Thursday, March 21, 2019

Sprouty!

I am loving the amazing spring weather we have enjoyed for the past week. Everything in the garden is hurtling headlong into leaf and flower and making me very happy as I watch my garden emerge from winter.

I know the fluff of new growth above is Dodecatheon dentatum, and the one below is D. hendersonii. But I'm occasionally confused as I see a new living thing emerging from the ground that my memory won't dredge up.



For example, this one will remain a mystery until it opens enough for me to identify. It looks like a good one!
Here's what was billed as an annual and it's coming back: Plantago major 'Rubrifolium'.  I expect my lax deadheading of it last summer will result in a few volunteers, as well.
I asked for Facebook help IDing the first image below last week, without success. Thank you to those of you who tried hard to suggest a name: the second image shows leaves open enough today to remind me that it's Jeffersonia diphylla.
It's time to get out the Sluggo, as Dianthus 'Green Ball is making a comeback. This is another plant I expected to be an annual only.
Athyrium niponicum pictum, showing just one fiddlehead so far.

Here's a cute one I'm happy to see again: an orange Eremuris .
Chasmanthium latifolium blades emerging in the spring sunlight.
The fresh, burgundy-colored new foliage of Beesia deltophylla.
And finally, here are the very best sprouts around. These shaggy-headed little stalks are a Syneilesis hybrid, probably S. aconitifolium x palmata.
Here's to delightful Spring sproutiness all over the garden!






Friday, March 15, 2019

Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day - March 2019

After a cold February and early March, it finally feels like spring has arrived. The garden is slowly waking up and looking happier.

I have been happier, too. I enjoyed the most recent three days in the garden raking bushels and bushels of leaves out of the beds. And I have about four times as many leaves to go yet. I wish they were compostable for leaf mulch, but the majority are pin oak leaves. They are like leather.
But on to Bloom Day!

A few spring harbingers are flowering at Longview Ranch this month, like these Tete a Tete daffodils, that stubbornly refuse to face the path.

Camellia sasanqua 'Yuletide' has the holidays all wrong this year. It seems to want to celebrate St. Patrick's Day.

The barrels of rosemary have been quietly flowering for several weeks, and I even saw our resident Anna's hummingbird sample them a few days ago.


Our hummingbird is also feeding from Arctostaphylos 'Austin Griffith' as it continues happily blooming this month.

Camellia transnokoensis has begun blooming with its little white flowers. I think the colder weather, or maybe rain, is responsible for the browned edges; the flowers are usually pure white.

Azara microphylla has blossoms so tiny that my phone camera can hardly capture them. The flowers are supposed to have a scent, but I can't detect it.
Now these flowers I can smell! Sarccocca hookeriana var. humilis is late this year, but it seems determined to make up for lost time.

Bloom Day is hosted monthly on the 15th by Carol, at May Dreams Gardens. Check out her post and the links, to see what else is blooming all over.

Happy Bloom Day!