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Garden journal - early season 2004

March 21, 2004. It's spring! So the snow from those two storms that blew through this week should be gone soon, to make way for that most delightful array of spring flowers we've been waiting for throughout this long winter. Hopefully my diary entries from here on out won't show any more snow :-)
Seen blooming so far: Aethionema cordifolium, Helleborus niger, a few crocuses, and a lone snowdrop.
view into the back yard on Friday

amid the dead stalks from last year's garden, cheerful crocus brighten the scene March 26, 2004. One week later: no snow left to be seen! The garden is waking up, for sure, although early spring bulbs are still the only real attractions. We raked all the dead leaves out of the driveway bed (a real dead-leaf magnet) to expose all the new greenery that's showing its tips.

March 27, 2004. The first of my tulips is blooming! A species tulip, with an amazing, almost unreal candy pink color. The temperature today is amazing too - my boys managed to get themselves soaked with the hose for the first time this year (many more such episodes will follow).
Tulipa humilis 'Violacea black base'

The only hybrid hellebore to bloom in our garden is still a young specimen March 28, 2004. What a wonderful day to be out in the garden - I may even have a mild case of sunburn! Spent most of the day wandering about, admiring tufts of emerging foliage, taking a few pictures, and digging up plants to pot up for the sale in May.

April 02, 2004. It's been chilly, drizzly, and windy for a few days now. The poor seedlings I've taken up from the basement to live outside are not so happy with me right now - and nothing is in a hurry to bloom until the sun starts coming out. Spring, I thought you were here!
In the meantime, check out the collage of new foliage emerging.

April 06, 2004. Two days of temperatures not getting above 45F with gale-force winds and nights into the lower 20s isn't helping our garden! The freezes nipped the star magnolia in the bud (as usual), and that pulsatilla that wanted to open up on Saturday still isn't so sure it wants to expose itself...

April 07, 2004. The pulsatillas are finally blooming! They wanted to, badly, since last weekend, but didn't want to brave the fierce weather conditions. Today was warmer, and FLOOP, they all opened up!
I love that little purple tuft in the middle of the yellow center

April 08, 2004. Another of my favorite species tulips is blooming! This is Tulipa eichleri, with an intense red/yellow coloring, growing in our rock garden.

April 10, 2004. Ah, only a few star magnolia blossoms got destroyed by last week's freezes - the rest of them are now in glorious bloom! Even as the garden comes more and more alive, I get anxious about the plants that haven't shown signs of life yet - but I know it's too early to give up on them.
one Magnolia stellata blossom among many

Apricot blossoms in the early morning April 17, 2004. It's been a typical spring week - some rain, some stiff breezes, some freezing temperatures, and some warm weather. Luckily, the warm weather arrived in time for the weekend. Several fruit trees (apricot, peach, nectarine, weeping cherry, sand plum, Bradford pear) have started to bloom, and the garden is definitely greening up. Soon it will be time to get out the lawn mower (once again, I'll be the last one in the neighborhood to do so...)

April 18, 2004. The first hot day of the year - Amy would say too hot. Warm enough to venture into the pond for the fun task of scooping out the built-up muck, with fish swishing around my feet. Also lots of plants thinking about coming into flower, and lots of potting up to do for the plant sale. Just three weeks away, so much left to do!
Flowering quince (Chaenomeles 'Toyo Nishiki') in glorious bloom

April 22, 2004. Each of our children has his/her own tree, planted on the occasion of their birth. For Lily, we bought an 'Elizabeth' yellow magnolia. This week, we got to see its flowers for the first time. And it's a fitting tribute to Lily!

May 02, 2004. It's that busy-busy-busy time of year - not even time to put in journal entries here! Lots more is blooming (watch the "new" entries on our plants page). Unfortunately, our computer connection is on the blink, and I can't upload photos for right now - hopefully, we'll be back in business soon... Quick highlights: our Eastern redbud is blooming for the first time (after about 5 years!), as is our red dogwood. The plant sale, coming up next weekend, is taking a lot of time (wish I could find the right size pots for all those digups!). And Lily likes to eat dirt (as did her brothers).

May 09, 2004. The plant sale is over! It was fun, it was a success, now back to the business of gardening... The garden is getting more and more of a delight to walk through, with new plants coming into bloom every day, and surprises around every corner. The best surprise so far, though, were the shooting stars (Dodecatheon meadia), which made an appearance after four years in waiting.
now I understand why they call it shooting star (or Pride-of-Ohio)

Western red columbine, Aquilegia formosa May 10, 2004. This is the time that columbines shine. I ventured out into the garden early this morning, camera in hand, and found three different species that were just clamoring to be photographed. They must be among the most photogenic flowers in existence!

May 16, 2004. It's officially no longer early spring - our clematis are blooming! It's been a frantic week, trying to get all the seedlings and leftovers from the plant sale put into the garden, with temperatures soaring into the upper 80s and not a drop of rain until an overdue thunderstorm last night. The garden is starting to fill up (like every year around this date) - the empty places to put all these seedlings are dwindling. So once again, I'll wind up stuffing things into places they really shouldn't go. I live but don't learn, it seems ;-)

Our first clematis, 'Ramona', is still a favorite

of our several bearded iris varieties, this is the earliest one to bloom May 21, 2004. It's iris season! We have Siberian iris, Dutch iris, German (bearded) iris, and blue flag all vying for our attention in the garden. Let 'm duke it out, we say! We especially love the ones around our pond.

May 31, 2004. High season for flowers! The irises are mostly done, but penstemons, cranesbills, roses, phlomis, and dozens of others have taken their place. It's almost a full-time job just trying to catch them all in bloom on our garden strolls :-)
Virginia rose covers our back yard island's front hillside

the prickly pear cactus burst into bloom just yesterday June 12, 2004. Today saw the overhaul of the older half of our rock garden, which had gradually turned into a near-homogeneous tangle of thugs - Myrtle spurge, Dragon's blood, acre and Kamtschat sedums, Snowcap arabis, prickly pear and emerging everywhere, bits of yucca returning from roots (the mother plant was removed last year. We added more vertical dimension (more rocks!), creating more pockets for individual clumps to grow - and made a sizeable offering to our compost bin.

June 20, 2004. One advantage of roaming around the garden in search of nice plants to photograph is that I often have my camera ready when other unexpected photo ops occur. Sometimes it's the kids, but lately it has often been butterflies who've found themselves eye to eye with my digital. In honor of the many forms of animal life in our garden, I've created a page just for them. Mostly butterflies so far, but stay tuned for more...
A common or clouded sulphur, taking a rest in the lawn

Hypericum frondosum 'Sunburst' flower June 28, 2004. Summer is here, and what could possibly be sunnier than a golden St. John's wort flower? The phlox are also starting to bloom, and most of the spring bloomers are done. We hope the dog days hold off for a while...