Starting with one of our actual Bear Grass blooms, which is starting to open up for real. Some others below, including new Yellow Desert Parsley, Fairy Bells, trillium starting to turn purple, shooting stars, fawn lillies, orange Harsh Paintbrush and small camas:
Almost, but it’s been years since the oldest plant was planted and this is the first time we’ll get a flower. There are actually two plants which will bloom, out of three. The flower stems are tall and the flowers are a billowing, roughly diamond shaped off white flower, the leaves like a tuft of sedge. The pic is not my flowers, though, I got it online. Mine will probably be in a week or so. Not sure how long it takes, the buds are still just a grassy knot.
The small camas is in bloom, as are the shooting stars, a peek of harsh paintbrush, the currant trees, and just a hint of the onslaught of penstemon blooms we’ll get!
New seedlings that are doing well: 2 mariposa lilies, scarlet Gilia, gaillardia, yellow desert parsley, a few hyssops. A few standbys: fawn lillies, hopefully the pink kind, small (dark purple) camas, light blue camas, Ookow, and Hooker’s onion.
Lots of trillium seedlings from my banner crop two years ago, in just about every spot I planted them, both front and back yard. I collected the pods, cleaned the seeds after about two weeks in the fridge, and planted them at about four weeks. Also a batch of about ten three year plants, too
Only three duck landings so far, but plenty of frog activity, so maybe we’ll get some tadpoles this year!
Fawn lillies, trillium, shooting star and flowering currants are the vanguard of blooms this year. I dont count the oxalis, I guess, but they’re in bloom, too..
Largeleaf Lupine coming up where I transplanted it last year…in a sunnier, drier part of the back yard. There are fewer slugs, there, too, which bodes well for the lupine. Now we’ll have to see about aphids.
The pacific tree frogs are back, they just started croaking the last day. They apparently love the incessant rain we’ve been having since this morning.
On the Northwest native plant society tour a couple of weeks ago. This was fun, and transitioned into a party that afternoon. It was a bit early, though, on April 27. In the last two weeks so many more plants have bloomed!
First time to bloom for the Lewisia Redivivus, which is coming to life after being transplanted into a pot with cactus soil and better sun. It was coming back year after year but barely there with tiny leaves and no flowers. It’s a new plant!
Frogs still making noises and swimming in the front pond. The first several egg sacs were left in the pond, but the ducks have eaten them all. They have a few more chances, but its not likely to happen. Oh, well, there seems to be no shortage of frogs around!
So much in bloom at once! The penstemons, huckleberries,camas, daisies, Indian paintbrush, delphiniums, anemones, irises, lillies, buckwheats, orange trumpet honeysuckle, heucheras, rhododendrons, columbines, and sea blush are in full glory. Soon to bloom are leopard lillies and tiger lillies, lumpines, sea thrift, and pink honeysuckle. The air is perfumed.
Found about a dozen tadpoles in the front pond that must have hatched just in time to be missed by the ducks. So we’re back to a handful, that seems more balanced than the hundreds and possibly thousands of eggs that were originally laid.
We cleaned out the backyard pond of excess foliage, so whether the ducks would have returned after Saturday or not, they aren’t coming back here this year. We had to lower the pond level for the maintenance. The ducks were last in the yard about a week ago.
All the deciduous trees and shrubs have provided screen. The weather is warm, to 80 today, but cooler and sunny here near the Sound. The hammock is up and ready for the season .
Tides have turned against the frogs this year. At first there were just a few, then occasionally numerous frogs croaking at night. We had many egg sacs in the front pond, about 6-8 just on the rain chain alone, and we thought we were in for an infestation of biblical proportions. Then the ducks discovered the front yard pond and took care of them all. We’ll have to see if any make it into next year to repopulate the pond.
Now In bloom: Camassia cusickii, Camassia quamash, purple Shooting stars, Iris setosa, Iris tenax, Penstemon rupicola, Penstemon davidsonii, Aquilegia formosa, Aquilegia cerulean, Aquilegia flavescens, Penstemn tolmeii, Iris chrysophylla, Saxifraga oregana, White Brodiaea, Deciduous Rhododendrons. Below, Penstemon tolmeii, Jacob’s-ladder, and Iris chrysophylla, a new iris for me with pale blue and yellow markings on a white background.
Nearly in bloom: deciduous Penstemons, Sea thrift, Heucheras, white Shooting stars (dentatum).
Now in bloom, April 2012:
Dodecatheon pulchellum , dodecatheon dentatum , dodecatheon Henderson (Shooting stars purple and white)
Penstemon rupicola
Erigeron linearis / Desert yellow daisy
Lewisias,
Hooker’s Fairybells
Showy Jacob’s ladder/ Polemonium pulcherrimum
Erythronium oregonum / Fawn Lily
chocolate lily/ Fritillaria
Castilleja hispula/ Harsh Paintbrush.
The Henderson shooting stars are darker fuscia with dark brown cone, vs pulchellum are lighter with more yellow in the cone.
Soon to be in bloom: Columbines yellow and blue – Aquilegia crysanthus and Aquilegia cerulea.
Ducks have been hanging around the pond a lot, though these ducks are skittish. Ducks in the past tolerated our presence just fine.
Waxwings coming around, transitioning from the earlier Saskatoon/Amelanchier shrubs to the Cascara trees.
Crow fledglings sitting in pine tree, but haven’t seen them in a day. Hopefully they are gone for good. The parents were surprisingly distant lately ( we told one young crow we were sure he was abandoned), but i did get sqawked at a couple of times. I put out some leftover anchovies and water, in the hopes of making friends or maybe a servant of the baby crow. Many other birds, including lots of California quails, Junkos, Tohees and goldfinches are everywhere, and the back yard is a regular cacophony of birds.
Continue reading “Memorial day weekend”
Weather still cool, with too much clouds and rain , especially when i’m off. Occasional sun breaks to give us rays of hope. There were several sailing regattas out on Puget Sound, it was a nice day today for it.
Continue reading “Can’t tell if Spring is here!?”
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