Winter Flowers 01-31-12

This jade plant that grows between my garage/pathway and that of my neighbor, Mark-to-the-South, is blooming with wild abandon right now.   In twenty+ years it is quite literally a jade TREE, even though I cut it back severely so it won't block the pathway.

As a child in Oregon I saw my mother haul her precious potted jade plant into the basement every fall and out again in spring, but I never remember it blooming. 

When I first had my own new yard in Southern California and started looking for plants to fill it I found it hard to believe that potted plant in Oregon was the same one that grows outdoors so vigorously all year here. 

We don't have a lot of resident bees, but those that are in the neighborhood find the flowers.

Looking very closely at one little bloom makes me think of something from a movie about outer space or maybe The Little Shop of Horrors. 

 

They are very symmetrical and quite lovely - but so tiny!