tropaeolum majus) climbing a tree fern...a tree fern whose name I don't know because I planted it before I fully understood the value of knowing names. Whatever it is, it's not rare or special. Just a garden variety tree fern.



A cineraria blooms in the vicinity, but adds nothing special to the composition.





I have quite a bit of red in the garden right now, including this poppy that I'm not loving. Not hating either, just not loving. For whatever reason, the flower stem stayed short. The flower, however, is huge.



This red cuphea, I'm loving.



I bought it from the Botanical Garden as Cuphea pinetorum; Annie's Annuals sells it as Cuphea 'Minnie Mouse'.



Just a little bit of blue to cool things down? Phacelia campanularia.



But what I am really loving right now, are apple green buckeye leaves and blooming Carpenteria californica.









I showed the bronzy pajaro manzanita in my last garden post, but not all manzanitas are bronzy. This manzanita is 'Louis Edmunds' (Arctostaphylos bakeri):



Vine maple (Acer circinatum) also has apple green leaves.



Meyer lemon flowers are very lovable. The new leaves are rather dark. They turn apple green with age.



The caramel heuchera is sort of bronzy. I planted it as a compantion for a trio of rusty foxglove (Digitalis ferruginea), one of which is seen here in the early stages of sending up a bloom stalk. (I just bought one heuchera; they are so easy to divide, no urgent need to buy more than one.)



Nearby, Philadelphus lewisii is about to put on its biggest show ever in my g. But when??



The giant cloud forest aster Bartlettina sordida is starting to flower too. Really love the cloud forest plants; want more.



(Thinking Bartlettina must be a close cousin of Ageratum.)

Cherry blossom petals rain down from my neighbor's tree.



David Austin's 'Charlotte' is flowering,



And with some more rain on the way, there is no reason to leave it in the garden. Snip, snip.



(Clockwise from top: 'Honey Bouquet', 'Charlotte', Carpenteria californica.)