Friday, April 12, 2013

First Spring Flowers

 Chimera is back in the back yard, watching over our newly budding lilac. 

 
 The fancy ruffled daffodils given to me by a friend and planted last fall have begun to bloom. 


These tiny wild...what are they, Hyacinth?...are blooming in among the poppies.  I hope I get some profuse poppy blooms this year.  The plants were given to me by a neighbor last year, and should bloom a lovely orange.

 The lilac is starting to bud too.

 After reading up on Hellebore spring care online, I decided to cut back all of the old non-budding growth on the plant.  It was tough to do, because it made it so much smaller, but wow...it really really loves it.  New shoots are popping out of the ground every day now.  This is the prettiest my Hellebore has ever been.


 We also got our back deck repaired/partially replaced.  The wood top is all new, and the existing rails were all taken down, sturdied up, and put back on stronger.  We still have touch-up work to do to the white, and we still have to stain and seal the wood.  Weather hasn't been cooperating with our plans so far.

A good sign for my Hollyhocks this year.  I'll have to thin them out soon, as I learned the hard way  last year when I got Hollyhock rust on them from refusing to thin them out.  I'll do so soon, but for  now it just makes me happy to see them coming up!

Come on, Spring!!!

5 comments:

  1. You are so far ahead of us here in Southern Ontario... Love the Hellebore!

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  2. The little hyacinths are known as grape hyacinths. Looking wonderful and I envy you the lilacs, they won't grow here in TX.

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  3. I love grape hyacinths, mostly because they are usually one of the first things to bloom. Lovely hellebore!

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  4. Lois, I hope your garden is starting to bloom!

    Lady Hawthorne, thank you for identifying them! Thanks Erin!

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  5. Your Lilac is way ahead of mine .... it has only teeny buds on it so far. Your decking and the little stair looks so great now! And, Mrs Black wants that Chimera, it greatly resembles her Kitten when she is rampant. x

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