Jacaranda Trees

Dave told me about a line in an Los Angeles Times article the other day, which said that those who say that Southern California has no seasons just hasn't lived here during Jacaranda season.  Wikipedia notes that: "Jacaranda can be found throughout most of Southern California, where they were imported by the horticulturalist Kate Sessions."  Since that's my family's name, it made me smile.

These trees start to bloom at the end of May/first of June and we always hope the bluey-lavender blossoms will stay around until UCR's commencement, approximately the middle of June.

So last week while Dave was at commencement, I drove around and photographed some jacaranda trees.  They really are most lovely in the morning, but here they are in the afternoon.

This is a well-traveled street near our house, with a long line of jacaranda trees.  We have one specimen in our front yard, but it usually doesn't bloom very much, for some reason.  Maybe the fact that it has been transplanted three times may have something to do with that?

These last two trees are at the end of the long line of trees, above.

The jacarandas have nearly the same color blossom as the agapanthus flowers, above, which also bloom about this time.  I'm always sad to see these two flowering beauties drop their blossoms, as it means another of our "non-season" seasons is right on their heels: Scorching Hot.