Can You Name That Flower? A Tour of Ranch Blooms in Santa Paula

Heirloom Avocado Box subscribers received a postcard inside their box with a fun flower challenge: How many of the flowers above could they name that grow on our farm in Santa Paula? Answers (plus flower facts from Alice!) below.

It is difficult to describe the beauty and constant change of the ranch in words alone, so this time we are letting the flowers tell the story. See how many you can guess—starting in the top left.

Matilija Poppy

1. Matilija Poppy 

A favorite of my mother and Uncle Bill, and now John and me. The Matilija Poppy has large white, crinkled petals and bright yellow center. It's massive and can grow over eight feet tall and just as wide. Native to Southern California and Baja, it’s also a fire follower, its seeds germinate after exposure to smoke and charred wood. Beauty with a bit of resilience built in.

Spanish Lavender

2. Spanish Lavender

On our ranch this lavender is a strong performer, fragrant and a magnet for pollinators. We don’t normally use it for culinary nor crafting, but love its steadfastness. It is one of the few year round bloomers, always giving, always humming with life, and always welcome near a path where you can brush by and catch the scent or tuck a piece behind your ear.

Navel Orange Flower

3. Navel Orange Flower 

The distinctive five petals give it away, even when you can’t see the “navel” in the orange. These are some of the most beautifully fragrant flowers we have. That scent turns into incredibly sweet oranges, especially when eaten right off the tree. We have over 30 types of citrus on the ranch, and this is where it all begins.

Hass Avocado Flower

4. Hass Avocado Flower 

These flowers have very little fragrance, but when the trees are blooming, the orchard shifts in color. Instead of green, everything takes on a soft yellow cast as the branches are covered in thousands of tiny flowers. It’s a quiet kind of spectacular.

Nasturtium Flower

5. Nasturtium Flower

Nasturtiums come in red, yellow, and orange, and John planted them just outside our kitchen window. I love that, because my Granny had them in the same place when I was a child. My sister, cousins, and I used them when we played house, they’re edible. Now we still use them, adding their peppery flavor and pop of color to salads or using the leaves as little “taco shells” for appetizers. The pods are often called the “poor man’s caper.”

Caper Bush Flower

6. Caper Bush Flower

The real caper bush has a unique, almost prehistoric flower. It’s one of the hardest plants for us to start or transplant, but once it takes hold, it thrives in the most inhospitable conditions, hot wind, poor soil, and very little water. I’m too impatient to pickle a lot of capers, but I do love putting up caperberries. They’re larger, easier to pick, and make a beautiful addition to a charcuterie board.

Banana Flower

7. Banana Flower

The largest flower on the ranch comes from the banana plant, teardrop-shaped buds in deep purple or maroon, often up to a foot long. They hang dramatically from the end of the banana bunch, impossible to miss and always a conversation starter.

You can see the green tips of some of the bananas above the flower. 

Macadamia Nut Flower

8. Macadamia Nut Flower

Macadamia flowers are small, fragrant and tubular, forming long, pendant clusters called racemes, about 12 inches long. This is a Beaumont macadamia, which has soft pink flowers. Each cluster can hold well over a hundred delicate blooms, all working toward a handful of amazing nuts.

 Purple Passion Fruit Flower

9. Purple Passion Fruit Flower 

The passion fruit flower is wild and intricate, almost hard to believe it’s real. Each bloom lasts about a day before becoming fruit. The vines are dense and long-lived, often covering old fences throughout the valley, though for strong production they are best replaced every few years.

California Poppy

10. California Poppy 

A point of pride for those of us who live in California. In late winter and early spring, the hills and roadsides turn bright orange with these persistent flowers. They follow the sunshine; opening in the morning and closing in the evening, and sometimes staying shut on cloudy days. They feel very much like home.

I hope you enjoyed this flower tour of the ranch. There are so many more to share—and always something new about to bloom!

Tell us in the comments - how many flowers did you name correctly? Which were the most challenging?

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