Carlsbad’s Floral Beauty Year-Round
We had some beautiful gardens in the Boston area for many years, at multiple houses, with lilies, roses, peonies and so much more. But winter sure could be dreary…for months.
The move to Carlsbad has been a treat in a number of ways, including having greenery and flowers all year round.
I remember our first winter here, and was astounded at how many flowers we could enjoy at a time when back east we would have been looking at pine trees, bare deciduous trees, and piles of white and brownish snow (I imagine my New England friends WON’T appreciate that reference!).
I won’t claim to have a green thumb (my wife grew the Morning Glory above), and in our current house (the 3rd since moving here) we don’t even have any grass, having replaced that during the drought with drought-tolerant plants. But we’ve enjoyed some beautiful flowers, including this rose arbor I "built" (OK, I bought the arbor and planted the clibig white roses) at our first house in La Costa – roses seem to bloom for an extended period here.
What’s nice is that many of the same flowers we had back east are here too, they just bloom for longer periods and at different times of the year. We love these daisies our neighbor has each year – they are just finishing blooming. What’s rare, and I miss, are the early Spring flowers like tulips and daffodils, and challenge here because of the weather.
The Bird of Paradise flowers are extraordinary! Back in Boston they were the stuff one dreamed about in extravagant floral arrangements you could buy, but here they grow all over. Indeed the oneswe've had in our yards bloom a couple times of year and prosper, in spite of our gardening efforts, and the hummingbirds and orioles love them.
The bougainvillea are year-round bloomers, for the most part, and you see them everywhere. The bright red ones are my favorites. Be careful, though, as they have some nasty thorns.
Flowering trees were always the harbingers of spring back in New England, but we have them at other times of the year here, in bright purple (Jacarandas), white, yellow and red (e.g., Bottlebrush).
Being by the ocean presents its own issues with growing flowers, given the moisture, salt air and winds. But these purple sea lavender do well on the bluffs and elsewhere in Carlsbad!
I could go on but you get the idea. There is floral beauty everywhere and all the time, and the variety adds to the enjoyment.
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