Blooming in the California native garden

And here we go!

That time of year when more and more plants start to bloom.

These are Hidcote Pink Penstemon (Beard Tongue) blossoms.

The plant is one of the few we have that isn't a native California plant.

I had purchased it as a seedling more than ten years ago and had it growing in a container.

It bloomed a couple of times, then just languished, producing foliage but no blooms for many years.

When we moved here we transplanted it into the ground during the heavy winter rains.

And now look at these beautiful flowers.

The stripes in them are nectar guides to lead insects and hummingbirds to the nectar.

This is an orange chiffon California poppy.

The plant it is growing on currently has at least a dozen pretty blossoms.

Apparently it is a perennial, providing the dried up stalks are cut down to four inches from the base of the plant, and it just gets a little bit of water.

Ah, the lovely Gilia Tricolor "Bird's Eyes".

They have bright blue pollen, which I have never seen before.

These plants have frond-like leaves and produce literally hundreds of blooms which almost constantly flutter in the breeze.

The flowers in the image here are the product of just one plant!

They are annuals and self-seed. I hope we will have a lot more next year.