Slowly Springing

Although we had a very few warm days a couple of weeks ago, we've had near freezing nighttime temperatures since then. Almost every perennial seems stunted this season. These cute little grape hyacinths are only 3-inches tall!  

And a sidenote: I'm having massive software issues with Blogger these days. This is the first post I've been able to compose all week. I hope I can actually post it. With my old mac, and with software on the web continually changing and evolving, I'm not sure how much longer I'll even be able to post. I've lost a lot of functionality everywhere, Facebook included, but it's still working pretty well there. I hope this is only a glitch at Blogger, soon to be cleared up because there is no new mac in my future. Thanks for bearing with me.

'Nother Pretty Bloom

A pretty white crocus has come up near my lavender ones. I still haven't had time to clean off any of the gardens but I hope to in the next week or two. It's rainy and cold today.

Spring Begins

The first few crocuses of Spring have popped up from under the leaves. I think we can count the winter over, but the weather is still not all that warm yet. 

AfternoonColour: May Day 2013

I placed my long-lived cactuses outside today for their summer sojourn. This year they're on tree stumps next to the shade garden. Dragonwing Begonias join them after wintering over inside once again. All photos clickable to enlarge, as always.

 

My pink African violets are producing like crazy now.

Shade garden and beyond. That's an ancient pink azalea shrub, which almost resembles a laurel bush until it blooms.

Fun with Photoshop filters. Another shot of my beautiful (if I do say so myself, lol) purple violets. They're in a single indoor garden pot along with a second variety of purple and the pink seen in this post, too.

 

Looking slightly north this view includes the tiny road to town. In the distance is some Land Trust acreage and then a condominium.

Slightly longer view shows the fuzzy dark green foliage of this pink violet.

More Color Each Day!

Cherry blossoms in town, at dusk. I love them at this stage, with some flowers fully opened and others in various stages, from tight buds to almost-open. All photos clickable thumbnails to enlarge.

Another "low view" of Pink Gardens. These bi-color daffodils complement the colors of the house perfectly.

Our large forsythia was damaged in the last blizzard. It was completely flattened by the massive heavy snowfall. It has a few flowers on it, but I think I'm going to cut it all the way down to the ground and let it grow back up again. Forsythias need to be cut back every decade or so or they stop producing enough flowers to fill in all the branches.

I grew a marigold indoors this winter! I planted some seeds in one of my potted plants in December and just this week I had my first bloom. I was so surprised it actually blossomed indoors!

 

This rusty-colored plant is actually my purple tradescanthia. It's an outdoors annual, but for the past four years, every October I cut several stems off of it and them root them in water for the next spring. Once they're outside and in the sunlight again, these reddish-green leaves will turn to purple and throw off small pink flowers.

A second African Violet has bloomed, my deep purple one. This plant is ten years old and the plant stretches almost fourteen inches wide!

And Thus the Season Begins. . .

This is the first year I've had miniature Daffodils in my yard! I placed the camera right on the ground for this photo. Though the perspective makes them look large, they are only 4-inches high! My friend, Lisa Mikulski, gave me these bulbs last year just before she moved to Sweden. Although she may be thousands of miles away, her flowers are going to be in my garden for years to come!

 

I think the aroma of hyacinths is among the best in all of flowerland! I love the scent of roses and lilacs, and virtually every flower, but there is something about Hyacinths that is just pure sweetness without any overtones of anything else. My friend Nikki gave me these bulbs a few years ago and they're just about the first flowers to ever bloom in the spring.

 

I think I posted almost exactly the same photo last year, lol, but it's a sure sign of spring when the turtles emerge from their winter rest and start sunning themselves at Tuxis Pond again!

Yes, my African Violets are indoor plants, but they are just beginning to bloom again from their winter greenery. This bright magenta one has huge blossoms. Each is more than an inch-and-a-half wide. The other two plants in this violet garden are about to bloom, one of them for the very first time, so stay tuned for more photos in the weeks to come!

Bonus Photo

 

On a wall near my violets hangs this self-portrait from 1983. It's cut paper, pen, and Saran wrap. Hard to believe it's 30 years old this year.

Gorgeous Old-Stock Daffodils Bloom Again!

The "backstory" of this rare daffodil is here, from my blog two years ago. I'm thrilled this year to have a total of eight of these flowers actually bloom. I have three in my side garden where I transplanted them three years ago, and for the first time in years, there are five blooming in their original location in the woods. Several trees came down in last year's Tropical Storm Irene, so I think that the original location is getting more sun, hence the more blooms. As usual for these strange old-stock flowers, there are ten "air buds" for every one that opens. They send up perfectly normal looking budstems, but they just hang on and on and on, eventually turning brown, never actually blossoming. If you open them up, there is nothing inside the browning buds, which is why i named them "airbuds," lol. The scent of these is special, too. It's delicate but strong, and really seems to be a vintage aroma if that makes any sense. I'm very proud to have found these in the woods and to have successfully transplanted several bulbs. Now if I only knew exactly what they were! 

I picked this blossom and photographed it in decent light in front of one of my pansy pots.

 

This shot was taken in the woods, in their original location. It was raining, and I love the few raindrops you can see on the stem and petals when you click on the photo.

PrettyColours: Time Marches On

 Lilacs are just beginning to bloom at Pink Gardens. I love the smell of lilacs. In the past I've had dark purple, magenta and white lilacs in my yards, but this yard only has this medium purple variety. From what I can tell, the bush is more than 100 years old though, so it's sturdy old-stock.

My mini-Iris are flowering now. They're no more than 4-inches tall! I have to work hard to keep all of my more invasive, taller perennials from overtaking these little gems.

Pink Lily-of-the-Valley has been part of my family since the 1950s. I moved these to Pink Gardens from my mother's home and she had taken some from her family's home. They're smaller and daintier with less of an aroma than the white ones, but I really enjoy the nod to my past.

I'm not sure what this plant is called. It's a ground cover that Mary gave me a few years ago. Besides the pretty silvery-green foliage, it has these buttery yellow flowers in the spring.

My Jank-in-the-Pulpits are doing really well. I've naturalized more than fifty of these woodland wildflowers in this yard in the past few years.

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!

Daffies: Plain and Fancy*

Top and above, Pink Gardens' last daffodils to bloom are these very pretty, and large, Jonquils, with a reddish-orange edge to the central trumpet. Beautiful!

This "fancy" bicolor double Daffodil variety was spotted in front of a beautiful home near the beach.  Next to them were the peach variety I grew up with at my family's home. The photos of them all came out blurry though. Perhaps best savored as memories?

A striking row of Daffies growing near the beach. They were almost as tall as the stately stonewall behind them.

 

Not often seen, a triple Daffodil. The center trumpet is really a flurry of petals, almost mimicking a Parrot Tulip in its petal  shapes and arrangement.

 Daffodils always look great with other spring flowers, Grape Hyacinths and tulips.

The same mix of spring flowers growing right next to a beach marsh. The reddish stems just visible next to the tulips in the back of this flower bed are peonies, just beginning their seasonal journey.

* I can't use the term "Plain & Fancy" without thinking about the great family-style restaurant in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, right in the heart of Amish country. I've eaten there a few times in my life, and love their food. They make the area's famed "ShooFly Pie" and even mail out boxed mixes so you can make the pies at home. Read about it, here.

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.