To the right you see my irises waking up. Two days ago I could see the buds that had not yet shown their purple color. Five days ago there was actually one flower near these buds, but it faded before I could get out with my camera. One flower appeared in this particular clump of irises last year in December, but my purple irises usually don't flower until April. Here's another view of this iris patch taken today.
It's not just irises. Rosemary is beginning to show more blue flowers and on the top the blue is winning over the green. This will make the bees very happy. The black sage plant you see behind the irises is also just beginning to produce some open flowers. The calendula never seems to sleep, but since the rain it is producing some of the largest blooms I've seen all year. Here's one of them.
The biggest surprise of all I discovered in my garden was what you see below.
Just after I planted some kale seeds I had collected last week before the rain, I discovered this plant growing a long distance from the mother plant I'd collected seeds from before I pulled the plant out. This is where the mother plant was in June last year. You can see it flowering and making seeds. I like collecting and saving my own seeds.
You will notice the kale is growing in front of the house. At the back right you can see the garage wall. To get to where that photo of the kale volunteer plant was taken, you would need to walk around the garage and across the driveway -- not a very direct route for the wind to blow the seeds.
Had I planted the seeds myself in the poor soil at the edge of that clump of gazanias that gets nothing but rain water, I doubt if they would have sprouted. Who would choose a place like that to plant? God did. It appears the plant is thriving with no help from me at all. Nature never fails to amaze me.
