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| Narcissus 'Small Talk' in front of the sole surviving 'Tete-et-Tete' |
It's the most wonderful part of spring, and I'm having trouble not spending all day in the garden. Yesterday, I broke a sweat for the first time this year. The mercury soared to 84F/28.9C, which is 20 degrees above average. The heat moved the garden over the line from early spring to mid-spring. All the winter aconites (
Eranthis), bulbous irises (
Iris reticulata,
I. histroides) and snowdrops (
Galanthus elwesii) are done blooming, as are all the crocuses in the back garden. I wasn't thrilled with it, but the garden made the most of it, with growth surging so quickly changes could be seen every few hours.
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| Sanguinaria canadensis at dawn |
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| mid-morning |
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| afternoon |
The
Sanguinaria canadensis (single bloodroot) are in full bloom in the sunnier parts of the woodland garden. Joining them are my favorite wildflowers, the little rue anemones (
Thalictrum thalictroides a/k/a
Anemonella thalictroides).
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| Thalictrum thalictroides rosea |
Another favorite native wildflower,
Caulophyllum thalictroides sprouted last week.
The first bloom opened today (sorry, no picture yet).
Hepatica nobilis var. acuta, the sharp-leaved hepatica, is in full bloom.
The round-leaved hepatica,
H. nobilis var. obtusa, is blooming too.
Nearly all the hellebores are in bloom now. Here's my current favorite,
Helleborus x hybridus 'Ballerina'.
I see the squirrels with peanuts nearly every day, but I've never seen the chipmunk with one.
The chipmunk tried to get the peanut into the hole in the patio, but after several tries, it realized the peanut wouldn't fit. The chipmunk ran off, presumably to try the back door of its home.
And now, more daffodils.
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| Narcissus 'February Silver', clearly not living up to its name |
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| Narcissus 'Ice Follies' |
Stay tuned; next week will feature the Forsythia, the
Caulophyllum and maybe a first for Squirrelhaven.
14 comments:
It all looks lovely, MMD! Those high temps do move the garden along, much too fast for us too. Better keep the camera at the ready at all times! Your stands of wildflowers are envy provoking! :-)
Frances
Isn't it the most exciting time of year. With the temps soaring it does spur on spring. You can almost see the garden transform in front of your eyes. Go in for lunch and then back out to see what else has started blooming.
I love Spring and the ephemerals are such a delight! Love, love, love Thalictrum thalictroides rosea! Must add it to the list! I can so see why Ballarina is a favorite hellebore~gail
Glorious! It never ceases to amaze me how quickly the garden can respond to a little warm sun - I sometimes feel as if I am being ambushed, things change so quickly. Thank you for the introduction to Sanguinaria canadensis, a new one on me, but lovely. Your hellebore is gorgeous - as are your photographs, but then they always are. Love the chipmunk, even if he is clearly short of a few smarts!
Spring is definitely in full swing there! Just lovely!
Spring is a wonderful time of year but too short lived in my book. The Chipmunk’s got to my parents peanuts and stashed them all over the place. They had piled the bottom of the grill with peanuts and my mom did not know they were there. When she fire up the grill, it caught on fire. After their house was flooded last year, we found a drawer in the garage so full of them that the drawer would not open. We thought it was stuck from swelling the wood from the water. We found a bit of humor in the middle of the flood…
Yea, Spring. :-) I like the idea of showing a week in retrospect. I can never keep up with my photos... esp. at this time of year! Cute chipmunk. We have TOOO many of them, however.
Those hepaticas are beautiful! It's been fun to watch the changes in a matter of hours!
Your garden is really looking lovely, MMD. I love the way you captured the progress of the bloodroot in a day's time. The last few days it has seemed as if everything is sprouting up all at once. Monday morning I was surprised to see the first tulip open...and then discovered there were more all over! We should all have quite a show for Bloom Day this week.
Daffodils are my spring favs. I love looking at your spring posts-almost nothing I can grow here so I'm fascinated with it all. I do have some hellebores - very sad this year - yours is gorgeous. And I know he probably bothers you, but your chipmunk is very cute!
Skeeter - this chipmunk is much better behaved. I know they can be a bit of a menace.
Shady - there is no way I can keep up with all of my photos now. That's what I do in the winter.
Diana - I do like my chipmunk. It's the squirrels who are my nemsises.
Thank you for the kind comments on my blog. I have enjoyed browsing through your posts, and laughed at the involuntary plantslaughter page - I think my list is much longer than yours. I never know what is going to take off and thrive and what will be decimated by our weather. Zone 5 gardening is a challenge, but the Spring blooms are so rewarding. This week has been a whirlwind of emergence. Nice to meet you, and happy digging in the dirt, and happy reading as well.
Mel.
wonderful pictures. I have never been successful with Hepatica and your pictures are SO enticing. That hot spell we had really moved the garden forward.... good thing daffodils bloom in stages. My spring garden just coming into full bloom. The chipmunk is cute - glad he is eating peanuts... although we all know he snacks on bulbs^^
Funny little chipmunk! I have gotten behind as always. I need to get to bed, so I will just ask you instead of trying to find the post where you say where you are moving to. I hope you have some nice garden space there.
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