a deck full of flowers

Ok, so I didn’t leave them there, but they looked pretty all lined up waiting to be planted.

This gorgeous spring weather that has finally arrived, and looks to be staying, had me in the garden deciding on annuals to plant. Though the last 2 nights were dancing around the freezing mark, thankfully didn’t go that low and everything in the garden was just fine. This long weekend is supposed to be just lovely and feeling close to 30 C. So, I did a little annual flower shopping yesterday and came home with 3 yellow calibrachoa, 6 coral pink hybrid dahlias, 2 carry baskets of mixed hybrid dahlias – 6 in each, 2 purple bicolour dahlias, 1 dark night dahlia, and 3 fame yellow petunias. Maybe I’m getting impatient waiting for my dahlias to bloom [of the ones I started over winter, I planted them in the garden a few days ago] which could be the reason for my large dahlia purchase.
I took out the violas I had planted in the flower boxes back in April that are along the porch to put in another garden, and used some dahlias and calibrachoa to fill the empty boxes.

Some of the mixed dahlias went into a pot for the porch and everything else I planted in the garden. Here is a closer look at the mixed dahlias and the purple bicolour dahlia with the dark night dahlia in the background.

I think I’ll redo the urn on our walkway which still has the lovely looking violas and pansies, but I want something more summery. I consider the violas and pansies for spring so by the end of this month I’ll probably fill it with petunias. I really like the fame yellow petunias I planted in the front of the garden bed, so it looks like a trip back to the garden centre for those it will be.

lovely trillium

They cover a wide area of my backyard just like the bloodroot when they were in bloom. I notice out here in the country part of town that everyone has trillium in their wooded part of the yard. Now I see why our province flower is the trillium – these flowers are everywhere in the spring. And they are just lovely surrounding our wood shed.

She must be the queen with her head held high. This one was about a foot tall. Sorry these photos aren’t great, I took them in the late evening.

From Wikipedia –

While it is a popular belief that it is illegal to pick the common Trillium grandiflorum (white trillium) in Ontario, in reality they are only protected in provincial parks and land owned by conservation authorities. However, the rare Trillium flexipes (drooping trillium) is protected by law in Ontario, because of its very small Canadian population.

A white trillium serves as the emblem and official flower of the Canadian province of Ontario. It is an official symbol of the Government of Ontario. The large white trillium is the official wildflower of Ohio.

another discovery

There seems to be a lot of interesting things growing in my backyard that I never knew about until this spring. I was walking in the wooded area of our lot to get to the shed where I now keep all my gardening supplies and came across this white flower.

My first thought is Trillium, but I really don’t know for sure. There are quite a few of these, though none of the flowers are open more than the one in the picture. Most still have just the flower bud.

I also found several hostas leafing out [some appear to have thin, dark green leaves and some appear to have large, light green leaves] that I’m very tempted to move to the garden. Hey, who doesn’t love a free hosta !

blooming in the garden

Double tulips. These were in a Peter Cottontail mix with dark pink, white and white with slight yellow and pink markings.

Akebono tulip. These tulips have a red outline along the petals and this is the first one to open up.

Dasystemon Tarda mini botanical tulips.

Turkestanica mini botanical tulips.

The opening of Obdam double narcissus.

Ruffled pansies planted among the tulips and narcissi.

Rhododendron in full bloom.

A pansy keeping the leaves of Ivory Queen allium company.

rhododendron blooming [and one dead?]

I just love rhododendrons and azaleas in bloom. Their stunning flowers in a rainbow of colours are very much welcomed in early spring. They remind me of little girls dresses or tutus dancing about the leaves. I have two rhododendrons – one is a PJM compacta and the other is Patty Bee. Both stay small in height at around 2 feet. My compacta is starting to bloom and has a lovely purple-pink tutu, I mean colour. It was planted last fall so this is the first time seeing it in bloom.

Then there is Patty Bee… she looks likes she was seriously lacking moisture now that I really look at the picture. I have been out watering a few times since the ground has thawed, but the leaves were already brown at that point.

This browning colour started around January/February. I’m pretty sure the shrub is dead. The buds don’t show any signs of opening soon and the leaves are very crispy. I’m not sure if I should dig it up or if I should get some rhododendron food and try to nurse it back to health ? If that’s even possible that this point. I was looking forward to seeing the creamy lemon blooms this year.
When I planted these rhododendrons I was a little worried about the fact that they perform best when they live in acidic soil which I do not have for these gardens. Last fall I tried mulching them with pine needles hoping that would provide enough acidity for them, but I think that takes a few years before it does anything to the soil and needs to be replenished every so often. Plus, I have these shrubs in a garden that is open which means they get the wind and a lot of sun. This past winter probably didn’t help things either.

Anyhoo, I believe Patty Bee has died on me. If anyone has any knowledge on these shrubs I’d love to hear what you think before I dig it out of the garden.

the glory of chionodoxa forbesii

Chionodoxa forbesii alba or also called Glory of the Snow.
I bought just 10 of these bulbs last fall to try out and I love their delicate white flowers. This will be one that I’ll plant more of this fall. Maybe in small clusters throughout the gardens, though they do self-seed freely to form colonies and a single mature corm can produce as many as 10 flowers, so I probably shouldn’t go crazy and plant 100 more bulbs. They are also recommended for rock gardens, but I have these bulbs planted near daylilies so when those leaf out they will hide the dying foliage in the summer of the forbesii albas.

The more wild and common chionodoxa forbesii has blue flowers. Just as sweet as the alba, but there is something about the white star-like flowers that make them so attractive and compliment all spring colours in the garden. Certainly a lovely flower.

early spring

puschkinia libanotica ‘striped squill’

The fields are snowbound no longer;
There are little blue lakes and flags of tenderest green.
The snow has been caught up into the sky–
So many white clouds–and the blue of the sky is cold.
Now the sun walks in the forest,
He touches the bows and stems with his golden fingers;
They shiver, and wake from slumber.
Over the barren branches he shakes his yellow curls.
Yet is the forest full of the sound of tears….
A wind dances over the fields.
Shrill and clear the sound of her waking laughter,
Yet the little blue lakes tremble
And the flags of tenderest green bend and quiver.

Well, we are supposed to get a dusting of snow this evening and into tonight. What happened to the 70 degree weather of last week ? These temperature fluctuations just aren’t fair, not just to me but to the little flower buds as well. With these much cooler temps recently and into next week, I was thinking of getting violas for the 4 planters on the porch railing. I keep looking out the front windows and dreaming about flowers of all colours in those planters, and violas seem to be one of the very few flowers that can hold up well during the cold nights of early spring. So my task for next week will be to scope out violas or any cold hardy annuals to spring up the front porch.

Happy weekend !

wordless wednesday – tulip kaufmanniana ancilla