Now in mid-March, several more perennial plants are waking up for the new year. Here are some highlights:
The Mexican Plum (Prunus mexicana) tree hasn’t grown much in height in its three seasons here, but its branches are a little thicker and this is now its second year to bloom. This is an early blooming tree, and the flowers appear before the leaves.
The Desert Willow (Chilopsis linearis) is the tallest tree here and is an excellent food source for hummingbirds and insects. It now has new leaves from top to bottom, and even a couple of flower buds.
The Mexican Olive (Cordia boissieri) tree froze badly two winters ago, so I was very happy to see an earlier recovery this year. There are already new leaves growing from ground level up to five feet high, with hopefully more to come. Last year in comparison, I didn’t see anything until April and nothing above a few inches from the ground survived the winter. Despite that rough start to 2025, the tree grew remarkably well last year and bloomed several times.
My Barbados Cherry (Malpighia glabra) is a dwarf variety and so is more of a shrub than a tree. Like the Mexican Olive, I see leaf growth from the ground spreading up the branches. It’s too early to know yet whether the recovery will reach all the way to the tips. The blue plants nearby are bluebonnets.
American Beautyberry (Callicarpa americana) shows its first spring growth at the very tips of its branches first.
I have two Skeleton-Leaf Goldeneye (Viguiera stenoloba) shrubs. One is in the east-facing front and the other is in the west-facing back garden. The one in the back gets more sun and is bigger. These kept most of their leaves through the winter and now have more new growth, including flower buds. The red thing in the photo below is the back end of a lady beetle!
Red Yucca (Hesperaloe parviflora) has a yellow variant and I have both kinds here. These plants sail through winter with no visible indication of distress, and one of the clumps of Yellow Yucca already has a new bloom spike developing.
There are three Flame Acanthus (Anisacanthus quadrifidus var. wrightii) shrubs here: two red varieties planted first and one younger orange variety. I pruned the red ones about a month ago, and all three are leafing out well.
Rewilding My Lot 
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