Water Colors
Maybe you heard: IT’S RAINING! Lots and lots of water is falling from the clouds right now … and it’s been happening for days. This is fall-to-your-knees-and-shout-hallelujah! news for our drought-parched state and it’s truly wonderful (mudslides, traffic pileups and flooding notwithstanding). I’m really enjoying this wet windfall since I love rain; I love being outside in the rain, too. My favorite rainy day activity of all is going to a botanical garden or nursery and glorying in the heightened color saturation of massed succulents. I swear I feel the same quivering excitement I felt as a kid, when presented with a brand new 64-color pack of crayons, a deluxe pack of watercolors, a 120-count colored pencil set. Opening those boxes and seeing pristine multi-colored faces and perfectly sharpened tips — lined up and waiting for me — always gave me so much pleasure. I also loved that each color was named; I’d always hate it when a philistine classmate asked for mere “red” when the crayon or paint was clearly marked “Flame”! In this post I share with you photos I took one wet day this week at a lovely succulent nursery in Fallbrook … accompanying color names will serve as captions; feel free to suggest your own.
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Colors above: Corn Kernel, Pale Sea Foam, Orange Torchere, Vivid Vermillion, Persimmon Pink, Misty Mauve, Limeade
Lemon Drop, Black Rose, Scarlet Spike, Envy Green
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Butter Gold, Bruised Purple, Chalk Blueprint, Powder Puff
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Turquoise Tinge, Plum Lilac
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Raspberry Peach, Aqua Mariner, Daylight’s Gold
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Deep Rouge, Powdered Beryl
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Gray Flannel & Talcum, Canary Stripe, Succulent Lush
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Chartreuse Spike, Crimson Lash
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At one point the sun peeked through the clouds like a too-loud guest, casting a harsh light on my rainy day color party; I couldn’t wait for it to go away again … It did eventually, but by then we had to leave.
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SERRA GARDENS LANDSCAPE SUCCULENTS
897 Quail Hill Rd., Fallbrook CA 92028
Weekdays & Saturday; Call for appointment: (760) 990-4762
To learn more about the nursery and ordering succulents online, click here.
Rancho Reubidoux 
Oh Reuben, they are all so beautiful! I don’t know which ones are my favorites. I must admit I am leaning towards Raspberry Peach-Aqua Mariner and Daylight’s Gold as my pick of the bunch! I have always been amazed at how much more vivid the colours are on grey and rainy days. When I was a little girl I used to love to play out in the rain taking photos of everything, from old abandoned barns and houses to the trees and flowers of the Nebraska countryside, with my brand new Kodak Brownie camera. My friends at the time (I was 7 or 8) couldn’t understand why I saw colours differently on rainy days, but my father, being an artist himself, totally understood. And that was really the only validation I cared about.
What a sweet story … I love that as a little girl you noticed that color-saturation distinction AND had a brownie camera! Thanks, Valorie 😉
Inspired by your blog I decided to go out to my own garden and do some work. I ‘m going to take some yucca suckers and replant them in pots by the pool. I really enjoy my front yard now that Saul replaced the grass with desert landscaping. I hope you have a wonderful pain free day or very close to it at the very least. Give my big brother a hug! Thanks
Hi, Cherie, I heard about your front yard redo; congrats. Thanks for the good wishes! 😉
Hi Reuben, Me too, so enjoying the rain…….everything has been washed. New boxes of crayons with names….luscious………and points……..I still have crayons in my cubboard for when kids come over. Come to think of it I better get a new box..
I do the same, Guida … I always have a big container of colorful markers or pencils available for kids to use when they come over … I bet your garden is a spectacular sight in the rain! 😉
Nice shots — you are making me homesick for the desert again, especially at this time of year. Also, the winter here has been brutal. Plus, a bunch of the cacti and succulents we’ve been growing indoors have expired — perhaps at the sight of all the snow and ice out the window!
Oh, if I only had cacti and succulents inside and they expired, I’d be bereft! Sorry about the snowy/icy sights, too … Sending you desert vibes, Dave; bask in the dry and the warmth!
So glad to hear that you’re getting some rain! It does work magic in the garden! Your color names are delightful!
Thanks, Peter … I think the rain’s finally over, this bout. It was great while it lasted!
Gorgeous! Thank you for sharing these lovely images, and yay for rain!
Yay is right! Thanks, Pam 😉
All of it – delicious!
Thanks, Jenn! 😉
No wonder youasked me today if I’d seen your latest. I’ve always loved to be outside in the rain. To watch our plants perk up and go” Ah” with the showers is such a pleasure. And all the talk of new crayons and pencils! And watercolors! The excitement and anticipation.
I’ve found that in watching some of the plantings I’ve done. And figuring out how I’m going to bend wire and items into a new planter for a new plant. Thank you for today. I so enjoyed. And am so happy that you seemed pleased with the results.
Oh, yes! I knew you’d understand what excitement I was talking about with rain, colors, pencils, etc … And, oh yeah, I love what you put together so much. Thanks a million, Vickie! (Tom, too) 😉
Wow!!!! the colors are amazing. I have a type of tillandsia that grows in the trees here that are red, but the succulents are not so colorful. It’s alright though, I still love them.
Thanks for posting the different kinds. Wish I had access to more colors.
How lucky you are to live in a place where tillandsias grow on the trees! It’s not the same but feel free to enjoy my colorful succulents here any time 😉