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A great big sigh and pout from me when I saw my Abeliophyllum distichum. So pretty just a couple of days ago and now almost naked - the flower petals were completely washed off by the rain. Had a look back in my photos in 2008 to see how it was last year. Found many beauty shots of it in its photographic glory - sadly none of it in its scraggly nakedness. Perhaps a good reminder that shots of an end of a period of bloom are valuable as well. I can get very caught up cataloguing the pretties and completely forget about shooting what's finished. There's so much to learn about how to design during these transition periods - maybe things wouldn't look so sad if I'd put in some early daffs or perhaps a Hellebore or three? Certainly looks like there's room.
Morning walk photos follow - it's the week of yellow and pink, as everyone who has a good blast of forsythia also seems to have their own, or a borrowed view of a lovely saucer magnolia.
Forsythia gone wild which I much prefer - seems tragic when I see them torchured into shreiking yellow cubes.
Back into my garden the other evening - a very sweet little Muscari.
The doorstep Hepatica before I got to the leaves yesterday.
This is my sale-table-early-no-tag-rhodo that I got from Weall & Cullen when they had a store in Oakville. They are about the only two plants that Kevin planted in the entire garden. What a great bubblegummy blast.
New tulip for me - either Pinnochio or Pirand - I'll know for certain in a day or two - bears no resemblance to either catalogue photo. Very large flower to stem ratio.
It's a good day, taxes submitted, no rain until later today and a garage full of paper refuse bags to fill. And, I even think I have a bag of chocolate chips that might find their way into something delicious....
This is one of my happy surprise plants - Dicentra 'Gold Heart'. Chartreuse leaves, and the same bright happy pink flowers as the regular Dicentra spectabilis. And, I suppose I can understand how this might offend some peeps, but, here's the story about this fellow: I put him in a container two summers ago with a bunch of other perennials, summer bulbs, tropicals and annuals. I figured like any other D. spectabilis he'd poop out and be the messy giant ephemeral in the pot. However, he bloomed all summer long and only declined in late August - at which point who cared, because everything else was so fabulous. When I took apart the pot at the end of the season - there were still leaves on 'Gold Heart'. I tucked him into the garden and promptly forgot about him, thinking he'd probably just grown and bloomed himself to death over the summer....well, not at all. He's fabu. Back in the garden he's behaving like a D. spectabilis. Great now, stupendous in a couple of weeks and dead from the neck up shortly thereafter. Almost tempted to put him back in a pot to see if I could coax him to bloom again all summer....
Looks like there's going to be some Anthriscus 'Raven's Wing' in the hort sale!
This is H. 'Ivory Prince' in a protected area. A little sorry I removed the leaves so early.
And here in the front garden - ok, but much fewer flowers and a lot smaller in size.
This is the area to my immediate left I call Aunt Win's Garden. When I was little, she took me off to the woods to collect some woodlanders to bring home to my own garden (this was before we knew that 'collecting' from the woods was evil). So, when she left me a little money when she died, I made this little woodland garden in her honour. I can't believe the size of the Japanese Maple now - it started out no bigger than hip height.
I was unaware that Podophyllum peltatum was such a masculine looking plant this early in its growth period. You can certainly understand why it's called Manroot (mandrake). I've seen at least 10 internet references that all look like they've copied someone saying "it was believed to be alive and screamed when pulled from the ground - rendering a man permanently insane." If I wasn't so fond of it, I'd almost just go out there today to see what would happen.
Very sweet primula - lost the tag - but such a cheerful yellow.
The photographic equivalent to throwing all the dishes in the sink....shot one - leaves and tulips, oh my.
Shot #two - it's all in the perspective - sure there's too many leaves, but look at those nice little tulips!
I adore orangey-red tulips - and variegated leaves....terrific!
A wall hanging by Ellen Collington.
I love the red & white quilts.
What fun!
The only good squirrel is one that has been fastened in place on a piece of bedding.
So to get away from the crowds at the main centre we went over to the rock garden for lunch and had a nice sandwich on the terrace overlooking the garden. It was 25C (77F) - a gift from the heavens. Every person who was able - and those who needed help we're being wheeled about - all of us trying to collect as many thermal units as we could. Knowing full well that cooler weather was on the way.
One of my favourite trees - looks like he's being held together to maintain the feature around the pond. 
Is this not the perfect comb-over plant?
Fosteriana Tulips - Easter Parade - very early - very cheerful.
Corylopsis veitchiana - don't see this in the trade - but very sweet little yellow flowers.
A very pretty Viburnum that I'll have to go back to check what it is.
And so it was back home for us - just before the storm and weather change. Ah well, it was nice while it lasted - and even nicer to know that there's lots more of that weather to come in the not too distant future.
This is a wee Dicentra culcularia after the rain. Not being able to get to these leaves was driving me mad earlier in the week - but when I look at this shot - reminder to self....this is a woodland plant and probably much happier unfurling its new shoots over a blanket of old leaves.
