… on Ramona St., in front of the Ramona Townhouses. A little while back, it was the white calla lilies a few doors up the street from my place, but they have now collapsed to the ground, their bloom time over. Then, in the arches over the entrances to several of the units, a sign of spring: showy displays of yellow trumpet vine, growing amongst the ivy there; and in front of my unit, a spray of very pretty fancy pink geraniums (that is, pelargoniums).
From Wikipedia:
Dolichandra unguis-cati, commonly known as cats claw creeper, funnel creeper, or cat’s claw trumpet, is a rapidly growing climbing vine belonging to the family Bignoniaceae.
(#1)
Most sources now have this plant under the names Macfedyena unguis-cati. The Sunset New Western Garden Book (7th ed., 2001) says of it:
formerly known as Doxantha unguis-cati … each leaf consists of two oval, glossy light green leaflets to 2 in. long; a tendril is centered between them. Blooms in early spring, bearing lobed yellow trumpets…
(The species name unguis-cati ‘cat’s claw’ remains constant through these name changes.)
The trumpets are now falling to the ground, in a bright yellow rain.
Then, at my front door:
(#2)
The geraniums burst into bloom when things warm up, as has been happening recently; we’re having bursts of summer.
Yes, the ivy is everywhere. It has to be constantly trimmed and pruned.
For additional amusement, the geranium in question is a variety of Pelargonium peltatum, or ivy-leaved geranium. P. peltatum comes in a wide range of colors (including some bicolors), in single- and double-flowered variants, and with a number of different types of ivy-like leaves. The plants in #2 are single-flowered in neon pink. Here’s a close-up of the flowers on another single-flowered variety:
(#3)
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