Despite reports about the brevity of winter on the San Francisco Peninsula, the mountainous part where I live has had an extended cold and rainy winter with few indications that spring may come. In late January I took a trip to Eureka, a coastal city in Northern California. Allium neapolitanum, a common weed in all of coastal California, was in full bloom. Here, it has yet to come up. Oxalis pes-caprae was in full bloom in San Jose in mid-January; it just started blooming here, a week or so ago. But deep red Trillium chloropetalum is in scarcely open full bloom. Last autumn I thought I’d treat myself to some irises from the reticulata group which I hadn’t grown for some years. The local nursery had three varieties – I.danfordiae, I. ‘Katherine Hodgkin’ and I.reticulata. I bought bulbs of all three and potted them up together in a large planter. The I.danfordiae came up in late January to cold sunless days. Of those that came up (about half didn’t bother to) some languished in a gloomy half-open state until demolished by rain and hail. Then came the I.’KH’; for two glorious days, before the rain returned and flattened their flowers. Finally the less finicky Irisreticulata opened, despite rain and cold. A totally miserable display. I planted a border of rhizomes of Irisgermanica hybrids. Leaves came up. Well, the Freesias haven’t done anything yet either, so I guess it’s still early. On the other hand, my Irissuaveolens rubromarginata is blooming. It blooms twice a year for me – in autumn and spring, and has almost tripled its size in the last year. It likes wet. Color for me finally came in the form of Sparaxis tri-color. Last year it was a meek little thing; this year it is robust with several bulbs and many spikes of flowers. I will photograph it when it stops raining. I think it’s supposed to stop after 40 days. Well, other plants will bloom, and spring will come – soon, I hope. David Ehrlich