sprig to twig

I try not to repeat myself from one year to the next with my bloom day photos, but the ‘Casa Blanca’ lilies refuse to be overlooked.

The bulbs I transplanted in the fall did not grow as tall as those left in place, but I like the way the structure of the leaves stands out against the dark background in the new location.

Roses are not really my thing, but ‘Just Joey’ stole my heart with his maroon early growth, easy going style and subtle perfume.

The new Dahlia, ‘Cheyenne’, picked up at Janet’s sale, is dazzling in the hot border.

The bloom on the Castor Bean plant is an unusual, fuzzy affair.

Most sedums are purely foliage plants in my book, but this one, which is usually the same color as the ninebark in back of the pot, suddenly lays a fluffy pink carpet at its feet and echoes the fading colors of the drumstick alliums off to the right (behind the ‘Gold Cone’ evergreen).

These paler pink sedums are still looking OK, but you can begin to see how they turn brown and must be cut back to reveal the variegated foliage.

Then there is ‘Angelique’, the sedum whose foliage is a golden glory…but the flowers? why? I say “Off with their heads! As quickly as possible!”

But I’m sorry. This is supposed to be a celebration of bloom, so here is a bloom worth celebrating. It hangs in my studio most of the time, and puts forth one blossom at a time, sporadically.

I moved it to the deck for its summer vacation, and looky here! A veritable bevy of buds are preparing to present us with a big ‘Thank you!” for our consideration.

Now, here’s the link to take you over to visit Carol and gain passage to a world full of blooms. Have fun!

These drumstick alliums are new this year, and they colored up just in time for Bloom Day.

The other Allium that is new this year is ‘Hair’. I am cheating a bit by using a photo taken when it was at its peak, but, like all of its cousins, it dries in place, so that all that really changes is the color.

The Hydrangea quercifolia is all about foliage, but the blossoms peeking through add interest.

Hemerocallis ‘Still Life’ is ready for her close-up.

Now that I have found the formula to deter deer, Rosa ‘Dortmund’ is putting on a good spurt of growth.

Can’t get too upset with creatures as lovely as this…and they now satisfy their rumbling tummies with dandelion greens.

Here’s another beneficiary of the deer bomb. Hydrangea ‘Preziosa’, blooming for the first time, with variations from cream to deep mauve on the same plant. I especially like the dark wine stems.

The blossoms are a delightful afterthought on the ground cover Hypericum ‘Brigadoon’. The plant tag suggested full sun, but it is happier now that it is getting shade (tends to sunburn).

The hornbeam that is generating that shade was one of the first things planted in this garden. I like this photo because it shows the deeply pleated leaves as well as the hop-like things that have begun to appear in late spring and hold on til late fall. I guess they qualify as blooms(?)

There are many other plants in bloom, but rather than trot them all out, I will direct you to May Dreams Gardens, where you can step into a whole world of blooming things on this Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day.

The roadsides are crazy quilts of wildflowers these days.

With meager photographic skills and equipment, it is impossible to capture the magic of a bank of grasses punctuated by foxgloves.

All I can do is share my best efforts and let your imagination take it from there.

Wild lupine share none of the diva-like qualities of their hybridized relatives.

So lovely, and without a bit of effort on the part of humans…as far as I can tell. We had a picnic up the Columbia River Gorge on the one beautiful weekend day in recent history. We were marveling over the fabulous sprinkling of wildflowers, most of which would be attacked with gusto if they dared to show up in the “cultivated” landscape.

Plenty going on in my garden, too, but with the rain and gloom, I decided to dip into pictures taken in the few breaks in the weather. They just happen to have all taken place on the road. Carol will put you in touch with world-wide gardeners and their blooms. Don’t miss it.

Barberries were foliage plants as far as I was concerned. The B thunbergii purpurea serve that purpose well, but now I am getting dainty little flowers as a bonus.

A trip to Dancing Oaks Nursery opened my eyes to new possibilities, and I came away with two new barberries. B replicata has narrow, reddish-purple leaves, and is, at present, festooned with many clusters of golden-to-orange blossoms. Plus, it is evergreen and thorny enough that the deer won’t touch it. My other newbie is still working up to blooming, so maybe next time.

Forget-me-not, Myosotis scorpioedes is just getting started. I tend to like most things best in these early stages. The blue haze these will become later on is pretty spectacular though.

The first of the iris to bloom are these short ones. I divided them and moved some into beds closer to the house, but the only ones blooming are these out by the fence line.

Don’t you just love it when volunteers place themselves right where you would choose to have them? I think we will eventually have almost a grove of Ribes.

The flowers on Poncirus trifoliata ‘Flying Dragon’ frost the seriously thorny bush before it leafs out.

And finally, my tulip bed is looking much better…but that is a story for another day. I will just leave you with this image of ‘Fire Queen’, and encourage you to mosey on over to May Dreams Gardens to browse through the world’s April blooms.

Loree, over at Danger Garden just asked if I would recommend taking the trek to Dancing Oaks. My answer is an enthusiastic yes. Here is my account of our last trip. Come to think of it, I think it is about time to plan another expedition.

We’ll start off with a first timer: Rhododendron ‘Janet’. She has taken a couple of years to settle in, and now is leading the way as the first of the Rhody’s to bloom.

More like an azalea, this unnamed variety from the big box store is blooming in its first year in the ground.

Several clumps of grape hyacinths have sprung up, unbidden, here and there. I like them so much that…

…they were included in fall’s bulb order.

Forsythia can turn into a big yellow blob in the landscape, but I like it now, when it is still trying to gain a foothold and is flowering sparsely and delicately.

A sprinkling of Anemones covers the ground.

Much as I love all the exotic new plant material, the old-fashioned bleeding hearts capture my heart every spring.

While others have been admiring their Hellebores for some time, mine are just coming into their own.

All of the Euphorbias are putting out their acid green bracts just in time for St. Patrick’s Day bouquets. I hope ‘Blackbird’ is not reverting to green. It seems to have more green than its trademark dark foliage and butchery would be required to get back to only the desired color (not sure I’m up to it).

E wulfenii always puts on a good show. I usually go for close-ups, but this way you get an idea of the size.

I’m going to leave it at that this time. As the season unfolds we must be more selective or risk boring our audience…not like the last few months, when we had to scrounge around to find anything resembling a bloom, inside or out. The whole world seems to be bursting out in blossoms nowadays. If you would like to soak up some of that, scoot on over to May Dreams Gardens for the magic portal to world-wide gardening.

I seem to detect a note of desperation in the search for blossoms among bloggers this month. These snowdrops are singing their swan song, and like anything that’s been around for a while, one must get down on all fours to appreciate them (unless, I guess, you have great drifts of them…i do not).

The violets are just beginning. This is the commonest, and my favorite scent: Viola odorata, a shovelful of which came to my garden from my mom’s many years ago and has claimed space in every shady nook and cranny in two subsequent gardens.

Out under the sweetheart trees (see yesterday’s post) a carpet of white violets went unnoticed by me until joining in Carol’s Bloom Day project. Thanks again to Carol for opening eyes to hidden treasures.

They are sparse now, but soon there will be swathes of them. Here, again, it was necessary to get down for a worm’s eye view. Am I soggy and muddy? Guess. Was it worth it? You bet!

Still crawling around to get this shot of ‘Diane’. She has put on nice spurts of new growth each year, so I think by next year she will be tall enough to make a real impression on her own, without the camera tricks for giving a starlet presence.

About the time my back threatened to revolt over the permanent stoop, here came Euphorbia wulfenii doing its thing right at eye level. It is still getting into character before straightening up and unfurling its full glory, but I like it almost best at this stage…so full of promise…very like February itself.

Here it is! The one thing blooming outside right now.

Once all the Christmas razzle dazzle gets put away, the racks in front of our one-stop shopping center fill up with cheery primroses. I can never resist picking up a few to brighten the entryway deck. Once other things displace them, they go into the ground in the woodland. The white ones are most satisfying. The blues and pinks kind of disappear against the dark background of the forest duff, but the white sparkles and seems more vigorous as well. These began blooming as soon as the snow melted.

The dahlias soldiered on even through torrential rains, but even they were no match for the cold snap we just went through. For that reason, we Portlanders must look elsewhere for the beauty of the season.

The rains have returned with a vengeance, but this morning there was fog to act as a backdrop to the raindrops shimmering in branches and leaves.

This gnarly old apple tree silhouetted against the fog looks like a setting for the “Twilight” series.

The Euphorbias are bouncing back, especially this ‘Persian Velvet’, which captures raindrops for display.

The birch trees are filled with cute, dangling catkins.

The catkins on the wild hazels are a soft, creamy yellow.

I suspect the cold snap can take a bow for turning the Nandina nitida these fiery shades for the first time in its life.

Grasses have colored up too.

The black mondo grass has managed to hold on to its delightfully sinister berries.

Everywhere, there is the promise of things to come.

The bottle bed sparkles in the woodland no matter what the weather Gods throw at us. With little competition, this is their time to dazzle.

May Dreams Gardens is the place to go to see gardeners from all over the world chronicling December in their gardens.

If it weren’t for Carol, over at May Dreams Gardens, I’m not sure I would be out there between cloudbursts looking for lingering signs of life. Lo and behold, a few hardy souls are still pumping out flowers

Like this sedum.

The blossoms on Persicaria ‘Purple Shield’ go unnoticed most of their long blooming season. Now their “last man standing” status casts them in a new light.

While ‘Percy’s Pride’ outperforms all of the other kniphs. It manages to look fresh even while the downpours have taken the starch out of most of the remaining flowers in the garden.

It pays to look elsewhere for the late season drama:

The smoke tree turns many shades of red, russet and bronze.

A close-up reveals the modulation in a single leaf (love that thin line of bright red edging on a maroon leaf)

Spent blossoms leave behind these bracts (anyone know the exact terminology for them?) on the Hepatacodium miconoides.

Plain old barberry has a brilliant final act, paired with the skeletons of globe thistles

The same barberry bursts with bright red berries (or are they drupes?).

As does the beautyberry.

Rosa ‘Dortmund’ produces a nice crop of hips. If they weren’t so pretty, I might try making jelly…perhaps when there are more of them.

Out along the front fence, where we are encouraging a mixed hedgerow, several of these unidentified shrubs have volunteered.

Nice leaf form and pretty berries make them more than welcome.

If you are frustrated by winter scarcity, links over on Carol’s site can take you to tropical climes, or anywhere anyone gardens.

Fuchsia ‘President’ comes along late. Our food writer in Homes and Gardens did a story on fuchsia jam made from the flowers and the berries left behind once the petals drop. I would need a whole lot more fuchsias before I could tackle such a task. At the beach, the fuchsia outside the door had produced quite a crop of the dangling, deep purple berries. They have a very delicate flavor…kind of interesting, but probably not worth the trouble.

Asters look so pretty in some people’s gardens, and floppy and scraggly in others. These grow out along the fence line where I put anything I’m not quite ready to commit to.

This white aster does light up a shady spot, and does a good job of extending the season.

Shizostylus comes along at a good time, too.

The dahlias are unstoppable right up until the first hard frost.

And so are the coleus.

But my favorites of the season are the grasses. Some of mine have begun to seed around, so I moved them to the woodland’s edge, where I love the way they catch the light against the dark background.