It’s not all flowers here in my garden.
I found this little colony of cup fungi while weeding.
I have looked in all my books, but there is no perfect match.
The white stalk and jelly inside do not fit with all the photos.
Anybody out there know their name?
FLOW
For those of you that do not love sunny yellow, there are mellow daffodils.
Ice Follies Narcissus has a pale yellow fluffy cup.
Thalia is pure white and pointy.
I found a ’60 Days of Daffodils’ by Simple Pleasures that has many varieties.
This one with pink cups was a surprise mixed in a pack of others.
Love this double!
These Tazetta cultivars have a mystery source also.
If you are too mellow for yellow, there are many other daffodil colors.
Mellow Flow
I have a shrub circle down the hill from the house.
The shrubs are planted around a huge oak tree.
I have included one special specimen of each of my favorite types of shrubs.
I planned each to bloom in its own time.
The first to bloom is my one and only Quince.
It is the Quince of dreams.
Chaenomeles ‘ Double Take, Orange Storm’.
I found it while plant shopping with my sister.
It was in a too small pot full of weeds. I had to rescue it.
I told the worker that I was reporting them for abuse and neglect.
He gave me a discount.
My ‘Orange Storm’ has recovered nicely.
Stay tuned for more from the shrub circle.
FLOWER
If you are reading this blog, you all ready know that I am obsessed with plants.
Not the big-box garden center, common, cheap variety; but the expensive search-the-world-over kind.
My obsession sometimes leads to sinning, as in coveting someone else’s plants.
I am ashamed to admit this is true. Breaking a commandment over a plant.
(Yes, Gail K. I coveted your Edgeworthia.)
I have always wanted a paperbush shrub, but feared one would not survive in zone 7.
When I saw one blooming in a neighbor’s yard I almost ran off the road.
Thoughts of coming back late at night with a shovel crossed my mind.
Do they have a dog? Would the chickens squeal on me?
So I was thankful to find an Edgeworthia chrysantha at one of my go-to places for the strange and obscure.
It was dormant. It looked like a stick. There was no tag. I had to buy it on faith. Lots of faith.
Mr. Flower looked at the pot with the stick in it and the expensive price tag with a puzzled look.
“It’s on my LIST.” I said. “Gail has one…”
There is no arguing with a woman obsessed.
My new baby is sprouting leaves.
I hope these don’t end up being expensive snacks for our herd of deer.
But that’s another story. (Stay tuned)
P.S. Here is a picture of the bunnies. (Gail doesn’t have bunnies.)
FLOWER
I think we love daffodils because they show up just when we need them.
Flashes of yellow appear as winter is loosening its grip on the land.
I welcome the bright yellow blooms as they foreshadow the bright spring sunshine.
I have many types of daffodils in a variety of colors,
but my favorite is and always will be the Tete-a Tete.
It is named for having two flowers on some of its stems.
Some of mine even have three!
This make them look like bouquets in the garden.
FLOWER
I have been watching in amazement as my Clivia ‘Good Hope’ flowers for the first time ever.
Its butter-yellow finger-like buds finally opened into big happy blooms this week.
I did not realize that it would get this large.
Even its roots, which slither along the surface, are big.
Another giant houseplant. Hooray!
Flower
I use colorful swizzle sticks to mark where I plant bulbs.
I have found that the twisted kind holds up longer and stays up better.
I thought this color combo was rather nice.
The swizzle sticks match the stamen.
Swizzle stick serendipity!
Flower
I have been too sickly to go out into the garden this week,
instead I traveled down the Amazon with Margaret Mee and her friend Rita.
I would have been terrified running the rapids in a dugout canoe,
if I had not been safely tucked in my bed while doing it.
Not only is she adventurous, she is also an artist.
Her botanical watercolors are famous for their beauty as well as accuracy.
Margaret Mee gets placed on my hero list with Marianne North and Beatrix Potter.
I was almost glad to be sick, so that I could float and forage through the jungles.
Almost..
FLOW
I learned a lot last weekend at the Fairy House Festival at Latta Plantation.
I had no idea that fairy architecture was so complex.
It seems that they like to have paths to their door.
Bark is their favorite roofing material.
Pine branches and pine cone are decorative accents.
Stones are stools and acorns are bowl.
Wisps of grass add flare.
Some like the teepee style of house
while others feel safer under ground
or inside a tree stump.
I must start gathering building materials to build my fairies a new house under the fig tree.
Stay tuned for updates.
FLOWER
floweralley 