Sierra Foothill Garden

“What’s blooming Wednesday”

In the Sierra foothills, after the blues, of Lupine, Vetch and Blue dicks, the early Spring wildflowers: The blues, come the yellows and whites of April. Have you seen these?

All over the roadsides now you’ll see blooming Elderberry bushes, with lemony white umbrel (Umbrella) shaped flowers. have you wondered about them?

Also the Wild Lilacs, this one called Deer brush or Ceanothus integerrimus, are the ones with long slender white flower sprays, blooming along the same roadsides.

Ceanothus cunneatus or Buckbrush is the other wild lilac that’s just finished blooming. This buckbrush is all over the Mountain Community and in my garden and outlying areas of the place, I have trimmed it, informally sometims, like hedges.

Found twisting up through Manzanita or oak trees, this honeysuckle blooms pale yellow. Very hardy,…if you find it in your garden, don’t mistake it for a weed like I did for awhile! The leaves are the size of pennies. You can chop it to the ground, (thinking it is Poison oak) and it good naturedly grows back thicker than before, with no offense taken. In April the vine sends tendrils up through the tree or bush closest. In May, start looking for the blooms.

Yellow ‘Pretty Face’, or Triteleia ixioides are blooming now quite thickly in both sun and shade. See A profusion of Pretty Face

The California poppies are blooming along roadsides and in the new meadow. They are spectacular along with all the other color this spring.  Did you know they came in white, too?

Bear Clover, Chamaebatia foliolosa, is a native ground cover shrub, in groups, or colonies it carpets the roadsides heading into Yosemite. It grows through underground roots and I encourage it everywhere I see it in the garden, giving it a little water by hand. The blooms will remind you of strawberry flowers, but it’s in the Rose family.

Soon to come will be the Owl’s clover,…fields of them! It looks like the fields are frosted.

This particular variety of owl’s clover called Valley Tassels or Castilleja lineariloba grows everywhere in the foothills here.