A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood

What an absolutely glorious day! Temps in the 70s with a light breeze. And I have flowers blooming to prove it.

The Corydalis 'Blackberry Wine' is pretty much in full bloom, and I now have at least 3 clumps. Maybe a couple of other spots of it. I'll be happy to have this spread because the leaves die back in summer so there is plenty of space for other things to fill in.

Just to complete the report, this is as good as that one lonely regular hyacinth is going to get. However, I see that there are a couple of other clumps of leaves. Maybe they will do something. I keep hoping for that, but in all honesty, they never do. They probably don't like sand. I also moved the three crocus that were in the yard to this flower bed.

The rock garden is starting to come alive! There are blue grape hyacinth all over the place. Also an OK thing because those leaves also die back.

A few violets are starting to open. I pretty much let them bloom and fill in wherever. They self seed all over, but they are easily ripped out if they get too aggressive.

The 'Kaydee' daffodils are in full bloom. Yes, the trumpets are sort of a salmon color. These are medium size- not miniature, but not full size, either.

And finally, the first photo shot of trying to show off mixed colors. The white grape hyacinth, violets in the middle and the 'Gold Nugget' Sempervivum behind that.

I worked on most projects, did errands, fixed the nylon screen door for the deck (ahh- a nice breeze), put out the bird bath

The front garden bed is pretty much cleaned up for the spring. It was amazingly easier than other years because I got it in good shape last year. I also started through the rock garden. I'm starting later than last year, but everything seems to be about a week later.

Of course, I see that some plants lived and some didn't. I'll post the body count as it becomes certain.

See Festival in Yellow

Purple Promises

So many purple beauties that are ALMOST blooming! We actually got some sun today, but it wasn't quite enough to make this open. This is a giant crocus- must be one my mom gave me. I know that when I did some cleanup in this flower bed last fall there was an odd bulb I could not identify. Maybe this is it, although I still don't think it's the right shape.

Here's another gift from my mom from probably the 1980s, maybe late 70s. I don't know if this will do much or not. Common hyacinths don't last forever. This poor thing has been moved multiple times, but it's actually trying to bloom this year, even though it doesn't look very full. I'll take it!

The 'Blackberry Wine' corydalis is just starting to bloom. It hasn't spread for me very much, but it has, at least, refused to die.

OK, I'm cheating a little on this. It's more blue than purple, but one of the common primrose is blooming nicely. There are several other patches. We'll see if they bloom this year. I moved a lot of them last fall. These may have been a gift from Loretta, or maybe I bought it. I've killed a few.

We are supposed to get even more rain for the next two days. If you are in Michigan, you know that there is flooding and serious washouts all over the state, imminent dam failures with evacuations possible. So... these promises might get drowned or broken so I decided to post before they really bloom.

I was hoping to get in a moderate walk before bell practice, but only managed a short one. Better than nothing, eh? Shopping, errands.

Miles walked in 2026: 142.9

Methodist Trails: 1.7 miles

See Flower Friends

Lots of Color!

 Right now, I am truly thrilled with how the rock garden is looking. Sure there are still bare spots, but after only two years of trying to bring it back to life on a budget, I'm feeling as if this might be something I can make happen and end up with it looking really nice.

That said, a few of these pictures are not in the rock garden, but I'll tell you which ones.

All these photos are staged. Not that I moved anything around except the camera, but I did work at trying to get a nice angle to capture the most different colors in one shot.

This one is the donkeytail (yellow) with pink moss phlox behind and above it. One grape hyacinth and one violet snuck into the corners.

I showed you this same view a few days ago, but it's much better now. The Erlicheer daffodils are in full bloom, and more of the grape hyacinths have opened.

Still in the rock garden... I purposely left a lot of common violets because they can nicely fill in spaces both with spring color and greens later. They are starting to bloom, and so is the moss phlox behind them. I used to have four colors of moss phlox- blue, white, this pink, and a candystripe one. So far all I'm seeing this year is pink, but it's early yet.

One more picture from the rock garden. Even though there is bare dirt between these two plants, I'm calling this a huge success. In the lower part is 'Firecracker' Sedum that I showed you more than once last year. The sedums are just starting to fill in and get their summer colors. This will spread even more as the season goes on, but the whole plant has only been in place for one year.

Above it, with the little purple flowers is a rock cress. I bought and planted a little 3" pot of this last year while holding my breath. It should be a perfect rock garden plant, but I have previously killed a couple of them. But look at it! I know there is nothing for scale, but it has definitely grown, even though it didn't look all that happy last fall. And, much to my surprise, it's blooming! Maybe it will even get more blossoms, but I took a picture now so I wouldn't miss it. As these two plants fill in the space better, there won't be that ugly stripe of bare dirt.

Now we will move to other garden spaces. This is in the front flower bed, and again I've shown you part of this already this year. However, now we have not only common blue primrose, with the 'Blackberry Wine' corydalis behind it, but we can add the yellow cowslip primrose, the tall one behind the corydalis. I moved all the primroses again last fall, so I'm pleased they tolerated it well.

Here's a daffodil that I'm not sure is a favorite, but I have lots of it, and I do enjoy the fact that it's a little different. This is Narcissus delnashaugh. Before it opens it looks as if it's going to be yellow and white, and then develops this peachy color. I show you this most every year, but it's very reliable.

And the last for today is another favorite of mine. This is the pure white Mt. Hood daffodil. They are also quite large.

I spent a lot of today getting ready for something that will happen tomorrow and Friday. I'll be blogging early tomorrow, and will tell you what I'm doing then!

Other than that... you know the drill. I edited, I wrote one of my columns, I did errands, I puttered.

See Next Round of Color

A Few Notes from the Rock Garden

 The 'Autumn Joy' sedum still isn't in full bloom, but it looks like it's going to be a dusky deep pink. The other tall sedum, the one with the light purple blossoms is still lovely.

Calico asters have started coming up along the edge of the rock garden, and they are going to get to stay. I think that would look nice if they would establish themselves.

This is the last of the plants I bought at the Garden Club sale. It's another ice plant. This one is 'Granita Orange.' It may be a little less hardy than the other two, but I guess I'll know in the spring. I tore out some of the Sedum sexangulare to put it in. There's way too much of the other.

Finally, just something I never noticed before. I'm pretty sure these are grape hyacinths. They are sprinkled hither and yon all over the rock garden. But I didn't realize they can put up leaves in the fall if the weather is mild. It doesn't hurt them at all. Actually, I'm glad to see some here, because I also added some crocus bulbs to this space earlier this summer. Those should look nice together in the spring.

In other news: I finished marking the edits to How to Hike... Tomorrow, I'll start actually making changes in the file. I have one more week to get this done without a fee. Shouldn't be a problem.

I walked to the Post Office.

Miles walked in 2024: 439

See Sunshine Between the Sprinkles

Hymn of Promise

 We will be playing "Hymn of Promise" in bell choir on Sunday. It's great in midwinter or spring.

In the bulb there is a flower; in the seed, an apple tree;
In cocoons, a hidden promise: butterflies will soon be free!
In the cold and snow of winter there’s a spring that waits to be,
Unrevealed until its season, something God alone can see.

The red maples are showing off their springtime red flowers. These are one of my favorite spring trees.

The church planter is looking nice with daffodils and hyacinths

I am a little sorry to tell you about this last tree, although it's about to burst in blossom. And it has at least 10 friends. I'm pretty sure these are Bradford Pear, Pyrus calleryana. They were brought to the US in the 1960s as an ornamental tree, but they out-compete a lot of native trees and revert to a brittle, thorny tree that naturalizes in woodlands. They are considered a real no-no farther south, and are now banned in a number of states. Maybe I can confirm this on Sunday. The flowers should have an unpleasant odor if it's this pear.

Even though it was nice out, I worked hard on editing and writing. I have so much to do, and Saturday and Sunday I did nothing on these projects.

I guess if there's an upside to the writing, I have finally figured out a format for the campsite list that seems to work with all the options, and I can organize it in a spreadsheet to double check the mileages. I feel as if this is going a little faster now, which would be really good.

See A Riot of Daffs