Saturday, May 1, 2010

It's Time to Do A Rain Dance

Little bits of rain here and there - let's hope it continues. The garden is so completely parched.
Before and between some of the rain drops, here is a little more of the bits of spring garden explosion going on. You can almost hear the blossoms popping.

This is from Garden Import - rather than eat it, the squirrels have the name tag and taken it to one of those big maps in their underground headquarters (a la James Bond or those WWII films) to show the team where the really tasty stuff is. Hope they let it be - if it looks this cool closed, just imagine what it will look like when it's open.


I put in a veggie garden this week - my plan is that it must be attractive and delicious. Will write more about this at some later point.
Two beauty shots of Veronica peduncularis 'Georgia Blue'. It looks far blu-er in the photos than in real life. This veronica is a tiny one - in my garden about 10 cm (4"), although it looks much taller here.

The Berberis is in bloom. You have to flip over the branches to get a good look.
Deutzia 'Chardonnay Pearls' - a very small well behaved and pleasant little deutzia.Bergenia isn't one of my favourites, the leaves get all nasty and ratty over the winter - but at this time of year - what a great colour.
OOOOOO those two colours clash. I promise you that this Epimedium is in the backyard. My favourite - anything that approximates the colour of Baby Aspirin automatically wins a spot in my garden.
Little drop of water on top of the petals on top of the leaf.I'm having fun photographing the Clemmies - who knew some of them were so hairy?


A much better shot of the Trillium - as promised.

Next to Baby Aspirin orange, this coral is right at the top of my colour-love list.

There are many plants that aren't as commonly grown as they should be. Hamamelis is one of those plants - the first to bloom in March - great fall colour - and look at how neat the branches and leaves are - a really good plant.

The leaves almost look like green feathers.

Phlox divaricata 'Dirago Ice' has a lovely scent. Looks good pared with yellow or bright chartreuse to show the delicate blue.

Mahonia flowers.....it was such a benevolent winter - the plant is full of blossoms.

My first blooming perennial geranium.

This is Heuchera 'Georgia Peach' - obviously having a hot flash.

I don't often take a photo from this angle - it's from the sidewalk looking north/west. Those lily-flowered tulips are some of my favs.

I was shocked to see that the Calycanthus floridus was in bud already.


And more Carex in bloom - this time 'Bowles Golden'.

And, as I look outside, it looks as if the sun is out again. Maybe if I go out to pull weeds I can make it rain.

5 comments:

Knatolee said...

You have such lovely and unusual plants!

We seem to have lots of rain coming this way, according to Environment Canada, and you usually get our weather the day before (I'm near Cornwall) so I suspect it's raining in the Oakville area!

Gail said...

Barbara, Do you take your photos from the same spot most of the time~I do and I've been trying to move around~habits are hard to break. Anyway, you have such lovely blooms going on...I am laughing that you can grow calycanthus and I can't! We are getting way more rain then anyone needs; the interstates are flooded and more is coming tomorrow! Yikes! gail

Lona said...

Barbara you have some beauties blooming in your garden. I love your veronica.
Your layout for the vegetable garden is just wonderful. It will be beautiful and functional.

Barbarapc said...

Knatolee - Thanks. Hope you got some rain - it was just enough to make things look wet, rather than a soaking rain - but we'll take it - it's been so very very dry.
Gail - So much is dependent on the light - I generally take my photos at the same time each morning and afternoon - so I'm probably standing in the same spot taking similar photos. Was trying to figure out what something looked like last year and realized I've got to try to take some different photos - there's lots of valuable information missing from my photo library.
HHG - thanks - the veronica is so pretty - I think I've got about 6 different varieties, and I adore them all. For the most part, bug and disease free - and many of them are really good blues - so hard to find in a garden plant.

sweetbay said...

I love the design of your vegetable garden. Beautiful flower shots too. The epimedium is so dainty and a great color.