Sunday, April 27, 2008

MAY PHOENIX RISE

m. ruby bud rises like a phoenix from flowers pastm. daybreak is beautiful even after petals are shed akebia flowers parachute from cherry espalier close up of cherry espalier with akebia buds

EPIMEDIUMS - A WONDERFUL MOTHER'S DAY GIFT

yet another post about epimediums! but here i make my plea that someone buy their mother one of these wonderful plants for the shade garden. if my hubs is reading, i would like 'bandit' from darrell probst.

this one is crimson queen... the flowers are more than an inch acrosshere is a small white one, with an oak leaf for scaleanother white one, wish i had the name of ita common red epimedium, which, in addition to the dime-sized red flowers, has red edging on the new foliage, which is so pretty en masse

APRIL COLORS CLOSE-UP

omphalodes, one of my favorite woodland flowers, is about the diameter of a pencil eraser the flowering almond is unusually vivid this year i was excited to see this daff back-lit by the sun
columbine are just openingeveryone must have bleeding hearts! here they dangle in front of variegated solomon's seal.

WHITE REDBUD GLOWS

in the north garden morning sun
at its foot is ligularia desdemona and a double woodland anemone...whip out the macro, these flowers are about the size of a dime...what i like about redbuds is that they flower from the bark; here is the base of mine...
ah spring!

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

MIKE TYSON BIT MY SQUIRREL

this fella must have mixed it up with the mike tyson of squirrels

EMERGENT WOODLAND GARDEN

this is my favorite garden with variegated solomon's seal, epimediums, vancouveria, maiden hair fern, nectaroscordium, hostas, brunnera, and more. you may want to click on the picture to enlarge and see detail.

WHIPPET EGG

luna doing her egg impression - we are having an April drought so i had to water today!

Saturday, April 19, 2008

DAYBREAK'S FIRST BLOOM

i planted m. daybreak just last year, and here it is blooming with flowers about as tall as my hand...what's pretty about daybreak is the multiple greens and pinks in the flowers...
here is my little daybreak...
camellia spring promise, which i didn't get around to posting last weekcamellia april dawn, one of my favorites
leonard messel is just done blooming, but the top looked very pretty today...

ORANGE SPRINGTIME

daff tahiti...poeticus...
daffs in the north garden, curly quince behind them on the left...
epimedium orange king...
can't remember which narcissus this is... do you know?


RUBY, RUBY, RUBY

ruby is the top reason my favorite tree is the magnolia. just look at these flowers!all i can say, is "wowie!"
cow bird, how did you sneak into this post? brood parasite becomes blog parasite?
this photo just does not do it justice, but here is the whole tree, not yet in full bloom. some of the buds had freeze damage on one side:
the flowers are larger than my hand!!!!!!

Sunday, April 13, 2008

WHIPPET COWBIRD ORANGERIE DAFF

i'm traveling this week on business, and have taken a load of pictures so i can post while away.

here is luna, our whippet, in her favorite spot ha, i finally got you mr. cowbird, you brood parasite, you!
the orangerie daffs are blooming en masse, i'll take another pic of the group later

Friday, April 11, 2008

IN THE PINK

magnolia 'leonard messel' is blooming a bit sparsely this yeari've found 3 praying mantis egg cases in the garden, this one on a budding almond
bought a pieris japonica 'dorothy wycoff' for the front yard


Thursday, April 10, 2008

HEALTHY CAMERA & BROOD PARASITE

my camera is finally fixed and the birds were showing off for me. i have moved some plants outdoors - a passion flower, orange, banana and jasmine. tomorrow i'll have some garden pictures to post.i have been seeing male and female cowbirds for the first time ever. the male, with its distinct brown head and black iridescent body, was too quick for me today. this female is probably going to lay her eggs in another bird's nest, where its larger hatchlings will likely kill the others. cowbirds are the only brood parasites in our area.

Sunday, April 06, 2008

APRIL SCANNED

two more weeks and i get my camera back!
meanwhile, another scan:

Wednesday, April 02, 2008

MAINE SNOW REPORT

these pictures come from friends of family, of a freight train stuck in a snowdrift along the montreal, maine and atlantic railway line in grand isle, maine, reported by the bangor daily news last saturday. i have been unable to find the article, but the pictures were taken by a local woman.

ok, i'm happy to have my few shivering daffs for the moment!!!!

Tuesday, April 01, 2008

APRIL GARDENFOOL'S DAY

happy april gardenfool's day! what is this flower? it's an upside-down epimedium acuminatum, upside-down so that it looks like a fool's hat! this photo was brazenly borrowed from the university of british columbia, vancouver, botanical garden website.

my favorite epimedium resource is darrell probst, who discovers new epimediums from china.