New Flowers this week

There are many new things blooming and lots of things budding and pushing up shoots.  The warm weather this week is making Spring come quickly.  Just hope everyone stays careful until after the possible frosts we will be having next week.  But the rains we expect will be a good thing.

Daffodils and Bloodroot.  Had both in the yard for many years.

Not sure what these blue bulbs are.   The pink flowers are one type of Pulmanaria   And Forsythia of course.

 

There are also several Frogs in and around the pond so far.  No singing yet, but they do hang out on the cattail pot every day. 

Update a day later:  The frogs sang all night last night, and today there are at least twice as many in the pond.  Three pairs are hitched together, and soon I think we’ll have a lot of frog eggs in the shallow water.  The fish are already excited! 

Spring Marches on Quickly

Since the challenge of keeping something in bloom once the Winter Aconite started, there has been little challenge.  It has been such a warm gentle spring that things are just jumping up and into full bloom, sometimes faster than I can keep up with them.  Was away for a week last week, and the change in the yard was unbelievable.  The crocuses have bloomed and are done.  Daffodils are fully out now, some even past prime.  Tulips, Hyacinth, Squills, Grape hyacinth, all emerging. 

The Bloodroot came up, bloomed, and is done, pretty much all while I was in the hospital.  There is a single Trilium coming up next to the clump.  And Forget-me-nots are blooming there too, though I never planted them.  The Marsh Marigold has a single blossum, at least it comes up each year.  Forsythia is pretty much done, though it may have lasted longer if we didn’t have the 5 inch snow a week and a half ago.  Many Pulmanaria around the yard are blooming, as are the Pasque flowers.  Prairie Smoke is beginning, and so are the Darwin Tulips in the first berm.  Snowdrops have come and gone.  Shooting star is just getting ready to burst forth.  And I think the Japanese Lilac will be next. 

We had fresh asparagus from the garden for dinner tonight.  Not a lot, but enough to whet our appetites for more.  Also fresh chives for the baked potato, and a little mint just to smell nice.  And the frogs are singing in either our pond or the neighbors each night.  Hope we get tadpoles again this year.

It is surely good to be home.  Going to be difficult to keep up with all the changes in the next few weeks, but most things can make it on their own.  I poke around doing tiny jobs, and ask Bill to do the big things.  He’s also painting the house this spring, so he’s busy for sure.  Not sure when the garden will be plowed, but we are really still at least a month out from major planting time.  I should be able to do more by then, I hope.  

Well that was then...

The rains have come.  It is green.  Still cold -- except for yesterday when it was 84 degrees for a couple of hours.  Back down to 50 today, and likely going to stay there for at least a couple of days.  But the yard is greening up beautifully, and it has been perfect weather to dig, divide and replant perennials.  This is the time to do that.  Rarely have the time, but this year I'm "retired" and have all the time in the world.  Or at least all the time I'm willing to spend.  Now that the pond has been re-established, and we've gotten the area around it back to growing condition, I have time to look other places.  I dug, divided, and moved the one remaining original clump of Karl Forster grass a couple of days ago.  One clump became five.  Could take over the yard, I suppose.  

 

The green has really taken hold now.  The lawns all around the neighborhood are solid and bright.  The only things flowering are the spring bulbs and wildflowers, and you have to look hard or have planted well to find things.  But Forsythia, Daffodils, Darwin tulips, the Bloodroot, some tree flowers have taken the place of the early pioneers as stars.  Emerging in the next week will likely be the Pasque flowers, other species tulips and probably some of the hybrids,  the Choke Cherry tree that planted itself, maybe the Serviceberry. 

I've put the Canna roots out into the greenhouse.  And also the German Ivy that has been in the kitchen windowsill all winter, but which has developed an un-curable infestation of some sort of bug.  I'm hoping the Ivy can survive the cold, but he bugs can't.  Hope I'm right.  (Though I did take a few cuttings just in case I'm wrong.)  The Elephant Ears are out there too.  A big cold blast could be a disaster, but I hope it won't happen. 

The fish are well and happy in the pond now, though two of them have not survived.  I bought new basket planters for the water lilies and will try to do some further division of them soon.  Our neighbor's pond was alive with Spring Peeper frogs last night, and I am really jealous.  We've never had frogs evident in our pond, and there were many singing last night next door.  I hope the enlargement and overwintering changes will help us there. 

Oh, and this was the week of the "Red Death" display on the roads of the flower bud scales of the maple trees.  Always a mark of Spring for me.

Driest April in Many Years

We have not had measurable precipitation yet this month. I hope that isn't a sign of a long dry summer. Things are not progressing very quickly, though there is some change from day to day.
I was able find the Bloodroot sprouts yesterday, and today there are twice as many. They really blend in to the dirt and litter around them until the leaves unfurl, which has not yet happened. Today I also saw some Trout Lilies beginning to poke out. Crocuses are almost done, but here and there late ones that I don't recall planting are bursting out. One Daffodil clump is beginning to bloom, and others will likely be out within the next week. The Snowdrops and Aconite are almost done also, but there are Darwin Tulips to take their places. I planted some Pansies the other day to be sure there are no gaps in the flowering.
This year instead of planting the Cannas inside I just took them out of their winter storage and added a little water. This week I planted some of the ones that looked the strongest out in the deck planter box. It would be too early to put them out if the leaves had emerged, but they are underground and can survive a light frost I hope. Lynn next door has done it that way for many years. I kept some inside just in case my method fails.

Cold Returns

So, after a wonderful warm week, with significant growth and progression of pretty much everything in the yard, we have returned to late winter with temps in the high 20's last night. Had to bring in all of the plants in the greenhouse, and put the cacti in there for the duration of this cold snap. I feared that the yard plants would get frozen out, but they all seemed to have made it.

Although such temps are discouraging there is a positive side to them. It does slow down the growth of everything, and let the spring beauties show themselves for a longer time. When the spring is hot the daffodils last two or three days. This year they've been around more than a week and are going strong. The tulips are beautiful, and there are more coming on. We still wait for the burst of confident growth that will signal the real beginning of the season. But seeing the spring things for longer is not all bad. If only the bloodroot would last longer. I don't know why I love those plants so much, but I do. And they never last longer than a week, even in a prolonged cold spring like this one.

The neighborhood began cutting grass this week. Sigh. I think we will let it go just a little longer. I love the uneven quality of it now. And the violets bloom better if we can let them grow a little longer before leveling them out.

Blooming this week...

For the record, in bloom this week are: Bloodroot, Forsythia, daffodils and narcissus, squills, hyacinth, snow glories, birch trees, pansy, Pasque flowers, pulmanaria.

Weekend of Heavy Work

Writing on Monday evening, it is hard to even remember all that happened over the weekend. We worked hard on the project of replacing the large planter next to the deck. While Bill did the hard stuff, I puttered around the yard, moving perennials, cleaning up around beds, raking a bit here and there, pruning back the spirea that was finally completely free of snow, etc. The temporary greenhouse that we had put up a couple of weeks ago blew down last week and we had to reassemble it. Luckily, nothing had been bent or broken, and we were able to reinforce our understanding of how it all goes together. Much easier the second time. Oh yes - we nailed it to the deck this time.

Bill had put the frame of his planter together last weekend, and this weekend he intended to get the cedar sides on, add the corner and top and bottom trim, and then begin the process of digging out the dirt from the old planter (which had originaly been a hot tub in the basement), breaking down the sides and tearing it all apart, then moving the new one into place, leveling it, and refilling it. The whole project took him most of the weekend, though I was free enough for most of it to get the rest of the work done.

Planted a box of Asiatic lilies and another of Oriental lilies that I bought at SAMS Club. I'm never sure about SAMS Club plants, but some have turned out very well over the years. The hostas under the weeping willow tree are fantastic year after year, and they all came from one box. Last year I grew a bunch of astilbe, and they didn't amount to much. But I'm hoping the plants survived and will be nice this year. Time will tell. None of the purchases there are very well identified, but for generic plants they do seem to do pretty well.


Some neat things: The bloodroot plant that I captured the first sprouts of last week became a clump of sprouts by Saturday morning. Then Sunday morning I found another clump of sprouts. I figured that they would bloom some time in the next week, but the warm, sunny weather made for fast growth, and by late afternoon Sunday the buds were showing color and ready to open. Amazing.


A beautiful clump of Darwin tulips comes back every year, very early, and I always forget about it until the next year. It has been very dependable, but for some reason I just forget it is there until it blooms again. It blooms early and fast, before I really even see the sprouts, and then its over before the big stuff starts.




A very lovely little bird followed me all around the east side yard as I worked. It sat in the tree or shrub nearest where I was working, flitting from one place to another as I did. Not sure what it was after. I tried to identify it, and I'm not sure if I have it right. I think it was a yellow rumped warbler. My photo is not great, but will help me remember.


Finally, not all clear signs of spring are happy.



But at the end of the day, life is good.

Wildflowers Beginning

Today I was able to spot the beginnings of several of the wildflowers that appear each year in the wild parts of our yard. The troutlilies are just poking their leaves above the ground throughout the creekside area. And I love the Bloodroot, which some years is able to sprout, grow, bloom and fade all within a week while I am at work.

This year I think I've captured the beginnings of both. No sign yet of the Spring Beauties, nor the Trilium, nor any of the others. But these are on their way, and the next week of projected high temperatures above 45 degrees and lows above freezing should bring them close to flowering by next weekend.