Jubilation in the Garden

What can make this gardener jubilant you ask?  Going out to casually walk around the garden and seeing what I think might be a miracle. Let me tell you a little back story on this sweet little bloom.

I have tried for several years to get some Hardy Cyclamen started in my garden. Firstly I have had difficulty purchasing the corms. They always seem to be out of them by the time I order them. Then this winter when I went to the Chicago Flower Show I found a vendor selling the corms. I figured if they were selling them there they should survive in my garden.

I didn't know just when to plant them so I waited until a little later in the year. Early spring I couldn't wait any longer.  I planted them. All I read is that they needed really well drained soil and they liked it under a mature tree. Well I have well drained soil under a mature tree so that is where I planted them then my garden was inundated with 11inches of rain. Record making rain.  Then a short drought occured.

I haven't seen one speck of green as in a leaf. I figured I could write off another try to get these little beauties started. Then this morning, there they were. Three little blooms just sitting there looking darling, waiting for me to find them. 

I had planted a left over coleus in this spot thinking it would cover this bare spot under the tree. Ha.. Had I been patient the cyclamen would have filled in. Well, maybe not filled in but when I planted that coleus I knew it was close to where I had put the cyclamen. I couldn't remember exactly where they were but I didn't get any corm when I dug the little hole for it.   

I sure hope that these little beauties take. I would have thought that the three big corms I planted would produce more blooms than these. I am not complaining mind you. I don't want to throw them into a pout so please don't tell them I was having an itty bitty whine.  I wonder when the foliage appears?  Have any of you grown these plants? 

Nature's Happenings In the Sky

We were out in the later evening hours this week. A brief thunderstorm blew through leaving a double rainbow in its wake. I didn't have presence of mind to snap the picture until they were about to fade.

The main rainbow stayed a bit longer. Even though I know what makes rainbows the child-like wonder of these beautiful works of art never fails to amaze me.

Not to be outdone the sun put on another show at sunset... 

Despite the clouds. 

 

Happy Sky Watch Friday.

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day - June 2011

 This Garden Bloggers Bloom Day hosted by Carol at May Dreams Garden is surely a lush one here at Greenbow. Despite a sweltering 9day run of 90F heat and drought we had had so much rain before the drought that most things are blooming in stride with the weather.

The hydrangeas are beginning to set blooms. This Niko Blue is even showing a bit of blue without my interference of adding some Aluminum Sulfate to the surrounds.

The Oakleaf hydrangea is in full swing too.  It pays no mind to the weather vagaries.

There are still some astilbe blooming.

The Goose neck Loosestrife are beginning to stick out their necks.

The ever dependable day lilies like Litte Grapette are blooming.

The Hostas are living up to their predecessors nick names of Plaintain Lilies. 'Love Pat' has these beautiful clusters of small lilies hoisted up above those cupped blue rumpled leaves just begging you to take a whiff.

We have all sizes of hostas in the garden. Dogs too for that matter. This little toy poodle named Oly  belongs to a friend and is visiting us here in Greenbow.  He belongs to a friend of mine and while she goes out East to visit he stays here. He is dwarfed by the big  hosta 'Blue Angel'. In the planter right behind them is a minature hosta 'Mouse Ears' blooming. You can see the size difference.

Here by the fairy garden you can see up close a larger clump of Mouse Ears. It is tiny delight hugging close its small lily-like blooms. 

Another lilliputin bloomer is this tiny sedum with its tiny bloom. You really need a macro lens to fully appreciate this tiny bloom.

On the other end of the spectrum a little spash of sunshine yellow hosta even has a flower or two.

And we don't want to forget those beautiful white lilies that people often throw out after Easter. It is much more fun to stick them into your garden and see them bloom the next year around this time. They will be even more beautiful on a warm summer evening shining in the dusky light while throwing that lovely lily scent into the air.

To the wilder side of the garden the butterfly weed is blooming nicely.

What is blooming in your garden today?  Join us at Carol's May Dreams Garden and show us.

Sweet relief

We are have a beautiful morning going here today. A great way to begin the weekend. We are receiving some much needed rain. I woke to find a good half inch of rain in the gauge. The rain paused long enough for us to take Luna for a nice long walk. The poor girl hasn't been able to walk very far due to the temps not being below 90 most of the day. When we got out to walk it was a lovely 68F. Aaaahhhh

In the garden the Asiatic lilies are blooming.

The above and below lilies were a mixed bag of 'Tango Blend' These were the only two colors that came up. I did want the yellow one too. Too bad it did show its face.  I like the dark one best. I am drawn to dark lilies. 

This dark maroon one looks almost like chocolate. Yummmm.

This dark orange one is marvelous too.

Of course I like the lighter side of lilies such as this 'Grand Cru' .

The daylilies are beginning to bloom too. This swathe of Song Sparrow are singing out loud.

This daylily below is one of my bird series. I am not sure if it is Screech Owl, Baltimore Oriole or something totally different. If anyone could enlighten me I would be most happy. 

This one is Big Bird  Tetrina's Daughter. It is sort of small because of how dry it has been. My poor garden has been assaulted by the weather this year. Spring was long wet and cool. Lately it has been hot and dry. I hope with this rain it sort of evens out.

The smaller daylilies are beginning to bloom too.  This one is a small double named Bubbly.

This one is so old I have lost it's name. I brought it here from my previous garden 16 years ago.

This small one I bought many years ago too. I guess I was into those  small yellow daylilies then. I am doing a little editing of this post as I found the names of a couple of these daylilies. The one below it June Bug. Cute name for a small daylily. My birthday is in June so this is probably why I bought this.

Isn't it interesting how our tastes in garden plants change over the years?  I haven't bought a new daylily in several years.  I am leaning toward upkeep now. My small suburban garden if fairly full. Now I have to edit to add. It seems that more shrubs are creeping into the mix. How is your garden evolving?

Momma Turtle

I just never know what we will find when we go out in the county to do a Breeding Bird Atlas block. This morning was an exceptional morning.  Not because of the birds that we saw, even though we did see some sweet birds.  What was so exceptional is that I found a Snapping Turtle laying its eggs. I have read about this before but had never seen such an amazing sight.

As you can see she had to dig a big hole to lower her large body into.  We stayed and watched for about thirty minutes. I could see her do a shudder or two then she would be quiet.

Her clear yellow eye was focused on her task. She must not have been at it very long because the soil on her head was still damp. The wind was blowing quite steadily this morning. I think the soil would have been dried on her head and even possibly fallen off if she had been there very long.

I will be worried about her nest. As we sat there watching her just down the opposite side of the field was a racoon heading for shade. He would make short work of those tasty little eggs no doubt.

I wouldn't doubt that even a big Black Kingsnake such as this one wouldn't mind a tasty turtle egg or two for a treat.
As my friend Sandy has stated on her blog, you should be careful as you drive this spring. There are all sorts of animals roaming around, place to place over the roads. Do try to make them safe.
I want to thank my Dearly Beloved for being patient with me, sitting there while the bugs tried to carry us away. Taking pictures with his long lens so we didn't have to disturb anyone.

What's happin in the garden now...

Mother Nature has finally stopped drenching us with deluges of rain. Now we are getting the usual tropical spring-like 1/4" here and there. Good for getting out and doing some weeding. It has been difficult to get pots planted and to keep up with the weeds that savor this weather.

I did a project with my Dearly Beloved this past week. I had this Red climbing rose that I planted under the apple tree. I had this vision of red roses blooming with the white blooms of the tree. Well, that never will happen because the tree blooms earlier and the rose simply doesn't want to go up the tree. So I had a dinky little trellis for the rose to go up and then I thought it would latch onto or at least lean into the apple tree to grow.  The rose and I were not on the same thought path. It just flopped back onto itself on the little trellis. I couldn't stand to see it. I thought it had so much more potential.

I went shopping for a big tall trellis. There are none here in town so I got the ole thinking cap on and started looking at the farm stores. After consulting my post hole digger (my DB) I finally decided to have 4 posts put in and then we nailed a 16' cattle fence section to it. I think I am going to be very pleased with this. The rose has lots of room to grow.

I am also going to get that red and white flower color here. The Viburnum on the left side of the path is blooming along with the rose. Don't you just love those happy accidents. The poor rose had to be disentangled from the small trellis. It was a little shocked at its handling but I hope it will be the better for it.

Plus I will have room on the opposite side to grow another climber. I wish I knew the name of this rose. It blooms only once per year at this time. It has lots of blooms when it does bloom. It is a tough old rose too. It has been moved a couple other times before it landed in this spot which it obviously likes. I am not one to coddle roses either so it gets whatever is being fed to plants around it. Sometimes it gets a little black spot but I don't bother with that. I am usually too busy to notice really. 

Do you have a project that you have completed lately?

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day - May 2011

Today is Garden Bloggers Bloom Day that Carol at May Dreams Garden has hosted and encouraged everyon to list what all is blooming in our garden on the 15th of every month.  This month is very nice in my garden despite the wet weather. I am going to show you some photos I took the other day since today is a cold 52F with mist in the air all day. 

The iris show is almost coming to an end. The bearded ones are blooming. You can see behind these iris the wild honeysuckle blooming.

A few of the Japanese Irises are beginning to bloom.

 I have several shrubs that are blooming. This buckeye is one of my favorites. There are also two types of viburnumns blooming.

 As I was telling my Sister the other day about Comfrey, when it starts to bloom as it is now it will bloom until frost. The bees are most happy about that.

There are still some columbines blooming, the native and some white ones.

If there had been sunshine and warmth the past couple of days I would have had some minature hosta blooms and the Mock Orange shrubs are set to burst open at any moment. These will have to wait until next time. What is bloomning in your garden?

Other blooms:

Baptisia, Golden Alexander, Water Plant, White Japanese Iris, Amsonia, Perfectly Pink Phlox, Ramona Clematis, Climbing Rose, annuals.