Flowers and Plants

Mertensia virginica (Virginia Bluebells)

Photograph taken on Sunday, April 10, 2022 by Henry
Mertensia virginica (Virginia Bluebells)

Mertensia virginica (Virginia Bluebells)

Cathy and I went out to Seneca Creek to see the bluebells today. I think they were a few days from their peak but it was still pretty amazing. We walked quite a while and it was a wonderfully beautiful day. We also saw a pair of bald eagles flying overhead and a few common merganser on the creek. One of the cool things about bluebells is the way their color changes from the pink of the buds to the pale blue of the open flowers. The crisp, clear green of their leaves really sets off both colors.

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Camellia japonica ‘Pink Perfection’

Photograph taken on Saturday, April 09, 2022 by Henry
Camellia japonica ‘Pink Perfection’

Camellia japonica ‘Pink Perfection’

Last year’s cicada swarm did some serious damage to two of my camellias as well as to the two dwarf apple trees. They all survived, but I wouldn’t say any of them are thriving yet. There are a few flowers on this plant, Camellia japonica ‘Pink Perfection’, which was planted in the spring of 2010. It’s still only about three feet high, which is disappointing, but at least it’s still alive. ‘Dad’s Pink’, planted two years later, has even fewer blooms and I’m not 100% sure it’s going to survive. The healthiest camellia I have at this point is ‘Hokkaido Red’, planted only two years ago and in a spot well protected from both the cold wind and from deer.

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Podophyllum peltatum (Mayapple)

Photograph taken on Sunday, April 03, 2022 by Henry
Podophyllum peltatum (Mayapple)

Podophyllum peltatum (Mayapple)

We walked in Meadowside Nature Center this afternoon and saw more bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis) as seen in yesterday’s photo. We also saw quite a few mayapples (Podophyllum peltatum) coming up. They come out of the ground as cones and then the leaves spread like an opening umbrella. Apparently plants with a single leaf will not flower but those with two will produce a flower stem from the leaf axil (where the two leaf stems branch). While the leaves and roots are poisonous, the fruit, when ripe, can be made into preserves and jellies. I never have, though.

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Sanguinaria canadensis (Bloodroot)

Photograph taken on Saturday, April 02, 2022 by Henry
Sanguinaria canadensis (Bloodroot)

Sanguinaria canadensis (Bloodroot)

We went for a walk near Rock Creek today and enjoyed the spring flowers. The spring beauties (Claytonia virginica) which are in great profusion. We also saw a few bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis) as seen here. The flower petals are the purest white with bright yellow stamens. Although they don’t last long, they are quite lovely for the little time they are blooming each spring. The roots have a red sap, which is where they get both their common name and their genus name. The leaves are palmate and deeply-scalloped and attractive in their own right.

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Lenten Rose ‘Rose Quartz’

Photograph taken on Monday, March 21, 2022 by Henry
Lenten Rose ‘Rose Quartz’

Lenten Rose ‘Rose Quartz’

Mostly because I’ve stopped taking a photograph every day, I haven’t photographed our spring blooms as thoroughly as in the ten years when it was an easy way to get a photo for any day in the spring. Nevertheless, I took my camera out into the yard today and took a few photos of things blooming, including this Lenten rose called ‘Rose Quartz’. It was planted in the fall of 2014 and took a few years to get established, putting out just a few blooms in it’s early years. Now it’s doing really well and is absolutely covered with flowers and I really like it. Definitely worth the wait.

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Late Snow

Photograph taken on Saturday, March 12, 2022 by Henry
Snow on Maple Flowers

Snow on Maple Flowers

March can be very spring like but can and usually does return to winter conditions again before it’s done. We’ve had some wonderful weather but then we just got a pretty decent snowfall and blustery conditions. Cathy and I went for a walk in the neighborhood and enjoyed the blowing snow and I took a few pictures, including this one of the snow on maple flowers around the corner from our house. It won’t do the tree any harm and it’s actually quite pretty. Within a few days the snow will very likely be gone and we’ll could be back into spring like temperatures.

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Dorothy and Cathy at Dumbarton Oaks

Photograph taken on Thursday, March 10, 2022 by Henry
Dorothy and Cathy at Dumbarton Oaks

Dorothy and Cathy at Dumbarton Oaks

We haven’t been to Dumbarton Oaks in a long time but we decided to take a trip now, before everything is out, to see how it looks out of season. It’s not nearly as spectacular this time of year, of course, but there were some things in bloom. It’s also really nice to see the bones on which the garden rests. I took quite a few photos and really like this one of Dorothy and Cathy siting on a bench. You have to make reservations and book a time but out of season it’s free. Even in season it’s only $7, which isn’t bad value.

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Early Cherry Blossoms, McCrillis Garden

Photograph taken on Saturday, March 05, 2022 by Henry
Early Cherry Blossoms, McCrillis Garden

Early Cherry Blossoms, McCrillis Garden

We picked up Dorothy today and went to McCrillis Garden on Greentree Road this afternoon. It’s a wonderful little garden (five lots totaling about 4.8 acres) that’s especially lovely when the azaleas and rhododendrons are in bloom. But it’s worth a visit at other times of the year, as well, to see the sometimes less spectacular but still lovely plants. At the north end of the property there were a few cherry trees beginning to bloom. We also enjoyed seeing some of the ‘bones’ of the garden, including trees that have interesting shapes and structure even when they don’t have leaves. But seeing the blossoms was particularly nice.

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Amaryllis ‘Lemon Star’

Photograph taken on Friday, February 25, 2022 by Henry

Amaryllis ‘Lemon Star’

Amaryllis ‘Lemon Star’

Amaryllis ‘Lemon Star’

We’re in our second flush of flowers from our ‘amaryllis forest’ and I have to say, while we’ve always had either red or red and white blooms before, I’m really happy with this white and green one. It’s called ‘Lemon Star’ and it’s a real show stopper. I’ve moved them from our dining room table onto a table by the window. This allowed me to use the leaves of the fiddle-leaf fig (Ficus lyrata) to provide support to the long stems and keep them from tipping over. A few of them were noticeably shorter, which is a real benefit, but for the tall stems, some external support is needed.

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Amaryllis Forest

Photograph taken on Thursday, February 10, 2022 by Henry
Amaryllis Forest

Amaryllis Forest

Even after giving a few away, we had a bunch of amaryllises this year. They really have put on a show and right now are just about as good as they are going to get. And they vary quite a bit in terms of color, too. I particularly like the white one in the back with a little green in the center. Of course the pure red blooms are pretty awesome, too, as well as the red and white in the upper left. Heck, they’re all really nice. Together they’re spectacular. Many of them have second blooming stems starting, so we’ll get even more flowers in a little while.

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Snow and Holly

Photograph taken on Monday, January 17, 2022 by Henry
Holly in Snow

Holly in Snow

We have the day off for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day today, for only the second time. It’s nice to have something after New Year’s Day, although we still have a fairly long gap before our next holiday, Memorial Day near the end of May. Still, we’ll take what we can get. There was a little snow on the ground today but the sky was clear and it was sunny and nice. We took a walk in the neighborhood and enjoyed being outdoors. I also finished reading Evenor, a collection of three short stories, by George MacDonald and started reading Piers the Ploughman, written sometime around 1370 by William Langland. So, a nice day, overall.

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Hamamelis x intermedia ‘Robert’ (Witchhazel)

Photograph taken on Saturday, January 15, 2022 by Henry
Hamamelis x intermedia ‘Robert’ (Witchhazel)

Hamamelis x intermedia ‘Robert’ (Witchhazel)

We decided to go to Brookside Gardens today. It’s one of the county’s nicest places. They have two, connected conservatories, the first of which has mostly permanent plantings while the second changes more often and more extensively with the seasons. In addition to spending time in amongst the green, we walked in the grounds. It certainly wasn’t crowded on this fairly cold day but it was worth if to see the witchhazel starting to bloom. If you’re looking for a small, flowering tree that will give you joy in late January or early February, you could do a lot worse. This is Hamamelis x intermedia ‘Robert’.

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Paperwhites

Photograph taken on Sunday, January 09, 2022 by Henry
Paperwhites (Narcissus tazetta)

Paperwhites (Narcissus tazetta)

I bought Cathy some paperwhites and planted them in mid-December. They started growing almost immediately and have given us a wonderful display. I’m not particularly fond of the smell, but it’s a small price to pay. They really are lovely and at a time when flowers of any kind are quite welcome. They are a variety of Narcissus tazetta, which is quite cosmopolitan, with sub-species found native to Europe, through the middle east and into southeast Asia. In contrast to many bulbs which require a period of cold in order for them to bloom, paperwhites don’t need any special treatment. Simply plant them, keep them properly watered, watch and enjoy.

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Tree Cutting

Photograph taken on Monday, December 20, 2021 by Henry
Tree Cutting

Tree Cutting

As mentioned about a week ago (see Tuesday, December 14, 2021), these two trees are leaning and needed to be taken down. I got two quotes which were not vastly different. That made it a little harder to pick the company that would do the work because I couldn’t simply say, “these guys were a lot cheaper.” I basically flipped a coin in my head. The company I picked could do the work fairly soon as they were coming to do some work next door today and could get both that and our work done in the same day. Certainly a plus. I took some photos of the work being done, including 11 pictures taken in the two seconds or so that this branch took to fall to the ground.

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Sinuous Vines

Photograph taken on Saturday, December 18, 2021 by Henry
Sinuous Vines

Sinuous Vines

Coleridge, in his poem Kubla Khan, mentions “gardens bright with sinuous rills.” That came to mind today as we were walking the circuit around Lake Frank. I know that rills are not vines, but that’s what came to mind, anyway. Sue me. The Lake Frank area isn’t exactly “twice five miles of fertile ground, with walls and towers … girdled round.” Nor, this time of year, “blossomed many an incense-bearing tree.” Nevertheless, we found the walk quite enjoyable (and probably preferable to “caverns measureless to man; down to a sunless sea”). Also, I doubt Coleridge had poison ivy in mind when he spoke of the gardens of the Khan’s pleasure dome.

We did see quite a bit of recent damage done by beavers and also found the beaver lodge. We had a good look at the bald eagle nest, although there was no sign of any eagles today. Hopefully they will use it again this year. All in all, a very nice day for a walk.

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Leaning Trees

Photograph taken on Tuesday, December 14, 2021 by Henry
Leaning Trees

Leaning Trees

Cathy asked me to look at these trees in our back yard and wondered if they’ve always leaned like that. No, that’s new. There is a hole in the ground to the left of them, but that’s been there since before we moved in, more than 15 years ago. The trees are not straight but they seem at least reasonably healthy. Nevertheless, they have started to lean and their roots are pulling up a large mound of earth. If they were to fall they would not hit the house but it’s quite likely they would hit our back fence. Not the end of the world but it’s a hassle we’d just as soon avoid. So, I called a couple tree services to get estimates.

Of course, the fact that they are part way down will tend to make the estimates a little higher, because of the danger of them falling while they are being worked on. At least the fact that nothing will drop on the house works in our favor. But it’s a bigger job than I can handle safely and the trees really do need to come down.

Stay tuned…

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Celastrus orbiculatus (Asian Bittersweet)

Photograph taken on Sunday, December 12, 2021 by Henry
Celastrus orbiculatus (Asian Bittersweet)

Celastrus orbiculatus (Asian Bittersweet)

Cathy and I went for another walk after church today (that’s pretty common, as you might have noticed). This time we went to the Blue Mash Trail on Zion Road behind the Laytonsville land fill. I didn’t take many pictures and most of them were of Asiatic bittersweet (Celastrus orbiculatus) as in this photo. I particularly like this picture because of the added color of the juniper (most likely eastern red cedar, Juniperus virginiana). We have a native bittersweet (Celastrus scandens) but I’ll confess that I could not readily differentiate between the two, basically assuming that anything we see is the more aggressive C. orbiculatus.

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Rose Leaves

Photograph taken on Sunday, December 05, 2021 by Henry
Rose Leaves

Rose Leaves

Abba and Josh are still in town but only stayed with us through yesterday, so life returned to normal (or as close to normal as we can get. Cathy and I went to the Ag. Farm Park after church and took a nice walk around two large fields. This time of year is challenging in terms of photography.Colors are generally less extreme with the exception of berries and other late-season fruits. I photograph those fairly often but I don’t want to post the same type pictures too often. There are still a few plants with leaf color. I really love the colors of these rose leaves.

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Under the Pines

Photograph taken on Sunday, November 28, 2021 by Henry
Pine Cones and Needles

Pine Cones and Needles

Cathy and I went out for a walk around Redgate park today, making a circuit of the entire former-golf course. We didn’t see a lot of wildlife, although we did see a great blue heron at a pond and quite a few Canada geese. There were, as usual, lot of little birds in the bushes at the edges of the woods and in the dried weeds that now fill most of the old fairways. We are pretty sure some were bluebirds but beyond that we didn’t really identify any. Almost certainly many were sparrows.

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A Little More Fall Color

Photograph taken on Saturday, November 13, 2021 by Henry
C&O Canal, Below Violet's Lock

C&O Canal, Below Violet’s Lock

We went for a longish walk on the C&O Canal today, starting from Riley’s Lock and heading towards Washington. We passed Violet’s Lock and turned around a little past Blockhouse Point. We saw a bald eagle (although I didn’t get a photo), a pair of deer, and lots of vultures. The nicest part of the walk was the fall colors. They are mostly past at this point but there area a few trees, mostly maples, that are still quite spectacular. The sky was the deepest blue and reflected in the still water of the canal, it was really lovely (although you can’t really see it much in this photo.

From there we met Dorothy at Rocklands and helped her set up the flowers for a friend’s wedding reception. We hadn’t really planned on that but it was a nice addition to our outing. I also got a photo of Dorothy wearing Janis’ mink stole and a vintage hat, which was a bonus.

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