Please, Can We Just Slow Down a Little??

Dear Spring,

I am happy that you were not only on schedule this week but actually arrived early, unlike some years when snow or ice created delays for you.  I've appreciated all these warm, sunny days that you've given us the past few weeks.  But please, please, could we just slow down a little??

Less than a week I ago I was proudly showing off the crocuses and the first daffodils on my Bloom Day post, and now suddenly they've been joined by a whole row of the later ruffled doubles, 'Replete.'

Overnight, it seems, the garden has burst into bloom.  I'd like these hyacinths to stay around for awhile so I can enjoy their delightful fragrance as well as their blooms.

I'm loving the blue, blue skies and the budding of the redbud trees. But please, can we just keep these purple blooms around for awhile??  They just appeared, yet already I'm seeing the first tiny heart-shaped leaves emerging.  Yes, those leaves are pretty, but it's the purple shimmer of the redbud in early spring that I love most of all. Usually, redbuds are the first trees to bloom here, but this year they're competing for attention with all kinds of flowering trees, especially gorgeous magnolias in full bloom

I naively thought I would have the whole month of March and maybe part of April to get spring clean-up chores done in the garden.  Yet I barely raked away the thick layer of leaves on the shade garden in time for Mr. 'Jack Frost' Brunnera to put out some blooms.

Unfortunately, I wasn't so lucky with the clematis 'Nelly Moser.'  I usually prune her in early spring, but as you can see, she's already put out so much growth and even a few buds that pruning her now will have to be done very, very carefully.   Hmmm, either Sophie is playing the Easter bunny with her tennis ball . . . or more likely, Mr. P. thought this would be a safe place to hide it while picking up the yard before mowing.  And yes, Hubby has already had to mow the yard!

Different varieties of Muscari were planted last fall in order to achieve the vision of a pleasing range of hues.  A few purple ones are already up, but apparently the others didn't get the early wake-up call.

Everything is moving at breakneck speed, and I'm having trouble keeping up with it all. I go out to the garden to work and get distracted by new blooms everywhere I look.   Ipheion 'Wisley Blue'--starflowers--are low-growing, so it's easy to overlook them if you don't take time to look closely.

I feel like a kid in a toy store, flitting from one flower to another, trying to see everything at once and enjoy it all before it fades away.  The very first tulips are blooming, to my surprise.  Are these 'Fur Elise,' planted in the fall of 2010?  Or did I plant a new variety of tulip here last fall?

If they are 'Fur Elise,' they look different than I remember them--actually, much prettier than last year's bloomers.   I should go check my notes, but no time now . . .

. . . there are more tulips waiting in the wings. I'm afraid the record-setting temperatures we've been experiencing will mean the tulips will fade much more quickly than they should. 

Even the flowering quince is blooming--and it never, ever blooms until May, 

sometimes not till early June.  It's all very strange indeed.

The first bumblebee sighting today on the quince was a delight, to be sure.  I know that he is enjoying this warmth and will stay around for the rest of the season, but that is not true of the spring bloomers.  Dear Spring, I'm trying very hard to live "in the moment" and enjoy each and every precious gift you give us.  But it's hard to do that when it's all rushing past in such a hurry.  Please, could you just slow down a little??

GBBD: Blooms at Last!

I am so happy today is Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day!  This April 15 has been a rather painful tax day, so I can use some pretty blooms to cheer me up.  Secondly, after months of stretching the meaning of "blooms," I am happy to report that spring has definitely arrived in central Illinois, and I can finally share some real flowers with everyone.

Since everyone has many places to visit today, I'll keep the words to a minimum and let the photos do most of the talking.  In order of appearance:

The first blooms to appear were the hellebores in late March.  After waiting for two years, I was excited to have more than one hellebore blooming. This is 'Red Lady,' I believe, who made her first appearance this year.

 Next came the daffodils at the very end of March. One soon turned into many.

A row of daffodils bordering the front garden are still in bloom.

Hyacinths followed shortly after, filling the air with their sweet fragrance. 

Some small shrubs were added in front of the house last fall including my very first forsythia.  This is a dwarf variety, 'Courtasol,' which is supposed to reach only two feet tall.

Later daffodils began blooming last week, including these 'Replete' daffs,

which seem to have multiplied in the front garden this year.

I'm still not sure how much I like these ruffled varieties, but in a close-up photo they look just as appealing as they did in the catalog when I ordered them.

'Pink Charm' in the sunny roadside garden.

And a different shy variety--any suggestions on how to get daffodils to face forward??

Fortunately, a few of them are facing the right way, revealing themselves as 'Poet' daffs.

In the shade garden, slender narcissus have just begun to bloom.  I wish I knew the name of these, because I would love to add more of them.

Not everything blooming in my garden right now is a spring bulb.  The flowering quince is putting on quite a show already, the earliest I can ever remember it blooming.

And in the shade garden, one of my favorites, Brunnera 'Jack Frost' is still growing, but already is covered with its dainty baby blue blooms.

With a nod to Pam's Foliage Follow-up,  I have to include one of the prettiest of the Heucheras 'Tiramisu,' which changes colors through the seasons.

It's too soon to plant most annuals here, but a pot of pansies and sweet little violas welcome you to my back door.

Back to the bulbs . . . although I try to record new plantings each fall, sometimes I am surprised in the spring.  I had completely forgotten about planting a few grape hyacinth last fall, these a mixed bag of varieties.  Clearly, I need to add more this fall.

The early tulips have just begun to open, earlier than usual but later than last spring which was unusually warm.  This is from a collection called 'Color Magic.' 

Even the best-kept records are not always helpful with tulips, since some only last a year or two and succession plantings often get mixed up with previous tulip plantings.  I'm pretty sure this is 'Pink Impressions,' one of my favorites.  It's a Darwin hybrid and much longer-lived than many tulips.  Bright sunlight is usually not the best setting for taking good photos, but in this case I thought the tulips seem to glow in the light.

The tulip show is just beginning, with more to come in the next few weeks.  I'm anxious to see this new addition this year, 'Fur Elise', come into full bloom.

 

The late 'Sunrise' are just beginning to bud.  I included this blurry photo not so much for the tulip as for the plant next to it--an astilbe. The shade garden is slowly putting out growth, and I'm especially happy to see the astilbe return since they are often temperamental in this area of dry shade.

Another almost-ready-to-bloom plant is the Bleeding Heart, one of my springtime favorites.

Soon not only will the garden be filled with color, but the skies as well. 

 Nothing says "spring" like the first color of the redbud.

Ah, glorious spring!

For more spring beauties from all around the world, be sure to visit our ever-gracious hostess Carol of May Dreams Gardens. 

ABC Wednesday: Q . . . and a leftover P

This Wednesday we have reached the letter Q, which puts me in quite a quandary. Q's are not very common in the garden. I can't very well use my Quercus Macrocarpa once again, since it was the focal point of the last round through the alphabet and also showed up for O two weeks ago.

I do have another Quercus, much younger than the Bur Oak, though I don't know what specific type of oak it is. Like the grand old man at the end of our lane, it is one of the last trees to leaf out; now that it has, the front yard is full of shade once again.

For some time, however, I had planned to use the only other Q word in my garden--a flowering quince. But not everything in the garden works out the way you expect it to each year.

These are the lovely coral red blossoms that appeared for the first time last May on the quince. In fact, until last year I didn't even know what this plant was. As far as I was concerned, it was a shaggy, unsightly shrub that I was ready to dig out, so I gave it an extreme haircut in early spring. Apparently, that was just what it needed, because it was covered with these blooms last year. After it flowered, I took the advice of several garden bloggers and cut it back to half its size, thinking this would produce even more blooms this year.

Unfortunately, what I've had this spring is the same unkempt, boring shrub of past years.

Instead of a mass of blooms, a few appeared but hidden by the outside branches. I can only conclude that I should have trimmed this shrub again early in the spring to encourage its flowering. Perhaps someone more familiar with this plant can suggest another reason why it didn't bloom as prolifically as last year.

So I am rather disappointed with my Q's this week, and I'm also wishing we could turn back the clock one week, because I would have had some great additions to my P post. On Saturday my friend Beckie and I went on a day-long plant shopping expedition, starting with the local Herb Society's sale and ending at a favorite garden center, Prairie Gardens.

We managed to test the volume of my new crossover vehicle to see how the volume of the back compared to the old minivan's. I think we could have squeezed in a few more plants.

But this isn't the week for P's . . .

. . . so I won't even tell you about the local Prairie Plant Preservation Society's sale or how some of these plants made their way home with us. All this will have to wait for another day.

In the meantime for more creative and quirky representations for the letter Q, you can visit Mrs. Nesbitt or the ABC anthology.