Every year, after attending the San Francisco Flower & Garden Show, I'm exhilarated by the creativity of the display gardens and the fresh use of familiar plants. Don't even get me started on the new plant introductions I want to use in my next landscape design.

The rain last week was welcomed by all of us who like to watch things grow. There's a patch of grass growing beside a creek where I live that is the brightest neon green I've ever seen. Whether you call it apple green, lime green or chartreuse, it shouts that spring officially started Tuesday, March 20, the vernal equinox.