East Hollywood's Own 'Iris' Show

At Hollywood & Highland, in the (former) Kodak Theatre, there's a Cirque Du Soleil show called "Iris."

Well, here in the Eastern side of Hollywood, we have our very own "Iris" show, and it's free to watch!

The after three attempts, our native Douglas Irises have finally bloomed at the Cahuenga Library!

We planted irises back at the original Big Sunday planting in May, 2010. All but one either died or got lost. That one that survived spent most of the time half-buried in the ground near the back entrance, eventually surrounded by the festuca grasses. It never bloomed last year, but it still looked strong and healthy. Aside from the rains, this particular plant hasn't been manually watered in nearly a year.

Finally, last week, a flower bud could be felt amongst the leaves, and today, there it was - pictured above.

The "Canyon Snow" Douglas Irises in the back entryway of the Library have also bloomed! Irises were planted there in Winter 2010 but they never survived. So the hours of labor turning over the soil before planting here in January totally paid off, with yellow-throated white flowers welcoming visitors to the Cahuenga Library.

We have six Irises planted, and two of them have two flowers in bloom already. The Iris bloom season continues until June.

Everything's Just Poppy'ing Out!

The first poppy is gone, but now we have three!

Spring has finally come, and what an appropriate time for this!

Bad news: The poppy that bloomed on Monday is now gone, its petals made victim to the wind. Good news: We have three of them now!

Our front planters will soon be a nice array of purple and orange (with some tiny white flowers and teeny-sized red fruit from the strawberries).  Spring has just begun...

We Like The Flowers, The Flowers That Go Bloom

Our first poppy!

This past weekend's rainstorm gave us a much-needed soaking, and no doubt our native plants were happy. Now that the sun is back out, the first California Golden Poppy has finally opened up for us! 

Unfortunately, it's missing a petal, which was probably brought on by the rain and/or wind. But, it's finally here, with more to come!

First To Bloom!

What a difference a week makes! Or even a couple days! The first Margarita BOP Penstemon bloomed today in the front planters (Area 1)! Even just last Saturday, they were still unopened buds! Most likely the unseasonably warm weather brought on their early debut.

Having never seen one of these in bloom, they look rather exotic, a hypnotic gradient of blue and purple. With 12 of these planted in front of the Library, there's more to come!