Pretty pictures after rain

Our Mediterranean climate is dry from late April to October. By the time the first rainfall of the season arrives, we’re more than ready for it.

This year, we had rain at the beginning of October, which is very early for us. It was followed by a month of wonderfully warm temperatures in the high 70s, so it didn’t really feel like autumn.

But after yesterday’s rain event (about 0.8"), it does now. This morning was crisp, the sun is lower in the sky, and the leaves are falling — still in a polite way instead of the smothering deluge that will be here soon enough.

Rain makes for great photos so I grabbed my big camera to capture some of the ephemeral beauty in the garden:

Calliandra ‘Sierra Star’, a hybrid between the two California fairy dusters (Calliandra californica and Calliandra eriophylla)

Washington naval orange in the backyard

Meyer lemon in the front yard

Agave ocahui and golden barrel cacti

×Mangave ‘Inky Fingers’

Agave ‘Lion’s Mane’

Agave ‘ShawPot’ (shawii × potatorum), a Jeremy Spath hybrid

Massonia pustulata, a South African bulb, the emerging flower currently underwater in a puddle of water

Echinopsis ‘Orange Ice’ with an almost perfect ring of babies all the way around

Raindrops on the leaves of Yucca linearifolia

Raindrops on our beloved palo blanco tree (Mariosousa heterophylla, previously Mariosousa willardiana, previously Acacia willardiana), with Calliandra ‘Sierra Star’ in the background (see first photo of this post)

Palo blanco with Yucca queretaroensis behind it

Agave chazaroi, one of my favorite agave species

Ferocactus emoryi

Ferocactus herrerae

Lophocereus schottii ‘Woolly Rhino’

Aloe lukeana, my favorite aloe species — last winter the flowers lasted three months

Aloe ‘Hellskloof Bells’, one of RBG curator’s Brian Kemble’s most popular hybrids

Aloe vaotsanda from Madagascar — take a look at the flowers!

Agave ‘Baccarat’

Agave pablocarrilloi × isthmensis

Agave ‘Sierra Azul’, my most recent agave addition. It has fantastic teeth, but I know nothing about its parentage or origin.

×Mangave ‘Frosted Jade’

Echeveria colorata

Agave desmetiana ‘Ivory Star’

Manfreda undulata ‘Cherry Chocolate Chip’ surrounded by Artemisia pedemontana

Artemisia pedemontana

Aeonium ‘Cyclops’

Aeonium ‘Shaohua’

×Sincoregelia ‘Burgundy Thrill’

Variegated Euphorbia ammak with ephemeral leaves

Wet leaves pop (Cordyline ‘Design-a-Line’)

A bit battered, but still standing: red Abyssinian banana (Ensete ventricosum ‘Maurelii’)

Banana canna (Canna ‘Musaefolia’)

This is reality, too:

Water puddling in the gutter

A sign of things to come

Today, the sky is a brilliant blue, and it’s 71°F at 12:30pm. By Sunday, daytime highs are forecast to climb all the way to 76°F. But then another storm system will arrive, and eventually, fall will be here for good.

© Gerhard Bock, 2025. All rights reserved. To receive all new posts by email, please subscribe here.