They're bloooomin in the rain, just blooomin in the rain!

It's a glorious feeling, we're happy again - because it's raining and raining and raining!
I went out earlier this morning and snapped a bunch of pictures which were all blurred. So I reset the camera to this convenient "High ISO" setting and did them all again... Things are starting to bloom around here. It's May Dreams Gardens Garden Bloggers' Bloom day so here we go...

Ribes speciosa, Fuschia Flowering Gooseberry:


And again:


Western Redbud (Cercis occidentalis) - not a very good shot - just starting to bloom...:


Ribes sanguineum, Pink Flowering Currant - the one that's doing well!


Here's a longer shot of it:


The Manzanita below (Arctostaphylos "Pacific Sunset") - in the above picture, it's on the right around the middle but you can't see it for the foliage above:


Here are some rosemary and night scented stock (I think) around my dad's cottage, next to our house (I keep threatening to cut them all down because it's just like kindling piled up against the walls!):


Some geraniums (pelargoniums I guess, properly speaking) - passed along to me by Town Mouse - and Limonium perezii, Sea Lavender:


A favorite of mine - and endemic here - miner's lettuce, Claytonia perfoliata, is everywhere, even pops up amid the mulch:


Sweet pea bush (Polygala myrtifolia) is always blooming, it seems. I planted this one without much thought or planning before I got so much into California natives, and it thrives here:


Likewise the Cape Honeysuckle (Tecomaria capensis). I need to prune this back and train it along the fence:


This is my pet rose. It survived several rounds of rototilling. There were several old roses behind a not-too-attractive fence, surrounded by a lawn, and we removed all of it. But this one wouldn't go away. I'd find it out there growing at odd angles. And so I transplanted it and it's doing fine. Not the best specimen maybe but survives neglect and keeps on popping out flowers. I don't know what kind of rose it is or even if it needs pruning or anything. I'm quite fond of it. I think it is fed by some small pets buried behind it. Hello Hermione, you're coming up roses.


Meanwhile, at the end of the driveway, I keep trying to make a pretty area but the soil is very poor. Even natives are not doing well there. Along our road, we have a custom of planting daffodils in our driveways:


Farther up the driveway I planted Lepechinia fragrans, Fragrant Pitcher Sage:


And Ribes malvaceum (chaparral currant):


and Ceanothus "Joyce Coulter" (I think):


Opposite our porch / front door area, is a Salvia "Bees Bliss" that is indestructible:


Here's how the whole plant is looking. It's another one that has been run over by a truck, whacked back, trodden on etc, and it just resurges every year - AND the deer don't touch it. It wants to spread much bigger - I prune it periodically. I'd say it's about 5 feet across:


Behind the Salvia above is a Ceanothus "Dark Star" that took for ever to get established, and though rather small, is steadily growing year by year. It's another I put in before I got any clue at all about design. But I'm kind of a "rough" gardener anyway and design is not my forte. Fortuitous accidents are what I hope for... It's just starting to come into bloom:


Deer don't bother this ceanothus as much - they prune Joyce Coulter but don't destroy her totally. In general the tinier the leaves, the less the deer like em, when it comes to ceanothus.

Well that's about it. The rain is still falling. In fact -- it's falling on the desk to my left. Oh, I felt a drop on my fingers! Yikes. I'll have to get my resident builder to take a look at this!

Now - off to look at what's blooming elsewhere on other blogs...