Almost half-way through February!

I don't feel like I have much to show for it, but when other people find things to blog about whilst living under several feet of snow, I feel that I have no excuse. What I really need to do is get out of Bernal Heights for some kind of horticulture excursion. The Botanical Garden, for starters. Okay, I'll do that soon.

In the meantime... I'm parting the newly emergent buckeye leaves to see if I can find a flower bud inside. No luck so far.



Here you see the manzanita flowers fallen on wood chips. Don't they look just like little snow balls? Or maybe hail. Yes, just like. See--I know exactly what you're going through.



I don't know why I'm so entranced by this branch of lemons. I seem to take this picture every time I visit the garden.



Light is coming back to the garden. Not a moment to soon for cordyline



or Phormium cookianum 'Black Adder'.



The general state of things in the garden right now looks like this



and this



and this



I was joking I'll need a machete by summer.



I don't know what it means for July when it's hard to traverse the garden in February.

Here's a different view of Hardenbergia violacea from down in the garden. Cobaea scandens (lower right) is the more aggressive plant for sure.



It also has flowers all year long where Hardenbergia does not.

I haven't started any vegetable seeds yet. The favas have at least 6-8 weeks to make beans. But even if they don't, it was worth it to have them just for the flowers.



You know the cabbage was just a whim crammed in between the beans. But maybe I'll try keeping it for harvest. How much longer, do you suppose?



Over under the Ceanothus, Omphalodes cappodocica is spreading and flowering. Mostly flowering.



And last year's Ipheion uniflorum came back. First time ever.



They're very pale. Hardly blue at all.