Posted by wilde on April 18th, 2006 — Posted in Animal, Mineral, Vegetable
Looks like we’ll be lucky this year and experience two Spring bloomings! Vacationing in North Carolina last week we saw dogwoods, azaleas, lilacs, oxalis, violets, buttercups, wild strawberries and vincas in full bloom. The timing was too early for the garden roses, although there were buds present, and we were just in time to see the first garden iris bloom.
This beautiful iris just opened to greet the sunrise.
On our next trip to North Carolina I’ll get a cutting of this gorgeous Formosa azalea — its blossoms are probably two to three times the size of a typical azalea bloom.
Beautiful Formosa azalea practically shouted — It’s Spring!
A wildflower that caught my eye was the Star-of-Bethlehem which appeared in the lawn. The white blossoms contrast nicely with its bright yellow stamens. It has a habit much like the oxalis in that its blooms open in the sunlight and close without the sun. It took until about noontime on a sunny day for the blooms to fully open. The Star-of-Bethlehem has basal leaves that are entire and have a pale midrib. The white petals have a distinctive green stripe on the backside.
The white blossoms of Star-of-Bethlehem open only in the sunshine.
We stayed with friends on our vacation to collect marine fossils from sediments that date back to over one million years. Their very affectionate cat, Squeaky, found a great place to soak up the morning sun as he lay near the pink azaleas in full bloom.
Squeaky soaks up the sun!
We had a fantastic time on our trip and can’t wait to repeat it. During the recuperative days when we were not crawling around on our hands and knees looking for fossils, we enjoyed our time visiting with our friends and watching the hummingbirds chase each other from the sugar water feeders. The plentiful flowers attracted many swallowtail butterflies like this female on a lilac blossom.
A female swallowtail butterfly sipping nectar from a lilac.
Thanks to Pat and Ken for a fantastic vacation! See you again real soon!!
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Posted by wilde on April 11th, 2006 — Posted in Vegetable
For the past week or so I have been watching the maple trees awake from their winter slumber. For a long time I never considered trees very much or even thought about how they propagate themselves. Who knew that trees flower? Of course the beautiful ornamental trees like crabapples or the fruit trees like apples and peaches flower — how else would they provide their fruits? And the regular old trees of the forest? They blossom, too, as many allergy sufferers can tell you. The tree pollen is in the air here and the earliest culprit seems to be the maples.
This maple tree has been blooming for more than a week.
We should have planted this beautiful star magnolia nearer to the house so we could smell the sweet blossoms through an open window.
A beautiful star magnolia in full bloom.
On Friday I walked around the property and finally spotted my favorite flower in bloom — the round-leaved hepatica. A member of the buttercup family, hepatica appears in Pennsylvanian woodlands before the trees produce their leaves. For a couple weeks I have spotted the waxy leaves that over-winter under the cover of oak leaves. After a rain on Thursday the blossoms appeared the next day. It has been very dry this winter and spring. Only four blossoms have been seen. So far, I have only seen hepatica on the upper part of a west-facing slope near the big stand of hemlock trees. Last year there were at least 11 individual plants in this area and they produced many more blossoms that what I have seen this year.
Round-leaved hepatica in bloom.
A single grape hyacinth plant returned from last year’s planting. Since there are so many squirrels and chipmunks in the area, I guess we should be glad to see any bulbs make it from one year to the next.
Grape hyacinth showing off its grape-like, deep purple flowers.
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Posted by wilde on April 5th, 2006 — Posted in Vegetable
I certainly did not think I would be sharing any winter-like photos in April! This morning we were surprised by about a half-inch of the stickiest snow I’ve ever seen. Every blade of grass was covered to the full extent by the wet snow that seemed on the verge of melting.
I do have to wonder about the health of the garden plants that are just sprouting out of the ground. Will they all survive the night’s cold snap? Surely, the little amount of snow won’t kill them — or will it? I was struck by the way the snow adhered to every surface this morning. Check out this little spruce tree with every square inch covered in white.
Perennials coming up in the gardens include spiderwort, clematis, hostas, french geranium, tiger lilies, hardy mum, butterfly bush, lamb’s ear, moss peony, purple coneflower, and blue false indigo. The maple trees are flowering and the buds of the top-most blooms of the star magnolia are opening up. The sassafras trees are not yet flowering, but their buds are getting bigger. The azalea bushes were greening up nicely and now are put on hold.
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