A Lovely Mess

 

If you must have a mess in your yard or your driveway, wouldn’t you want it to be A Lovely Mess?  That’s how I feel about our Jacaranda trees – they are a lovely mess and one I would not want to give up!  I know some people cut them down because they create such a mess, but those gorgeous purple flowers, even lying on the ground or floating in a pool of water, are so glorious!  The sight of this spectacular tree in full-bloom is worth all the mess to me.

When our house burned to the ground more than 5 years ago, we had the opportunity to rebuild a new house on a different part of our property.  Because we own several acres, that left us with several available options.  So, we decided to move it further west on our property, closer to our well.  Doing so created an incredibly long driveway and Charlie asked me “what do you want to plant along the driveway?”  Without hesitation, I said “Jacaranda trees!”

So, that’s what Charlie did for me.  He planted Jacaranda trees every 20 feet down our driveway and we have a total of 31!   He planted this amazing garden with year-round color and every day when I walk outside or look out one of our windows, I know that he did this just for me.  And, he keeps it alive for me by watering it all the time (he purposefully did not install automatic timers on our sprinkler system – he wanted the joy of watering our garden!).

Anyway, I know I’m lucky every June when the Jacarandas are in bloom.  We bought trees in 24-inch boxes so they were relatively large from the start.  We bought them that size so they would survive the winters.  While winters are mild in Southern California compared to many other parts of the country, we do have weather below freezing where we live (about 30 miles from the coast).  So, every winter we do, indeed, lose several plants.  And, the Jacarandas have struggled but because they were well-established from the start, they’ve managed to bloom every year.  But, they’ve never reached full bloom, yet, and they are about 3 years old now.

I’m hoping that in another few years, they will provide an unbelievable “show” down our driveway, but in the meantime, the “show” is still pretty darn good!  So, here’s the show:

 

This is about “as good as it gets” – while not in full bloom, the Jacarandas have enough blooms to make them quite spectacular!

 

 

I love this picture because of the blurred leaves in front of the flowers.

 

 

The above collage shows the mess up and down the driveway, in the mulch, in the dirt and in the cracks of the pavement!  Such a lovely mess!  I wonder if you can use the flowers for potpourri!

 

 

 

I have so many beautiful pictures that it was hard to choose just a few!

 

 

These are some of the “baby” Jacarandas that have just self-seeded in the driveway.  We are going to let them get bigger and then dig them up and move them to other parts of our yard.  This will be tricky because they may not survive the winter.  But, we’ll try!  So, Jacarandas for free!

 

 

These are the seed pods.  Aren’t they amazing?

 

 

To my friends and family that live near – if you want some seeds, just let me know!

 

 

Even not in bloom, the Jacaranda is a lovely tree with feathering branches full of feathery leaves.

 

 

And, a special treat – a hooded oriole in one of our Jacaranda trees!  This picture was taken with a Nikon 3200 DSLR camera with a 300mm zoom lens.  I guess I need a bigger zoom if I’m going to get closer to the birds!

My maternal grandmother, Dorothy, loved to garden and had a spectacular garden.  She didn’t have a Jacaranda tree, though, but they were her favorite.  When I look at my spectacular garden, I think of her and the love of gardens and gardening that she instilled in me.  She passed that love down to my mother and my aunt (my mom’s twin) and they, in turn, passed it down to me.

I know I’ve used the adjectives – amazing, spectacular, glorious – over and over in this post, but I’m at a loss for words to describe these beautiful trees!  They make me happy…

Tootles,

Related Posts:

(other amazing plants in our garden)

• Good Photographs
• Orange Crush
• Signs of Spring
• The Roses of December