Ice, ice, baby!

Lampranthus spectabilis

Check out the ice plants growing in the garden this week: they are flowering like crazy and the colors are hotter than a very hot thing. How to identify them? Well, look for low mounds of eye-popping color - small succulent plants absolutely covered in many-petalled flowers about 1-2" across...

Starting along the cactus wall you'll see orange Malephora crassa, bright candy red Lampranthus spectabilis and pinky-purple Drosanthemum floribundum.

Malephora crassa

If you walk up the garden to the middle back bed there's also a purple Drosanthemum striatum and the absolutely bonkers Drosanthemum bicolor covered in red, orange and yellow flowers.

You'd have to be blind to miss these flowers. Actually, the colors are so bright your vision may become impaired. Don't stare into the flowers too long!