Misty May Day

Too much rain today to garden, 

but not enough to keep me 

from washing windows. 

I love to see May flowers 

through clean windows.

Here are Lily of the Valley 

growing and blooming 

under the birch tree 

with Lady's Mantle, fern, 

Iris, and a huge-leaved Hosta. 

Primroses and Bleeding Heart (bloom is past) 

line the stone path 

from the back yard to the front yard 

through this bed of shade-loving plants.

I have to clear the path each spring 

with my tiger teeth hand saw,

pulling out the Lily of the Valley 

root mass, but it's worth an hour

of gardening on my knees

and another hour of cleaning window panes

to enjoy both on this misty May afternoon.

Prepping Patio Pots

A variegated, pointed-leaf 

Geranium 'Vancouver Centennial' 

grows about  12-16 inches tall 

with brilliant red-orange flowers.

A Dalaya Fireball Dahlia

has large blooms in bicolor

orange and yellow.

It grows 12 to 16 inches.

 

Calibroacha Minifamous Neo Deep Yellow

(a.k.a.Million Bells or Mini Petunia)

is a spiller that trails over the pot.

It has copious trumpet-shaped bright yellow

blooms that attract hummingbirds.

Nemesia Nesia Tropical hybrid

is a mounding filler plant with sturdy stems

and upright pea-like pink blooms

with peach and orange petals

tipped in purple.

Osteospermum Zion Orange Burst 

or African Daisy

has bright orange-yellow upright blooms

on mounding leaves.

And as a thriller or upright focus plant, 

 the number one favorite of hummingbirds, 

Vermillionaire Cuphea hybrid

also called Firecracker plant.

It is also loved by gardeners: it takes heat,

needs little watering,

does not need deadheading or cutting back,

and blooms profusely in 

unique-shaped flowers

of orange and yellow and red held high

above the mounded flowers and foliage.

A pretty pot 

(actually a pair, one for each corner of the deck)

 to please us, our neighbors, 

and our "no-show" hummingbirds!

Maybe these brightly colored oases

will attract them 

when it warms up a bit?

A Quick Note:

Blogger is doing the sideways trick with my photos

which were taken in vertical orientation with my phone.

I can't solve the problem yet, but I'm working on it.

 

Another Note:

I now have to import my Google photos

from my Android phone

by sending them via email to my computer.

Then I save them in a temporary file

and import them to Blogger

and voila! they are oriented correctly.

What a lot of bother!!!

See next post.

Fairy Walk at Salmon River

It was a cold April morning but the river was lovely. 

A great place to walk among the fairies!

My daughter and my two granddaughters joined me

 for the activity celebrating spring 

and the mystical folk of the woods.

Violet has a passion for making potions.

Lily likes to roam the woods. 

She looks like one of the fae in her elfin ears.

After making offerings for the woodland  folk, 

we had to place our offerings

 with gratitude in appropriate places.

The water fairies and the tree fairies 

hide in different places

 and have different tastes.

Rachel, a green witch, explained it all to us.

The moss fairies like to find something glittery

in their favored habitat.

We lost track of Lily but found her

along the stream bed, hidden away from sight.

Lily had been busy making a fairy house 

under a mossy bank by the river's edge.

We meditated with grandmother tree.

Our toes and noses were cold, 

but our hearts were warm with thoughts 

of these mystical beings of the early spring woodland

who would find our offerings --

even if we didn't find them.

May Day 2024

 On May Day, we saw our first hummingbird at the feeder.  

I put out an orange half 

when I heard a Baltimore Oriole in the morning. 

I quickly reached for my phone 

to use the Merlin App from Cornell

 to record and identify the call.  

Merlin confirmed an oriole sound.  

It took him a couple hours

 to be courageous enough to come 

to the railing of our deck, 

but he was gorgeous!

Happy May Day to All!

Earth Day 2024

 After a month including a solar eclipse, an earthquake 4.8,

 a deluge of rain, and temperatures 10-15 degrees below normal, 

Earth Day has finally arrived.

Last night was in the low 30s so I had to cover the plants

I had just potted up over the weekend.

And tonight will be the same!

Blankets for all new blooms.

Especially the new Ranunculus

I've always wanted to grow.

It's such a lovely color and

I love the petal shapes and transparency.

Other cold-tolerant flowers in my pots include: 

Osteospermum, Lobulalria, Calibrachoa,

Arctotis, Nemesia, and Stock.

Fortunately, the daffodils are fine.

The other pot with spring perennials

such as fern, Hosta, and Astilbe

should be okay too.

And my dahlia project in the garage

will be protected inside

as I try to encourage them to 

come back this year.

Spring marches on

to May Day!

Praying Mantis Spotting

I was watering the canna lilies 

last week and found a 

friend watching me.

Such a lucky find!

And he [or she}

was a bizarre beauty.

That praying mantis seemed

to interact with me.

The planters at the clubhouse have done

really well this summer.

The cannas are about 6 feet tall

and bloom prolifically.

The skirt of annuals at the base

Fuschia 'Autumnale'

Yellow Strawflower

Coleus 'Wicked Hot'

Double Orange Superbells

Bidens 'Painted Red'

has definitely balanced the 

splendor at the top.

They are all Proven Winners--

and I totally agree!

The mantis may have kept the insects

and other pests in balance too.

All Vines Blooming

 

I went out to the patio this morning.

It's in the low 60s temperature-wise.

The clouds are plentiful

and there is a stiff breeze.

What a surprise to find

all the vines blooming.

The moonflowers were still open.

Did they think it was night?

The black-eyed Susan vine

Thunbergia alata

was abundant in all its shades of rose.

And even the passion vine had many blooms.

I was concerned about it since it hasn't 

bloomed for many weeks.

No problem now!

There were many buds too.

But not many more days 

to show off...

Moonflower Vine is Blooming

It's huge and gorgeous!

The buds are prehistoric-looking.

Best of all,

Moonflower vine blooms at night

and has a wonderful scent.

I planted a Black-eyed Susan vine and

a Passion Flower vine

in the same large planter

on the sunny side of the patio.

The Passion Flower bloomed earlier.

I can't find any more buds 

in the jungle on the trellis.

Maybe that's part of the

problem...

 

Pollinator Pathway in Hebron

This morning we had some cool Canadian air  

after a week of deluges of rain 

and high humidity from the tropics. 

We joined a group of people painting and shooting 

(cameras) at the native flora and fauna 

at the Raymond Book Nature Preserve in Hebron, CT.

The grand-girls were with us after an overnight stay 

and a breakfast of S'mores Pop Tarts, apple juice, 

and bacon!?!?

When we arrived a lady who organized the Paint & Shoot

had New York-style crumb cake to begin our morning.

Violet was going to watercolor paint

but she had to look around the 

pollinator pathway of native plants--

and animals.

She spied some white butterflies, 

lots of bees, dragonflies,

a tree frog, a white, wooly caterpillar--

an inchworm

and some biting ants!!

Lily set off to use both a digital camera

and my phone to photograph

what she could find

down the farm lane.

Oops! We were supposed to turn right.

The trees were 80-100 year old

sugar maples which made a shady canopy

down the lane lined by rock walls.

There were peeks into the meadows

where cows had grazed

and hay was grown and mowed.

We found some jewelweed 

which signals that it's

time for the hummingbirds

to migrate south.

We came to a pond

with a stream and a bridge.

The farmers' children 

used the area as a fort.

Violet stayed to paint

with her grandpa

on a bench

in the fort area.

Lily and I walked on 

around the pond

and up a hill.

From the top of the hill

we could see the bench

across the pond

where Violet was painting.

We found an explosion

of fall blooms: goldenrod,

black-eyed Susans, and Queen Anne's lace,

and New England asters

to match the cool nip in the air

today from Canada--

and the calendar telling

us school would soon start.

Lily felt on top of the world

after a successful shoot.

Other painters were setting up

near the bench.

Violet was finishing her painting.

We all walked back

the farm lane

to the car.

Another wonderful

experience in nature for

our our young artists and naturalists

and their grandparents.

The pollinator pathway is an

important way

to support the world we live in.