Flowers and Plants

Phlox

It was supposed to rain today but I didn’t see any where I was. We could actually use some, as it’s starting to get a bit dry. Nothing like it will be in August, of course, but it’s April, after all, it’s supposed to rain. I took some pictures of a wild azalea this afternoon. It’s growing on the side of the road on my commute and I pulled off the road and took the pictures through the open passenger side window. Then, when I got home I took some pictures in the back yard. This is a phlox that Cathy picked up somewhere and which has just started to bloom. I kind of like this angle, looking at the flowers from the side.

Garlic Mustard (Alliaria petiolata)

Toward the end of my work day I went outside for a little while to take pictures. Lots of plants are growing and weeds, in particular, are coming up strongly. The woods beside my building is a good place for weeds, considering that’s most of what’s growing there. Garlic mustard, (Alliaria petiolata) is a biennial in the Mustard family, Brassicaceae. It is very common and invasive weed in our area, being native to Europe, Asia, and northwestern Africa. It’s a vigorous plant and quite successful here. The leaves and stems all exude an oniony or garlicy smell, which gives it the common name I know it by (there are others). Anyway, as annoying as it is as a weed, it’s still a pretty plant with pretty little white flowers.

Flowering Dogwood (Cornus florida)

The dogwood in our yard are starting to bloom. The flowers are still small and there are a lot more to come bit I got a few nice pictures of some this afternoon when I got home from work. This is the native and very common flowering dogwood (Cornus florida), of course. I’m hoping to have another of the dogwood species, the European cornel (Cornus mas), once I make room for it. I have a nearly dead Colorado blue spruce that I need to cut down and I’m hoping to get that done on Saturday. Then I’ll dig up a cornel tree that’s growing next to the driveway at my mom’s and plant it there. At least that’s the plan but we’ll have to see if it actually happens. It’s a busy time of year.

Daffodil Pollen

I’ve been playing around with a microscope the last few days. Today I rubbed a little pollen from a daffodil onto a slide and looked at it under three different objective lenses: 10x, 40x, and 100x. The photograph here is with the highest magnification and although it isn’t the sharpest thing in the world, you can still see what the pollen looks like pretty well. I’m still learning about all the adjustments that can and should be made on this microscope and hope to have some better pictures for you in the days to come. They are about 45µm long, which isn’t particularly small when it comes to pollen, but still, small in a general sense. I’m hoping to get some oak pollen next.

Maple Samaras

Spring is in the air. It was cool and wet yesterday, with heavy rain all morning and showers and wing in the afternoon. Today was cool and dry with a fair amount of breeze. The forecast is for a freeze overnight and the possibility of snow tomorrow. Not snow that accumulates on the ground, but snow or at the least freezing rain. But it’s spring and that’s what spring looks like in the mid-Atlantic region. One day it will be in the mid 70s, the next night we can have a hard frost. Some days the sky is a wonderful, cheerful blue, others it’s grey and dreary. But that’s spring. I love spring.

Daffodils After The Rain

This is a daffodil called ‘Falconet’ (division 8, Tazetta). I have a bunch of them growing around the eastern edge of the bed under our Colorado spruce (on the side towards the road). The spruce isn’t doing very well and probably needs to be taken out and replaced with something else. But the daffodils and other things growing under it are doing pretty well. We had a fair amount of rain today. That didn’t bother me too much but a bunch of my coworkers were heading to the National’s home opener and the weather could have been a lot better for them. But that’s the way it goes in early April.

Helleborus ‘Mango Magic’

The fall before last I planted five Lenten rose (Helleborus) plants in three different varieties. One of them is a variety called ‘Mango Magic’ and that’s what this flower is. The other two are called ‘Rose Quarts’, and ‘Red Racer’ and I planted two each of those two. This one is doing the best of them, though, having bloomed last year as well. It’s still small but these things are incredibly hardy and will eventually get themselves set for the long haul. They were bought as quite small plants from McClure and Zimmerman: http://www.mzbulb.com/.

Flowering Almond

We have this little shrub by the top of our driveway. It is a dwarf flowering almond, Prunus glandulosa and it blooms reliably and beautifully each spring. I sort of expected it to get larger but it dies back a bit in cold winters and we’ve had a couple of them lately. That’s a bit surprising, as it is listed as being hardy to zone 3, but there you are. This past winter wasn’t particularly cold, so maybe this will be its year. The flowers are small, only about a half inch across, but are jammed with petals of a lovely pink.

Muscari

I’ve planted quite a few little Muscari bulbs over the nine years we’ve lived in this house and many of them are in full bloom right now. This one, I’m pretty sure I didn’t plant. It’s growing in our lawn in the back yard, about eight feet from the nearest flower bed and at least 20 feet from the nearest Muscari that I planted.

Because I assume it’s a seedling and because even if a squirrel dug it up and replanted it, I don’t know which variety of Muscari it is. I’ve planted three, M. armeniacum, M. neglectum, and M. latifolium. So, it’s probably one of those or possibly a hybrid (I don’t know how easily they hybridize).

It isn’t in a very good place because the first time the grass is mown, it’s going down. I should dig it up and plant it somewhere safer before that, but the grass is getting long and I probably don’t have more than a week, if that.

Magnolia × soulangeana

Magnolia × soulangeana, also known as the saucer magnolia, is a hybrid between M. denudata and M. liliiflora. The cross was first made in 1820 by Frenchman Étienne Soulange-Bodin (1774–1846), a retired cavalry officer in Napoleon’s army, at his château de Fromont near Paris. They are quite extensively used in our area and are quite beautiful. Their flowers range from nearly pure white to fairly dark pink, almost purple. There are very similar trees with yellow flowers but these are a somewhat different hybrid, between M. acuminata and M. liliflora, and called Magnolia x brooklynensis, first made by Mrs. Evamaria Sparber at the Brooklyn Botanic Garden. In any case, they are lovely flowers and bloom early, so are quite welcome after winter.

Daffodils

Sorry for the delay in getting pictures up from the last few days. Rest assured they are coming (for the very few of you who actually come here to read this text). It’s been a busy weekend and I have some pictures for you. On Thursday (which is ‘today’ in terms of the posting date) we went to Laurie and David’s in the evening for a small Maundy Thursday gathering. We were a few minutes early so I took some pictures of the daffodils in their front yard. It was just getting dark and some of them didn’t turn out, because I didn’t have a tripod with me, but a few turned out alright, including this one of a nice two-color daffodil.

Scilla siberica (Siberian Squill)

Along with the Chionodoxa that was featured here a few days ago, the Siberian squill (Scilla siberica), is now in full bloom. There are some named varieties of this, as well, but for my money, there isn’t much to improve on over the species. The blue flowers are quite beautiful and borne in abundance. I don’t know that I could have too much of this and I certainly don’t have enough. They are especially beautiful when seen in bright shade, when the blue is most intense.

Daffodil

The daffodils in our yard are in full bloom. Well, some of them are, anyway. I have three types of daffodil that bloom earlier than the rest: ‘Marieke’ are big, bold, bright yellow, sort of the quintessential daffodil (Division 1 — Trumpet); ‘Tete-a-Tete’ is a smaller, more delicate daffodil with a bright yellow corona (the cup) and paler yellow perianth (the outer petals)(Division 12 — Miscellaneous); and this one, a daffodil from Division 2 (Large-Cupped Daffodils) whose name I don’t know. They are growing along our front walk, between the walk and our house, and they are quite happy there. Along with the ‘Marieke’ daffodils just outside the walk, they practically light up the walkway on a dark evening.

Cardamine hirsuta (Hairy bittercress)

I went out into the woods beside my office this afternoon and took pictures of two very small flowers. The first, pictured here, are the flowers of the hairy bittercress, Cardamine hirsuta. These are a pretty significant pest weed in our lawns these days and are quite remarkable. They flower quite early in the spring and continue to produce flowers for a good while. They go from opening buds to fully ripe seeds in a remarkably short time and the seed capsules are designed to burst explosively when touched, sending the seeds flying far from the parent plant. If you walk though a lawn covered with these in seed, it’s quite an experience.

Chionodoxa forbesii ‘Pink Giant’

The glory-of-the-snow, more properly known as Chionodoxa, has started to bloom in our yard. This is a variety of C. forbesii known as ‘Pink Giant’ and it’s strikingly different to the regular varieties, which are generally a beautiful, pure blue. I do like this one, too, but the blue is really my favorite. The other difference is this one is noticeably taller so it’s usable when there is ground cover that would completely hide the other varieties. Anyway, another real sign of spring.

Cherry Blossoms

Is spring here? We’ve had snow drops (Galanthus nivalis) and winter aconite (Eranthis hyemalis) but I generally consider both of those to be late-winter blooms. There are daffodils blooming and in the last couple days many cherry trees have opened. I don’t mean an occasional blossom, either. These trees in King Farm were in full bloom. I was in the area to have lunch with my former (now-retired) boss and on the way back to the office I stopped to get some pictures of the cherry blossoms. It certainly felt like spring, with the high temperature being in the low 70s F.