Baby Blue Eyes in BLOOM!

I just came running into the house as I found my very first bloom upon the hill- our very first Baby Blue Eye!  I saw it from down at the bottom as a tiny speck and crawled up to inspect.  There are more buds on the way, so this really is the first of many.

Our VERY first native flower for the year.

Baby Blue Eyes Nemophilia menziesii are really a spectacular flower and one of the first to really draw me to the beauty of wildflower gardens.  When Caspar and I lived in our ramshackle place in Palo Alto, I had ripped out the ivy on the side yard and planted bulbs and threw out native seeds.  I had never seen Baby Blue Eyes before and they were truly epic when they came into bloom- forever winning me over and making me fall in love..

Here is a picture of our side garden back when I was pregnant with our twins.  This picture was taken in April and it was before they really started to get beautiful.  I love them so much and it was like seeing an old friend to catch a glimpse of one up on the hill.

They are a really aggressive flower and so I did not plant as many of them as some of our other seeds on the hill since I didn't want them to take over.  I plan on reseeding with them if I do not get as many of them this year as I would like.  They are one that are like Poppies- you know they will do well.

Me about 25 weeks pregnant with our
twins- I was on bed rest and didn't get to
see the flowers when they really got pretty.

A mass of Baby Blue Eyes from our
little side garden in Palo Alto.

In addition to being great just growing wild in gardens, they also form trailing masses which make them particularly beautiful along the top of a wall where they can cascade down or in a pot where they can spill about the sides.  They are easy to grow and really tolerant of a wide variety of conditions.  If you can grow Poppies, you can grow Blue Eyes (and Lupines and and and...).

Baby Blue Eyes also make a GREAT bulb cover. I planted beautiful red
Tulips, Daffodils, and Irises and they really were set off spectacularly when
everything came into bloom.  Again- this was just the start of the garden. I don't
have pictures of it when it was prettier as I was on bed rest and didn't get out to see it.