Pink Saturday - Pink spring flowers

Pink Saturday - Beverly, at the blog "How Sweet the Sound" hosts Pink Saturday. Let the color pink inspire you!

Here in Southern California, spring has arrived. Our gardens are blooming with spring flowers, and many of them are PINK!

In Topanga, where I live, the climbing version of the rose Cecile Brunner blooms in older yards - it has been passed from gardener to gardener over the decades, grown from slips and cuttings.

Here's a fence grown over with blooming shrubs - this is just a short walk from my house. The flowers are wonderful right now.

In Southern California our native plants bloom in the spring, before the heat of summer causes them to hunker down for survival.

These are the delicate pale pink blossoms of the native manzanita, little bell-shaped flowers. They grow in our Santa Monica Mountains, and are in bloom right now.

Another pink blossomed native is the Redbud, or Cercus. The Eastern Redbud, that is well known in the South and in Appalachian states, is Cercus canadensis, but here in the west, our native Redbud is Cercus occidentalis.


In my front garden right now, the Douglas irises and Pacific Coast Hybrid Irises are beginning to bloom. They come in a wide variety of colors, from blue to white to yellow to crimson. One of the prettiest is a beautiful red-violet, almost magenta selection.

Here is a similar iris planted with bronze fennel and red succulents, in a native garden I toured last weekend.

Scotch broom, and selected varieties of it are wonderful this spring. You have to be careful of some of the brooms, because they can be invasive. This selection, called "Lilac Time," is safe to grow without worrying about it affecting the native environment. It's also a subtly beautiful ever-changing color, ranging from pink to violet to purple to warm beige as the flowers develop and age.

Californians enjoy growing tender plants, like Abutilon, or Flowering Maple, in their gardens and in pots as specimens. They are in bloom right now. Here is one in a tender salmon pink color, growing along the canal walkways in Venice. How delicate they are.

Don't forget this guy - a big ole caterpillar, probably a swallowtail larva, fattening himself up in a parking strip garden of clarkia and poppies. He surely does appreciate the spring flowers, because they nurture him for his coming metamorphosis!

Wherever you live, there must be wonderful places to see spring flowers. Spend this weekend finding the places to see the blossoms of spring - and especially enjoy the pink ones!