What a long winter and from the sounds of the weather report there is still a cold snap on its’ way in a day or two, but hopefully it will be the last. I don’t know if it because of the cold, snowy, wet winter or because the plants were so grateful for the few warm days we have been having but, there are so many wonderful things blooming right now. We are going into our second year and some things were in such sad shape last year that they didn’t really do much. Things are really responding to our pruning, fertilizing and watering though and putting on quite a show for us this year.
My favorite surprise flower was this beautiful bi-color azalea that was under an overgrown camellia. Last year I limbed up the camellia and pruned it back then fertilized the whole bed, added some acid planting mix and low and behold this beautiful little bush sent out the most lovely blooms this year. I don’t know what it is called and have never seen anything like it, but I am calling it “Beautiful”.
This azalea is blooming in the same bed. It seems a little late for azaieas to be blooming, but hey, it has felt like winter here for far too long so they may not know what time of year it is. If they want to show me blooms like these at anytime I will totally enjoy every moment.
I have been seeing Iris’ blooming everywhere, but they just started in my yard and boy are they ever putting on a show. Deer and Gophers leave them alone so the previous owners had planted them everywhere and every color. They are sure pretty and some of them even have wonderful fragrance. I’m having trouble deciding which is my favorite, but I am leaning toward the bi-color yellow and they have the most wonderful bubble gum fragrance to them. I have a light blue one that smells like baby powder, nice!
Speaking of flowers with smells I planted some Chocolate Flowers last year from seed and they have come back and just started blooming. They smell even more like Chocolate than a Chocolate Cosmos which is a surprise because there is no brown on the flower at all except for a little tiny center so Chocolate is the last thing you would expect to smell from this flower.
The birds have been happy with the sunny days too and are really lining up at the feeders. We have 3 feeders in one little tree and the other day I noticed that every single hole had a bird feeding at it and more were waiting patiently in the tree for an opening. They are very polite and even sing while they wait, we could all learn a thing or two from the birds.
This Weigelia was another surprise for us. Last year we were about to dig it out, but decided to give it a hard pruning and fertilizer and see what came of it. It leafed out a little last year, but this year it is blooming it’s little heart out. We planted it next to a dark leafed ninebark and they make quite a charming couple. The pictures just really don’t do it justice, but in person you can’t take your eyes off them.
I could really write a short novel about what all is blooming right now and every bloom is exciting to me to watch life spring from things we almost gave up for dead after such a long cold winter, but I will have to save some for a later post. Probably though all the Ceanothus are my favorites right now. I adore the shade of blue that the flowers open up into, but the one that have right outside my door has not only the little blue flowers, but a beautifully variegated leaf.
The orchard is coming along nicely too. We planted it only a few months ago and it is already looking like an orchard. A young one though and it isn’t photographing well, but I am amazed at how each young tree is pushing out little shoots that will be branches and a few even made flowers that could potentially be fruit though we are suppose to remove them this year. We will probably leave just a few though.
Our vegetable garden has not been planted yet and that is probably a good thing with the current weather report for this weekend. I have been harvesting a lot of sugar snap peas though and eating them cooked and raw. Yum! The carrots are growing too and I finally put in potatoes that have started sprouting up, hope the frost doesn’t bother them. I will be having lots of onions and garlic in a few months and am even pulling a few little baby onions to cook with and add to salad. The greens in the front bed are Strawberries and they are loaded with flowers. I actually ate the first strawberry yesterday, I picked it a little early so it wasn’t as sweet as it should have been. I need to practice patience…
Patience is a virtue in the garden and life…
Ferne
I am posting this same post on my other blog, Growing Thymes so if you read both no need to today! I just haven’t had any time to sew lately so this is it!
