Aquilegia (Columbine)

We have a fair amount of columbine in our garden, scattered around in various places and even in containers. Most of it looks like this, dark red tending ever so slightly towards purple, with white around the edges. We have on that is pink and one that is almost blue and I’m quite happy for the variety. We really do need to get more colors, since they are available.

This is growing in the back corner of the yard, near the Lenten rose and epimedium.

Rosa multiflora

Cathy and I took a walk early this afternoon. The multiflora roses are starting to bloom, so I took a few pictures (sorry, it’s that or a disgusting deer skull, I’m afraid). As most of my friends know, I’m a fan of roses, but R. multiflora can certainly be a pest. It is a strong, vigorous grower and doesn’t seem to be bothered by many of the ailments that are so much trouble in the garden — blackspot and rust, to name a couple. The flowers are also very small and generally pure white, and of course, they only bloom once a season. But they are still quite pretty little things, when they aren’t your responsibility to get rid of.

Spanish Bluebells and Forget-Me-Nots

I didn’t exactly promise that I’d post a picture of the Spanish bluebells (Hyacinthoides hispanica) the other day, when I put up a picture of Lily of the Valley and Forget-Me-Not, but I sort of mentioned it. They are almost finished now, but there are a few holding on still and I took some pictures today. So, here are the Spanish bluebells, which are actually more closely related to hyacinths than to our native Virginia bluebells, along with the Forget-Me-Nots. These are growing in our shade garden, under a dying cherry tree on the north end of our front yard. I’ve planted an apple tree near this, so hopefully by the time the cherry finishes dying, there will be something big enough to replace it.

Chives

I have a small, rectangular container filled with chives and it comes up each year, happy as ever. Every year I take pictures of the chive flowers but try to get something new, but they really don’t vary very much. So, this year I tried to make it look more like a small section of a field of chives.

One nice thing about having a container of chives is going out with a pair of scissors and cutting a small bunch to add to dinner. I also like cutting a flower head and chopping that up as a garnish. It adds both flavour and colour to a dish. We have a friend who is a little unnerved by flowers in food, but in this case, it really is a good thing. Little pale, purple, and slightly oniony bits floating on soup, sprinkled over a juicy piece of grilled steak, or on a fresh salad adds a wonderful touch.

Try it, you may like it.

Red Rhododendron

We don’t have any rhododendrons in our yard. Well, we have azaleas, which are in the same genus, but we don’t have any proper rhododendrons. This one, though, is next to our neighbor’s house, on the side facing ours, so we get the benefit of it.

One reason I don’t have any is because I cannot decide what color to get. I do love these red flowers, but some of the paler colors are nice, also. There are even a few with yellow flowers and that might be nice. I know I don’t have enough room for more than a few, so I need to decide.

Rose ‘Roseraie De l’Hay’

Most of my roses are a long way from blooming at this point. Like with the bulbs earlier in the spring, we’re at least two weeks behind last year in that regard. One rose, however, the rugosa ‘Roseraie De l’Hay’ is starting to open up. This rose has gotten quite large, about seven feet tall and just about as much across. The flowers, as you can see, are a crimson purple mix. They are very large, about five inches across, and have that wonderful, strong scent so typical of rugosa roses. It’s also a great shrub for birds, because it is so thorny that pretty much nothing of any size can get to them when they are in its branches.

Lily of the Valley and Forget Me Not

I try not to post similar pictures on consecutive days. In fact, I try not to post similar pictures even within a week or two. Sometime, though, I’ll take a picture that I like and then take a similar picture in the next day or two that I like enough more (or enough, anyway) that I decide to post it regardless. This is such a post.

Yesterday’s picture was of a few lily of the valley flowers, looking up at them from a very low angle. This afternoon I decided to take some pictures of the Spanish bluebells (Hyacinthoides hispanica) in the shade garden on the north side of your yard. mixed in with them, however, are some lily of the valley and some forget me nots. I think they go well together. Don’t you?

For those who want a picture of Spanish bluebells, I’ll see what I can do, but not today.

Lily of the Valley (Convallaria majalis)

It’s lily of the valley time, which is certainly a pretty time of year. Buying this pretty little plant can be quite expensive, and while a little will spread and go a long way, it takes a while to get established. We were fortunate in two ways. First, we knew of a house that had been condemned and was to be torn down for a road widening project. We got permission from the owner to take whatever we wanted from her garden, before it was gone. That included a huge amount of lily of the valley. Then, when we moved to our new house a few years later, we found a reasonably large patch already established in one area of the back yard.

One difficulty in taking pictures of lily of the valley (Convallaria majalis) is getting them from a different angle. Most of you know that getting down on the ground doesn’t bother me in the least. But I wanted to get lower still, down far enough that I could look up at the blooms of this little beauty. With a macro lens on the camera, getting down far enough to still have room to focus was the real trick, but I think I’ve accomplished it here. So, an mole’s eye view of lily of the valley flowers.

Yellow Archangel (Lamium galeobdolon)

In the area that used to be under the big tree in our back yard there are a few things growing. The tree is gone and we’ll probably change some of the plants, moving them to shadier spots if necessary. I also plan to put a few roses there, now that it’s got a good bit of sun. One of the more successful plants there is yellow archangel (Lamium galeobdolon), a member of the mint family (Lamiaceae). It is considered by some to be an invasive species, although we haven’t found it nearly so problematic as a few other things in our yard. It makes a nice ground cover, although it isn’t evergreen, so it doesn’t do the job year round. It is under a foot tall and, as you can see, has yellow flowers right about now.