Ornamental Pear Trees are bursting into bloom all over town. The thousands of white blossoms appear in sheets and clusters, rather like snow when viewed from a distance. Nice specimens can be seen along Lake Murray Boulevard, along Clairemont Mesa Boulevard between Highway 163 and Interstate 15, in and around Balboa Park, and in parts of downtown San Diego.
Lupines, whose spiky, purple (sometimes yellow) flower clusters adorn grassy areas and disturbed patches of soil, are beginning to pop up all over San Diego County. If desert rainfall cooperates, you'll spot lupines along the sandy washes or in roadside gullies where water temporarily collects. Coastal lupines should be in full flower by late March. Higher-elevation lupines will be blooming in the mountain areas in May and early June. The generic name Lupinus, meaning "wolf," was given these plants in the belief that they robbed the soil of nutrients. Actually the reverse is true: Their ability to fix nitrogen through root nodules helps them survive on poor soils and may, in fact, enrich the soil around them.
Ornamental Pear Trees are bursting into bloom all over town. The thousands of white blossoms appear in sheets and clusters, rather like snow when viewed from a distance. Nice specimens can be seen along Lake Murray Boulevard, along Clairemont Mesa Boulevard between Highway 163 and Interstate 15, in and around Balboa Park, and in parts of downtown San Diego.
Lupines, whose spiky, purple (sometimes yellow) flower clusters adorn grassy areas and disturbed patches of soil, are beginning to pop up all over San Diego County. If desert rainfall cooperates, you'll spot lupines along the sandy washes or in roadside gullies where water temporarily collects. Coastal lupines should be in full flower by late March. Higher-elevation lupines will be blooming in the mountain areas in May and early June. The generic name Lupinus, meaning "wolf," was given these plants in the belief that they robbed the soil of nutrients. Actually the reverse is true: Their ability to fix nitrogen through root nodules helps them survive on poor soils and may, in fact, enrich the soil around them.