Timing

A delayed spring, followed by intense heat, seems to have played with the timing of lots of plants.  Everything is blooming at once!  How do I tell nature to slow down?

Across the alley, I always enjoy my neighbor's forsythia, which I can see from my kitchen window.  It's the perfect place for a forsythia, in my view.  I get to enjoy its bright flowers, but it doesn't take up valuable space in my yard with its uninteresting form the other 11 months of the year.

I think it bloomed later this year, since spring insisted on hibernating extra long.  But, eventually, the forsythia put on its stunning show.

And then it got hot.  Thanks to the sudden warm up, the neighboring lilac (another shrub whose blooms I love, but not enough to have in my yard all year) is right on time.

So now we have forsythia and lilac, blooming at once.

(yes, if these were mine, I might prune them a bit)

Nice combo, but I'd really rather have them spread out more, so my scenery lasts longer. 

Maybe next year.

A Coneflower Explosion

I have quite a lot of coneflowers, and I rather like them.  By 'a lot' I mean a lot of plants, not a lot of types.  Most of my plants are the straight species purple kind.  On the patio I have some 'White Swan', which I adore.  And in the front, a small 'Rocky Top', chosen for its unique up-curved petals.

I've not had much interest in all the specialty coneflowers - doubles, new colors, etc - up to now.  Last weekend I paid a short visit to the National Arboretum, and saw this:

(It was a super sunny day, so had trouble with photos.  These are actually much more colorful.)

Now I need more coneflowers.

~~~~~
Also at the arboretum,  a field of Amsonia hubrichtii:

a field of Amsonia mounds at the arboretum

Yes, a whole field.  I have a clump, the arboretum has a field.

my single clump of amsonia

Across the walk from the Amsonia are the Capitol columns.

Now that's garden art.

A Green Wall

I was in Las Vegas recently.  (My first visit.)  Had fun gaping at all the extravagance on the strip, but was missing green things.  I did find this green wall.

I wonder what the plant is, and how much water it needs.

Oh, I also bought myself some lucky socks.  They paid for themselves.

Balboa Park

Work sent me to San Diego last week (woe is me!), and I had part of an afternoon to wander Balboa Park.  My favorite garden-y part was the Palm Canyon.

But it was a long climb back out.

Another Sign of an Early Spring

I don't care what Phil saw or didn't see the other day, there are lots of signs of an early spring around here.  Daffodils in February?  No, worse than that.  I first noticed these blooming down the road from me in late January, but I didn't get back to take pictures until today.

February in December

My neighbor's forsythia thinks it is February already.

Interlude

I still haven't put up my Bloom Day pictures! What am I waiting for? I have no idea, but this post isn't it. This week I was in Monterey, California, and it was a good time to stop and smell the roses at my hotel:

Roses, part two

Here's another reason I don't feel the need to grow roses. When I want to see roses, all I have to do is look over the fence to my neighbor's yard:

When I first moved in, my neighbor introduced herself, saying, "My name is easy to remember. Just look at my yard." That's right, Rosie!

Harvest Time

Gardening Gone Wild challenged us to submit harvest photos for this month's Picture This contest.

Harvest photos? I don't have anything to harvest!

I am very proud of my few Sungold tomatoes - this is the most I've had ripe at one time, nearly enough for a snack for one person:


Unfortunately, my sparse tomatoes are hard to pick out in that busy background. A closer look didn't improve things much:


Next, I trotted of to the Sunday market. There's a place for harvests!

I came home with a bag full of apples, but not many pictures. I did see a warty pumpkin that made me smile:


and a basket full of hot peppers:


But I'm guessing the entries will be full of pumpkins and peppers, and my photos aren't good enough to stand out.

I had lunch at the Nature Conservancy. The park was full of winterberry holly waiting to fed the birds in the coming months. What makes foraging different from harvesting, I wondered? It didn't matter, the light wasn't right.



Home again, still with no usable photo.

Then I saw all the critters: bees, moths, and butterflies feasting on my Autumn Joy sedum. Now they were busy harvesting! But they wouldn't stay still long enough for documentation.

This bee on a purple coneflower did. I think he was having such a good time bathing in pollen he didn't care that I was so close. I hope he got some in his sacs so he could go home and share his harvest.



So this bee is my entry.

(I did have a somewhat-brilliant inspiration strike me this evening, but it was already too dark to execute. I may go out in the morning to try it anyway, just for fun.)

River Blooms

I'm hanging out at the family cottage at the river for a nice relaxing long weekend, so I'm not home to see what's blooming on Bloom Day. I'd intended to snap some photos Friday before I skipped town, but I was running late and there was rain. So lets see if I can find anything here at the tip of the Middle Peninsula.

We come here to chill and enjoy the River. There is no garden and very little landscaping to speak of. No one person is here often enough to take on the responsibility. We get most of our color from sunsets, beach toys, and kayaks.

August is a rough month for blooms in this part of the country anyway, but in a place with no garden? A real stretch.

In the back yard are a bunch of crape myrtles, still blooming bright pink:


On the west side of the house is a reblooming daylily and the last of the spirea:



And on the east side, also almost finished, is the mimosa. Such a weed here, but when this thing is in full bloom you can barely see the flowers for the butterflies.



I wonder what's blooming at home?

Powerless

Have you been dreaming of rain this summer? Bowing your head in a little prayer? Perhaps turning your eyes to the sky in anticipation? Me, too. And the heavens delivered, just not in the manner I would have preferred.

Two short but powerful storms rolled through on Thursday afternoon. Wind gusts at the high school less than ½ mile from home were recorded at 73 mph. I was at work beyond the reach of the storm, but heard news reports that my neighborhood was badly damaged. What would I find when I got home? Would my 40-50 ft maple in the front yard (the one that loses a branch in nearly every storm) still be standing? Would my house be unscathed? Note that I didn’t ask myself if I’d have power. I knew that was a near impossibility.

I arrived home Thursday night to have my questions answered:

Whew! The tree is still standing. About a quarter of it came down, but luckily fell to the east (into the road) rather than a more damaging direction. The house was safe! Road crews had already cleared the road, and piled the branches onto the sidewalk; I just had the bulky part to deal with. (And no, I didn’t have power. The whole neighborhood was dark)

By the time I got home from work on Friday, there were no fewer than six cards from tree services (and random guys with a chainsaw and a truck) stuck in my door. And more guys in trucks cruising the streets. So cleanup was easy, if costly. Still no power.

Friday and Saturday evenings I walked around the neighborhood to see how others fared. I consider myself very lucky. Here was the scene just one street over:

Ouch! Fortunately the tree fell just behind the neighbor’s house, wiping out the back deck, but doing only minor damage to the roof.

Three doors down, the scene was repeated, but without the car in the driveway.

Two blocks away, another lucky house. I count at least three trees in the front yard, nearly obscuring the house, but none on the house:

Another view, showing downed power lines:

I returned to this house on Saturday, to see cleanup nearly completed:

Continuing down the hill:
There are two condo buildings that face each other, separated by a courtyard. They were very lucky.

The next building was not so lucky:


That’s a lot of wood to chip!

On Saturday afternoon, 48 hours after the storm, neighborhood streets still looked like this:


No wonder I still had no power.

Thursday night it was pretty cool after the storm, so I didn’t mind having no AC or fans. By Friday night I had to retreat to the basement to stay cool enough to sleep. Saturday was worse. I had many offers of places to stay, and decided to take one friend up on the offer of dinner and a spare bedroom. Shortly after ten pm I made a call to my house, and was greeted with the sweet sound of my answering machine. Power! Thanks for the hospitality, but I’m heading home to sleep in my own bed.

Now it is Monday, and the sounds of trucks and chain saws still fill the air.

Spring Fling

"Spring Fling" is the theme of the May Picture This photo contest over at Gardening Gone Wild. We are to find occurrences of "whimsy" in the garden. I looked around my yard, and didn't see much frivolity. Now I know I need to work on that. Instead I'll share some photos from my annual spring trip to southeastern Wisconsin, the land of whimsy.

We passed this barn on the way to lunch one day, but my camera wasn't convenient. I made sure I had it at the ready for the drive back. When I stopped to take the picture, my hostess told me, "Oh, yeah, there are several painted like that around here." Well, this is the only one I saw, so I think its something special. And it certainly made me smile:



And check out those Wisconsin-perfect clouds!

Next we went to a farm stand, so my traveling companion could buy some morels. This farm stand sits at a crossroads, but the entrance doesn't face either of the main roads. Don't worry, they are still good at advertising their product on the road-facing side. We were searching for mushrooms. Do you think we found the right place?



I realize those aren't really garden photos. So, finally, back in town, is my GGW photo entry. After my rant on lawn ornaments, I can't believe this it what I found to submit. But I've never seen cuter pink flamingos. All decked out for the spring rains, from hats to galoshes!



I hope you enjoyed my whimsical tour of Wisconsin.

Postscript, Saturday, 29 May:

My photo won! There were two winners, one for photo quality, and one for subject matter. No surprises that I didn't win on quality, but I'm glad I made one judge smile (or wince, actually, at the sight of so many garden flamingos)! Here's my award: