Pineapple Mint - Mentha sauveolens

Everyone who has placed an order knows, they get a colorful little bag of dried herbs in with their invoice. It might be filled with lavender, lemon verbena, lemon balm, or any one of four different mints. All of which I grow and dry myself. The mint in this photo is one of my favorites. Both for it's beautiful foliage and it's wonderful fruity scent. It is well named, 'Pineapple Mint' or Mentha sauveolens.

Apple Blossom Time on the California Coast

I get to drive by acres of apple trees every day on my way into town and they are all in bloom right now. These really old ones have been calling me to stop and take a photo for years now. I finally did on a day when I was also fortunate enough to be able to talk to the owner. These wonderful old trees are "Yellow Pearmains" and no longer planted commercially. But there are nurseries out there specializing in providing young trees of many "antique" or "vintage" cultivars. So hopefuly these will continue on.

Princess Bush - Tibouchina urvilleana

This is one of my goals. To grow these like I did back at Antonelli Brothers Begonia Gardens, by the hundreds. I finally have enough stock plants from cuttings I've done over the years, but this one is not so easy. The leaves are thick and furry and the stems are thick and fleshy. In other words, they tend to rot before they can root. I am determined though, as I do love these! This one here has been blooming most of the winter, even when it was damaged by the freezing temps we had a few weeks ago that even put snow on the hills nearby! You can see the freeze burn damage on the leaves next to those stunning flowers.

Columbine is always an early bloomer!

This is not the native columbine, it is a european variety. But it comes up every year and produces lots of seed. It always makes me happy to see it blooming.

A white version also blooms here, but it doesn't come up as soon and is so white, it is hard to photograph. I'll try again this year though!

Spring is busting out all over here!

We had spell of freezing weather that put snow on the hills behind me and had me runnning up and down the hillside of the nursery, scrambling to gather plant material from each and every stock plant. All 219 varieties of fuchsias, as well as a few other plants. So at least some of each would be safe from freezing if it got that bad.

The good news is, all of it got turned into cuttings and now, over a week later, they all appear to be doing very well!

The other good news is, cherries LOVE freezing temps in the winter! I have two varieties, one is a Bing. I forget the name of the second one, but it is the necessary cross polinator. Most years, it doesn't start to bloom at the same time as the Bing. So many of the Bing blossoms go unpollinated.

This year, they are both in perfect step and are both busting out all over! If all goes well, I will be begging people to take gallon bags of cherries. This year, I'd like to get a cherry pitter and try drying some of them. And make some cherry jam! I've been working on a Celiac Recipe book up in SkyDrive. It is public and free to anyone with a Windows Live ID. Not much there now. It is definately a work in progress. The first entry was a Lemon pudding pie with a crust I concocted from dried fruits and nuts.

A second pie, yet to be added, had a dried cherry and dark chocolate crust with a fresh coconut pudding for the filling. So, you see, I am going to be needing dried cherries LOL!