Just a few flower photos from today

Bleeding Hearts

When I returned from the airport, I raced outside to take a few photos of the flowers that were not in bloom before I left for NYC, on Friday morning. I had a special purpose for them, and that was to put them into a dedication post to my sister, Jane. To view it, go to MaineNaturePoetry.

Tulips

Daffodil

Mt Washington (White Mountains of New Hampshire)

I made a quick trip to New York City due to the unfortunate, and untimely death of my sweet sister, Jane. And, I think my sister was smiling down upon me, and cleared the clouds away so that I got to view Mt. Washington, from the airplane, for the first time. What a gorgeous mountain. Thanks, Sis, for being with me, and for lightening my heart for a few moments...

Lungwort (Pulmonaria)

I dedicate this beautiful plant to my loving sister.

I have many plants that were introduced to North America from other parts of the world. One of my favorite, most colorful, small flowering plants is Lungwort, or Pumonaria. This shade loving plant is native to Europe and western Asia. Its flowers are predominantly blue with a few pink blossoms sprinkled throughout. I get an incredible amount of joy seeing this plant throughout three of my gardens.

Many moons ago, herbalists thought that the leaves reminded them of a lung, hence the name. I have a few choice words for the leaves of this plant as their hairs cause me intense pain from contact dermatitis. I must always remember to wear garden gloves when working with them.

Native Plants

I love native plants. I try to find them at plant sales whenever possible. Here are a couple more that I have around the property.

Black Cohosh

Black Cohosh, or Bugbane, is a native, eastern North American perennial plant. It grows in woodlands, and likes shady areas.

Unfortunately, I planted it near the front of one of my semi-shade gardens, and I am finding that it is spreading out into my bulbs. I may have to dig as much of it up as I can and transplant it to the back of the garden...but then again, I do so enjoy its long, arching flower spikes. And, the bees like it too. It is somewhat of a late season flowering plant, so it provides the bees food when other plants have stopped flowering. Here you see one of the shoots just having sprouted up through the soil. It has a long way to go before it morphs into the plant I so love...

Trout Lily

One of my other favorite native plants is the trout lily. I have read that the spotted leaves bring one in mind of the side of a brook trout! Oh, how I do love the looks of brookies!

Trout Lily

These beautiful little bulbs bloom in late spring and go dormant by summer. I love the nodding, yellow flowers. They seem to enjoy the leading edges of my shade gardens. In order to promote abundant flowers, I must remember to fertilize them in early spring.

Trout Lily

Hummingbirds have arrived

The first ruby throated hummingbird of the season visited our feeder this morning. It was a male. Drew put the feeders out on May 2nd just in case they showed up early this year.

Tulips

I love tulips and these little beauties are some of my favorites. The buds will open tomorrow.

Stump garden

I am going to take photos of the main stump garden as it changes through the season. A set of photos once per week, or so, should suffice as that seems to be a good amount of time to allow for new flowers to appear, and for old ones to disappear. I'll take the photos from all four sides of the stump.

The poor old stump is rotting nicely. It was probably a red maple tree that was cut at least 20 years ago. It is adding some good mulch to the garden, bit by bit, as pieces of bark fall off. The amount of planting area on top is slowly being reduced in size.

A few spring flowers

Spanish Bluebells

 Gardening is my passion, as is photography. When I combine them together, I experience so much joy. This afternoon, I wandered around the yard for about an hour photographing some of my spring blooms. I find that they can brighten my spirits better than just about anything. Here are a few of my favorites, and there will be many more to come as the season unfolds... 

I planted some Spanish Bluebells last October, and they were among the first flowers to bloom this spring. I am especially enamored with the anthers (blue tips of the stamen.)

Bloodroot

Another early bloomer is the bloodroot. This is one of my favorite flowers and it is naturalizing throughout my gardens. I have beautiful groupings of bloodroot scattered hither and yon.

Trillium

And then, there is the trillium. I couldn't be more pleased with this native beauty. I originally had one white trillium and one red trillium plant. The white variety did not survive, but the red one is growing by leaps and bounds each year. I have it planted under some white pine trees, and it obviously thrives in acidic conditions.

Blackflies have arrived

Oooohhh....itchy, itchy, itchy....darned blackflies! They're back....

Just a bit of gardening on a warm, spring day...

Today was a most gorgeous day. The sun was shining, a light breeze was blowing, and the temperature reached 63F. I donned a pair of shorts for the first time this year!

Today was also a day to garden. I had 25 miniature gladiolus bulbs to plant, and I decided that if I wanted to be able to find them to pull up at the end of the season, that I had better put them in pots. Yup, you read it right, pots!

Off to The Home Depot we went to buy some pots, petunias, dianthus, and planting mix.

I put the pots on various stumps around the yard and planted the bulbs along with a few petunias in each pot as well. The glads will get to 20" tall, but won't bloom until mid to late summer. I figured it would look strange to have pots with gladiolus stalks and nothing else. We'll see how it goes this year.

I put five of the same colored glads in each pot. One in each corner, and one in the middle. I hope it doesn't look too funky as I am not the most artistic individual on the planet when it comes to gardening.