Run For the Roses

Another beautiful day today...and such a lot to it. First off, it was Cinquo de Mayo, though I never did get around to a celebratory Margarita.

I'd have preferred a Mint Julep, but I wasn't in Kentucky...and anyway, our mint has only just started unfurling from the ground in the last 24 hours.


Here's a closer look at the blossoms of the money plant. Pretty, eh?


Out in the back garden, the sun had the latest tulips open wide in invitation of pollinators. I haven't seen any bees out here yet this year, though am keeping my eyes open for them.

I saw a pretty little orange butterfly the other day, and there are assorted other insects flying around, though.


I even got in about half an hour of tugging out more errant clumps of grass from the winter, in preparation for adding some fresh topsoil to the back garden beds in the coming week.


But pretty quickly, I had myself organized and on the road to Hyannis, for assorted errands and what turned out to be my own "run for the roses."

First, there was a visit to Le Mart de K for the purchase of the afore-mentioned top soil and a package of crocosmia bulbs, for blooms later in the summer. I'm a little disappointed that I was distracted from picking up a package of cannas in matching colors, but oh, well, all in good time.

Then a visit to Borders and also Newbury Comics--it was Free Comic Book Day, so impossible to pass that up.

And then on to Ocean State Job Lot, where I found two promising looking roses...a pink hybrid tea and a deep red flowered shrub...and a nice assortment of flower seed packets, to put that new top soil to work once it's been added.


And then off to work, where the cherry trees are in full-on bloom, and alive with bumblebees. Really nice to see them, as it is the first sighting for 2007.




This evening at Churchill Downs, there was the usual musical remem
brance of that Old Kentucky Home, a great thundering of hooves, and a dark bay colt named Street Sense and a jockey named Calvin Borel came from next to last to win this 133rd Kentucky Derby by two and a quarter lengths.

Good show, old chaps!

There's a frost warning for us tonight, so the roses (and a six pack of dianthus I made the acquaintance of last night) will stay in the relative safety of the car for the overnight.

Frost isn't such a bad thing, though, as I contemplate other weather alternatives, and spare a thought tonight for the folks in Greensburg, KS and Sweetwater, OK, who've suffered great losses in tornados there today.

Time to count those blessings!

Full Flower Moon

Once again, we began our day with a nice heavy rain shower. It didn't last long, but gave everything a nice soaking. But it turns out that everyone, including this ostrich fern, thinks a drink is a good way to start the day.

Bloody mary, anyone?


Opting instead for coffee, I enjoyed my usual prowl, enjoying the latest featured players, like this pretty pink primrose.

And I made some mental notes about some of the things I wish to accomplish with the upcoming day off. There's plenty of raking to do, but the gardens out back are also begging for a little more attention, to clear away some of the old growth from last year's end-of-season wildness.

I did also get some of those foxglove seedlings transplanted this morning!



Hey, the comments and mail I've received about last week's Hunt the Peeper game has been so astounding(not), that I thought I'd revisit the notion again today, in a new game I like to call Can You Find The Chickadee?

There was plenty of activity from these little birds this morning. The woods around the back gardens were echoing with their two-note love calls. It seemed like just about everyone was paired off, as is often the case this time of year...except this little one, who chose instead to perch in the pine bough and keep an eye on me.



However, the sun was behind him, so a better shot was unlikely and anyway, I had eyes mostly for the latest blooms... and parti cularly, my favorites, the grape hyacinths.





This shy daffodil is also joining the rest of the gang out there. I look forward to a better look at it tomorrow, when hopefully it will turn its face toward the sun (and my camera). Meanwhile, after the morning's rain, the hyacinths were scenting the air quite nicely.



It's hard to believe another year's sped by (especially considering how long some of those winter days and nights seemed to be), but here we are, back at the Full Flower Moon again.

I snapped this shot as I dashed to the car after work this evening, eager to capture the seeming giantness of the moonrise this evening(in "person", it appeared to be about two to three times the size of the streetlamps)...but also eager to get myself home in time to watch LOST.



And a most interesting episode it was this evening, too. About time.

When it was through, I was drawn back to the moon (also known this month as the Full Corn Planting Moon, or the Milk Moon) and I snapped this shot, as the Phoebe's Orb attempted to get into the house through our back window.

A Golden May Day

This first morning of May was a most lovely one, warmed by that golden orb of Apollo. To greet to the new month, the yellow tulips in the back garden opened quietly, grape hyacinths clustered at their feet. Always love the pay-off to those April showers!

A random related tip: a well-known nursery is offering a magnolia tree with blossoms in that tulip color. It's called Butterfly Magnolia and you can see it here. Wouldn't that be a lovely tree?


I had thought the tiny daffodils I'd featured earlier were small...until these latest itty-bitty things opened up yesterday and today. The sweet little blossoms of these new arrivals are only about an inch across.

The forsythia are blooming like mad now, big beautiful splashes of yellow on our recently gray and brown
landscape...and I couldn't resist sharing a bunch with you.

But I also took this pic(above, right) to give kudos to the cherry tree in the photo: we last saw this happy little fellow in bloom on January 5th of this year. Again so soon! Who's not impressed...?

And speaking of magnolias...they have also come into full bloom over the weekend, and they are just beautiful, as you can see, so no need of me writing sonnets to them. It was enough that the sight of them put "Do You Know What It Means To Miss New Orleans" into my head for the day.




And now, with no further delay, the Forsythia Show.

Two Years Later

It's sort of a big occasion around here at the Midnight Garden, as we celebrate my second "blog-o-versary". I'm opting away from environment unfriendly balloons and streamers, though, and just going on giving you plenty of the latest bloomers!

Two years of blog postings, two years of living in this particular place...two years of gardening and watching and exploring. Long enough to have gotten to know these gardens, their rhythms and attractions, and long enough to have done something to encourage them.

Of course, these yellow primroses need no encouragement, coming on with their show whether I pay attention or not...and to be honest, I'd almost forgotten to look for them, tucked against the foundation of the house. Glad I did though.

Tonight I spied about a dozen new columbine plants in various gardens, the result of my spreading around the seed of a few large and floriferous plants in the back garden.

In a vaguely related note, I've come up with a plan to bring a bunch of the foxglove (it's legion out back...) up to the side yard, along the driveway, along with a bunch of the violet from the back house garden, and then later I'll scatter some columbine seeds in that part of the yard. I have a feeling they'll all take nicely there.

With another variety having joined the club, here's a class photo of some of the daffodils in the garden under the bedroom.

Not far from the daffodils are a few Money Plants (lunarius biennus) just coming into bloom. I had been mistaking them for dames rocket, until I compared foliage in some online photos. Dames rocket (hesperis matronalis) has a narrower leaf.

This is the stuff that makes the big round flat white seed pods later in the season, thus also earning it the names Silver Dollar, Bolbonac, Moonwort, and... interestingly enough... Honesty. There's some more in the front driveway garden, as well.

Near the daffs and honesty, there's a small stand of red and white Trillium, also known as Wakerobin one of my favorite springtime plants. I hope to carefully transplant this to a part of the garden which will showcase it a little better. At the moment, its humble nodding heads are almost lost behind the others. As it is, this photo was taken with the camera sitting on the stone path beside it.

Here's the view of our meadow, recently mowed for the season's start. If the last two years are any indication (not to mention the current level of the pond) this area should be flooding in soon. I look forward to that, since it might mean the return of the green herons I spied out there our first year in residence.

You can see another fantastic forsythia on the far side of the pond, glowing bright in the gathering gloom. The showers forecast for today never materialized. But it was sort of an overcast day here anyway.

Here's some more of my favorites, the grape hyacinths. These are coming up at the feet of some curly ornamental grass in the back garden, which I've not yet cut down from last year.

For a grand finale this evening, I present to you an interior view of one of my early species tulips. Quite something, hmmm?

Thanks to all those who've been visiting the blog these past two years(even if you don't always leave a note to say you've done so)--It's a pleasure to share the garden with you!!

Here's a look at the back...my "secret"...garden this morning. As you can see, the rain (and some recent raking) are helping to green things up. There's plenty to do here, and none of that got accomplished on this short visit before work, but still, it's great to walk around and see things poking up here and there. Not only plenty of bulbs, but lots of different perennials and wild things...and of course, plenty of oregano.

I'll be interested to see what sort of pollinators the garden brings this year, after hearing so much about the Troubles of Bees this past winter. This has been the first place I'd seen then at all in a while, so I hope that this colony collapse disorder will not destroy the species in total.

I have trouble believing that we are not hearing all that much about this in the news, since so much of our food supply depends on these little buzzers.

Here's a shot of the "daffodil house", as I think of it, on Rock Harbor Road in Orleans. Every year I'm thrilled by the display, and spare a thought for the effort that went into planting them all (oh, somebody's back hurt when that was all said and done, you can be sure!).


Today was one of those overcast days, where the sun made a valiant effort to shine a few times, without much success. There's more showers in the forecast for overnight.

I did get a bit more of the raking accomplished this afternoon, and constructed another of those shelters of old trees, branches and sticks, piled on with plenty of leaves and pine needles.

Eventually, before quitting the yard entirely, I wandered into the back for another look around...and was rewarded by the sight of this magnificent Casa Blanca lily stalk burst up from the ground amongst an array of wild strawberry foliage and old oak leaves.



These tulips continue to bring me some pleasure. Simple things are always the best. You can see (below) that there are others budding out, ready to take the stage as these earlier ones begin to fade.

And of course, there's a veritable army of blue grape hyacinths coming into bloom everywhere in the yard...which is, after all, as it should be.

Happy Saturday, everyone. Hope it's treating you well!

Cloudy Day

Here's a trio of those species tulips in the back garden, looking a little more formal and reserved today, in lieu of the sun's golden rays.

It was a pretty mellow day, all things being equal. We saw a lot of gathering clouds today, with little actual sunshine. Still, it was nice enough to get some serious stick-and-branch gathering and raking accomplished around here.

I like to make distinct piles of the many twigs, branches and large limbs the winter winds bring down for us, and then add the raked leaves and pine needles on top and around. I figure the process must create a reasonable dwelling for any one of a number of different creatures we see around here.

While raking, I spotted one of the Canada geese sailing peacefully around the pond.

I've noticed, too, that the water level in the pond is right up there, thanks to all our recent rains. It hasn't started to spill into the meadow yet...but it is raining again this evening, though it seems pretty light.

Those tiny daffodils are a continuing surprise, as they are putting out more than one bloom per stem. Their show just gets better each day. In the background here, you can see that our larger forsythia along the kitchen path has begun to bloom, as well.



Just couldn't resist another visit with one of our delightful hyacinths.

White Fire tulips

Here's another look at the latest tulips. These, by the way, are also species tulips, with the name White Fire.

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Tulips

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While I was gone, my next group of species tulips came into bloom, and more fantastically than I'd anticipated. This variety apparent throws more than one blossom off each flower stalk!


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Green Moth in the Garden

A green moth on new tulips.

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