Saturday, March 15, 2008

Spring Blooms

These past two weeks have been evident of springtime here in the San Jose area. Following are some of the nicer blossoms I've captured with my camera. Below is what is known as Fringe Flower. This is a fairly new/young plant, that is part of the landscaping for one of the medical offices across from the hospital where I work. I saw this plant while walking to work one day last week. This plant is an evergreen shrub, yet its leaves are showing a reddish tinge to them. It is supposed to grow as much as 6 feet tall and 5 feet wide. And according to a Google search, it likes light shade to partial sun, and hardy in zones 7-9. It sure is an attractive plant, but I don't think it would work in my yard. Too bad, I really like it.
All the flowering fruit trees are in bloom around here, too. Most of them are either white or pink flowers. I think most of the white blossoming trees are either crabapple or pear. And I think that most of the pink flowering trees are plum. This photo was taken in the neighborhood, down the street from where I live.
This is the very fragrant and early blooming flower known as freesia. This is one of about 4 plants I have in pots in my front yard.
This is a macro shot of one of the freesias. You can probably click on it to enlarge it. Notice how glittery it looks. I have to thank my daughter, Red, for her artistic work that encourages me to try capturing more artistic looking photos.
And this is one of two camellia bushes my husband planted last summer in the front yard. I wanted these two plants on the west edge of our front yard for eventually attaining a little more privacy from our next door neighbors. When my husband planted them, I told him these two plants were in memory of our beloved Kodiak, our Siberian Husky who succumbed to hemangiosarcoma last April. And for such a young plant, this camellia is quite profuse with blooms. The other camellia is a white bloomer, and it has several large buds on it, but none of them have flowered yet. It probably is a later bloomer than the red ones. But for now I'll enjoy this bush.

5 comments:

Ruth said...

I am trying to figure out why my family settled in the cold north. California would have been much nicer, especially in March! Beautiful flowers!

Anonymous said...

Wonderful blooms that you have and wish I had some blooms to share with everyone!

Mary said...

Mary, my camellias just began to bloom. Your spring is ahead of us, for sure! I call that first evergreen Chinese Witch Hazel. We have two of them in our front landscaping. Right now, they are just starting to turn bright hot pink. I like it.

I know you probably stil miss Kodiak and will think of him when you watch the camellias bloom.

Mary

Heidi said...

that camellia bush turned out great... who knew after less than a year it would be so prolific?

and i still really like the way your plum blossoms turned out. that's one thing your camera does better than mine... gets a crisp picture across the whole frame without requiring a flash or overexposure setting.

Mel said...

Georgeous flowers! Love the camellias!

 

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