There have been some lovely winter snow photos recently! But for those who are yearning for spring to come so they can once again play in the dirt, you might enjoy a glimpse of what is blooming here in coastal Northern CA. Nothing showy yet, these flowers are smaller and more subtle. Nonetheless there is beauty if you look closer, even on a gloomy overcast day.

It's a busy time right now - cleaning up the beds, pruning, reworking areas that haven't done well. We've gotten a good start to our rains, but need much more to break our 3-year drought and avoid mandatory summer rationing.

Our front yard, on the uphill side. The white Margaret Merrill rose on the LH side will be pruned back later this week, and the yellow daisy-like flowers are euryops:

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Opposite bed on the downhill side of the front door walkway:

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The Sango Kaku Japanese maple has felt enough cold to turn the branches red. I've heard it shows less red as it ages, but this one is less than 10 yrs old so it remains fairly colorful in winter:

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I grow this variegated alstroemeria for the leaves. The bed is so shady they hardly ever flower for me:

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A new red azalea in the same shady bed. I hope this will establish itself well enough to make it through more restricted summer watering:

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Next to the azalea, the callas are coming up:

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Pink cestrum is always in bloom, although it suffers in the summer with black scale. I keep it for the hummers, who love this shrub:

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The coleonema is just starting to bloom - it will be spectacular by month end:

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Draecena and silver lamium need protection to get through the winter, so I tried putting them in a pot with some mint. It's worked out very well:

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Erysimum is showing just two small yellow flowers, as the nasturtiums gather force for their March show:

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This variegated fuchsia is still leafed out and blooming:

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A Hellebore argutifolius has been a standout since 2003, staying in bloom 6-7 months every year:

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I'm not terribly impressed by evergreen Iberis, but it survives with minimal summer water. Doesn't spread much with the rationing, though. One of my most prized specimens, a Lavatera olba 'Aureum', hangs over it:

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Variegated erysimum is just beginning to flower again, next to one of the many unnamed purple bearded iris I have everywhere.

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One of the new silver lavenders I'm putting in to replace the sprawling L. stoechas which are dying:

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It's so chilly you can't smell the exquisite flower fragrance unless you get up close - this is one of three Meyer lemon shrubs we have:

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And the Meyer lemons:

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Although common, I love 'Occold Gold' pelargonium. It's a neat, floriferous, water-thrifty 2x2' mini-shrub:

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I have several big pots on the backyard patio that I am switching to water-thrifty plants. I had dwarf canna and pelargonium in these two pots - they did okay, but I'm hoping these sedums, phormium, and helichrysum will be just as pretty and take half the watering:

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Rhaphiolepsis indica "Ballerina" deserves to be more popular. It is a very pretty, well-behaved mini-shrub that takes very little water:

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Another of my prized specimen plants, this is the flower bud of a fragrant dwarf rhododendron from Singing Tree Nursery in Mendocino, CA. I lost the tag so don't have the name any longer, but the white flowers are huge, trumpet-shaped, and have a stunning Easter lily fragrance:

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A red groundcover rose in front of purple osteospermum:

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Very few roses left, but there was one nice bloom on the shrub Ladies in Waiting:

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A single Margaret Merrill rose was pretty enough for a photo:

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Rosemary "Tuscan Blue" is in flower now:

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Common red salvia is hanging on, but one more cold snap and I'll have to cut it back severely:

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The surprise of a couple of Shasta daisies poking out - the stems on these are only about 2" long!

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I'm trying Tagetes lemonii in a different spot - we'll see how well it does in this new location:

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Time to cut the Solanum jasminoides vine back really hard - this is a very aggressive vine:

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Variegated euonymus showing its flower buds:

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This planter is another experiment. I have had real trouble getting dahlias to return. I have so many evergreen plants that overshade such deciduous perennials, they just give up after a few years. It occurred to me that perhaps ranunculus's spring blooms can add interest until the dahlia (hopefully) pops up again for the summer:

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The tiny little spots of red on this variegated rhamnus are the flower buds, which will open a bright yellow with reddish shading:

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To end, one of the showiest of all flowers - Tibouchina urvilleana, which has already grown into a 12' tree in three years:

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Happy 2010 to everyone!