WHISPERS OF SPRING

16 Monday Feb 2015

Posted by backyardnotes in Blooming, Flowers, Gardening, Spring flowers, Winter flowers

Tags

double Narcissus, hellebores, Pink Cyclamen, plenty of sunshine, Spring, Spring flowers, WHISPERS, White Camelia, White Cyclamen, witch-hazel

FauxRoy

THERE ARE WHISPERS OF SPRING HERE EVERYWHERE I LOOK. While the eastern portion of the country is buried in snow, it definitely feels like spring here with 60 degree temperatures and plenty of sunshine. After unusually heavy rains a week or so ago, the ground is starting to dry out a bit.

Leaves, buds and flowers are bursting forth. Camelia, hellebores, crocus, cyclamen, witch hazel, pulmonaria, early tulips. Here is a little pictorial sampling of what’s happening in my little corner of the world.

HOORAY FOR HELLEBORES

28 Friday Feb 2014

Posted by backyardnotes in Flowers, Hellebores, Winter flowers

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Tags

HEAD-TURNING, hellebores, Helleborus orientalis, Lenten Rose, winter flowers

Looking to the sun

HARDY. HALE. HALTING. HANDSOME. HAPPENING. HAPPY. HARMONIOUS. HEAVENLY. HEAD-TURNING. HELLEBORES. They brighten the mid-winter landscape with their lovely, sometimes nodding, sometimes up-facing flowers. Most of the ones (orientalis) in my garden are old varieties that have freely crossed with one and another. I love the striped and speckled petals that look as though they were air brushed with color. Since it takes a few years for seedlings to grow to the point of flowering, I can’t know until then what cross-pollinating has created and the color variation that may have resulted. Most of the helleborus orientalis in my garden originated from a couple of plants brought home from Grandma T’s garden. The availability of color ranges of hellebores has increased dramatically in the past ten years and newer cultivars range from white and palest pink to darkest maroon-red, yellow and green. Helleborus orientalis are also known as Lenten Rose since they usually begin their bloom time sometime near Lent. Helleborus niger, which is generally white begins its bloom cycle in December. The flower shape is different as are the leaves, which are smooth, and un-toothed. Then there is helleborus argutifolius, helleborus foetidus, helleborus lividus, and about fifteen other species within the genus.

Hellebores are incredibly hardy plants. The flowers are long lived and are attractive even as the seed capsules form. They are good cutting flowers; their leaves, deeply lobed with toothed edges, hold up nicely through the summer, finally looking bedraggled about the time the blooms, on sturdy stems, rise and unfurl from the soil. Below are some of the hellebores now in bloom around here. I hope you enjoy them too.

RAIN, RAIN, HOW DO WE LOVE THEE?

22 Friday Feb 2013

Posted by backyardnotes in Flowers, Inspriation, Musings, Rain, Weather, Winter flowers

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

blogging, clematis, Early tulips, hamamelis, pear & apple trees, rain, winter, winter flowers, winter gloom

TODAY A BIG RAIN STORM IS MOVING IN after some pretty fair days. But no complaints considering the weather everywhere east of here. We even managed to get some general maintenance and weeding done over the past week or so.

Witchhazel, Hamamelis x intermedia

SOMETIMES WE NEED A BREAK from our routines. I needed a break from this blog. Keeping up on a regular basis was becoming a drag and I no longer felt that inner voice to be engaging. So I gave it and myself a rest. The busyness of the weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas seemed like a good excuse to ignore the beast. I spent time painting and creating; baking with my granddaughter, hanging out with family; having dinner with neighbors and generally enjoying the hustle and warmth of the holidays. After the holidays were over it was time to take a break from the monotony of long, gray, days here in the Pacific Northwest by spending 14 days in Death Valley National Park. And now with winter flowers popping and some early spring ones too, I’m back to feeling like I still have some thoughts and pictures worth sharing.

A lovely winter blooming clematis on a clear day

This clematis cirrhosa blooms continuously from November to March when little else relieves winter gloom.

Nothing lightens the spirit like the first crocus on a sunny winter day.

A red blooming hamamelis in the warm glow of a setting sun.

The earliest tulip has just pushed up over the past week

Silhouette of pear and apple trees at sunset. Hooray! The sun is now setting closer to 6:00 p.m.

A WINTER BLOOMING CLEMATIS

03 Monday Jan 2011

Posted by backyardnotes in Winter flowers

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WE FOUND clematis cirrhosa ‘Ourika Valley’ last summer at Swanson’s Nursery; it seemed a novelty, but it is blooming despite the daily sub-freezing temperatures. I had nearly forgotten about it until today when I stepped to the edge of the lawn to snap a photo of the snowy Olympic Mountains–and there were two flowers, radiant in the sunshine. One of our daughters gave me an old card rack and it just sat around the potting table area rusting until Tom came up with the idea to use it as a trellis! This clematis should grow ten to twelve feet, so it can cover the rack over time. Curiously, the actual flowers and the photo on the tag do not correspond; the tags shows lime-yellow flowers!

Since I nearly missed the clematis flowering, I thought I should walk around to see what else might catch my eye.

Sunlight catches the lichens and leaf buds of the flowering red currant.

This weeping Japanese Black Pine that really gets to show off its form during the fall and winter months when all the herbaceous plants that surround it are dormant. We found this at a tree nursery out in Redmond (next to Bamboo Gardens of Washington and no longer there) that specialized in rare, unusual and species size trees. We planted it about thirteen years ago and it hangs over my soon-to-be renovated pond. The chickadees find it an especially attractive perch and I can view them both from my office window.

A quick check into the coldframe to see how the echeverias and other cactus are faring so far this winter. So far, so good.

I think that even the abutilon will make it. Still has a green leaf or two hanging on. I’ll keep my fingers crossed.

DECEMBER CATCH-UP

27 Monday Dec 2010

Posted by backyardnotes in Art, Birds, December, Garden Wildlife, Winter, Winter flowers

≈ 2 Comments

HARD TO BELIEVE NEARLY A MONTH HAS PASSED since the last post, but December days seem to pass all too quickly and each day was filled with things to do as December 24th approached. Two days before the first day of winter we had a glorious sun filled day and stunning views of newly fallen snow in the Olympic Mountains to the west; an uplifting break from lots of rainy days. I even did some weeding and cold damage cleanup.

The first day of winter here revealed a beautiful full moon that set as the daylight grudgingly began around 7:30 a.m. Not the greatest photo, but kind of neat with Christmas lights on the fruit trees.

By moving the camera quickly I caught a more abstract composition of the moon and lights.

Plants continue to grow and show through the winter. The witch hazel, hamamelis x intermedia ‘Diane’ has begun blooming in the chill of December.

The fava bean plants, are growing nicely in spite of our coldsnap last month, as are some volunteer heads of raddichio ‘Castelfranco’, savoy cabbage, brussels sprouts and turnips. The broccoli plants really took a hit, so no more broccoli the rest of the winter.

ART CLASS finished up the second week of December and I finished a collage piece (below) in response to a poem received ( I also submitted a separate collage piece for the poetry class student) as a part of the annual Art/Poetry Show at South Seattle Community College. It is a collaboration between students in Poetry, Art and Photography classes. Students submit art and poetry and then create responses to those submissions. It is fun, creative and challenging. The show opens January 3, 2011.

AS DECEMBER wound down to Christmas Day I said so long to many jars of of jams, preserves, and pickles and little takeout cartons filled with cookies (decorated with art cut from Christmas cards received last year; thanks to Renée for the photo).

A FEW WEEKS AGO I hung up a suet feeder outside my office window for the flock of bushtits that pass through here twice a day. They were here this afternoon and mobbed the feeder; there are as many as twenty or more at times. They tiny, charming, and great consumers of insects (good!). It is also a treat for the Red-shafted flickers too.