We've Been Waiting For Them!

2012 Flowers Begin Blooming at Pink Gardens

It's still very early in Spring, and last week's 70° temperatures have dropped back into the 50s (and low 30s at night!), but Pink Gardens' flowers are slowly making a comeback. And not a second too soon for me. Above, lavender azaleas always contrast well against the oldest part of the house's clapboards, and granite foundation.

My mother's chives pot is going on thirty years old. I think this will be the year I sand it down and give it a new paint job. The succulent young chives have jumped up six inches in the last two weeks.

Grape hyacinths are a fairly new addition to the main flower garden, this only their second year. The stems will double in size in the next week or so, but it's interesting the flowers mature first. Foxgloves leaves can be seen to the left, and several varieties of day lilies and irises in the background.

White full sized hyacinths, a gift a few years ago from my friend Nikki, smell really great. Besides lilacs, I think I like the scent of hyacinths the most.

Vinca, or as I know it, myrtle, is a wonderful plant to naturalize. I planted this all around the base of the large decaying tree trunk that is in the center of my main flowerbed, and the way the myrtle vine creeps up and into the crevices is really beautiful.

Late summer blooming sedum looks absolutely fantastic as it starts to grow. The leaves curl like little cabbages and the plants are so full. I'll pinch every little "head" you see here several times throughout the growing season, (and on the 15 or more other sedums I have), until July or so. This keeps them from growing too tall and falling over. I like to keep them bushy.

A white and yellow variety of daffodils. These were the first flowers I learned to love. My aunt Hoohoo was obsessed with these early blooming spring bulbs, and every fall we planted hundreds of them all around. They were in front of every stone wall, every building, every large boulder, every flowerbed border and then we planted them in the woods, lol. She had several varieties including a gorgeous peach colored variety, but I only have a couple different ones right now.

A yellow and orange daffodil. This one is the "showgirl" of the garden, kinda brassy but tall and proud of it, lol.