A spring day...

Finally!  The Tulip Poplar trees are getting their leaves.  This is such a welcome sight!

 My chickie dudes like the spring day, too.   Here they are, back in their pen ~ for safety.  But earlier, they got to wander around the yard, scratching and pecking.  Yes, they are hens, but I still call them my dudes.

 Daffodils!  So sunny and cheerful.  I didn't realize that I had a white one.

A Muscari has seeded itself at the edge of the stone path.   Isn't that how we are sometimes?  Trying to grow in a difficult, "rocky" place?

Another brave little plant growing in the rocks.  A reseeded Johnnie.

The blooms on this Veronica are tiny, but oh, so beautiful.   I love the blueness of them.

These are Tete a Tete Daffodils that I planted in the fall.  I think they are so charming.

Have a beautiful day!

So much blue...

I have a bunch of blue flowers blooming right now.  Here are most of them.  The first one is a bulb that I dug out of a vacant neighboring yard several years ago.  If you look closely, there is an aphid on one of the blooms.  (Already???)

"Forget-me-nots."  These have the tiniest flowers and  I think they are adorable.  You don't forget them for a couple of reasons:  they are so charming and they reseed themselves.

Veronica "Georgia Blue."

A whole clump of Veronica "Georgia Blue."

Rosemary "Tuscan Blue."  "Tuscan Blue" can get to be six feet tall!  This one is about two-and-a-half feet tall, so it has a ways to go.

Blue Phlox.  I'm sorry I can't remember its botanical name at the moment and I am too lazy to look it up.  Oh, and it's fragrant as well as beautiful.

Ajuga "Chocolate Chip."  Yum!!!

Have a beautiful day!

Yellow Shrimp Plant...

I discover a baby ladybug crawling on a pot this morning. Yes, I know. That is not technically what the little creature is called, but it works for me. I think it sounds cute.




This is a Yellow Shrimp Plant (Pachystachys lutea) and not to be confused with the just-plain Shrimp Plant (Justica), which is a "cousin." I saw this plant a couple of weeks ago and thought it was interesting, but told myself that I needed to get the plants I already had planted out and not to buy another plant. I thought I would just look at the plant tag to see what it was, though. After all, I love learning about plants.




Well, that was trouble. The tag said that hummingbirds liked it. And I am a sucker for hummingbirds. So, now you see this plant on my deck, waiting for a hummingbird to come along and take a sip. In the mean time, I am enjoying it.




The yellow part is actually bracts and the flowers are the little white tubular things. We think they look like penguins or funny little people. Can you see the one sticking out its tongue and wiggling its fingers? "Nyyaaa!"




My Veronica (probably 'Sunny Border Blue,') is blooming. This is the first plant that I bought and planted after we moved here. And despite my not knowing a single thing about growing things in thick red clay at the time, this Veronica has survived exactly where I planted it. Good plant!


Have a beautiful day!

Veronica somebody...

Today Kirstin told me that a plant I had given her was blooming; a plant with blue flowers. Hmmm. A plant with blue flowers. Those are so rare around here...




Anyhow, I couldn't remember which one it was even though she described it, so we went to look at it and it was absolutely beautiful. (Shocking, huh, for me to find blue flowers beautiful?) I love the way it trails in the leaves beside the fallen log.




I had planted this Veronica for her down by her "frog pond" several years ago from a piece of one of my plants that has since died out. Maybe she will let me have a piece of hers now, so I can try it again.




She kindly took these pictures for me to use. Oh, and I'll have to get back to you on the rest of Veronica's name. (I do have the plant tag; really, I do.)


Have a beautiful day!