The sun has finally come out! It’s like “Enchanted April” - a month late. The wisteria is in bloom, the iris are all budding, the lilacs are (finally!) open, and the daphne smells so sweet it almost knocks us out every time we go up our front steps.
For one brief growing season, I worked at a greenhouse. It didn’t pay a lot, and I tended to bring my paycheck home in the form of plants. When we moved I brought many of them with me, and several are still thriving in the garden here, including this pretty exochorda shrub. It’s kind of an awkward plant to grow, since it has a long gangly habit, and despite its resemblance to orange blossoms it has no smell whatsoever. But when it’s in bloom it’s ever so pretty, and the flowering branches can be entwined through other bushes, up walls or over furniture.
I am such a sucker for iris, especially miniature dwarf iris. It’s probably just as well that they’re not real easy to find, although I’ve done quite a bit of damage through Monument Iris Gardens in Nebraska - he grows tons of great varieties. But they’re sturdy and early blooming, and they come in a wonderful range of jewel tones that really perk up the May garden. This one is called “Being Busy” - I love the bright blue beard.
It’s taken much longer than usual, but the tulips are finally in bloom! The local tulip festival had to extend festivities for a week to catch up with the late blooms. Most of the tulips I grow myself are fairly late-blooming anyway, and they’re just coloring up this week. I particularly like Spring Green, and a little apricot species tulip whose name I’ve forgotten.
It snowed all night here, not sticking too much but flattening the daffodils. What kind of April is this, anyway? Fortunately, primroses can put up with almost anything. This one, Mahogany Sunrise, has always been one of my favorites.
It’s been so cold this month that everything in the garden is late - the lilacs haven’t even begun to bloom yet, which is very unusual for this area. The tulips are just coming into bloom this week (if the snow doesn’t flatten them, as well).
Probably the tiniest flower currently blooming in the yard right now (each flower is about 1/4″ across). The leaves are a great bronze color, coming up through a mass of wild bleeding heart. I had a yellow epimedium as well, but it seems to have self-destructed.
This was one of the prettiest places we saw on the Big Island of Hawaii - Onomea Bay, near the Hawaiian Botanical Garden north of Hilo. A rainstorm had just passed through and everything was sparkling.
We are off to the Big Island of Hawaii today, to experience the delights of hot lava, sulfur gas and plate lunch! The garden and this blog will have to get by without me for the next week. As you can see, the garden’s doing pretty well on its own anyway (ignore the weeds), and I’ll have at least one post lined up so the place won’t be completely deserted. I won’t be around to respond to comments, though, unless I stumble across a computer along the way.
But with any luck, I’ll have some great material when I get back!
The grape hyacinths are blooming! They really are invasive, but they carpet large swathes of the garden in bright blue, and they’re pretty easy to pull out if necessary.
Happy Easter to everyone! It feels like spring may actually be here (despite the snow yesterday morning)!
The crocuses are kaput, but the daffodils are opening just in time to give the garden some new color. I have some plain King Alfred-style yellow daffodils that are bright and cheery, but I especially love these Jack Snipe dwarf narcissus. They’re short and sturdy (and don’t fall over in the rain, of which we’re having plenty), they’re bright and they smell great. I keep adding clumps of them, but I don’t have nearly enough yet.
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