Friday, April 30, 2010

A Farewell to April

For her final performance April has cast irises, pinks and phlox with a small supporting cast:)

The first Siberian iris to appear is this beauty from Carla of My Back Yard. It was a special trade that also included by tall noid daisy mum.




Japanese Roof Iris ~ Iris tectorum ~ grows side by side with Epimedium in my best part shade spot in the garden.









Rabbit's view of Iris 'Rare Treat'



Mom's low Dianthus



'Firewitch'




Penstemon 'Elfin Pink' buds next to Dianthus 'Bath's Pink'



Amsonia tabernaemontana~ Eastern Bluestar



Phlox pilosa var ozarkana still going strong





Have a great weekend!

Saturday, April 24, 2010

The Fragrant Spring Garden

Fragrance has never been a priority for me in choosing plants for the garden. The appeal for most plants that I choose is purely visual. I guess that shouldn't be surprising given my history of obsessions with the visual world.

Nevertheless I couldn't help but notice the fragrances wafting in the garden yesterday as I worked~ and all from just two Spring beauties, Dianthus & Phlox.

Bath's Pink is extremely fragrant. I have a few different types and varieties of dianthus growing in the garden since they love my conditions here but none are even close to being that fragrant.





This is the first bloom that I have seen from this self seeded plant. I don't detect much fragrance from this one or it's likely parent.



The fragrance is not as strong from Phlox pilosa var ozarkana but the size of the planting makes it quite noticable. This is a vigorous spreader for me. I have to keep it from overtaking its neighbors despite the assistance I get from the rabbits in reigning it in.





Of course this specimen and its ilk were a big focus of my time spent in the garden yesterday.



I finally got a couple of decent shots of the Geranium maculatum. The plant is only a couple of years old and has to lean out to the sun from a jungle of Buddleia lindleyana suckers and a Ruby Glow barberry. I had to cram it in there for a little shade since it's scarce here.





The iris show has begun~ Japanese Roof Iris



A very prolific passalong with small blooms for its tall stems. I'm not fond of its proportions but it works okay around the mammoth Miscanthus 'Cabaret'.



I'm still waiting for this favorite to open~ Rare Treat( indeed! lol. It hasn't multiplied nearly fast enough for me)



It's a cloudy and windy Sunday here. My thoughts and prayers are with the victims of yesterdays tornados in the Gulf states.

Sunday, April 18, 2010

Late to the Party

I must admit that I completely forgot Garden Bloggers Bloom Day this month. In all honesty I had barely paid the garden any mind at all last week. I shudder to think what it will look like if I don't get up from this desk and get to work soon! I have pulled some weeds and removed some old stalks from last year but I have way too much garden for "some" to be enough.

What I have done is collected some images to share of what's blooming now despite my neglect:)

Dianthus 'Firewitch'



Coral honeysuckle



California poppy



An unidentified iris from a great lady



Viburnum bracteatum 'Emerald Luster'



American Fringe tree ~ Chionanthus virginicus



Sweet Betsy ~ Calycanthus floridus



Sweetbay Rugosa rose



Indigofera amblyantha



Salvia 'Maraschino'



Have a great week!

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

New Growth, New Links

Everything seems new again when the garden comes to life in Spring. Fresh leaves, wildflowers...












I've been busy with new growth of my own. In the past couple of weeks I have added a new blog~Little Wing Photography & Design, a Facebook Fan Page , and my very own domain littlewingphotoanddesign.com. My website still needs alot of work but I'm one step in the right direction(baby steps...).

Tell me what you think about this new blog template and/or all of the above links. I'd love to hear your opinions:)


Facebook Fan Page

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Every Day...

brings more new growth. It's popping out everywhere!

Bottlebrush Buckeye



American Fringe Tree



Prague Viburnum



Pippi Longstocking



The dogwood flowers are at their peak.








Hope everyone has a very enjoyable Spring weekend!

Monday, April 5, 2010

The Little Things~ Small Flowers

My Spring challenged garden is still far from showy at this point in the season but I can always find something to enjoy up close and personal~ like these small flowers now blooming.

This viola was a hitchhiker with a large salvia that I brought home from a Garden Web plant swap a few years ago. These are the first blooms that I have seen from it~ I had forgotten it was there. Could this be 'Freckles'?



The epimedium is really going now. I love the common name~ Fairy Wings ~ which I would think describes the foliage more than these dainty blooms.




Two more little things that I love:)




It's time again for the Garden Web plant swap that I mentioned before. I do not plan to attend this year. It will be the first one that I have missed since I discovered them a few years ago. If you live in central NC and think you'd be interested in going the information can be found here. Introduce yourself and join in~ you'll be glad you did:)




Friday, April 2, 2010

Blooming Friday~ Good Friday too

After the sixth coldest winter recorded at RDU Airport Spring is moving along at a rapid pace. In two weeks we went from buds to blooms to almost fully leafed out on the Weeping Cherry trees.



This pink dogwood tree is planted very close to the house on the north side. The flowers are just opening~ this is our Easter tree since it's almost always in bloom on Easter no matter when it falls on the calendar. The shady location makes it really hard to get good photos but I try and try again.







The Red Maple is in bloom. This tree is young enough to be able to see them closeup.




The epimediums are also hard to capture because of their small size and location- I backed right into all kinds of limbs while getting these shots.







This is the fullest display that I've ever had from the Veronica 'Georgia Blue'. It was moved here a couple of years ago and was hidden under the Muhly grass pretty much until this year.




I've never seen a display like this on from my young Loropetalum. It must have enjoyed all of the rain.




The hellebore is winding down but has a very good year.




I've done alot of organizing over at Little Wing Photography & Design. I'd love for you to visit!

This is the last Bloomimg Friday to be hosted by Katarina at Roses and Stuff. Be sure to visit and bookmark her beautiful blog.

Happy Easter!