It’s been a banner spring for a lot of other flowering trees and bushes, but the jacarandas are just getting started.

It’s been a banner spring for a lot of other flowering trees and bushes, but the jacarandas are just getting started.

It’s been a banner spring for a lot of other flowering trees and bushes, but the jacarandas are just getting started.

The last few years have been really dry – since I moved to the area, actually – that this year’s half-normal rainfall seems to have kicked all the perennials into high gear. Most of the flowers are winding down (or being trimmed off) now that the rain is done, and I’d started wondering if I’d missed the jacarandas or if the change this year had meant they hadn’t flowered. And there was my answer: A tree with leaves, flowers, and buds forming. I hadn’t missed them after all, they just run on another schedule than everything else around.

Jacaranda debris

Jacaranda debris. #flowers #jacaranda #purple

They are one of my favorite trees, though apparently there are people who absolutely hate them. From what I can tell it comes down to whether you have to deal with cleanup, because the flowers can get really sticky and messy after they fall, and there’s always a lot of them.

There’s a residential street near where I used to live that’s completely lined with jacarandas for most of a block. I loved driving or walking along there in April. I wouldn’t want to park there, though!

These Pride of Bolivia trees line one side of the sidewalk, jacarandas the other.

These Pride of Bolivia trees line one side of the sidewalk, jacarandas the other. When not flowering, they look so similar that I didn’t realize they were two kinds of trees until they started blooming. #yellow #trees #prideofbolivia #jacaranda #spring #hadtolookitup

These Pride of Bolivia trees line one side of the sidewalk, jacarandas the other. When not flowering, they look so similar that I didn’t realize they were two kinds of trees until they started blooming. #yellow #trees #prideofbolivia #jacaranda #spring #hadtolookitup