February 2013 Blooms

What's blooming in February?  Some usual suspects and a fun (for me) surprise.

It's crocus time.  Mostly yellows, a few purple, and one just-starting (unpictured) white.

It's the first week of Lent - a good time to show off the Lenten roses (Hellebores).  I have several plants.  The greenish-white-flowered one blooms at the end of last year's stems, showing off the flowers:

The purple hellebores send up new flower stalks from the center, so the flowers get hidden behind last year's leaves.  Especially this year - the mostly warm winter means those old leaves are still pretty vigorous.  I had to dig to find the flowers.



What is exciting and new this year:  some of my self-seeded hellebore plants are finally blooming.  These youngsters are 3-4 years old and putting out their first flowers.  One of the white variety and one of the purple:

(Also blooming this month:  some rather un-showy snowdrops, rue (still), pansies (barely), and winter weeds.)

Happy February Bloom Day!

(I finally posted January's blooms, too. You can see them here.)

January 2013 Blooms: Unseasonable

Before I post February Blooms, let's go back and look at what was happening in mid-January:

What's blooming in January?  Nothing "seasonal", that's for sure.

First, the rue has never stopped blooming:

Along the curb, this anemone is determined to be the first "spring" bulb to bloom.  Not crocus or snowdrops, but anemone.

Over in the side yard, what is this oddity?

Yep, a single dogwood bract.  In January.

 I think my "everbearing" strawberries have taken their name too literally.

Finally:  not a bloom, but noteworthy in this unseasonal post.  The weeping Japanese maple is still holding onto its leaves.  What a wierdo.

November 2012 Blooms

I'm actually making a Bloom Day post on the appropriate day.  Woohoo!

Not that I have much to show off (which is probably why I'm able to do this on time).  Today we'll look at what's blooming on the porch.  I haven't really prepared for winter, but I did hurry all the potted plants inside before Hurricane Sandy arrived two three weeks ago.  I didn't want them to blow away.

I bought this Osteospermum in the spring from the almost-dead-plant clearance shelf.  It survived, and looked healthy, but never flowered until this week.  So much for the front porch flowers I'd planned for the summer.

 
I thought the flowers would be purple, so the magenta color surprised me.  Yes, that's a pansy in there, too.  I had a few extra pansies from planting the front walk this fall, and stuck them in the pot which was still sitting out front at the time.  Kinda strange to have it indoors now.

This will be my second year trying to overwinter the hibiscus.  So far it is doing well on the porch, putting out more blooms than it ever did outside this summer.  Here's one:

Now I just need to remember to give this plant some water. 

October 2012 Blooms

Bloom Day was Monday, I took pictures Wednesday, and am finally posting Sunday.  Oh, well.  Here's what's blooming on the Crest in mid-October.

(Wednesday was a beautiful, bright, sunny day, so the photos are a bit flat and washed out.)

Mums:  some in the ground, some I planted in a pot several years ago:

Asters.  The New York asters and smooth asters are done, but these Tatarian asters are in full bloom.  Most are flopping, but I found some photogenic straight specimens.

In the still-going category, Lespedeza is still putting on a show in the front, and the sedum have gotten rather dark:

 

And in the "what season is it?" bucket, the zinnia along the front walk still think it's summer, while the pink penstemon and strawberries have gone back to springtime.

 

In the strawberries' defense, they are 'everbearing'.  They just too a long summer hiatus.

Not too bad for October.

September 2012 Blooms

I'm a week late for Bloom Day, but I still have blooms to show off.  Early-mid September is always a busy time for me, and this year was no exception.  I knew I'd be out of town last weekend, and had ideas of snapping photos and posting early, but that never happens.  So, a week later, here we are.  But it's given the early fall flowers an extra week to refine the show, and I think it's a pretty good show.

Starting with the side garden, the tall sedum are at their pinky peak.

 

 

The peak of pink

Across the path, the variegated sedum flowers are just starting to open.  They will pink up some, but not as much as the other.

Midway down the path, Aster laevis 'Bluebird' is blooming.  This plant was confused and flowered in early summer.  But it seems to have consulted a calendar since then.

At the other end are the willow-leaf heianthus.  The tall plants (I forgot to pinch them back this spring) look rather weedy, but who can resist those sunny flowers?

Across from the helianthus, mistflower, which has taken a beating from recent storms.

The garage garden blooms include hibiscus, variegated liriope, and several tall phlox.

At the entrance to the upper garden,volunteer rudbeckia keep watch, while New england aster 'Alma Potschke' form a wall behind the tomato cages.

Also in the upper garden, Boltonia asteroides and a reblooming Stella D'Oro daylily.

The 'Fireworks' goldenrod is looking rather thin this year.

Finally, stealing the show in the front yard: Mexican bush clover (Lespedeza 'Gibraltar')

One of my favorite things about Bloom Day is that it forces me to slow down and look at the good things going on in the yard.  Now, back to my much neglected weeding.

Swallowtail (for real)

When my first swallowtail caterpillar sighting turned out to be a monarch, Samantha at Polliator Plates reminded me to go check my rue.  I've grown rue in my herb garden for six years, because I love the gray fluffy foliage, but I'd not noticed carpillars feasing there.  Sunday I took a closer look, and found one!

This one's definitely a swallowtail

Caterpillar closeup

When I returned with my camera to photograph my findings, I also found another one:


Number two

Whay does this make me so happy?  I have no idea.

In other caterpillar news,  Samantha has raised monarch butterflies from found eggs, and posted their progess here.  Fascinating stuff!

Garden (and Nature) Bloggers Saved a Butterfly

I don't know much about bugs.  Some are beneficial; some are pests.  Some can be bright and colorful; some are downright ugly; others are truly frightening.  I don't want any of them crawling on me.

I'm not very good at identifying bugs.  The one big caterpillar I know by sight is the tomato hornworm, which thankfully I haven't spotted in several years.  I did learn just recently, from a garden blog (I wish I remembered which one!), that it is the larval form of the sphinx moth.  Nifty, but I'm still going to squash the next one I find.

The other day I saw this on an onion stalk:

 A similar size and shape to a hornworm (slightly smaller), but brightly colored and rather pretty.  I might have squashed it anyway, but I remembered some Casa Mariposa posts on eastern swallowtail caterpillars, and thought this might be one.  Of course, if it were a swallowtail, shouldn't it be feasting on my parsley or carrot leaves?  What was it doing on an onion?

I came in and looked up the post I thought I remembered.  Nope, not my caterpillar.  Mine looks like this:

The caterpillar that looked like mine I'd actually seen at The Natural Capital, here.  It is a monarch caterpillar.  Ok, that's good, too.  Now I know why it wasn't on the parsley, but I don't know why it was so far from the milkweed!