Spring has sprung and the blooming has begun! Over the past year my father and I have been working to convert our backyard lawn into a low-water drip irrigated pollinator garden. We’ve been collecting seeds, propagating branches, attending local plant sales, and hitting up the grandma to get all kinds of flowers, shrubs, and trees. This spring is the first one in which our newly created garden has existed. Flowers that have been growing through the winter, alongside others which went dormant after summer, are finally starting to open up with beautiful blossoms. These are the top five flowers in my garden currently in bloom.

5. Sticky Monkeyflower

This California native has exploded in bright yellow orchid-like blooms. It grows naturally in the foothills of the Central Valley and comes in colors of red, white, and yellow. It has oblong leaves with sticky undersides and grows as a small shrub reminiscent of a rosemary plant. I purchased this plant last fall with my grandma last fall at Little Red Hen Nursery and since then it’s been growing great and is clearly happy, rewarding us with a complete covering of canary-colored flowers.

4. Unwin Dahlia

These are a dwarf form of the typical dahlia, a tender perennial flower that goes dormant in winter, retreating into their large yam-esque tubers. In spring they sprout again and have incredible multi-petalled blooms that come in almost any color imaginable. This pink one has been being visited by ruby throated hummingbirds and has many more blooms to come.

3. Mammillaria

Mammillaria are a commonly cultivated typically low growing New World cactus with over 200 species. Every spring they bloom with a halo of fuschia flowers. The spiny dull succulents turn into 2016 diy YouTube millennials with hot pink flower crowns that wrap all the way around their head. Come fall, after the flowers die back, bright red fruits will push out of the cactus and be full of seeds, some of the ones I’ve grown actually tasted sweet and fruity, like a mix of strawberry and pineapple. Unfortunately the fruits are only about half the size of a banana Runts.

2. Strawberry Fields California Poppy

The Strawberry Fields California poppy is a showstopping unique variety of our typical bright orange state flower. This flower has been bred to have vivid vintage red petals with bright gold in the middle. These plants have been growing over winter and are finally flowering. With the way the golden middle gradients into the red the flowers almost appear to glow. They remind me of Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz and are currently being enjoyed by all kinds of pollinators like beetles and native bumblebees.

1. The Bearded Iris

The bearded iris is an easy to grow rhizomatic perennial that has some of the most ethereal blooms  available. I first grew irises after my brother, who is now 23, was in eighth grade and got a rhizome (a thick root similar to a bulb that plants can grow from) from his eighth grade teacher. The pastel purple one pictured below is from that original rhizome my brother gave me. The champagne pink one with dusty lavender lower petals came from a rhizome I picked out of a for-free bin at a Patrick Ranch during a plant sale. It was a complete mystery what color it would be but bloomed for the first time after two years this spring and is more than I ever could’ve asked for. The frilly blooms come in bright yellow, dark purple, lavender, maroon, white, and more, but these extra frilly, pastel irises are my favorite.