Winter was tough on the plot and it’s only now, as spring unfurls, that we’re beginning to see what survived the storms and floods.
The snake’s head fritillaries have done remarkably well in the wildflower orchard:
The fruit trees are coming into leaf. No sign of blossom this year; hopefully next year will bring us our first fruits:
We lost the majority of our sweet rocket plants, but those that survived are starting to bud:
I relocated our ‘Sarah Bernhardt’ peony in January to keep her feet dry, and although this will probably stop her from flowering this year, it’s still good to see her reaching for the sky:
My pulmonarias are putting on a fine display. They clearly enjoyed the damp winter:
I’m very pleased to see the grape hyacinths and bluebells. The grape hyacinths are just going over and are about to pass on the beauty baton to the bluebells:
And finally, we’ve been able to take our first ever rhubarb harvest! We don’t know the variety as it was rescued from somewhere by our neighbour Lynn. She has a knack of turning up with plants for us with uncertain origins so we have informally named it ‘Contraband’.
A Whole Plotta Love 
We have had a very hot start to spring, We have had no rain forever. The poor cactus out in the desert are all starting to wilt and show stress, but what’s amazing, is that after the first rain of the monsoon all the signs of stress are gone, they are really like sponges, sucking up the water. We have been watering the yard trying to give the cactus that out hoses can hit a little drink, help them out till the first clouds come. So interesting living in a different world that I have been raised in. Its almost like you have to forget everything you have ever been taught, lol When I first moved here I thought I needed to water all the time, I was actually drowning the cactus, LOL I spoke with a gentleman that I often visit at one of my favorite nursery’s here in Tucson and he taught me the sand of the desert holds water, it swells up and keeps the water for a much longer time than normal sand, who knew!! That’s why there are so many flash floods, the sand has absorbed as much water as it can hold so there is no where for the water to sink to, so it makes it necessary to keep moving along, creating a flash food, It rains hard and fast here, not a nice long soaking rain, its normally a cloud cell dumping 1 to 3 inches at a time in a specific area. The ground just can’t handle all that water at once, and when you think about it, flash floods are another way water gets to more cactus miles away. Well enough on that. LOL I wish I could have such pretty flowers around, We can grow flowers here from late September to April or may, depending when the heat starts, but we also have a few weeks/days of frost, so then we are having to cover anything that can’t handle frost. LOL I am whining a lot. LOL The colors you have are beautiful. xxk
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