Forget-me-not (Myosotis arvensis)

I’ve been meaning to take pictures of these for a while now but keep, well, forgetting. Ironic, no? Myosotis arvensis, otherwise known as forget-me-not, is an annual. Our little patch of them has been moving a little each year as it reseeds itself but so far has managed to be happy and healthy each year.

The flowers begin as a slightly purplish blue but quickly fade to a pure, sky blue with a bright yellow circle in the middle. As they age, the circle turns white, before the flower fades and falls. In mass, they are quite impressive but I like the flowers close up, like this.

Vinca major

We have a fair amount of this around our house, all escaped from pots. It really has done well for itself and in fact, has gotten a little out of control. We are starting to be a bit more aggressive in cutting it back. When it’s blooming, though, it’s hard not to like it. The flowers are just like the more pedestrian Vinca minor (periwinkle) except considerably larger.

Pink Flowering Dogwood

I’m almost certain that this is a seedling that just happened to grow where it did. It’s planted way too close to the house to have been planned. It has pretty flowers but it’s just in the wrong place even for a small tree. I’ve planted a tall, narrow camellia near it (but not so close to the house) and once that gets established I’ll take out the dogwood. In the meantime, I’ll continue to enjoy the lightly shaded flowers on the dogwood. I’d say it’s got a good three or four more years before I even think of cutting it down. Slowly but surely (well, slowly, anyway) the yard is coming together.

Oakleaf Hydrangea (Hydrangea quercifolia)

Flowers are nice, of course, but even leaves can be beautiful. I love the variety of leaf shapes, the patterns of their veins, and the different greens created by the light shining through leaves.

This is the leaf of an oakleaf hydrangea (Hydrangea quercifolia) that I planted a few years ago. It’s still getting established, really, but is doing quite well. The leaves are a beautiful green now and all summer and then turn the most gorgeous burgundy or claret color in the fall. It doesn’t have the showy pink or blue flowers of the bigleaf hydrangea (Hydrangea macrophylla) but it makes up for it with its leaves, as far as I’m concerned. It also takes virtually no care and doesn’t die back so hard in cold winters.

Welcome to spring.

Muscari

I still haven’t found my garden drawing that tells me exactly what is where so all I can tell you is that this is one of Muscari armeniacum, M. neglectum, or M. latifolium. My memory says it’s M. armeniacum but that’s a pretty unreliable source, I’m afraid. This is growing on the north end of our front yard, under a dying cherry tree. It’s a very nice little shade garden, particularly in the spring. Each year we replace a little more of the pachysandra with a few other things, so it’s getting to have a bit more interest in the summer and fall, as well.

I love these little flowers and should plant more. I have some growing along the front edge of the bed that borders the walk to our front door but it’s not as noticeable because it’s growing in with the pachysandra. Did I mention we have a lot of pachysandra? Anyway, more grape hyacinths would always be welcome, as far as I’m concerned. I think I need to plant a bunch more bulbs this fall.

Spiraea Flowers

This morning the spiraea has burst into bloom. In fact, a lot of things have burst into bloom. We have a cherry tree that started blooming in the last day or so but it’s already losing petals. That tree is actually dying, losing one main branch each year for the last three years. The largest to die so far is gone now, leaving basically two more and it’s over. I’m planning to put in a replacement—an apple—later this spring. I bought two apples, Goldrush and Arkansas Black. As for the spiraea, it’s a splash of white in the darkest part of our yard and very happy. I love that up close the flowers have tiny bits of green. These flowers are between five and eight millimeters across.

Camellia japonica ‘Dad’s Pink’

What a beautiful Saturday it was today. The sky was a beautiful blue, it was cool but not cold, and it was just lovely all around. We need a bit more rain, really, but I don’t mind if that holds off for weekdays.

This is a camellia I bought and planted last spring, called ‘Dad’s Pink’. It’s not one that my dad ever grew but with that name, it still reminds me of him. It’s not even three feet tall but it’s covered with dozens of pink striped flowers.

One branch seems to have reverted to some less fancy form, with pure red flowers, although they are still of the same formal double type.

Daffodil ‘Actaea’

Yet another daffodil. This one is a beautiful poeticus daffodil called ‘Actaea’. The poeticus division (division 9) are distinguished by their large white petals and small, dainty cups in contrasting colors.

These start to bloom between four days and a week later than the big yellow daffodil ‘Marieke’ that I photographed on April 8. They are in the same bed, along the walk to our front door.

Daffodils

Are you tired of daffodils or daffodil pictures? Not me. I love them all. Big and bold or tiny and delicate, all yellow or mixed shades, they are all wonderful.

This is another daffodil growing along the walk to our front door. I love the pure white of the outer petals as well as the deep orange corona (the trumpet). Very cheerful and happy and reliable. There are more blooms each year, which is one more thing to love about daffodils.

Bradford Pear Blossoms

After a few weeks of wonderfully cool spring-like weather, we’ve moved to summer heat. It was over 90°F today, which I don’t appreciate even in the summer, much less a week after we were having nights in the 20s. Cathy and I went for a walk today, partway around the block our office is on. I took some pictures of the Bradford pears that are blooming, as well as some early cherry blossoms.

Daffodil ‘Marieke’

What would spring be without daffodils? Summer, I guess. They are out in force now, including the bigger varieties that are so wonderfully cheerful. These are along our front walk and are called ‘Marieke’ and are in division 1, the trumpet daffodils. This is, I suppose, what most people think of when you say daffodil. Big, bold, bright, yellow trumpets happily gazing into the sun on a cool spring morning. It doesn’t get much better than that.

Purple Hyacinth

Flowering Quince

Heath

What a beautiful spring day we had today. On the way out this morning I stopped to take some pictures of daffodils blooming on either side of the walk. Then later I stopped to pick up Dorothy and took more pictures of flowers there. The first is looking down on a spike of purple hyacinth flowers. I took more from the side but they look pretty much the same as the pink flowers I posted a photo of recently. I thought this different angle would be more interesting. I also like the intense blue toward the middle of the cluster of flowers.

The second picture is of a flowering quince (one of the three Chaenomeles species, not to be confused with the proper quince, Cydonia oblonga). This is just starting to bloom and has lots of small, pink flowers that are quite pretty. I was out without my tripod, so this isn’t as sharp as it might be, but probably good enough for jazz. This is a nice shrub to grow for early spring color. I personally get tired of all the yellow forsythia and would welcome more of this.

Finally, we have the tiny flowers of a heath plant. Heath and heather are quite similar, with heather having smaller scale-like leaves. They both have tiny flowers of white, pink, or purple. Some of the heath species bloom in the winter, and they bloom for a fairly long period, which is nice. This one is actually past it’s peak of blooming.

Both heath and heather (Calluna vulgaris) are calcifuges (plants that do not tolerate alkaline soil). Like azaleas, they thrive in places with low pH and in fact most will not grow if the pH is greater than 6.5. I’d be curious to know if the deer bother them. If you have deer in your garden and you grow either heath or heather, let me know in the comments.

Thank you, Maureen and Bob, for sharing your garden with us today.