Evening's Gardens

This shot of the purple tulip (with few exceptions, they are long-lasting in their beauty) made me think of Gillian's recent photos of that deep maroon tulip from her garden (she turned it into her new header photo--you should check it out here).

Have you noticed how spring's popping up all over the internet? It seems like everyone's blogging from the garden these days...and what could possibly be wrong with that?

Hey, remember when I introduced you to the ajuga a few weeks back and they seemed to tower above the shasta daisy foliage?

You can see (right) the daisies are now taller than the ajuga, though each of those two blue flower spikes have sent out six inch runners in several directions.

Helpful gardener that I am, I covered those runners with a little dirt as I weeded the other day...to help those runners turn into roots. I'd like a whole patch of those blue flower spikes next year!

To the left in that picture, you can see another of the successful peony transplants, with a rose climbing up the fence post. Peeking over from the other side of the fence, there's some tall garden phlox in the background. The white in the foreground is pansies to the left and allyssum to the right. The pale green right in the center down there is a clump of autumn sedum.

The light was perfect for photos in the garden this evening, and I finally got a good shot of the columbine, the buds of which are only just starting to look like the unique flowers they become.

I'm always interested to see what the flowers will look like...there were two or three different varieties going in Eastham, and I'm not sure which ones made the trip...and which might've been new seedlings from cross-pollination. It could be a flower I've never seen before. I mention this because I don't remember them being this purple last year.
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We interrupt this blog post to bring you a lapful of kitty.

Half an hour passes. There is chin-rubbing, bread-making, belly-rubbing, ear scratching and almost deafening purring. Now, with the possibility that something more interesting might be happening somewhere else in the house, he's off again.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled blog. We regret any inconvenience.
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The evening sun also allowed me to get this terrific shot of the buds of the red valerian (distant relation, I believe, to the white valerian I also know as garden heliotrope...confused yet? Good, I'm not alone.)

Pterydactls, anyone?


While I poked around the garden--I'm happy to say there are still carnation buds yet uneaten by the Giant Bunny--this cowbird swooped down to get a drink and have a bit of a wash.


In the little birdbath in the sideyard, this house sparrow was doing the same.

But it was time to turn my attention to more "local" wildlife, as it was time for the Nightly Walk...and Em was eager to hit the dusty trail.

Her enthusiasm never fails to inspire me--she gets more excited about these walks than she does about Paper Day (her name for Christmas morning).

She is always in control, but even moreso as we pass the gardens in this yard every night.

I'm so enchanted by their arrangement and design; I'm constantly surprised as I recognize one plant or another(there's purple violets in between and underneath the hostas)...and then spot another I've never seen before...and Em just drags me along, so I never get to look for very long.

I made her stop for a few moments on the next corner, where there are a few mayflowers blooming. I've been trying to photograph them all week, but seem to be continually foiled by wind and too-bright sunlight...and of course, the impatient dog.

She's all business on these trips, and has little time to be standing around while I take pictures, so I usually take them on the fly, or not at all.

This evening, I managed this one of the lily of the valley (and buttercups!!) growing under this fence around the last corner as we headed into the home stretch.

Monday Things

The circle of life spins on. As the apple blossoms around back of the house burst into bloom, the orange tulips out front are finding ways to surprise as their beauty fades.

I think they are even lovelier as this yellow streaking becomes more prominent.

Another lovely day here on the Cape, though it was pretty windy out there in the sunshine. It took a number of shots to finally capture the right one of these lilacs. I found them in my friend Patience's yard, blooming just in time for her birthday tomorrow!

And the Purple Beat goes on.



The sunny but turbulent day brought some fantastic looking clouds to our blue sky this afternoon, drawing me down to the Rock Harbor Boat Launch for a nice clear look at them after work.

I didn't spot the Ferdinand cloud until I got home and looked at the pictures, though! Do you see him?


Meanwhile, back home in the garden, look at this cluster of Foxglove plants, keeping pace, height-wise with the nearby daylilies.

I'm excited that this is such a nice healthy plant, since I'm looking forward to it seeding itself around in this new garden, as it did back in Eastham. You just can't have too much digitalis.


Meanwhile, the morning glories in my bedroom window are growing ever larger, and should be finding themselves planted outside within the week. I'll need to get some string trellaces up for them post-haste, too, since they look more than ready to start climbing and twining!

Here's Emily appearing to be a good girl, as she encourages me to head out on our nightly stroll around the block.

She was patient enough as I put dinner together (that was about food, after all--tonight, chicken tenderloins baked with sweet potatoes and green beans, topped with a little cheddar cheese). But that seemed to wear a little thin when I turned my attention to cleaning the catbox. I'm sure she'd have appreciated the urgency there more, if she was sharing a bedroom with it, as I do. I love our gray dude, but sometimes he can be a stinky little guy.

Perhaps you're already thinking something's up, and if I mention that Em's poo this evening was a little less firm than it perhaps ought to have been, you might think ("Greg doesn't talk about this stuff...") you've been transported to another blog, perhaps the one by Tornwordo.

OK, so you caught me, it was all just a subtle little tribute to Mr. T. as he celebrates his third anniversary of bringing Crows that Stick to the internet each morning to go along with your morning coffee. Over at SC, things scatological and stinky are more likely! I'm sorry I haven't been visiting over there all three of those years, but there's always something interesting, amusing or otherwise thought-provoking.(And this kills me.)

The clouds are part of the celebration, too. Happy Three, Torn!

When we got home from that walk, I discovered there was indeed oriole frolicking going on in the apple tree. Miz O feasted her way through assorted sweet and tasty blossoms, while her boyfriend sang protectively from a branch a few feet above her.

Perhaps you are admiring the gauzey, almost Victorian painting quality of this photo...and maybe you are wondering what my secret is. And now I am forced to admit that you, too, can take such lovely photos, if the angle of the sun is right...and you don't wash your kitchen windows. (Despite the successful result here, I'll try to get those wiped clean sometime soon!)

And as we bring the day to a close, the Full Corn Planting Moon rises in the southeast. Gentlemen and ladies (and other ladies, and less gentle men), start your shovels and get out there and plant something!!

Orioles Return

I was giving the garden a little attention this morning when I heard a familiar voice behind me. I knew it was about the time the orioles would be returning, but I didn't know if I should expect them here in this neighborhood. But there he was, a flash of orange, sitting up there singing to let us all know he had arrived. I'll have to pick up an orange or two to cut up and leave out for his enjoyment and use in courting.


I remember watching the oriole couples frolicking in the apple blossoms in Eastham. As it turns out, the apple tree outside the kitchen window is about to burst into flower, so we might be in for a similar show this year and right outside the window. The cat will have a happy stroke.

The larger, earlier purple tulips are starting to show a little signs of wear, but the smaller ones which have appeared alongside the first flowers are looking quite enjoyable.

I wouldn't mind if they all came up this size. Perhaps that's something I can look forward to as the bulb ages.

I hope you all will indulge me another long lingering gaze at these delightful bleeding heart blossoms. It's been so long since I've had one of these around. Does anyone else see Marlo Thomas as That Girl (but with pink hair) in these pendant little hearts?

Our neighbors to the west are almost never over there, so the grass and other denizens of the green are having their way with the backyard. Here's the view through a break in our own fence. It's a delightful sort of chaos that happens when plants get their way, isn't it?

That little splash of purple by the break in the fence is more money plant--it really does seed itself in everywhere. Oh, and I also took this photo to show you all the LEAVES which have suddenly appeared in the treetops all around!

Every spring this happens. Meteorologists apparently love to f*ck with me. They tell me we've got four out of five days coming full of rain and so I leave the hose and watering can aside for other pursuits. And then the storm changes track, or breaks up over Cape Cod Bay...and there's my garden, unwatered.

This week, it was supposed to rain Monday and Tuesday...and we didn't see Drop One of that. The storm moved out to sea, so all we got was some serious wind. And in a week where tropical cyclones and earthquakes have killed hundreds of thousands of people in other parts of the world, how do I find it in me to complain about a sunny day?

It hadn't been that warm, so I really wasn't too worried about watering...especially since it was still going to rain on Thursday and Friday. Now that schedule's been revised, too, with rain currently predicted/guessed at to show up Friday and last the weekend.

I'll be watering things in the morning, just to guarantee it.

Check out these crazy clouds over our street tonight. I swear I didn't photoshop them, but doesn't it look like the winds just going in all different directions?

Sunday Garden Report

Here's those orange tulips soaking up the wonderful and warm sunshine we were blessed with today.

I enjoyed taking a cup of coffee out front in the warm early light to have a nice close look at the border, to see the progress of everything.

Just about every plant out there has gotten a bit taller, or sent out a second level of leaves.

But the biggest news, for me anyway, is the appearance of the first lilies thrusting their way out of the ground.

To the right is an asiatic lily stem. I actually spotted this one in the rain the other day, but wasn't able to get a proper photo until this morning. Since it was, I suspect (I didn't take notes while I was moving everything, so I can't recall with certainty how many other lilies made the move from Eastham), part of the bag of mixed lilies I planted earlier, I won't venture a guess about it's color or habit--that's just one of the things to look forward to over the next two months.

This one below, however, I know very well. It just appeared for the first time this morning and it is the Casa Blanca lily, oriental in variety (which means it blooms a little later, the flowers are larger...and the scent is exquisite.). This is one of my favorite flowers of the whole summer, and so I had carefully made note of where I planted this one during the garden move last fall.


Elsewhere, all the peony plants are coming along nicely, the larger ones already a foot tall or better. And today, I spotted the first tiny buds on a few of them!!

For a week or so now, I've been trying to get a good shot of the bleeding heart in it's setting, to show you how large it is, and how nicely it gets along with its neighbors.

There's an understory of purple and white violets, the single white daffodil I showed you the other day, and further away are the purple blossoms of money plant. Way in the distance against the fence, is evidence that--when I refer to my Great Big Hoe--I really do mean a piece of garden equipment.


Once my review of the troops was complete, I turned my attention to the morning glory seedlings inside. As most of them are already showing their third leaf--the first true one--I wanted to carefully get them into larger pots, since I don't anticipate putting them into the ground before Memorial Day weekend. I think eight out of a possible thirteen is pretty reasonable, as indoor amateur germination goes.

To make sure I've got a great crop of them this summer, tonight I planted another twenty-four of them!!

I leave you tonight with another look at the much-discussed slender speedwell. Say what else you like about it, the tiny flowers are terrific.

The Colorful Array of a Spring Day

A steady rain marked, and dampened, the earlier part of the day...but also brought on the orange color in that tulip I showed you yesterday. Pretty nice, huh? Do you see the bud that's still green? How bout the little pair of marks on it...(it should enlarge some for your viewing)...do these look like teeth marks to any of the rest of you?

It's like Bunnicula's been here.

Leaves unfurled on the apple tree about a week ago and this morning the tree was dotted with the tight pink and red buds of apple blossoms about to be.

In the background, you can see some tiny white strawberry blossoms on the hillside below the tree.



By the time I got out of work around 5, the sun was beginning to shine again, although some high clouds remained...and I happened by one of my favorite plant purveyors to find them almost over-stocked with delightful blooms and plants of all shapes, sizes and colors.




I'll go back another time soon, when I can linger and wander up and down the aisles, with no plan in mind, just to see what all they have. But I knew that could easily turn into a lengthier visit than I had time for...but still, I let my eyes trail lovingly over a few things I certainly don't need or can necessarily afford, but could happily have welcomed in a weaker moment.

I've been discussing with Patrick the frustrations of photographing the color purple in some lights, particularly in regard to capturing the color we remember seeing on things such as violets and pansies.

I've begun to suspect this problem is worse on cloudy days, owing to ultraviolet light filtering through. After all, flowers are designed to use those invisible (to us, but not insects)rays with their brilliant shadings and textured petals to guide their potential pollinators into the sweet center of the bloom.

So while this is entirely an instinctual notion in my head based on some limited science, it feels like a somehow reasonable explanation for why the more intense colors sometimes don't photograph the way they appear to us in certain light conditions.

Anyway, these violas helped to further the discussion in my head, especially when I was trying to get the photo just right before uploading. At least this vast array ended up including some tones that ended up about the color we always seem to be looking for. They are about halfway up in the great mass of them.


It's almost overwhelming the selection arrayed before us...and even more mind-boggling to know that it'll all have gone and been replaced once or twice by Memorial Day weekend. Look at all those pansies!

Although I had a tight rein on myself and only a few bucks to spare, I did end up selecting some single flowered yellow marigolds to set out near the assorted roses up and down the fence. And it is also the right time to be planting snapdragons, so I picked up a few of those...the rocket variety that get nice and tall, in a few different colors I'm fond of.

Finally heading for home, I couldn't resist stopping by a golf course along the way for a shot of the tulip array lining the entrance to the parking lot. Aren't they something?? I'd like to see them finished off with an under-planting of grape hyacinths...but I'm a little obsessed with them, too. I suppose that's impractical here, for what may well be a temporary (annual) planting, that'll be dug up and replaced with something else when they're done.

We've got clear skies tonight, which bodes well for me doing a little planting in the morning before the predicted rain moves in for the rest of the day. In light of that, I'll nip off for a little sleep and catch up with you later.

OH. Everyday, I keep forgetting to mention this. Here on Cape Cod, we are expecting something big in the next few days, as 2008 marks the return of our region's brood of 17 year cicada. They only live for a few weeks, but in some places swarm rather intensely during that time and emit a sound that easily cracks 100 decibels.

I'm fascinated by nature, but these guys might creep me out. They are uh-uh-gly. Go ahead, look for yourself, I'll wait. See? Am I wrong?

Their intense, short-term feeding frenzies can sometimes spell trouble for trees, since they are the feast before egg laying, which is actually done by breaking open young tree limbs. Well-established trees, They said, should be fine...but the swarming was probably going to be a big annoyance, and enough to keep you inside in the morning. At night, they just sit in the trees and eat...and watch us with those evil red eyes. Mr. Mind much?

Anyway, a few weeks back the stories were all over the radio and the newspapers and they said the hatch might begin by Mother's Day, which is Sunday for any of you slackers who aren't paying attention.

Tulips Take the Stage As the Crow Flies

Oh, look what's happened near that bright yellow tulip: a paler variety has been revealed. It's moments like this when I start to think of the progression of the garden as a sort of staged performance.

That bright yellow was the first to appear, singing it's little solo and establishing the theme. And now we get the harmony part as this second player emerges from the wings.

Just to take the theme a little further...here's a trio of back-up singers, and look kids, it's those orange tulips I was anticipating yesterday!

It's interesting to note the difference in the variety of plant. The purple and yellow tulips' bulbs appear to put up multiple plants, from the ground up...whereas this orange variety sends up a single stem, that in this case has branched into three. A nice surprise, that.

Of course I'll show them to you again when they're all singing together. What's the point of going to a show if you get up and leave the concert hall before the big finish?

The pansies are responding well to regular dead- heading, and spreading themselves into wonderful little clumps of flowers.

Here they line the paving stones I've made in years past. I have a great little mold for the purpose. I hope to make a few new ones later this season.

The green patch to the left is a nice spreading clump of creeping phlox...deep pink. It opened a few first buds last week, but they are not to be found now. I'll have to look more closely in the morning to see if they have been nibbled, or if the rain earlier in the week took down the fragile little flowers.

The green bit to the right is a patch of pink carnations I rejuvenated in Eastham, after finding it buried under the seashell path of a former tenant. It bloomed for me for the first time last summer, and I'm happy to see it spreading itself a little more since the fall transplanting.

Of course the foreground shows you how some of the roses are progressing already. This is one of two roses which were already here on the fence when I showed up to build the rest of the garden around them, so I don't know quite what to expect from it, flower-wise.

It's kind of cool to think that some morning next month, I'll walk outside to a wonderful surprise. Hopefully, it's not one of those varieties that's had the sweet fragrance bred out of it.

On a break at work late this afternoon, I had the pleasure of watching the antics of a few crows in the gardens around the parking lot.


There's a fair-sized community of them living in the tall pines around the neighborhood of the restaurant.

In fact, the variety of trees planted on the grounds support a pretty diverse community of birds, who're always good for a moment's distraction on a lovely day. Today was certainly one of those, with temps climbing into the high sixties and we enjoyed it.

Tomorrow, more rain is on the way, just when a fresh fall of it will be helpful. If it's not raining too hard early in the a.m., I'll see about planting some seeds to take advantage of the welcome moisture.

There's a bit of wind expected, too...just enough that when I got home from work tonight, I went out with a flashlight and covered over the sunflower seedlings with their plastic tents, to offer a little protection to their still-tender stalks.

In Which An Identity Is Revealed and Other Introductions Are Made

The first of the purple tulips began their show this morning. "Purple" seems like such a simple and inadequate choice of word to describe them, though, wouldn't you say? I just love the silky look of fresh tulips and the way the petals change colors depending on how the light hits them.

They are also "bouquet" tulips, which as you can see, means that one bulb actually puts up more than a single stalk. I love this feature in a tulip, since they can otherwise seem a little lonely coming up one at a time.


Here's another look at that yellow tulip, now fully opened, and also revealing itself to be one of those "bouquet" varieties.

I believe the yellow were in a combo package with some orange, as well...but so far, none of the tulips coming on have revealed that color.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I'll see a few of those, since I imagine the two colors, with the nearby purple, would be a fun color combination. In the meantime, I'm just enjoying the beauty that's already in front of me.


Here's a pair of photos featuring again the blue mystery flower from last week. I enjoyed and appreciated everyone's suggestions and attempts to identify them for me.

You've suggested violets or perennial geraniums...which made me realize that my photo of them last week didn't really give you a sense of scale...since both of those options are at least a bit larger than these tiny lovelies. So I've tried to rectify that here, by photographing them with a) the nearby purple allyssum and 2) a ruler.

I am very happy to tell you that, as of this afternoon, these guys are no longer the "blue mystery flower" to me. I finally had a chance to sit down and do a proper internet search...always a little tricky when you have only a description to work with.

They are, for the record, known as slender speedwell, AKA, veronica filiformus. It is native to Western Asia and Europe, particularly in areas of Iran, Turkey, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, the Russian Federation and the Ukraine...but is listed as naturalizing elsewhere.

I'm a little sad to see this plant classified as a weed, which I always find to be sort of an arbitrary designation. I mean, look at these sweet little flowers...how in the world could you call that a weed? And yet, lawn nazis everywhere are apparently trying to kill it, since I found more notations of methods for "control" in turf than any proper botanical information.

In light of that, I'm happy to host it in my garden, giving it amnesty as I do so many things generally waved off by gardening snobs as "weeds."

The weather forecast for today and tomorrow looked particularly delightful, so this morning I slide the plastic bags off of the sunflower seedlings to let them breathe fresh air and soak in some serious sunshine. For the most part, they are all doing quite nicely...and looking quite vibrant.

I'm sorry to say that's not entirely the case with the other varieties of sunflower still in the bedroom window. The gardener's cat has developed a taste for salad and they are a bit chewed up. Several will not recover. I'm trying not to hold that against My Boy...especially since he seems to be leaving the morning glories alone.

I forgot to mention last week that I used part of a gift certificate I'd been hanging on to to purchase a pair of sempervivum, better known as Hens and Chicks.

I've always enjoyed these odd- looking little plants, since I first met them on a posh weeding job during a long-ago high school summer (somewhere I've got some pictures from that job...I'll have to dig around for them!)

These succulent plants are terrific in full sun and thrive in rock gardens. I've planted them near the base of the recently-installed birdbath, and they seem quite happy.

And I'll leave you tonight with another look at those purple tulips. I'm thrilled with the happy accident that's managed to make them the same color as the purple allyssum I planted not long ago.