In coastal Northern California we too are having an unusually dry winter with about a third of our usual rainfall to this point, with almost none in December and February, our usual wettest months. So with warm sunny days we rarely have in February so many things are blooming earlier than usual in my garden. It gives me a sense of what it must be like to garden in Southern California (if you have a source of water). And my reporting of what is in flower is different than some of the other California reports. (my combination Mediterranean-Pacific Northwest garden). And as Mike Mace says, especially with this dry year and what will be mandatory water conservation, my garden will just be hanging on in summer and I don't expect it will be as dramatic as it usually is in May. Walking in the wild yesterday I saw a lot of invasive non native Oxalis pes-caprae and Romulea rosea. Interestingly the weed magazine we subscribe to had an article about the latter which is also extremely difficult to get rid of (it's not noticeable until if flowers and then the flowers are only open on a warm sunny day for a few hours). Like Lee's experience with the weedy Nothoscordum Round-up doesn't kill it. They were recommending using a blow torch. The plants I saw yesterday in flower were very tiny and they were in abundance on the road verge so that doesn't seem very practical. Flowering now in the ground, in pots, and a few in my unheated greenhouse: Cyclamen repandum, C. coum, C. persicum, C. pseuibericum Oxalis purpurea, O. obtusa, O. compressa, O. namaquana, until very recently O. luteola the latest it has ever flowered, O. triangularis (flowers most of the year) All three Tropaeolums I grow (some usually sit the year out) brachycercas, tricolor, hookerianum ssp austro-purpurleum Tristagma/Ipheion whatever name they are going by now uniflorum, several different colors, and Rolf Fiedler (the best it has ever been) Narcissus romieuxii var. zaianicus, Narcissus 'Smarple' Freesia fergusoniae, Freesia leichtlinii ssp alba Babiana ecklonii, B. framesii, Babiana nana ssp. maculata Calochortus uniflorus Triteleia clementina (a surprise as I thought I had lost it but it apparently seeded itself in my only once ever flowering Paramongaia pot) Scoliopus bigelovii (I grow this one in a pot sunk in the ground that now also has a Cyclamen coum flowering with it) Iris unguicularis, Iris japonica, Iris tuberosa (syn. Hermodactylus tuberosus) Fessia greihuberi Cyrtanthus mackenii Lachenalia aloides Sparaxis hybrids, a couple just starting Ixia rapunculoides Hyacinthoides italica Romulea diversiformis, Romulea flava, R. hirta, R. tetragona, R. ramiflora Arum purpureaspathum Clivia robusta (fading after a very long time in flower) Gladiolus huttonii/tristis hybrid Allium hyalinum Tecophilaea cyanocrocus var. leichtlinii, also var. violacea Nothoscordum sp. F&W 8485 that I have never figured out Erythronium multiscapideum Fritillaria davisii Tulbaghia simmleri Veltheimia bracteata Spiloxene (now considered Pauridia) capensis, linearis some red Tulip cultivars someone was going to throw out that I received and prechilled for 5 weeks, but some of the T. clusiana look close to open as well those yellow Nothoscordum/Ipheion species that the experts can't seem to decide the names of Pseudomuscari chalusicum Wurmbea stricta (Onixotis) Muscari armenicum Cardamine californica Mary Sue _______________________________________________ pbs mailing list pbs@lists.pacificbulbsociety.net http://lists.pacificbulbsociety.net/cgi-bin/…