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As the days grow progressively longer, spring is more beautiful than ever at the Garden. The combination of well spaced rains and an alternation of cold and warm weather has resulted in a beautiful display. A trip to the Garden in this month of May will be very rewarding.

There are so many plant highlights, I hardly know where to begin. Among the flowering shrubs, be sure to check out the snowdrop or snowbell bush (Styrax officinalis) with its myriad, fragrant, white bells. One of the little-appreciated ceanothuses, C. integerrimus (deerbrush), has airy plumes of pale purple flowers right now. This ceanothus is unusual in being deciduous and blooming later when most others have gone to seed. Then there's the gorgeous bush anemone (Carpenteria californica), which this year has more prolific blossoms than usual. The white, anemone-like flowers are fragrant at close range.

The bulb bed is also beautiful, with calochortuses being the main focus. Among them is the superb mariposa (Calochortus superbus) with its oversize white flowers and Diogene's lantern (C. amabilis) with its nodding globes of golden yellow flowers. Also interesting in this bed is Shevock's onion (Allium shevockii), a rare species from the southern Sierra with satiny, wine-colored flowers. And check out the masses of firecracker brodiaea (Dichelostemma ida-maia) with its red, tubular flowers and the hybrid D. x venustum, with similar rose-purple flowers in the bed adjacent to the bulb bed.

Another shrub of note is the extremely fragrant western azalea (Rhododendron occidentale) with white to pale pink flowers. Several specimens are scattered in various parts of the Garden.

One of my favorite perennials for growing in gardens, Douglas iris (Iris douglasiana), is still in good bloom. For some reason, this species bloomed a few weeks later than usual.

Also be sure to wander by the beautiful rock work done by Phil Johnson in the upper part of the Sierra Madre section. Newly planted this winter, many of the unusual plants from Southern California are flourishing. Among them are several beautiful dudleyas with their rosettes of fleshy leaves and a couple of beautiful penstemons in bloom including Palmer's penstemon (Penstemon palmeri) and royal penstemon (P. spectabilis).

If you wander through the entire Garden, you'll find many other treasures to admire.

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