Friday, May 14, 2010

Morning Garden Walk

I am so confused about the season and time of year. Tomorrow is our official date to safely plant tender herbs, flowers, and vegetables, yet we've had some very cold nights in the past week. On the other hand, my garden seems to think it is much later than mid-May. The Roman Chamomile is going to town, but the German is still pretty green mats of foliage.
The spicy pinks are spreading around the front edge of the garden.
Beautiful, vibrant irises laze against the red foliage of a barberry bush.
Chives provide the lone color in the culinary herb border at the moment, but they'll soon be joined by others.
A late blooming variety of lilac is blooming. It usually blooms in mid-June.
Although this is golden elderberry (just the leaves - the berries are large as small blueberries, less sweet than the canadensis, and I rarely use them), and it always blooms and fruits early - this is a record.
Currants are starting to get the faintest blush of pink. Birds sit on the fence above them. I think I'll have to fight for them....
Mom called these bluets, but I don't think that's what they are. When I embroidered a lot, this type of flower was often depicted in the early American samplers and I loved to add them to my works. You'd think I'd know what they are, but so far I've been too lazy to look it up. Maybe centauria?
A fancy variety of broom, these blossoms are 3 to 4 times larger than their wild cousin.
A nice healthy valerian plant sprung up across the driveway from the mother plant. Again, this seems a might early to me.
There is a ton of weeding to do, and then perhaps I'll go pick up the plants that are on order over at Cloverleaf and get them in the ground.
This has been a beautiful spring so far...

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's me herb! That is, indeed a centauria (cornflower)...or perennial batchelor buttons. And they spread like crazy. I'm so envious! I've got stuff coming up, but we've had such cold weather. I even had hollyhocks return this year, and they never last year to year this far north. Can't wait to get out there though.

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