I’m not a fan of most of our landscaping. I’m actually not a fan of a lot of Southern California landscaping, because so much of it consists exclusively of palm trees and birds of paradise. Our backyard right now is a random mix of a million tiny palm trees, some tall grassy things, the obligatory birds of paradise and some random climbing thing. After my visit to the flower fields, I just can’t wait for next spring to plant loads of sweet pea and ranunculus and roses, but even if I had the funds, mother nature just won’t cooperate with my timeline. But I want an Oompa Loompa, NOW.
In the meantime, I have discovered two little gems in my yard that I’ve grown to love. The first is a huge jasmine bush just outside one of the sliding doors, and when we open up to get a cross breeze on a warm night, the whole house takes on the sweet smell. It’s heavenly.
We also have a large tree in one corner of our yard (well, large for a tiny suburban SoCal plot) that I thought was some kind of a citrus tree because of it’s large waxy leaves. When the good twin came over she immediately spotted it as a magnolia tree, and sure enough there was a big fat bloom hiding just above the leaves.
Now I’m finding all kinds of these cone-shaped buds on the tree, which I’m watching closely to see how they grow.
With everything else we have to do to the house, landscaping is a really really low priority, so luckily I have a few wonderful little surprises to tide me over until I can turn the whole place into my own private flower field.
