Happy Easter

I hope that the Easter Bunny brings you lots of chocolate for your basket,

Lots of  Flowers for your garden

And much Peace for your heart.

Wonderful Wednesday

You probably think that I have fallen off the planet.  No, the opposite is true. I have been out in the garden working like a Trojan.  My Dearly Beloved has been driven by this warmer than usual March weather and we have been doing our weeding/mulching. Yes, 6 truck loads of mulch have been applied so far. That means that all beds that have been mulched have also been weeded.  Bushes moved and trimmed.  Even Luna thinks there has been just too much outside activity. It is difficult to keep up.

I am so pleased with everything so far.  I mean how can you even be angry with the henbit and dandelions that are popping up everywhere when you know that it means warm weather is on its way.
The later hellebores are now blooming. Red Lady is blooming for the first time.  I think she is going to be great in a few years when she fills out more.

The freckled helleores are one of my favorites though.

Another favorite of spring is the wild flower Spring Beauty. Of course it lives up to its name especially when they are well established in a lawn or flower bed and they look like a pink carpet. Gail wrote a beautiful post about these Spring Beauties as her Wildflower Wednesday post. I think you would enjoy reading it if you pop over here.

It is just marvelous to have so many colors in the garden now.

The daffodils cover most hues of yellow.

Then of course the crocus want to get into the act.

And what would spring be without a few tulips.  We are talking few here too. I must put them on my list for next fall. These little beauties used to be about a foot tall.  Now they barely peek over the grass.

I hope you all have been able to be out in the garden some this spring. I can say it is a delightful antedote to a long hard winter. I hope there are lots of promise in your garden now that spring has arrived.

What is showing promise in your garden now?

Blooms galore

First of all I just had to show you the Broom 'Moonlight' plant that my Sister gave me for Easter. I actually planted it before they departed Easter Sunday so it has had at least one good watering since it rained that night. I just can't thank my Dear Seester enough for the thoughtful hostess gift. She knows what will make this hostess most happy.

You can see behind it that the helebores are still blooming up a storm. I think this has been their best blooming year. In that I mean they had the most blooms on them. I guess a little more sun didn't hurt them as I had feared it might. I just love walking out and seeing something new blooming almost every day. These little tulips were accidently planted right in front of the Virginia Blue Bells. They are happily blooming together. This is what you call a happy accident since I didn't remember that the Blue Bells were here when I planted the tulips. I am thrilled that I didn't dig up or damage the Blue Bells. I know in the past I have done them in by digging around where they are planted.

This is some Wild Ginger that is growing in the garden. They are sporting their blooms. You have to "want" to see them if you see them. By that I mean that they bloom under the leaves close to the ground. It is an unusual bloom too. It is sort of a bloom within a bloom.

The Double Kerria bush is beginning to bloom. It just looks like a ball of sunshine when it gets into full gear.

The smaller single bloom on the varigated Kerria is also blooming.

The Brunnera 'Jack Frost' is blooming its little head off. I ought to plant a few more in this area. This is one of those plants that everyone tells you how easy it is to grow but I have had a difficult time getting any established. I have killed more than I want to think about, however the one planted right beside the patio seems to thrive.

Our darling old apple tree is blooming now. It started out with just the lower branches blooming. I thought that the upper blooms had been frosted/frozen off but just today the top is also abloom. Today the bees and flies are busy polinating all the blooms in the garden. I was beginning to worry that the bugs weren't going to show up to do their work but the past couple of days have been so warm and sunny it brought out the work forces. It is just great to see them again.

I hope you all are having a great weekend.

Blooming Weather

This spring so far has been a little warmer than usual, great for blooming plants. However that is to change tonight. I decided that since the weather is reverting to winter, with freezes forcast for the next couple of nights, I had to get out and take some pictures of things that are blooming. They might not last much longer.
This Saxifraga Bergenia 'Perfect' is blooming for the first time. I have been so thrilled with this plant. I have tried to grow it several places in the garden but it didn't take until this last attempt. It might have been the 21" of rain last spring that helped get them established.We have a few new tulips blooming. I find these most enchanting. They have wrinkly leaves and only stand about six inches tall. They haven't opened all the way yet because it has been so darn cloudy and cool. I hope they survive the freeze and open wide when the sun does come out. Another shorty but cutie is this red tulip. It is even shorter than the first I have shown you. It has some lovely foliage too. It is spotted with maroon.

The 'Jack Frost' Brunnera is beginning to bloom. Hopefully it is in a protected place where it won't be damaged by the cold.These pretty little white daffodils are not protected.

I can't for the life of me find the tags for all of these plants. I planted this little narcissus several years ago. It just blooms and multiplies. I wish I knew what it was called.

Our white lilac bush has the most buds on it that it has ever produced. I am afraid that the freeze will do away with what looked to be its best show ever developing. The wind is so fierce I don't think covering it would be an option. That might damage the bush itself. We will just have to take our chances.

The ole double daffodils are blooming away. They are interspersed with the blackberries. I hope the blackberries will give them enough protection from the frost/freeze.

Of course the dear sweet violets will not be detered from blooming. They might pout for awhile but they will be back like gangbusters. This is one delicate looking toughie.
I can say goodbye to the Serviceberry tree I would imagine. It is about ready to go to making berries. I hope the freezed doesn't completely do away with its fruit. Many of the birds in the neighborhood like to dine here. I hope they aren't disappointed.

I hope you all have a good week. I will be sitting her fretting about the freeze.

Frosty Monday Morning

Yes, we woke to frost this morning. I didn't mind because the flowers didn't seem to mind it at all. The only thing that seemed to mind was the magnolia tree. The winds that brought the rain and then the cold and frost blew off many of the petals. We have a path that has been almost covered with magnolia leaves. What blooms that are left on the tree look pretty yucky.The white tulips out front just thumbed their pretty noses at the frost...you go girls.

Those freckled hellebores just giggled at the cross weather.

The hyacinths are a little fickle. They laid almost down then perked up in the sun. I hope this is our last frost.

Mellow Yellow in the Garden

What with the magnolia blooming and a few red tulips I was thinking our garden was beginning to look quite lively when my DB made the remark that we have lots of yellow in the garden now. Hmmmmm See there is another color other than yellow. These tulips are only about six inches high. They almost get lost in the bed. I hate to move them because I think they have reproduced here. This area is a difficult area to get anything to grow in.What with the daffodils and the forsythia blooming up a storm there is quite a bit of yellow.Some of the narcissus do throw a shot of orange into the mix.
I hope your weekend is bright despite what the weather might be throwing at you.

Firsts

I am so pleased to report that I saw the first of the crocus popping out of the soil today. They might have been up for a few days but this is the first day in some time that I have felt like a well human being so I haven't been outside much.

Another first are these bulbs protruding from the ground. They look like they have been heaved somewhat. They sure are brave bulbs because they are showing some green. I think the 50F weather we had a couple of days fooled some of the bulbs. These naked ladies just can't wait to start showing off. They are the old fashioned, light pink variety.

Both of these are growing out front where we took out the Rugosa Rose this fall. Maybe they are just happy to have more sunshine and space to grow. Another first for the year are the bulbs I found at the local nursery. I saw a big sign that said 60% off of everything in the place. I am sure they wanted me to be buying some Christmas decorations but I fooled them. I had to go into their unheated garage to see what bulbs hadn't been sold. As you can see I found a few.

I bought 12 Red Riding Hood Tulips, 12 Kolpakowskiana Tulips, 12 Saxatillis Tulips, 7 pink Squamigera and 7 Yellow Spider Aurora Squamigera.

The Squamigera didn't have a price on them and I didn't get many because I didn't know what they would cost. I wasn't quite sure what they were either by looking at the pictures. Imagine my surpise when I looked them up on the internet and found that they are a fancy version of the Naked Ladies, or Lycoris. The pictures sure don't look like my old fashioned Naked Ladies.

I took a few of the tulips and a three of the pink squamigera and put them just outside my window. I want to be able to see these beauties when they pop up this spring/early summer. I planted them on the left side of the tree behind the feeder while I planted the Chionodoxa on the right side of the tree. It will be intersting to see a little color early in the year. The pink Squamigera are supposed to be much darker than the old fashioned variety. We will see.

It is supposed to rain tonight so I hope my little bulbs will get all snuggled in for a short growing season.
I kept one of the yellow Squamigera out of the ground and put it on my one bulb vase. It was trying its best to start growing. I sat it in the kitchen window with the rest of the vases. I have no idea if it will take to growing in a bulb vase but since it is already showing signs of growing I can hope. It will end up being awfully tall. This could be an interesting experiment.
I can't wait to get into my chair tonight with my new gardening journal and start the year off right with an entry about planting something. Whoooooo hoooooooooooooooooo... I am hoping this is a good omen for the growing year.

Tiptoe through the tulips

When we got to the city park this morning for our walk about I thought things were going to be the same ole thing...water water everywhere.... At least I knew we weren't going to sit around and enjoy the view much...





When we walked to the other end of the park we were pleasantly surprised when we found that this magnolia was beginning to bloom. Was it ever a sight for sore eyes. You can just imagine my delight when I saw this pinkish bloom in the gloom. It had lots of these buds just waiting for the sun to coax them into bloom. Aren't these just beautiful? They almost look like a rose ready to unfurl.

I wasn't totally surpised that I found something blooming at the park becasue when we departed from home I saw that there were some tulips up with buds just waiting to be coaxed open with some sunshine.

What I was surprised with was when we arrived home from the park we had tulips open. Whooooo Hoooooo Now this looks like spring time. All we need is a little more sunshine. The sun decided to grace us with its presence for a few hours this afternoon. A most welcome sensation. It is amazing how a little sunshine can raise the spirits and open the blooms. Don't you just love to look down on those little tulips and see them open wide. All we need now are some bees buzzing around. These are our first tulips blooming this spring. They seem to get shorter every year but I don't have the heart to pull them out. They are so cheerful.