Monthly Archives: May 2013

First Rose of the Season — Perle d’Or

I usually only post once each day but those of you good enough to follow my little blog know that now and then I splurge and put a few pictures in a post or even put up multiple posts. I decided not to let the day go by without celebrating the first rose of the season.

This is a little China rose called Perle d’Or, bred by Joseph Rambaux in France in 1884. It’s right outside our front door and in a few weeks it will be absolutely covered with flowers. The flowers are not particularly large and they don’t have the huge petals of the hybrid tea roses but they have a wonderful fragrance and it blooms off and on all summer, with buds being killed by the first hard frost of winter.

The books all say it grows to four feet. It must really like its location here, because I pruned it back to about five feet this winter. I was at least eight feet tall by the end of last year. Still, I don’t mind a rose doing better than expected.

Chive Flowers

The chives growing in a container on our back patio are coming into full bloom. It’s nice having a few herbs growing right outside the back door. Especially this time of year I love to go out and snip off a handful to add to my cooking. The flowers are really nice chopped up and sprinkled on a wide variety of things from soup to steak. Their color is an added bonus to their mild, onion flavour.

Rhododendron Buds

I love my wife, I don’t mind telling you. There are plenty of things to love about her but the one that comes to mind on Mother’s Day is that she doesn’t care, particularly, about going out for a meal. Instead, we go to a garden center. In past years we’ve made the trek out to Thanksgiving Farms in Adamstown but this year we went to Stadler Nursery in Laytonsville, which is much closer. Dorothy and I wondered around for a little while and then sat on a bench while Cathy picked out a few things for the garden.

The photo for today is of flower buds on a rhododendron. I didn’t get the name of this one but I suspect it’s quite popular, based on how much of it they have. The deep color of the flowers is quite nice, so I can see why people would like it.

Hosta ‘June’

And what is so rare as a hosta named June? No, that doesn’t make much sense to me, either. My apologies to James Russell Lowell who wrote, in 1848, The Vision of Sir Launfal, which contains the following:

There is no price set on the lavish summer,
And June may be had by the poorest comer.

And what is so rare as a day in June?
Then, if ever, come perfect days;
Then Heaven tries the earth if it be in tune,
And over it softly her warm ear lays:
Whether we look, or whether we listen,
We hear life murmur, or see it glisten;

You can read the entire poem at the Rochester Library. This is a hosta variety called ‘June’ and it’s a pretty little thing. It isn’t as small as ‘Mouse Ears’ but it’s pretty small. I love the subtle coloring on the leaves.

Spanish Bluebells (Hyacinthoides hispanica)

I think it’s a little funny to call these bluebells when they are pink, but they are Hyacinthoides hispanica which are commonly called Spanish bluebells. Obviously this is a pink variety and I planted them in the fall of 2009 along with almost 300 other bulbs that I bought from McClure & Zimmerman (http://www.mzbulb.com/), whom I highly recommend for bulbs. These are planted on the side of our yard under the dying cherry tree. I really need more of these and should probably get them in blue as well as pink. As you can see, we now have forget-me-not growing here, as well.

Dandelion

I took a few pictures in the yard this afternoon. It was a beautiful day in the low 70s and I enjoyed lying in the grass for a little while, as I tend to do on nice spring days. I also took a few pictures of fern leaves and some coreopsis flowers but you’ll have to satisfy yourselves with this for now. This was taken without a tripod so I couldn’t stop down as far as I probably should. Maybe I’ll take more like this and see what I can come up with.

White Azaleas

After I got home this evening I realized I hadn’t taken any pictures today. It was already getting dark so I put my camera on a tripod and went out the front door to take a few pictures of the white azaleas blooming along the front of our house. It rained most of today so there is water dripping off the flowers. Also, the oak trees are blooming and the little threads of flowers are everywhere, including all over the azalea blossoms. Still, the azaleas are pretty.

Azaleas

The time in spring when the azaleas are blooming is without a doubt the most “flowery” time of the year in our area. Almost everyone seems to grow azaleas, and it’s not hard to figure out why. They are easily kept to a reasonable size or they can be allowed to grow to eight or ten feet if desired. They bloom in colors ranging from bright red and pink to various shades of purple as well as pure white. There are deciduous varieties, with orange and yellow flowers. They are reliably hardy and they don’t take a lot of effort. It’s either a shame or a blessing that their flowers don’t have any fragrance to speak of, or the place would reek with them right about now. Count me as a fan.

Columbine (Aquilegia)

In our “plant rescue” operation I wrote about yesterday, we also got a fair amount of columbine (Aquilegia). I honestly have no idea if this plant originated with those. Since we’ve moved since then, it may not be but we did bring a lot of potted plants with us from the old house so it’s possible.

I liked the way the sun was shining through this flower. I was on the ground looking almost straight up, with the sun nearly right behind the flower, making it a bit hard to see, but I like the way it turned out. Such a beautiful red.

Lily of the Valley (Convallaria majalis)

I am particularly fond of little flowers and these are very nice little flowers. Lily of the valley (Convallaria majalis) is quite a tenacious little plant.

Years ago a street was being widened near where we lived. Two houses were condemned via eminent domain and were to be torn down. We got permission from the owners of one of the houses to take out as many garden plants as we could before they were all dug up for the roadway (we called it “plant rescue”). There was a fairly large patch of lily of the valley growing around a tree. The asphalt paving of the driveway would have been a boundary for most plants but the lily of the valley came up through the asphalt, breaking it up and thriving in spite of the difficult growing conditions. They can take a little while to get established but once they do, they are practically unstoppable.

We must have dug up hundreds of plants and gave them to anyone who wanted them. Considering that they often cost more than $2 per pip, this was a valuable collection effort. We dug up a few from our yard when we moved and brought them with us but there was a patch in the back yard already. This picture is of one in that patch.

Trees Reflected in My Office Building Windows

Today’s picture is very much like some I’ve taken before but I find it pretty, in a simple sort of way. This is the back entrance into my building, reflecting the trees in the parking lot. It’s a fairly green place this time of year, which is nice. I particularly like it early in the morning when the sun is shining over the building, so the glass is in the shade but it is reflecting trees that are in the sun.

I find it interesting how different this view is throughout the year. In the winter it tends to be fairly gray. In the fall, it is brown and yellow, and now, of course, it is green. I find it interesting that in general our eyes are most sensitive to light round about the 550nm wavelength, which is the green portion of the visible spectrum. Does that mean we recognize more shades of green than of other colors? I’m not sure but there certainly does seem to be more variety in the greens all around us.

Black Walnut Leaves and Catkins

Continuing the leafy theme, today’s picture features the young leaves and the flower catkins of a black walnut tree. The leaves practically glow in the early afternoon sun. The catkins, on the other hand, are doing their best to contribute to the spring allergy season. Black Walnut pollen is a severe allergen. The good news is that it’s fairly large, as pollen goes, so it doesn’t travel terribly far in the air, so unless you have walnut trees in your yard or immediate neighborhood, you’re probably out of the woods, so to speak.

Poison Ivy

It’s a very green time of the year. After two wet mornings and two pictures of green leaves with water droplets on them, today’s picture is of leaves but without water droplets. It was a beautiful, seasonally pleasant day, with a high temperature of about 74°F (23°C) and clear, blue sky.

This morning Cathy called to ask if I wanted to take a walk around the block later. We met outside my building at about 12:45 and walked around the block, which is about a mile and a half. I stopped for pictures a few times, including taking a couple of these vigorously growing poison ivy leaves. It’s a pretty good survivor and aside from the obvious drawback of the irritating nature of the oil it contains, it’s quite pretty in a sinister sort of way. I like the mix of orange in the leaves and the glossy surface. I also like the beautiful colors poison ivy turns in the fall. Still, I won’t be adding it to my garden any time soon. In point of fact, I have some already that needs to be sprayed.