Nectarine.

Recent blooms in our yard:

January and February have been a bit warm, so things are blooming early. This is a dwarf nectarine that we planted in the front yard in 1990. It always bears profusely in February or March, and is loaded with fruit by June.

Of course, the bees love it.

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Violets.

Some recent blooms in our yard:

     The previous owner of our house lived here from 1930 until 1988 or so, and the garden still has a few descendants from earlier eras, which we have retained and encourage to grow. Violets are a flower that were more popular a long time ago, and do not seem common in this area anymore. They need a bit more water than occurs naturally here, so we have herded the violets together as ground cover beneath our roses, in areas where we irrigate a little more.

Amaryllis!

   Some recent blooms in our yard:

Amaryllis belladona

In early August, the Amaryllis begin to appear. These are bulbs, and they produce foliage in December (without flowers), which dries up in May or June. In late summer, stalks emerge quickly, within 2-3 days, from bare, dry beds and set clusters of these wonderfully fragrant pink flowers. Like most popular plants used so frequently in southern California that they seem to belong here, Amaryllis are from somewhere else. They are native to South Africa, and do well in the climate here, which is very similar.
   They are often called "naked ladies", due to that fact that they flower without foliage. Another common name is "pink ladies". The bulbs commonly called "Amaryllis", that are sold around the holidays as forced blooms in little pots and jars are really Hippeastrum; the misnomer confuses some people a bit when encountering true Amaryllis.
   Amaryllis were once pretty popular in Orange County; they are most commonly found in older neighborhoods, and they are one of my favorite heirloom flowers around here. I do not notice them often in newer neighborhoods, probably because fewer people spend much time gardening now, and tend to prefer more structural landscape plantings of repeat-blooming perennials, or shop for "instant color" at Home Depot every few weeks. Amaryllis, like daffodils, narcissus, gladiolas, etc. are a more patient pursuit, which pays off only during a brief  three or four weeks each year.
   When we moved in, they were already scattered around the various unkempt and overgrown flower beds throughout the yard. We have gathered them into a few areas and encourage them to continue growing and multiplying.

This is the first cluster of this year.

Clivia.

Some recent blooms from our garden.

Lilies.

Some recent blooms in our yard:

Roses

Recent blooms in our yard:

We grew this climbing rose from a cutting taken from my grandmother's garden in Syracuse in 1994.

We have a few David Austin roses in the yard; we really like the English Roses for their big, multiple blooms. This one is Scepter'd Isle

Another David Austin rose; this one is Graham Thomas

The November Garden

Even though it is November, there are still things to be had in the garden. I picked these today:

Limes, Oranges and Two Tomatoes

Although the tomatoes are petering out, we still pick one or two a week; the basil has also just about given up for the season. Winter is the time for citrus. There are lots of oranges now; Valencias, which we grow, taste much better than Navels, and make great juice and marmalade. There are almost always limes on the tree; these are Bearss limes, which are bigger and juicier than the small Mexican limes found in most supermarkets, and are yellowish when ripe. There will probably be key lime pie for Thanksgiving.

Other things are beginning to push up while the fall crops are fading: the freesia, gladiolas and arum are coming up now, and will bloom in February or March; the amaryllis is also in leaf, but will die back in the spring and not bloom until August. Roses never go completely dormant, but do not bloom very frequently now, until spring.

Pomegranates

Each month brings something else into flower or fruition in the garden; October is the time that the pomegranates start to become ripe. At this time of year, the branches are weighed down with fruit to the point that we can't enter the driveway without poms bumping along the roof of the car.

Our tree thrives on neglect, and nonetheless produces mass quantities of large fruit. We can't possibly eat them all ourselves, but we have enough friends to eagerly accept the surplus. Occasionally, a passerby will knock and ask for one, and we are happy to send them away with several.