Monday, March 8, 2010

California poppies

Jerry's favorite flowers, and ones he carefully edits to give the best display, are the California poppies, which grow huge in the garden, compared to in the wild.  Not poppies at all, but rather Eschscholzia californica, which is nearly unprounceable : ), the pretty orange poppies bloom from late winter into hot weather.  California's nickname the golden state comes from the valleys and hillsides covered in poppies when the explorers first came to California.  These days it would more often seem the name is from the more muted gold of the wild barley.  But I remember Jeffrey, about age 7, wrote a paper on spring in which he said, "driving south on I-5 in the spring one sees, 'hey mom, what is the Latin for California poppies?'"  We do still see the hills covered in gold, but not every year and certainly not to the degree they once were. 

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