Where To Look?

tulips

Sunny days mean I’m outdoors way more than in. The veggie garden and transplanting many seed starts occupy a large portion of my time in the lovely spring air. As spring enters her stride, much is taking off in the garden right now, including weeds (That creeping buttercup is my nemesis!). Fellow garden bloggers and I are busy snapping photos of the beauty bursting all around. Here, tulips are a week or so away, but plenty of other blooms and new foliage keep me happy.

Hyacinth orientalis perfume the front of the house. This is one area where I love a crazy mix of cheerful colors.

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Daphne odora have survived in pots on the deck and are finally blooming. Ah, the fragrance! So much for it being a winter daphne here. These lost over 50% of their leaves beneath the snow. I wheeled them into the garage for the last storms in February/March, after most of their upper buds were knocked off. I’ve killed a few daphnes, but was determined to grow them after a love affair with a massive, decades-old specimen in my Virginia garden years ago. I have three ‘Marginata’ and one ‘Summer Ice’ which was a gift from my son. Summer Ice was completely defoliated this winter yet has returned. It’s one that blooms from May-October here. Through trial and error I learned daphnes don’t tolerate our moist soil, so the pots will be their permanent home. I toy with the idea of using more beautiful pots, but these lightweight ones are so easy to move.

daphbloomdaphsummer ice

The old foundation I’ve mentioned each year since discovering it in 2014 is filled to capacity. Its location across the driveway from the front door draws my eye as I’m coming and going and makes me smile.

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It provides plenty of blooms to bring indoors and enjoy. The peach daffodils are from some tiny offsets or ‘daughter’ bulbs a sister in Mill Valley gave me; they produce larger flowers each year. More varieties of peach daffs are yet to open, even though we’re into the last third of April!

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10 thoughts on “Where To Look?”

  1. So many bulbs! Someone from Ilwaco showed the first hyacinth I saw this year, (I think). While everyone else is behind our schedule, it is funny that hyacinth is just before ours. They do not do so well here, and are not really reliable perennials. That is why they are unpopular.
    By the way, what are those trees that look like birches? Are they a native specie?

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    1. Bulb-o-rama! I certainly wouldn’t keep the hyacinth if they didn’t perennialize here. Tulips I treat as annuals, though, and they keep me busy enough planting and changing. The trees with dappled trunks are red alder; yes natives. Hundreds grace these acres since this land was partially logged in the last 75 years and they are some of the first to crop up after. They have a tendency to break in our crazy wind storms, so we take out a few each year for safety reasons — and they make good firewood (fireplace fires still legal here…).

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      1. Oh, I should have remembered those. They are rather weedy. I saw them in Poulsbo and Silverdale. We have white alder here. It does the same, filling in the blank spots, but not as aggressively, and only where the soil does not get too dry for them.

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  4. Looks like you’re also on the pnw? I’ve got creeping butter cup taking over the lower part of beds, but I’ve let it grow in certain areas because it’s actually pretty. I never hesitate to rip it out if it’s going the wrong way or encroaching too much. I’ve read it robs potassium from the soil though 😦

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    1. Yes, we’re on the northern Olympic Peninsula. That creeping buttercup has invaded many area here, but I do my best to yank it out. I’m enjoying your north-of-Seattle blog!

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