White Flowers

There are a variety of white flowers,
all blooming at the same time, now!

Sweet woodruff is still blooming.
This groundcover at its peak.
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Dutch Iris in above photo,
also, comes in yellow and purple.
Below are ‘bearded’ iris,
which come in a rainbow of solid
or 2- or 3-color blossoms.
Both types of iris seem to be deer-resistant.
Very few plants are truly deer-proof.
When deer get hungry enough,
they eat almost any plant.
* * *

This is the first year my snowball bush has flowered.
I wanted one of these beautiful plants for so long!
The blossoms started out green
before slowly turning white.
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A couple of last tulips.
* * *

First Calla lily bloom.
The plant struggled this year,
as the mild winter gave rise to early leafing out.
Then a later snow
knocked the new growth back to nothing.
* * *

Lilacs and strawberries have both
been blooming for awhile.
The lilacs are fading,
but strawberries will go longer.
Cultivated ever-bearing strawberries bloom until frost.

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White Lilacs

White lilacs bloom before
the purple lilacs.

A scented walkway,
under the lilacs.

Indoors bouquet –
a spring treat!

Springing Fast

The rain stopped and the sun came out.
Many flowers are going through their short lives quickly.

Camellia blossoms are always beautiful,
but short-lived.
It is a good thing the glossy leaves stay green all year.
* * *

This azalea bush will be covered in red
at peak bloom.
The deck is scheduled to be repaired this summer,
I am afraid I will have to prune this plant severely:(
* * *

Reliably, this is the first rhododendron
to flower every year.
When I took this photo yesterday morning,
there was only one other open bud.
This afternoon, half the plant was abloom.
* * *

Blue Bells, Cockle Shells . . .
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Bleeding heart is a newer addition to my garden.
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Sweet woodruff is one of my favorite groundcovers.
Besides the delicate flowers, the leaves are evergreen.

Window of Opportunity

There is a small overlap of the end of daffodils
and the start of Oregon Grape blooming.

I love seeing the shades of yellow
and shades of green in nature.

Scent of a Hyacinth

I love the scent of a hyacinth flower!
Some people actually complain the aroma is too ‘heady’ for them:(

I got a good whiff just walking along the brick path.
It smelled so good, I walked back and forth a few times!
Made me smile on an overcast day:)
* * *
Long ago, I made and sold porcelain hyacinth vases,
which were used to ‘force’ a bulb to bloom indoors.
There were always extra bulbs at the end of the season,
which I planted under bushes within deer-fences.

White hyacinth live at the base of this budding lilac bush.
Because deer ignore daffodils,
those bulbs get to live outside the protective fence.
* * *
Lots of hyacinths live below this rhododendron.

Did you know that blue, white and purple hyacinths
are the best color of these flowers to force?
I can’t say for sure if I bought the bi-color flower bulbs,
or they hybridized naturally.

Croci or Crocuses?

Both are acceptable according to google (which knows everything 🙂
One is from Greek the other from Latin.
Which is which?
Does it even matter?

Purple crocus are the first to emerge.

Bi-color crocus are attractive.

This is as far as my flowers progressed
before snow came and
spring is on hold.

Spring Abloom in Winter

Violets bloom all winter long here.
They look beautiful in the snow,
but no snow this year, so far.
These blossoms have naturalized in many of my beds.
* * * * *

Bergenia are early bloomers here, also.
They grow on the sheltered east side of my house,
protected from deer.
* * * * *

Hellebore are also growing in a sheltered east-facing area.
The ferns came up naturally,
and keep these flowers shaded.
While the white flowers are in full bloom,
the pink ones are just beginning.
* * * * *

The first strawberry blossoms
from a warmer area in the yard.

Very Early Spring Daffodils

Spring bulbs are emerging particularly early this year.
Not only blooming snowdrops & daffodils,
but tulip & hyacinth leaves have poked through the ground, also.

I have been gardening in this same place for over 35 years,
and this is the earliest, by a large margin,
for these flower bulbs.

Argh!  Please excuse my focus.
I should have had my glasses on!

Here the flowers look so small & insignificant.
It is a south-facing rise, a break in the trees,
a particularly sunny area.
Also a tractor & vehicle shortcut,
across a fork in the road,
which makes me think it amazing the daffodils have persevered.

A Cloudy Morning

An overcast morning,
so I grabbed my camera for a walk around the house.
This is some of what was in bloom:

French cooking thyme, an essential garden herb (for me).
These stock plants were rescued from a nursery.
Barely alive, they cost 25 cents, now they are thriving (yay!)
Foxglove, which neither deer nor rabbit bother, is in full bloom.
* * * * *

Yellow allium flowers, a later blooming variety.
This was one of the first bulbs I planted here over 30 years ago.
It keeps coming back, no matter how much I neglect it.
One of my favorite colors of bearded iris,
this dark purple is almost black.
* * * * *

Red-hot pokers start out orange then the yellow part below
grows to the top as the flower matures.
These are real hummingbird magnets!
Perennial cranesbill geraniums flower and multiply profusely.
Yellow is my early blooming color of daylily.
It is always a shot of sunshine for my disposition.

Let the Sun Shine

My favorite tv weatherman predicts seven days of no rain.
He said it had been seven months since there were so many days in a row without rain!
Now the sun is shining, and the flowers are exploding:

Rhododendron are some of my favorite shrubs.
The leaves are evergreen, and in spring, the entire plant is covered with blooms.
* * * * *

My iris are not irrigated, and thus bloomed sporadically these last few years.
They loved our wet spring and are coming into full flower.
These are quite deer-resistant plants, slowly moving out of protected beds.
* * * * *

In my basement,  half a dozen peony buds
are hanging upside down to dry .
The pair I tested last year still look good, so I am trying more.

All of these flowers live in my ‘flower cages’
to protect them from deer.
Various colored poppies live in separate beds
so the colors will stay true.
Red-hot pokers do not fare as cut flowers,
their nectar is extremely sticky and fluid – a big mess indoors.
* * * * *

When scabiosa was re-located last winter,
I discovered it was really tons of baby plants.
Ten, or so, were replanted and the rest given to friends.

Columbine is a native plant, and reseeds freely.

First rose from this particular mini-rose plant.
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