This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Health & Fitness

Springtime in January

Unseasonal warm weather brings surprising blooms.

Does our current Bay Area weather make you feel a little bit guilty, if you're hearing tales of woe from friends in snow-socked parts of the country? For many of us these sunny dry days are also hard to enjoy because of drought fears. One silver lining that I showed you in my earlier post Cymbidiums in the Winter Garden -- our garden sure is happy.

I have a photo of another cymbidium orchid to add to last week’s bouquet.  One barely-open Sussex Dawn Concolor peeks above multiple closed buds on the same stalk. 

What else is blooming? It is the right time of year for Scoliopus bigelovii, aka Slink Pod, Brownie or Fetid Adder’s Tongue (that’s a lot of names for a tiny plant), to come up. George and I always take a walk in Muir Woods around New Year’s to see the Slink Pods, but heard that because of the drought none had bloomed, and we thought it would be too sad to go. Click here to see photos of our last year’s walk, with many more Brownie photos. The Slink Pods pictured here are in a pot in the garden. George gave them just enough water so they’d come up.

Find out what's happening in El Cerritowith free, real-time updates from Patch.

It’s definitely early for the brilliant pink puffs to appear on the ornamental plum tree in our front garden, but they provide welcome food for the honeybees. And next, a photo of a small but wonderfully dramatic flower -- Billbergia Nutans, a bromeliad. And finally, my photo of a few stalks of paperwhite narcissus, also small but powerfully fragrant.

Anything blooming in your garden?  

Find out what's happening in El Cerritowith free, real-time updates from Patch.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?