The Thrill Of Spring Flowers

For me early spring ephemerals in the garden  are an exciting waiting game.  Some of my favorite plants look mostly dead or missing.   This year with all of the rodent tunnels the possibility of them being gone for good is a bigger concern.  This delightful blue carpet of Giant Glory of the Snow makes me almost giddy! The flower stems are 4-6 inches tall.  Someday I will cut one and bring it indoors, but I really like them where they are.

 

I adore blue flowers and this Siberian squill  hiding in the grass made me get down to get a close up of its blue pollen.  The flowers are like tiny little blue stars growing here and there in the grass.  The original bed where these were planted became overgrown with tall grass.  The survivors are right next to the old bed where Ed keeps the grass cut. 

The first Windflower opened today. These are planted where I can watch them dance in the wind from  my bedroom window on chilly mornings.  While they last they are a special treat.

I gave the windflowers an encore because I could not choose between the pictures. The dark pink bud will be coming right along.  The soft grey leaves are a nearby Rose Campion that will bloom after the windflowers are gone except for the stone marking their place.

Ed and I have become very interested in Native plants.  I have been watching and waiting for the arrival of these Sharp-lobed Hepatica flowers.  Most years last year's leaves remain but this year they did not. That was worrisome.  It is a real joy to see these flowers.  I know my plants will return if they can.  They want to grow and are just waiting for their chance in the rain and the sun.  Spring is a wonderful time in the garden. This is just the beginning!

April Flowers

These flowers look like Chrysanthemums wildly out of season.  Their name, Grecian Wind Flower, identifies them as anything but a native flower.  These plants like it hot and dry so we placed them in front of the south facing house wall.  Their source was a mail order operation and the tiny scrap of a plant delivered here appears to find its new home satisfactory to its needs.  We hope that it continues to expand creating a beautiful ground cover.

This import from Turkey is named Glory of the Snow.  Actually we purchased both the regular form and giants.  Since this plant is self planted it may well be a cross of the two varieties.  Its blossom color is far more intense that our picture shows.  Our point and shoot camera does not handle bright colors well.  Still, any plant near our stone walls creates an impressive appearance.

There is a native Wood anemone but this may not be it.  Ours have rounded petal tips while the native version's petals end in a sharp point.  We have had this plant for so long that we cannot recall its original source.  Not snobbish by nature, we have included this plant in our developing shade garden.  Many of the favored plants placed there completely disappear by summer.  We intend to allow this plant to take and hold large sections of our garden where Trilliums and similar plants can have their day above the low green leaves of Wood anemone.

We first encountered Siberian squill when driving to our then newly purchased retirement land.  An area near a small barn that no longer housed cows was covered with these flowers.  Buy them we did and they were placed in a garden that we have since lost to the grasses.  Many of these plants escaped into the lawn where we can still admire them.  Their new location only requires that we watch where we are walking.

These white flower buds were formed as darkly colored tiny tight buds last Fall.  One of this plant's names is Mayflower since it is reported to be the first plant to flower where the Pilgrim's ship made landfall.  Arbutus is another name for this plant.  Reported to be impossible to transplant, these plants exist in contradiction to that still widely held belief.  As an evergreen, many animals eat it as disappearing snow reveals its tasty leaves.  All of my plantings are under wire cages and that is why they have survived.  It is possible that these deliciously scented flowers will open in late April.  Then the wire cages will be moved aside so that we can drink in the sweet scent of these ground hugging flowers.  Some insect has been eating these leaves or perhaps chipmunks eat an occasional salad.  These are native wild plants and there is a limit to how far we can go to protect them.