A Little Color on a Drab Day

A clump of miniature tulips growing along the beach road. They're a lovely peach color and only about six inches tall.

The "lowly" dandelion, elevated figuratively and literally, growing right on top of this stone wall three feet off the ground.

One of my favorite flowering shrubs, this quince bush is all abloom in town. 

A Bradford Pear tree reaching for the sky. These flowering trees grow quickly, and were quite popular with developers in the '70s and '80s until everyone realized how weak-branched they were. They require almost constant pruning and only live about 25-40 years. They are banned by many towns now for use in public spaces.

Yes. My dented aluminum "pot" is planted with pansies again this year. I just love this backyard "find." 

This eight-foot tall azalea was so covered in vines when I first moved here, it only had about 5 flowers the first spring. I cut them all back and it has been grateful ever since, flowering profusely first thing in the spring. My Infiniti can be seen "resting" in the background, wondering if it will ever see the road again.

Promising a bountiful summer, my Foxgloves are multiplying like crazy and starting to shoot up. These flowers will be dazzling! I'm not sure which variety they are though. In the past, I've had white ones with burgundy spots and pink ones with burgundy and white spots. They are biennials, which means they grow one year and flower the next. They also self-sow. I never planted this clump here and I haven't had a flowering Foxglove in two years now. Can't wait to see which one it is!

My little Grape Hyacinths are really proving to be long-lasting. Love their shape and color.

I really don't know what this tiny flowering plant it. I found it in the grass on the side of the road during one of my walks. These pretty little flowers are only about 1/2-inch each!

My larger tree stump might be degrading more each year, but as it does, it just mulches the surrounding garden, exactly the reason I created this "Tree Garden" in the first place. The Myrtle (Vinca or Perriwinkle, too) is native, and from the woods nearby. I love the way it is naturalizing around this stump, filling the nooks and crannies around the base. It's timed well, too. Myrtle has flowers early in the spring, as the rest of the plants around it are still low, enabling its little purple flowers to be seen. Later in the season, you won't be able to see this native vine, and by late summer you won't even see the stump anymore as the day lilies and goldenrod and other foliage plants take over.

This is the large patch of Vinca in the woods around Pink Gardens. It's like a carpet and only about 20 feet away from the Amtrack tracks!