John, I found the same thing. Our Vitus californica fruit abruptly turned purple the last week of July, easily 2 or 3 weeks earlier than any of the last four years. I posted a picture to Facebook asking whether someone had sent a memo around to every garden in the neighborhood announcing "summer's over, get on with it". On Aug 16, 2013, at 7:34 PM, John Wickham <jwickham@sbcglobal.net> wrote: > Here in Los Angeles, I've notice that a few of my winter-deciduous plants are starting to turn. And its not just dead leaves, but taking on Fall color. The Vitis and Cornus have a little Fall color and the Betula and Fraxinus seems to be thinking about it. I'm afraid it means I need to pull my winter growing bulbs out of storage earlier this year than usual. I typically have a few winter/spring bloomers that start putting on green growth in late August. That might start earlier this year. > > > > > ________________________________ > From: Jane McGary <janemcgary@earthlink.net> > To: Pacific Bulb Society <pbs@lists.ibiblio.org> > Sent: Friday, August 16, 2013 5:19 PM > Subject: [pbs] Is it summer or fall? > > > Mid-August is a time when the last Mediterranean-cycle bulbs of > summer overlap with the first bulbs of fall. Calochortus weedii and > C. plummerae have finally dropped their petals, and the California > onion Allium sanbornii is in full bloom, the only "summer" species > doing so in the bulb house. There, however, the colchicums are waking > up, whether watered (on the "moist" side) or not (on the "xeric" > side). Colchicum macrophyllum opens its flowers, which are > surprisingly small considering the size of its leaves. White > Colchicum kotschyi is open on the dry side, and I saw the pink tips > of another species emerging this morning. In the garden Brodiaea > californica (last of the themids) is almost over, and Acis autumnalis > has raised its sudden white bells, and where watered, Cyclamen > hederifolium is beginning to open, as is the related Cyclamen africanum. > > In the borders, Crocosmia hybrids are the most colorful right now, > and Eucomis species remain ornamental for a long period. Eucomis > autumnalis doesn't wait until fall to flower here -- it blooms right > along with the other species and hybrids. Another curiosity that just > opened is Alstroemeria isabellanae; thank to Nhu for identifying this > plant, a Brazilian species that is being sold as "Alstroemeria x > Bomarea," presumably because some grower couldn't tell which it was. > The western South American alstroemerias here flower much earlier, > though little Alstroemeria hookeri has been pushing up flowering > stems for at least four months, and I harvested the first seed > capsules from it today. (If you don't want to lose your alstroemeria > seed, which is dispersed explosively, check the capsules by bending > them over gently. The mature capsules detach easily from the > pedicels. Slightly immature ones can ripen in the envelope, though, > if you have to pick them in the wild.) > > By the way, I'd like to mention how useful it is to write out the > full names of bulbs we discuss, as I've done above. People doing an > internet search for a plant often find it on the PBS website, and if > the full name appears in our archived posts, it can be helpful to > them -- and even recruit new members. > > Jane McGary > Membership Coordinator > PBS > Portland, Oregon, USA > > _______________________________________________ > pbs mailing list > pbs@lists.ibiblio.org > http://pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php > http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/ > _______________________________________________ > pbs mailing list > pbs@lists.ibiblio.org > http://pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php > http://pacificbulbsociety.org/pbswiki/