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| A very confused great egret sits on the ice. |
While the swallows may return to Capistrano, the excitement around here is the great egrets and great blue herons returning to the pond behind the garden. A great egret visited and snacked on fish on Wednesday. Then the mercury plummeted and snow fell. The egret looked most disappointed when it returned on Friday and found the pond had refrozen over.
The temperature is now on the upswing again, but the frigid weather stopped many plants in their tracks, such as this Hepatica nobilis var. acuta. It was on the cusp of blooming.
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| sharped-leaved hepatica |
While it's a pretty thing, the color is too pale to make much of a show when viewed from inside the house. I think I'll move some to the patio bed.
Despite the chill, the Bergenia cordifolia 'Bressingham White' has buds forming.
The other buds I'm excited about are those of Narcissus 'Pineapple Prince'.
Newly sprouted last week are one of my favorite native wildflowers, the shooting stars.
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| Dodecatheon media |
Instead of a squirrel atrocity, last week brought a human atrocity: the kids were on spring break and boredom had settled in, so they went outside to play. When I looked outside to see what they were doing, they had completely dug up a Clematis 'Vyvyan Pennell', severing much of the roots. It hadn't been performing well in the raised bed, so last June I replaced it with Clematis 'Evipo 008' (Franziska Maria). 'Vyvyan Pennell' had such a healthy root system, I hated to send it to the compost pile, so I stuffed it into the nearest available hole in a relatively sunny spot. The hole was the former home of the kids' "Worm Cafe," where they used to dig and dump shredded leaves to feed worms. They hadn't done any digging there in over a year, so I figured it was fair game, more the fool me. When I asked why they dug it up, the response was "We thought it was a weed." A vining weed with a huge root system that was partially frozen into the ground. Right. I replanted it immediately, but I fear the damage is too great. We shall see.
Well that's all for this week. What's that? You heard something about hellebores? Yes, of course, most of the hellebores are about to bloom.
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| Helleborus niger |
or maybe this Helleborus x hybridus 'Pink Lady'.
The buds of Ivory Prince
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| Helleborus x nigerericsmithii 'Walhelivor' (Ivory Prince) |
Until next week, happy gardening!
18 comments:
At least you got a response from your kids about why they dug up the clematis. When Luna digs I don't get that satisfaction. It apprears that your garden is awakening. What fun to see the Egrets and Herons return. You know it won't be long and the warm weather will follow.
You have so many beautiful blooms to look forward to at Squirrelhaven! Hope Vyvyan P survives. Maybe she'll consider the insult a challenge & perform better than ever!
Such a nice showing Barbara. Bummer about the peony. As always, you photos are excellent and interesting. I'm a big fan.
So tantalizing! Everything was *just* about to get interesting, then went into suspended animation. I hope the weather releases them soon!
At least your kids are outside and recreating, and not behind a video game all day. I have a clematis putting out about 12" of new growth. We had a warm spell here in Kansas, of course that means a cold front to follow. I have been covering the clematis with a bucket to keep it from getting frost damage. There are about 3 species I struggle with and clematis is one of them. Someday I hope to succeed. Maybe yours will even do better. Ha!
Sorry about the crazy weather...you do have a lot to look forward to. You crack me up--comment on my post..color scheme? My color scheme...all colors are welcome, lol. I do not have a grape scented iris...you do not have a rootbeer scented iris..do I see a swap in the making?
Two steps forward, one step back, eh, MMD? It all looks great, though, and we await the Mania to come. That golden Heuchera is going to be the perfect mate when the daff opens. Lovely! :-)
Frances
Lisa - when the dog digs, you usually know why (gopher, boredom). My kids are 10 & 12, and I've never had them dig out large weeds. I guess this was a good learning experience for the girl, who is demanding her own prime real estate this year for a garden.
Cindy - Who knows, it's entirely possible.
Thanks, Helen.
Diane - just think how beautiful it would be outside now if the weather had held.
Greggo - I don't protect my Clematis at all. Maybe you should try the Type III late large flowered or Viticellas. You just cut those back to about a foot in spring and they do the rest.
Darla - I'll be happy to send you some of my Iris. It's the variegated one with the purple blooms. I can't help having a color scheme, I'm very color sensitive.
Frances - I hope the Heuchera & the daffodils look good together. It will be interesting, as there's nothing else there anymore to make peace with warring colors since the squirrels ate all the 'Alba Coerula Oculata' tulips.
I hope you get warm weather soon Barb...just enough to let you ease back into gardening but not so much that you injure that foot by too much too soon :) I'm looking forward to the hellebore photos soon!
Pretty much the same here in my garden. I hear rumors of milder weather for the upper Midwest by the weekend. All the flowers will pop at once! Enjoy! Lovely photos! You have a wonderful Hellebore collection!
You are further along than I am. How wonderful to have those birds almost in your backyard!
Thanks for the lovely post with your emerging pretties. I love the Thalictrum photo.
And I too live in wait for garden mishaps... more likely the girls pulling off every flower from the small bunch blooming. Luckily we have a carpet of C. tommasinianus so we can all be happy this month.
Thanks!
Julie
Gorgeous photos! Documenting spring is so very fascinating each and every year. Thank you for sharing!
Pond is still frozen, snowdrops and a few crocus are all that's showing here. We are two weeks behind where we were last year at this time, so it's nice to see something happening close enough to here that I can at least imagine spring will arrive in Wisconsin soon!
Katherine Hodgkins is a delicate beauty isn't she. I applaud your kids for their 'Worm Cafe' and playing in the dirt. Sacrifices must be made. I do hope clem survives though. Spring is slow this year.
You've got to give the kids points for trying to help you out by pulling up what they thought was a weed. My three-year-old grandson decided the other day that it was fun to stomp on all the blooming crocuses that I randomly planted in a patch of lawn:)
Things seem to have stalled here, too, with the return of the cold, but I'm so excited to see more than one hellebore blooming this year.
Thanks, Leslie. It seems like the garden and my foot are apace.
PlantsPostings - LOL, you have no idea; this is just a sample of my hellebores.
Kathy - after seeing no birds for weeks during the winter, it's so entertaining to sit at the dining room table and watch the show.
Julie - I try to think of the mishaps as learning experiences; for the kids as what not to do, for me in patience.
Jan Green - thanks! I find spring the easiest season to document: no mosquitoes, no hornets, and tolerable cold.
Ms Wis. - I think spring was running a little early last year and we got spoiled. The weather's coming around, but we have to remember that it always snows at least once in April.
Layanee - I have to find them a new spot to dig. Who'd think tweens would enjoy digging so much. Too bad they're never in the mood when I'm planting shrubs.
Rose - I guess as a grandma, you have to say "Isn't he cute?"
I head something similar tonight while with some of my local gardening friends. One of their husbands had dug up a "dead root" that he found near a fence... Oh, well. Perhaps your clematis will be all the stronger for its recent challenge! ;-) Look at your helebores!!! I found a few buds on one of mine this afternoon. Yea, Spring!
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