Locally, the signs that spring is coming to an end here in Palo Alto CA accumulate around this time; I suggest that Fred Astaire’s (1899) birthday, on 5/10, would be an appropriate occasion for looking forward to the arrival of summer. The plants in my immediate environment have sent the signals:
— the magenta Pelargonium peltatum (“ivy-leaved geranium”) plants by the entrance to my condo are suddenly covered with blossoms
— the cat’s-claw creeper vine / cat’s claw trumpet vine, Dolichandra unguis-cati, on the arbor over the entryway went from a few bright yellow flowers to a solid bank of yellow overnight (which will drop to the ground in a few days, to be replaced, eventually, by long seedpods)
— the calla lilies on the street, a few doors north of me, have finished blooming and are now dying back, to go into dormancy until next spring
— on my patio, the last cymbidium orchids are still blooming, for maybe a few more weeks, when their blossoms, too, will drop off in the summer heat and the plants will go into dormancy
— and also out there in the container garden, the first big-leaved hydrangea (Hydrangea macrophylla) flower cluster is about to open into bright pink, in two or three days (that cluster, on a great big plant in a great big pot, now stands at my eye level)
And, yes, I bring you photos of the first two of these, taken by Bay Area Geriatric Care’s Sharon Gray this morning, after she took me to a routine appointment with my rheumatologist:
(#1) Welcome to my house! (next to the ivy-leaved geraniums is a sea of actual ivy — English ivy (Hedera helix)
(#2) Of course, a rainbow flag, plus plenty more ivy (the stairway to goes up to the condos at 720 (Benjamin Wu) and 718 (April Fontana); BW is a cardiologist, AF a speech-language pathologist (it’s a highly educated neighborhood)
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