Hummingbird Moths

I enjoyed a visit from these humminbird moths the other night. I have had the pleasure of seeing them here and there, but never a cluster of 6-7 feeding at one time. They went from feeding at the weigela to the lilacs, back to the azalea and back to the weigela and lilacs. Very busy little guys. Fun!

My house cats enjoyed watching them, too!

Now, I can't wait for the hummingbirds! No sign og them yet, but I am ready!

Lilac Time

The early lilacs are at their peak fragrance right now. I can't walk around the yard without smelling them, and I'm pretty stuffed up, too. Most of the lilacs I have were planted before we moved in, and I don't know the different varieties. I have plans to eventually add a Wedgewood blue variety to the property, and also a dark purple early-blooming fragrant variety. This year, I also tried to "divide" some of my existing lilacs by digging up off-shoots with roots, and planting them elsewhere. So far, so good. I did not grow up with lilacs b/c they cannot survive in a zone 10 southern California climate, but I'm so glad my kids get to have them around. Lilacs come with such a history. On many of the streets in my town you can see lilac shrubs the size of small cottages or trees. Their fragrance is unmatched, and beauty, marvelous. Truly, I have a love-affair with this plant.

Appreciating the Pretties.

When life gets busy, I often run out of time to really get down and look at the flowers. I have to remind myself one of the most relaxing things I can do is grab my camera and go crawl around the grass and photograph things. The best time for this is just after sunrise, just before sunset, or on a cloudy windless day. The flowers will hold till for you, and the sun won't overwhelm their colors.

I found Erysimum 'Bowles Mauve' at the local Menard's, and on whiff was all it took for me to bring it home. The color is pretty awesome, too. I've read some reports that is only hardy to zone 7 (I'm in zone 4/5), but I have read other desciptions that is hardy to zone 4, but short lived. It was worth $4.50 to me, just to try.

Rhodedondron 'rosy lights' is beginning it's first bloom cycle in my garden. I found this mature shrub in a local big box store garden center. I looked down to see one of the 8 or so plants improperly labelled at $11.99; the proper price was $39.99. It rang up at 30% off the $11.99 price, making it less than $10 with tax. Talk about a good deal!

Geranium 'Johnson's Blue' is a favorite of mine.

My newest lilac is blooming for the first time. I joined the arbor day society 3 or 4 years ago and received my 10 free flowering trees or shrubs... this was one of them. It's take a long time to grow, but it's a pretty pale purple.

The promise of columbines, soon.

Chives like bubbles about to pop.

Lilacs purfuming the air.

This plant was one of dozens I picked up in a fill-a-flat sale at my local nursery. I'm pretty sure it's Basket-of-Gold, a.k.a. perennial alyssum? I'm so pleased with it's early blooms, and find it contrasts nicely with the lilacs just behind it.

Hope you enjoyed some of my early blooms. Wishing you all have tons of blooms in your gardens as well!

Happy Gardening!

A Few Blooms

I pulled in some more lilacs, and filled up this milk crate with them. I can smell them throughout the house. Delicious.

There are two types of allium here, globemaster and purple sensation. The taller ones are globemaster.

Here's purple sensation close up.

I put my hand in here so you can see how big the blooms are.

Passionflower has been blooming non-stop for a month now. They blooms never cease to captivate me.

Last, but not least, I have entered a friendly rose contest on Garden Buddies to simply see which rose will bloom first--for fun. At first, I entered Perfume Delight, but she croaked. I had entered her as an underdog, as she was the worst looking rose in the yard, and this week I decided she really was not going to grow. I have been allowed to enter this Cl. Pearly Gates in her place. Here's what she looks like now:

Hopefully she'll send up some buds with those leaves soon. Of course, pictures to come...

Have a great day everyone.

Allium, Lilacs, Columbine... Blooms!

The first of the existing columbines opened up today. Its a spring mix variety so each year they're a little different. This year they are pink, with yellow centers.

Last fall I went mad about alliums and planted several of them throughout the yard. I'm like a kid in a candy store with them opening this week.

I picked armloads of lilacs to bring in the house today. It smells so good in here, now! As long as my climate permits, I'll never live without lilacs again.

One more of the bleeding heart... just doesn't get old to me. LOL.

Happy gardening, to you all!

Frost Advisory

Please don't kill my plants...

At least once each spring I find myself covering my plants for a late frost advisory. Tonight weather forecasters projected we'd be down to 28F, but they've raised it to 31F last I checked. At any rate, I'm running about the back yard, scrambling to find vessels to cover my plants for one night. I would not reccommend anyone use this method for more than one or two nights, but it had worked for me in the past... I take the empty containers I save and re-use, flip em' over, and create a little warm spot for the plant to spend the night. Here are my tomatos:

Here are some of my roses (note: I'm almost ready to throw out the arborvitae... they have a few more weeks to impress me).

What's pretty now?

Nevertheless, there are a few beautiful thing in the garden right now. Here's Lamb's Ear, covered with water from an afternoon rain. About 2-3 weeks ago when I uncovered it from mulch it was quite beat-up, but now, it's wonderful.

This is my neighbors tree, a 1/3 of which hangs over the back of our yard. The tree is massive, I wouldn't know how to begin to describe the dimensions to you; I believe it's a Red Maple. The leaves are a dark eggplant purple all summer. I never bothered to get close-up to this beauty in the spring... would you just look at this? How could I have not noticed it makes these little flowers in the spring?

The hostas are all poking up, standing so orderly in neat little clumps all around the yard. The previous owner put a line of hostas encircling the house. I've since divided and divided and doubled the depth of the bed... and begun my own little hosta obsession.

Before I moved into this area of the country I never paid any mind to lilacs. You can't grow them where I grew up in southern california as they need winter to thrive. When we moved in to our house the previous owner had put in a dozen lilacs along the back property line. To say I fell in love is an understatement. These flowers are so beautiful and fragrant, I feel so lucky to have them in my yard. I've taken great care to learn to properly prune them, and this year seems to be paying off. Many of the early bloomers are forming buds. In about 2 weeks I think I"ll be showing vases full of them!

I am so excited to see this baby emerging. Last spring I took on growing lupines from seed. Usually when I grow a perennial from a seed packet I get 2-3 good plants from the packet that come back year after year. Several of the lupines are coming back strong. Not pictured here are dozens of bee balm plants I also grew from seed last spring... they are all strong now, too. A great year for seedling returns here.

Here's a more typical result of a seed packet for me: one lone survivng Maltese Cross. For a 99-cent seed packet I'll take one healthy plant happily.

Just incase all the growth dies in the frost tonight, here is my Morden Centennial rose, full of life, and ready to make some buds.


The radishes are coming...


This is what the sky looked like as I was out there taking pictures. A very pretty sunset.

My front bulbs bed looks a little silly. I expanded the bed in late fall, removing more grass. Before that I had planted bulbs. I could not fill the whole bed with bulbs b/c I hadn't put any plants in the rest of the bed yet. At any rate, here's the bulbs together, muscari and apricot-colored tulips, with bleeding heart, allium (not yet blooming) and snapdragons.

A close-up of the stunning bleeing heart. It still seems too early for this to bloom?


So much to come this week. I'll be putting in some more bare root roses, planting my annual seeds (zinnia and cosmos and more...), transplanting some of this years perennial seedlings, moving my containers out for good (they are all back in tonight!), and planting some more veggies and herbs. I am so excited! Deep breath. Check back soon.