Blooms for Tuesday

Jean, from MsGreen"thumb"jean, hosts Bloomin' Tuesday.  Since I have some flowers that are newly blooming, and others that are filling out with more blooms, I want to participate.  At some point I may not be able to keep up with this and Fertilizer Friday, but maybe I will be able to, and have fewer pics in each post.  We'll see.  I have both of their buttons in the sidebar, and anyone can go to their blogs to see who all is participating or add their own bloom posts.

What prompted my desire to post at first, was the discovery of my first iris blooms.  These are opening before the retulacas I have in the bed by Heidi.  I have other irises in bud, so soon, there should be lots of color around here.

When I posted the pigsqueak before, it was in bud, not bloom.  I hope my other 2 plants bloom, too.  This is the second or third season for the plants, and the first time I've had one bloom stalk.

The hyacinths and several daffodils are finished blooming.  These dainties bloomed early last year, and were nipped by a frost.  They came out of it, but must have decided to wait awhile to bloom this year.

This is the first photo posted of the basket of gold blooms. 

I have several kinds of pansies, and am enjoying seeing the 2 mixes open up to see what colors I am getting.

The money plant is in full bloom now.  The reblooming iris to the right has a nice sized bud.

These tulips are pink after all, but I don't think they had that white on them last year.  They're pretty, so I'm not complaining.

Only a few candytuft blooms were peeking open last Friday.

The creeping phlox was just starting to bloom Friday, too.

I posted this whole euphorbia, (I think) of some kind to show its foliage last week.  The blooms are opening, and I sure like the contrast between them and the foliage.

It was sunny when I took the photos of these tulips last week.  They looked prettier to me today in  person than last week.  The petals were not as open as they were.

I am still enjoying the hellebores.  I think this is one of the orientalises.

I don't remember who told me to check under my ginger plants for blooms, but I just remembered, so I went out and found some cute little blooms in hiding.  Thanks, whoever it was!

The sticks below are in front of my compost pile.  The neighbor's lilac bush is on the other side of the fence.  It sure is full of blooms!

I hope you are enjoying spring!  I sure am!

Sunny Saturday Morning Yard Walk

It was too chilly to garden this morning, but while waiting for our grandson to come over, I looked out and saw a couple robins I decided I'd like a photo of for Camera Critters, hosted by Misty Dawn.  (The CC link goes to the list of participants, the other to Misty Dawn's post for today.)  After I got a few critter pics, I came back for a warmer jacket and Heidi to enjoy the beautiful morning.  I know the best quality photos are not taken in the sun, but I was too high on spring to care.

I will start with the critters.

The robins stopped fluffing things up looking for food when they saw me with the camera.

I heard a bird singing loudly, and it turned out to be a male cardinal.

I saw this broken egg on our deck, but did not see a nest near by.  Do you know what kind of bird's egg it was?  You can see the yoke in it.  How sad.

Our grandson woke up at this point, so I am back in the evening to finish the post.  I got some plants put in and took a few photos just before dusk, so I'll include a few of those, too.

I started this morning, in front of the house.  There are coral bells, hellebores and other plants in there.  In the ground are my mother-in-law's peonies and lily of the valley, lamium, lambs ears, painter's pallet, etc. This is on the south side of the house, with shade from the big tree in the yard.

My father-in-law built this raised bed around the tree.  I think I've mentioned this maple tree was transplanted as a young tree from a neighbor's yard, by FIL and my husband when he was a boy.  I have learned you aren't supposed to do that, but now that it's done, we need to get around to replacing the boards.

Here's another view of the newly planted bed after having had the street resurfaced last summer.

This is the area next to it that I'm in the process of reworking now that it's connected to the new bed.

Across the sidewalk, to the east:

Even more to the east, and Heidi is in the mood to run!

Here are photos of the area this evening after planting more perennial geraniums by the curb and 4 butterfly milkweed plants, 2 yellow, and 2 orange.

Back to this morning, this bed is on its 4th season.  I originally planning on mostly having annuals in here, but I seem to be planting more and more perennials.  I did plant some stocks and snapdragons this evening, but didn't include photos of those.

This is the east side of the house, facing north.

Facing south:

Walking to the north, still facing south:

We've made past the house, back yard, and shed. The driveway is just to the north of this area.  I continued to face south so my shadow wouldn't be in the photos.

This photo shows the iris/daylily with a few other things thrown in flower bed by the curb, in front of another bed, which is in front of the vegetable garden.  It also shows the driveway and the area we just came from on the other side of the garbage cans.

I walked to the end of the driveway, and took this photo of where I garden across the street, just as Grandson was arriving.

He's such a sweetie, and woke up with a smile when he realized where he was.

I forgot to take photos in the back yard.  Heidi has been up to some digging, and I thought the stakes, pots, and such that I put around were stopping her, but this evening, I saw she had knocked some things aside and dug up an area that I was about to replant coneflowers in to replace the ones she dug out last year.  She can't dig in the main part of the graveled yard because there is landscape fabric under the gravel.  So, she gets into the areas I've planted in.  The roots of the plant next to where she dug are exposed.  I'll have to work on the area tomorrow.

I hope to see photos from your yard/property walks, too.

Foliage

Pam, at Digging, hosts Foliage Followup the 16th of the month, the day after Carol's GBBD.  I took way too many foliage photos, and exported as a group, all the ones I didn't delete.  Now, I'm thinking my plan is to just pick every other one or so, and put them in the post, and see how it turns out.  This time of year all the foliage looks good to me, from the fuzzy lamb's ears, the frilly columbines, the colorful coral bells, to the spiky iris.  (My GBBD/Fertilizer Friday post is the one previous to this one.)

Here goes:

I like the looks of hellebore leaves.  I've noticed the different varieties have varying shapes and sizes of leaves.   Oh, there's some not so pretty tulip foliage to the right, too.

I have several more coral bells that didn't make this post.  I've had these identified before, but don't remember their names.  Oh, and I see the spotted foliage of pulmonaria in this photo.

I like the crinkle and color of lady's mantle leaves.

The knautia foliage is prettier in the spring than later in the season, when it can get a bit floppy.

The sedums have cool shaped foliage.

I have been loving this beauty the last couple weeks, but can't remember what it is.  It's about to bloom, too.  Do you know what it is?  Is it a euphorbia of some kind?

A variety of clematises are coming up nicely, and are visibly taller each day.

This big blue flowered clematis will be blooming soon.

Every year, when the peonies first peak through the soil, I say I'm going to get peony cages on them, but a few days later, they look like this, and are too big to cage.  They aren't as thick this year, so if I get to them tomorrow, it may not be too late.

The foliage of chives is always a welcome sight to me in spring.

Have a wonderful spring weekend!  I hope those in the north are experiencing a warm up.