Flowers and Plants

Cherry Blossoms

Well, they are mostly out and looking good. This is one of the two cherries in our yard. The other hasn’t started to come out yet, which is actually nice because it means we get a longer period of bloom.

White Flowers

I like this picture. To me, although its a fairly good likeness of these flowers, it actually makes it hard to see what they are. It’s the size, I guess. the photo makes them look big to me, like they are camelias or something. Actually, they are each about 3/8 inch across. It is a spirea in our back yard.

Bradford Pear Trees

The Bradford Pear isn’t really the best tree for lining a road. Not long term, anyway. They get to a certain size and then start breaking apart. This time of year, though, they make a pretty impressive display.

… and pinks and whites. The first of these was actually taken yesterday but the rest were from today, all in our yard. I love Chionodoxa (Glory-of-the-snow, so-called because it blooms early when it’s still cold, except is hasn’t been). I’m particularly fond of the blue varieties but this pink one is nice and has the added advantage of being tall enough to bloom above the Pachysandra. Most varieties are too short for that.

It was a beautiful spring day today, more like May than March. Cathy and I took a walk around the block at lunch time and I took a few pictures. The star magnolia picture was taken at Cathy’s mom’s house after work. Not the most reliable bloomer in our climate, often being hit by a late frost, but not this year.

Shortly after we moved into our house our good friend Erin gave me some bulbs. There were daffodils, crocuses, and hyacinths. Here are the daffodils and crocuses. They are all in bloom right now, ahead of the rest of the bulbs that are coming up fast and furious as the temperature was in the upper 70s today.

It was cool this morning and again in the evening but in the afternoon it was very pleasant out. We worked in the yard and I hauled off a load of sticks to the dump. That seems to be a never ending task. When I got back I took a break to enjoy the flowers that we have around the yard. I’m particularly fond of blue flowers and like Chionodoxa a lot. Small but very nice.

More winter/early spring flowers today, taken in our back yard.

Dorothy had her second session in the recording studio this afternoon so Cathy and I took the opportunity to visit Brookside Gardens. The flowers in the greenhouse where lovely (much prettier than these poor photos show, I’m afraid). We also walked outside a little but the wind was pretty chilly. Still, there were some nice winter flowering plants in bloom that were worth seeing.

After seeing the butterfly yesterday and with today being even warmer, I decided to go out specifically looking for signs of spring. I hadn’t realized that the red maples were starting to bloom but as you can see, they are. It’s not too late for a surprise snow storm but spring it definitely approaching.

Gerber Daisies

These are in a vase in our dining room and though they are wilting a bit, they are still quite cheery and bright.

We think of winter as being without flowers but at least in our zone 7 climate that’s not really true. There are not nearly so many, of course, but there are blooms to be found. We have snow drops (Galanthus nivalis) blooming at various places around the yard. We only have one Lenten rose (Helleborus orientalis) but we should get more. The one we have is a lovely claret color that’s quite cheery on a cold winter’s day (or even a warm winter’s day like we had today).

Orchid

As we approach the end of my “Year of Living Photographically” I’ve been thinking about what to do next. I don’t believe I will continue this in its current form. On the other hand, I expect to continue taking pictures, just not necessarily every day. I’ve decided that I will try to post pictures to a photo blog. It’s set up but the only image there so far is the blog’s page banner. I hope to start posting there in 2012 and will put up notes about it on Facebook.

The blog is http://www.HenryHartley.com/ (clever name, eh?).

Oh, this picture is one of the phalaenopsis orchids in my mom’s living room.

Frosty Kale

It was a cold morning today. Our thermometer said 27°F. There was frost everywhere. These ice crystals were on the Tuscan kale in my vegetable garden.