Spring is here!

In the desert anyhow 🙂  with the relatively wet winter, I’m really looking forward to the wildflower season.  Until the native blooms start making an appearance, I’m enjoying some that I’ve planted in containers in my backyard.

 

I’m generally not very skilled with cultivating plants – but this past fall, I thought I’d try my hand at growing some wildflowers.  They grow in the wild desert after all, how hard could it possibly be?? I picked up a bunch of seed from the local nursery along with a huge bag of potting soil and spent one weekend filling planters and pots and scattering seed on the ground (I figured if I was unsuccessful with the pots then surely the seeds on the ground would germinate).

Several months later, I’ve been rewarded with a bunch of leggy daisy/sunflower-like flowers!

These flowers all seem to have the same rough spear shaped leaves – but they bloom in bright orange…

And pale yellow…and bright yellow also.  The Daisy/Sunflower-like flowers took the lead and established their dominance quickly.  I’ve been hardpressed to find other varieties surviving.  In addition, due to the placement of the planters and the amount of sun that strikes them, they are rather long-stemmed and have taken to leaning and dripping over the edge of the planters in an attempt to reach for more sunshine.

I seem to have one cluster of these tiny white flowers in the mix…

And recently I had this lone blue flower make an appearance. I’m hoping more will turn up along with some gold poppies – and I also hope my lupine survive and bloom before the heat kicks in.  Each planter seems to have at least one lupine plant growing.  Unfortunately for me, I’ve thus far been unsuccessful in identifying these wildflowers – they don’t make an appearance in the two wildflower books I have on hand.

A friend of mine also planted a bunch of wildflowers using the same seed mix, but hers live in a raised planter that gets a lot more direct sun.  It’s been fun popping over to her place to check out the blooms that have made an appearance in her planters and checking my flowers at home with hopes that some additional varieties will make an appearance.  Given a couple more weeks, I’m hoping wildlfower season in the desert will be in full swing and I can capture a bunch of images while getting out for some hiking before the temperatures get too hot!  If you enjoy shooting wildflowers, you may want to check out this site for flower reports to plan your adventures accordingly!