Springing Spring ?!

We have had glorious weather:  some rain, some clouds and some sun.
Rain alleviates any thoughts of irrigation, clouds encourage the flowers to stay around much longer than usual, and the sun,
well the sun encourages everything to bloom and grow!

The first rhodies are blooming, and my one azalea is so covered with flowers
that is all you can see of it.

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Even though I cut rhubarb flowers, it keeps putting out more of them.
At least, they are unusual looking.
Blueberry and strawberry plants are booming with flowers.  We can only hope the weather stays favorable, and the bird nets keep the pilfering in check.
Last photo above is rosemary, which I see in flower around town.
Such a sturdy and aromatic plant, how can one not love it?

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This has been one of the best tulip years I can remember.  I like to think it is because I separated some of the larger ones and planted them all around the house.  We have enjoyed tulips out of most every window.
White lilacs open their blossoms before the lavender or purple ones do.
These are my favorites, I love the sweet scent and only wish they lasted longer indoors.

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A Different Bloomer

I have driven past this tree many times through the years, and finally  bothered to stop and take a photo.  Have seen many more shoes on this tree at various times in the past.
I suppose a big wind or snowstorm could decimate the decorations, as it would with any tree in bloom.  Or maybe someone just saw a pair they could not live without!

Do you notice that all the shoes are paired?
I’ll bet that makes it easier to get them to hang on the tree.
I believe I’ve seen similar trees on other desolate roads – though this particular one gets plenty of traffic for a two-lane road.

A Daffodil Story

A personal story here:
My daughter’s birthday is at the end of March.  We have lived on this same property for over 30 years and always had fresh daffodils for her birthday.
In 1994, Daddy brought a bouquet of daffodils from our property to our daughter, when he flew into another state to see her on her birthday.
The last few years the daffodils have been blooming earlier than usual.
Now, I do understand that 30 years in the spectrum of time is quite small, even the Mississippi River has changed course in the last 30 years.
We have had milder winters these last few years, I wonder that global warming is a reality.
Today is February 21, we have had 2 or 3 daffodils bloom on our 55 acres already.
This is how I note the sunniest spots at this time of year.
There are hundreds of daffodils planted on our land.  They naturalize so well, I keep dividing and replanting on any sunny spot I can find.
Closer to the house, near a main flowerbed, here is the progress of daffodils.
Just beginning to open their petals.

I took this photo when the sun peeked through the clouds for a bit today.
No rain is in the forecast this next week.  When sunny days are predicted, we often have foggy mornings.  Depending on the amount of sun, all the daffodils may bloom this week.

I see daffodils blooming along the interstate freeway (6 miles to the west), and in the nearby towns to the south.  We live in the hills north of town where I have observed our flowers bloom 10 – 14 days later .

The early flower gets .. rained on

Why would only two crocus bulbs flower and all the other ones wait over a week to bloom?
This is not even the sunniest location.

After some days of rain, the sun has encouraged more crocus to break their dormancy, and greet the winter sun.
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A week later, after days of rain, the sun re-emerged.
These same crocuses (croci?  I saw this plural someplace, did not make it up myself!) put out more blossoms.

A few more bulbs bloomed

And more are on the way

A Yammering of Yellow

I’ve been watching these St. John’s Wort buds the last couple of days, and this morning the flowers burst open.  I’ve never noticed the orange-tipped stamen before, so pretty.
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These wildflowers appeared a year ago at the back of a bed.  Since they were in a good location, I let them stay.  So far, they have stayed put, and not invaded the cultivated flowerbed.
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The first succulent of mine to bloom.  Tiny flowers on stems about 3″ (8cm).
Last year, I cut a small bouquet of these blossoms and kept them through the winter, in my kitchen windowsill, as dried flowers in a mini-vase.
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Earlier this spring, I was sure this Lady’s Mantle had died.  It may have outgrown its location, so I shoveled part of the plant out.  The interesting shape of its leaves and hardiness make this a keeper in my garden.
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Alliums are known to be robust members of any garden, and these yellow-flowered ones do not fail.  Mine have been neglected, separated and moved around by me and who-knows-what critters.
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The first bud of a prolific mini-flower rose bush.
You can see additional buds surrounding this blossom.
I am able to cut flowers from this plant all summer long.

White Flowers Hyacinth and Crocus

 

Did you know that the white hyacinth flowers before the blue or purple colored one?  Or that the purple crocus blooms before the white crocus?  I have been trying to figure out if the white colored specimens of a flower bloom first or later than the other colors of the same name.  Here it is early in the bloom season, and I already have two different bulb flowers that give me opposite information.  I can only conclude that there is no “theory of everything”.  Ever since Albert Einstein, physicists have been searching for a “Theory of Everything”, and perhaps Mother Nature has been trying to tell us all along that does not exist.

First Daffodil Bloom

This flower is on the south side of my home, which is the warmest site, of course.  What is more interesting to me, is that just a few weeks ago, I moved and separated a number of daffodils, including this one.  They had been inside a deer-proof fence, which is unnecessary for anything in the narcissus family.  When I noticed the leaves emerging from the ground, there was a warmer day that I took a shovel and decided to give some daffodils a new home.  The weather was cool and wet enough that they did not mind the move.

Now to remember after blooming, and when the leaves have died down, to take a shovel to the daffodils that did not get moved and separated this winter.  There are lots of them to be dealt with.

Crocus and an Orgiastic Bee

The green and white crocus leaves outnumber the current amount of flowers, so I am anticipating many more blooms.  Mr. Sun peeked out from the overcast sky just a few times today, and the plants do feel the unusual February warmth.   Fifty degrees F (10 degrees C) would have felt much warmer if the sun really came out.

While I was taking pictures, I heard a bee – so early in the season.  He found a crocus flower and went straight for the pollen.  At that moment, my camera batteries decided to run down.  I fumbled through the case for my spare pair of batteries, and clumsily made the switch.  Where did that bee go?  He was having an orgy with himself still in the flower cup!  I decided to leave him in crocus heaven, as he was in no rush to leave, and that was the only ‘game in town’ today.

Hellebore in Full Bloom

A multitude of blooms on the white-flowered plant indicating it has been in the same location for a much longer time than the pink-flowered plant, gives me an idea of what can be expected in a few more years from ‘pink’.

These flowers grow funny, as they hang down and do not look good in a vase.  Makes me wonder how they evolved to be like that.

This is usually a very slow season in the flower garden, but we have had an unusually warm and mild winter.  So many flower plants are budding way before normal times.  After a very rainy week,  this next week is expected to be dry and warm, so I’ll see what will bloom next.

Last Gasps & Late Bloomers

The sun is much lower in the sky, the hours of daylight are significantly less and the nights have cooled off.  It is still early autumn.

Iceland Poppies keep putting out buds.  This is the third or fourth flush of flowers, I can hardly wait until this plant gets bigger. As I document my flowers in this blog, I am aware of the bloom times of so many flowers.  I feel that I am not taking them for granted so much anymore.

On the right, is a particularly late foxglove stalk of blooms.  These plants start blooming in early summer, and some have kept on blooming, while others are totally spent.  It is still a mystery to me why some of these plants are so different from others that are the same.

The Hollyhocks are coming on strong, in spite of all efforts by the deer to nibble as much as they can.  I find long branches of hollyhocks broken and bare, as there is so much less fresh green growth for the deer to eat.

The right side photo shows California poppies and dandelions still blooming.  The poppies will continue until they are frozen out.  There are many baby poppy plants just starting to bloom, from early season plants putting out seeds.  As much as dandelions are disparaged as weeds, I think it is good if we can pretend we are children again, and savor their beauty as flowers sometimes.