Monthly Archives: April 2012

Camellia japonica

My dad really loved camellias and planted quite a few in his not-too-large yard. It’s not hard to see what he liked about them — evergreen and covered with bright flowers during the winter and spring. This one is growing beside the chimney but I don’t know what variety it is. If we can find it in his notes I’ll update the caption. There used to be a tall camellia there called ‘Mrs. Lyman Clarke’ but this isn’t that. That one died in an especially cold winter many years ago. That same year the ‘Lady Clare’ died to the ground but it came up again and is a huge bush again, flowering happily every winter. I planted three seedlings of ‘Lady Clare’ in the yard of our old house. I happened to drive by yesterday (dad’s birthday, incidentally, so I was already thinking of him) and they are blooming, as well. One of them has flowers that are almost identical to ‘Lady Clare’ except they are pure white. I miss having that and was sorry to leave it behind. At least it’s still there and hopefully being appreciated. Camellias and dad — I can’t think of one without thinking of the other.

Tulips Past

Many people treat tulips as annuals in our area, planting them in beds in the fall for spring bloom and then pulling them out to be replaced by other annuals for the late spring and summer. I planted some in the falls of 2009 and 2010 and they all came up again this year but only one bloomed. That one (featured in a post a little over a week ago) is starting to fade but still provides a splash of red against the pachysandra. We went to Cathy’s mom’s last night for dinner and she has a pot with tulips in it in her living room. They are a beautiful metalic orange, as you can see, but they, too, are a little past their prime. Still striking, though.

Cherry Blossoms

We have two cherry trees in our yard. I’ve posted pictures of blossoms on the first of them already. They bloom out of sync with each other, which is actually nice because it lengthens the bloom time. The first has small, simple flowers. The second, which is blooming now, has very large, double flowers that are quite beautiful against the blue sky. It’s also gotten cool again so this tree’s flowers should stay with us a little longer than the first’s did.

Dogwood Flowers (Cornus florida)

Who doesn’t like dogwood flowers? One of my favorite sights is seeing dogwood blooming throughout the woods as a reliable, understory tree. It’s that time again.

I’ve always liked apple blossoms and I think I prefer them over cherry blossoms. I’m not sure why I like one over the other since they are both simple, five-petaled, white flowers on medium sized trees. I think I prefer apple trees to cherry trees, and maybe it has something to do with that. At Glen Orchard (a cousin’s orchard that’s been in the family for over a hundred years) they grow both apples and cherries but it’s the apple trees that surround the cabin and perhaps that’s the real source of my preference. The view from the cabin when the apples are in bloom is right up there in terms of beauty. When I see apple trees in bloom, particularly simple, white apple blossoms, I think of Glen Orchard and in turn of my grandparents.

Whatever it is, I love apple blossoms and they are out here now. The flowers pictured here are on a few feral trees growing in the empty lot next to my office building, down by the stream. They are very happy there and I’ll be sad when the time comes for that property to be built upon.

Daffodil 'Actaea'

Myosotis (Forget-Me-Not)

Here are two flower pictures to welcome April, 2012. First, a really nice poeticus daffodil called ‘Actaea’ that are growing alongside our front walk. They are later than the big yellow ‘Marieke’ daffodils which is nice because we have blooms for a longer period that way. I really like the big, white petals on this one. There’s another variety with even better color on the edge of the cup but this one is pretty good.

Then, I have a picture of forget-me-not, one of the Myosotis species, but I’m not sure which. We have a large patch of these in the back yard and Cathy has just moved a few of them to the front under the cherry tree. Hopefully they will do as well there. The flowers are quite happy. I’ve only just realized this year how much blue we have in our garden.