Garden: Our California "Winter"

Jerusalem Sage.  Blooms late spring to early fall.

Lion's Tail.  Blooms late summer and early fall.

I hate to break the news to the two of them that it's February.  As far from normal bloom times as one can get.  We have had an exceptionally warm and dry winter, as I understand the rest of the country is undergoing the same thing overall.  We have been between 70F (21C) to 80F (27C) since Christmas with an occasional near 90F (32C) for good measure.  My normal turning off of the irrigation has failed to happen at all this year.  I certainly hope it's not a sign of a miserably hot summer.

Lions and Tigers and...

...ok, just lions.  Lion's Tail, that is.  Leonotis leonurus.  I almost bought it just for the name.

Native to southern Africa, it will get substantially bigger then the two feet it is now.  It will get large tubular orange flowers that look like, well, a lion's tail!  HA!  These gardener's are so clever with their naming.

After this one was in the ground for a couple of day's, though, it looked like this.

One sad lion.  The moral of this story is to WRITE DOWN your irrigation schedule and don't rely on the memory of the man who goes for a run and forgets to put on his shorts.  Long story, different post.  I swore this bed got water three times a week only to see that it was really one!  No wonder nothing was growing with the temperature now creeping into the 90's F.  Never fear, all is well once again.  And, no, I still haven't written down the irrigation schedule.  Baby steps people, baby steps.