Spring Is Here

Just went by the Library today to see the progress of our babies. They seem to be doing very well!
The first California Golden Poppy in Area 3 has finally bloomed, adding a nice accent of color to that section (Above)

Also, the replacement Baja Bush Snapdragon under the pepper tree in Area 2 is flowering:

And thought it's been blooming for a while, the Coral Bells in the back entrance provide a nice pollen snack for a bee:

A Trio of Irises

Here's some Canyon Snow Douglas Irises greeting visitors to the Library with a nice welcome!

Join Us This Saturday!

Join us, Saturday, April 7, from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. for our monthly cleanup/gardening event at the Cahuenga Branch Library!

There's a moderate, but manageable amount of trash and five more plants that need to go into the ground. The rest of the plants are either blooming, or ready to bloom, so they don't really need much work right now.

If you're interested in participating, email us at cahuengardens@gmail.com.

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.

Even More New Additions

I couldn't resist - the Theodore Payne Foundation had its semi-annual Poppy Day plant sale at its nurser in Sun Valley today, and I wanted to check it out. They had discounts on all plants, and additional discounts for members like me, so with some money still in our plant budget, I went and checked it out.

I ended up getting a California Fuschia (left)  and a Sagebrush (right), as well as some deergrass and California festuca grass seeds.

I had to be at the Library anyway for a meeting, so after that I went ahead with planting these new babies, both in Area 2:

There were still some plants from last week that didn't get in yet, so I got to those. First, a pair of deergrasses to join the festucas in the back:

Now the Purple Sage, which joins the much-larger Cleveland Sage in the back:

It was also a time to witness some new Douglas Irises ready to pop out:

Some New Additions

The planting season for California natives goes up until the end of March or so, and with a rainstorm rolling in this Sunday, I ventured out to Matilija Nursery (where much of our original garden plants in May and December 2010 came from) out in Moorpark to buy 16 new plants for our garden to round out this planting season. Matilija also has some of the best prices in Southern California for native plants, going between $4 and $6 per 1 gallon pot, about half of what you'd pay in most nurseries! I even bought a few for my own home native garden (which isn't nearly as robust as the one in the Library!)

On May 5, we're planning an "open house" event for the garden, so we want to make it look more interesting and minimize the "vacant spaces." Now we have 23 varieties of California native plants on our grounds!

The new plants in Area 3 are: Purple Sage (2), Red Buckwheat (2), Matilija Poppy (1), Chalk Dudleya (2), Chaparral Yucca (2), Deergrass (2) and some more Toyon (2), White Sage (2) and a Baja Bush Snapdragon (1) to replace those that were removed or destroyed.

There's a White Sage and two tiny Toyons now added to Area 3!

From foreground to background: A new Purple Sage, an existing Hummingbird Sage, two Red Buckwheats and a towering Matilija Poppy towards the back. 

The Library closes early on Friday, so I was only able to get in about 5 plants, but the rest will be planted in the next few days.

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...