Beautiful day...

"Oh, what a beautiful morning! Oh, what a beautiful day!" It rained last night, washing away the pollen and cleaning the air. Now it is so crisp and fresh and beautiful.




The passing storms also brought cooler weather which is very nice because it was getting too warm too soon. The wind has picked up, but the air is still so wonderful. And more flowers are blooming.




The roses have started and my columbines are blooming. And several more blue flowers that I have yet to tell you about. And these beautiful short irises. (Embarrassingly, this is another plant for which I will have to find the tag and get back to you on the name!) They lived in their nursery container for about 4 years before I got them in the ground and still they are doing fabulously! My kind of flower!


Have a beautiful day!

Dogwoods...

If you were to take stroll down into our woods and look carefully out through the new green spring leaves, you'd see flowers floating in the air. It makes me think of an enchanted fairy land.



However, as you probably know, it is only an illusion. First of all, flowers don't just float in the air. They have to be attached to branches. Which these are.




And second, what you would see aren't even flowers. They are the beautiful white bracts of Cornus florida, more commonly known as Flowering Dogwoods.

(A little creature was visiting the center of this one.)

I didn't plant these; they were here when I came. They are native to this area and there are many young seedlings in the woods. Imagine what it will be like when they, too, grow up and bloom.


Have a beautiful day!

One red tulip...

Lest you begin to think that I have only blue flowers right now, with with a few yellow flowers thrown in for contrast, let me reassure you. I do have this one red tulip. (By the way, my Tulip kaufmanniana has finished blooming.) Just to let you know, none of these photographs show the true color of the one red tulip. The first picture has too much blue tone to it and the others are too orange. It is just a plain red tulip.



But it is there more of its own accord than my plan. I actually did plant it, but that was about 5 years ago. The first fall we were here, I decided I would plant the traditional red tulips , which I never did in California, because it didn't get cold enough for them to do well, unless I put them in fridge first, which I didn't want to do. Anyhow, so I bought a package of red tulips (they were probably Darwin hybrids) and I planted them with a ring of daffodils around them. I read somewhere that the daffodils would deter the squirrels that would like to dig up the tulips to eat them.




That next spring, the red tulips dutifully bloomed. And then that was the end of that, which was what was to be expected. Except... this one tulip plant came up the next year. It didn't bloom, but it has come up every year since and then last year, it had a small bloom. But look at it this year! Pretty cool, huh? So, now you know that I do have more than just blue flowers.


Have a beautiful day!

Phlox divaricata...

I don't think it gets much better than this. Blue and fragrant... This was another one of those plants that attracted me because it was fragrant. Well, that, and blue. There is a picture of it in a previous post, but it has since filled out.




This Blue Phlox is planted at a corner of the east end of my house, but I have great plans to divide it and spread it throughout the hydrangea bed that I am planning to make under the laurel oak near the seating area I am going to build. I think it will be quite stunning to have vast amounts of clouds of fragrant, blue flowers in spring, inter-planted with, of course, large quantities of Muscari - another blue, fragrant flower.

(The spot of yellow is a Primrose that that blooms each spring.)

This morning, Julie picked a small bouquet of it for me. It is sitting on my vanity table, scenting my bedroom. Ah, the pleasures of fragrant ... and blue ... flowers.


Have a beautiful day!

Muscari, muscari...

So, I'm wondering... Is it possible to have too much Muscari?



Muscari and dandelion, er, I mean, Columbine...




Muscari and Forsythia...



Muscari and yellow Johnnies...




Nah.


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!

Double daffodils...

Today was Sandal Day. I know you thought it was April Fool's Day, but actually it was Sandal Day. It was the first time I wore sandals since last fall. O.K. Now that I have that out of the way, I will tell you about one of my plants. I found these coming up two or three years ago beside the road on which I live. Because no one cares what is there, except for maybe the grass that someone mows occasionally, I didn't think anyone would want them. So I dug them up and brought them home, rather than just letting them get mowed. I think it is like the reverse of guerrilla gardening - to take plants from an area no one is tending, as opposed to planting where no one is tending. It is an act of preservation, right?




At first I thought maybe I had discovered some new cultivar and that I would become famous and would receive unlimited royalties from the new flowers and would be able to buy all the plants I wanted. But, alas, it was only a double daffodil, which was nothing new, only strange. So, I think it is a good flower for April Fool's Day.


Have a beautiful day!