A Walk on a Cold Day in April

Early Morning — April 26

 
I love after-daybreak, when the sun is just into the tree canopy, sparing one from shading their eyes while enjoying the beauty of another spring morning following a day of off and on rain. 
 
There’s a series of snapping sounds causing me to turn my head and watch.  A Robin is in hot pursuit, wings sharply flicking at the rear of a zigzagging large Grey Squirrel fleeing across the garden.  I believe there must be a nest nearby.
 
As things calm down, mother Grey Squirrel and her three offspring continue their outing in the garden, nosing around the grounds, eating what is edible.  The young have already learned to master the swinging bird feeder.  I sigh when they empty it a bit, but it’s their garden also, so I enjoy watching the young ones in their precarious journey of growing up, as only a few ever seem to make it to adulthood.
 
The gardens appear lush and weedy, but we shall ignore the interlopers and embrace beauty in bloom.  ‘My Mary’ Azalea — last week she was with a fragrance that drifted on warm breezes to greet me with pleasant sensations as I passed by.  After much conversation with myself, I gave up.  I couldn't quite compare it to anything else.  It just was.  When it is cold, as today is, the fragrance seems to hide away.

 
Byzantine Gladiolus, is void of fragrance, but an exciting treat for the eyes with her orchid-like flowers in the prairie garden.  She’s an old beauty (Year 1629) from the Mediterranean area.  A demure size by today’s standards, and she loves the sunny south side of the house.  She usually gets nicked by a late frost that warps her new leaves; then she sits and waits.   Eventually she springs back into action, sprouting new leaves and sending up those lovely herringbone patterned long flower buds bending over at the top.   One by one buds open from bottom to top in a combination of scarlet upper petals and magenta lower petals with white whiskers.  She's a delight.
 
Today’s not much of a day for staying long in the gardens.  It’s a day for a nice cup of steamy hot chocolate as I curl up in my cozy arm chair that loves me so much, and watch another episode of that “Danish Downton-by-the-sea” series titled ‘Seaside Hotel’.  

'My Mary' Azalea

Introduced by George Beasley of Georgia, and named after his wife.

Eventually grows about 6' tall, 

which it has accomplished in its large container on the patio.

All parts are poisonous if you have a desire to munch a bit.

It has problems with Lace Bugs if not kept moist enough to prevent stress.

Spent Azalea flower sliding down the pistil and stamens to fall to the ground.

Maybe a type of Crustose Lichens

Byzantine Gladiolus, Year 1629

Looks a bit different from indoors to outdoors.

It makes a terrible cut plant.

Flower colors are much prettier outdoors with lots of sun.

Early Afternoon — April 27

It’s a welcomed event of sorts, just relaxing on the back deck in the new swivel rocker chairs, although I’m so dainty I can barely budge mine into even a hint of a tilt.  I watch, a little perturbed, as Vic rocks away with the greatest of ease.  Even though it’s light jacket weather, the change from inside television to outside bird song is refreshing.

I was taken by surprise earlier this day when Vic actually produced a pair of binoculars and intensely began viewing the Grey Owl Juniper through the living room window from the couch.  He declared with alarm that a squirrel was tearing a bird’s nest apart.    I was a little skeptical, but we were instantly on a mission to save a bird’s nest that was not savable if it indeed was being ripped to shreds.

After trampling the garden a bit, we could see nothing but a big junction of branches with no nest in site.  Back in the house, I notice the horror of all horrors!!!  A tick merrily making its way up my shirt front in search of an easy meal.  He was flushed down that vortex of unholy water to kingdom come, but you know how it is with these happenings… one feels pin pricks on their skin for the rest of the day causing multiple checks in the mirror until bedtime.

Vic continued watching the junction of branches with his binoculars, saying something was still out there.  I watched next, and a blur flew into the opening and two large baby bird heads stretched up over the branch with mouths wide open for worms.  I immediately thought of the robin the day before.  It was confirmed as a robin after it flew in and out a few times.  That was our unexpected excitement for the day.

Back at the present time, our discussion on the back deck turns to identifying the fragrance of ‘My Mary’ Azalea, mostly because I’m the one keeping any kind of conversation going while we eat quiche bought from a little French restaurant earlier in the day.  After testing the smell a few times, we agree it’s mostly vanilla with a hint of cloves.  Conversation is light…mostly about childhood memories, until the chilly breezes of late afternoon chase us inside.

Carex grayi, Grey Sedge

Long spike is the staminate (male)

Mace ball type spike below is the pistillate (female)

This native plant is quite aggressive in my gardens with all the rains.

North America Wild Hyacinth

White Clover, Trifolium repens

*

I feel, after much hardship, 

that eradicating a weed from my garden isn't practical. 

Managing the weed the year before is more practical, 

although in the rush of the  greening of spring,

they all break back out of jail :(

*

I have actually used a herbicide on this little beauty in the gardens,

as it's impossible to pull up all the roots.

Common Ninebark, Physocarpus opulifolius

*

I've limbed mine up a bit to remove aggressive weeds underneath,

so it is vase shaped instead of ball shaped.

The bark has become shaggy over the years, 

giving it appeal when not blooming.

It's in full bloom now, 

but the promise of ticks prevents me from exploring it further.

Lyreleaf Sage, Salvia lyrata 

Flowers and seeds below that have formed

*

Some consider this an aggressive native, 

but it has never become a problem.

I move new plants that pop up to areas where I need them.

It lives in sun, shade, wet, dry … what's not to love.

Allegheny Spurge, Pachysandra procumbens

growing around 'Tokudama' Hosta which is now considered a cultivar.

The Hosta was originally discovered in 1860 in Nagasaki, Japan 

in the garden of  Von Siebold.  

It has never been found as a colony in the wild.  

Monarda bradburiana, Beebalm-Eastern, Bergamot

One lousy out-of-focus bug … what gives? 

Clematis 'Arabella'

All Day — April 28

Nothing, except to write this post, work on the photos, and chill out.  I finally spent time in my studio and finished setting up my laptop.  Still working on adding Norton, Microsoft Office, and Adobe Photoshop.  Don't hold your breath!  I seem to have only one speed that never gets out of first gear.  

Take care, and goodnight or good morning or good day or good grief or …

Finally! — April 29

Publishing...then out to the gardens to mingle among the ticks and weeds.

This Post is Linked to:

Saturday's Critters

My Corner of the World

Just a bit of spring that has sprung upon us.

 

Virginia Bluebells after the storm

stripped of some of their petticoats 

My dirt bucket...too heavy to carry,

topped with a bird feeder cover to escape the storms.  

Tiny Black Beetle with an incomplete wing cover. 

I tried to identify it without any success.  

Little Old Ladies ready to call it quits for another year

This very old species of iris has smaller flowers that never flop over.

It has a grape candy fragrance.

Pallida Dalmatica Iris

Purchased online from Old House Gardens

* 

Maybe I get away with this because I have so much biodiversity in my gardens,

but I never clean up old iris leaves or prune them.  I let them compost in place.

 They've done just fine since I started my gardens.

These clematis are vines, but grow along the ground.

Eastern Red Columbine

Stepping into the rear fence line garden bed, with one foot in the bed and one foot still on the pathway, I grab a handful of that crap awful Cleaver Plant and yank it out, rolling its Velcro like leaves and stems into a sticky green ball.  Stepping back out, my shoe imprint quickly fills with water seeping in from the overly saturated clay soil.  A vision happening plentifully these days.

Its thunderstorm season, a joke of sorts, since we seem to have relief from thunderstorms only in winter, when snow, sleet, and freezing rains takes their place.  The last series of thunderstorms relieved the Blackhaw Viburnum of most of its flower petals, so it’s a guess right now as to how many of the flowers were actually pollinated.  The straight line winds were quite violent for about ten minutes until it calmed down a bit, then only pounding rain and intense lightning filled the heavens. 

The closed umbrella with its 70 pound steel stand were both blown over as if they were but a feather, and the old struggling White Ash Tree’s smaller branches littered the ground.  It smells swampy today as the brown mulch of leaves is covered in soupy clay muck.  Takes talent to plant in all this mushiness, or so I tell myself — but craziness is perhaps the more appropriate word.  I’ll wait a few days and see how many more plants can be planted before a new storm pulverized the lumpy clay soil into submission around them. 

Last week I noticed a titmouse fly into the woodpecker box while another one perched for some time facing inward at the hole.  One may hope they have chosen to nest there.  The huge, graceful, aging Beautyberry with its white berries, was removed the same time as the female Persimmon tree, as it kept looking rattier and rattier; but she did leave two small plants in the pathway as her legacy.  I’ve tried to move a Beautyberry before, and a dead plant forevermore was the result.

This time, last of February, while still dormant, they were dug and moved into the garden with fingers crossed that they would survive.  I’m happy to announce they both are forming leaf buds.  Two Appalachian Mock-Orange, Philadelphus inodorus plants, found at an obscure nursery online in South Carolina, were planted and surrounded by rabbit wire cages for at least this year.  I have faith I’ll still be around when they mature.  We’ll see.

Over two dozen invasive baby Bush Honeysuckles have been pulled from the garden, yet today I have found more.  Baby Privets and Dandelions are also a continuous problem.  We are overrun this spring.  When looking through the windows in comfort, I see lushness that calms the mind and soul.  When stepping out into all that lushness, the dark side of invasive plants buries me in work.  I pretty well let nonaggressive “weeds” have a field day out there to give myself some rest.

It would be nice if I could see where sky meets earth, but buried deep in Suburbia Central, all I see north, east, south, and west are horizons filled with rooftops.  The zenith down to the rooftops of the sky today is an icy grey blue dome of cloud-wrap without definition.  It conjures up a sense of despair until one looks to the garden below and the jewels that are blooming there.  

I wish you a Happy Spring or Autumn, wherever you may be!      

   

True botanica flowers of a flowering dogwood are the green centers.

The white petals are actually bracts, which are modified leaves.

Solomon Seal leaves uncurling

Azalea 'My Mary' flower buds

Lyreleaf Sage

North American Wild Hyacinth

Golden Alexander's

Shooting Star, Dodecatheon meadia

Type of Crane Fly, I think.

Prairie Trillium

My Trilliums were dug out of the wildflower garden 

at Bledsoe Creek State Park when it was going to be demolished

for a new visitor's center.

I was hoping my back yard was mature enough by that time

to support them.

They have done well, even multiplying.  

Christmas Fern

I never clean the garden of old fern leaves.

They disintegrate to fertilize after the new ones cover them up. 

Fleabane with what I think is a female March Fly

Smaller eyes and body than the male

I love this "weed".  It is so beautiful, but eventually they become quite raggedy,

and are removed after they have dropped seed. 

Closing up at end of day

Male March Fly

There are two many species of these to guess which one this is.

Battered about quite a bit by the rain, I suppose,

as he was having a difficult time walking.

Probably the only reason he was slow enough for me to photograph.

Blackhaw Viburnum

This flower looks as if it's falling, but it isn't.

Probably a spider's thread.

Flowers knocked to the ground by fierce winds during thunderstorm.

This post is linked to:

My Corner of the World

Saturday's Critters