4.23.2010

Only Green and Only flower buds

The first bulbs, are done blooming. There are some spring blooming plants here and there. Most of them are very small, and I don't have many of them. So most of my garden it's just green.




And even some of the flowers are green. Look at the Lenten Rose, it has green flowers!

The next bulbs to bloom, in my garden, are the Irises. I have two types of them, the German Irises or Bearded Irises...and the Dutch Irises.

After the irises bulbs get done blooming, there will come the lilies bulbs (below). Most of them bloom close to the summer. Well, I really don't want to get ahead to much. And even though a green garden is not my favorite, Spring is beautiful. We do have some problems with the pollen, but the weather is so pleasant! No humidity, no mosquitoes, just perfect!

Here is my clematis, it already has some flowers!
This is the salvia.

Here is the Showy Evening Primrose.

This is my faithful Blanket Flower. This plant will bloom all the way to frost!

This is the Shasta Daisy, this plant likes to come up all over the place, but if it comes in a shady place won't do good at the time of blooming. And this is another type of Daisy, called Painted Daisy, its flowers are pink. They are so beautiful! Last year was the first time it bloomed. And only had one flower per plant, I can't wait for all of these buds to open up!

This is the Geranium 'Rozanne'. This is the first year that this plant will bloom in my garden!

This is the Yarrow, I post last year about it. I get all happy when I see a new flower in my garden! I planted it because its beautiful flowers, but I read this very encouraging blog of a lady up in Maine. She grows the Yarrow for skin healing oil and salves.

The next picture is of the Cone Flower. I seen two colors of them white and pink. It blooms some time after the white Shashta Daisy. At the time that I'm tired of white flowers. So, I only grow the pink one. It is also called Echinacea, and is used as medicine to support the immune system, and to purify the blood, especially during season changes and during the cold and flu season. Scientific studies of Echinacea have confirmed the presents of natural chemicals, echinacosides, which increase white blood cell activity.

And finally, the Foxglove! The leaves of the foxglove are medicinally used, despite being highly poisonous. I have read of people having very serious allergic reactions to its polen, its leaves, and even by touching the roots! I always wash my hands after dealing with this plant.Foxglove is extremely useful in treating heart conditions. The constituents of foxglove increase the activity of the heart, arterioles and other muscle tissue. An initial dose can raise blood pressure considerably, but a moderate dose can slow the pulse and cause an irregular pulse to become normal.

4.14.2010

Red Tulips

Some time in March, when all around us is brown, the daffodils come. These bright flowers really cheer us up! Their flowers last for about one month. We can see them all over the place, even out there in the woods!

But then, they turn brown and they look really messy. At that point, I don't want anything to do with yellow flowers! At the beginning of my gardening journey, I used to feel bad about seeing the yellow tulips, that I bought and planted in the fall, and not liking them. I didn't know, why I was not into yellow tulips. Now I know. It's because all the yellow daffodils, that I had seen for a month! Since then I don't buy yellow tulip bulbs anymore. Last fall I only bought red ones. So this is what came out of, what the kids tought to be devil horns!

The following three pictures are from the same spot, but I couldn't decide which one to put!

I like this one because all the ivy on the tree and because of the way the tree branch "frames" the view.


I like this one because of the sun's rays.


Then I thought that all that light makes it look blurry. And I came up with this one, without the sun's rays.

4.01.2010

The Yellow Flowers Called Daffodils

Here, in Virginia, there are many places full of the yellow flowers called, daffodils! My garden is one of them! From far away they look the same, but they are not, and some of them are not yellow at all!

These ones all yellow and short.



Here are some white with orange ruffles in the center.



Yellow ones with little orange ruffles in the center.



These are definitely yellow!



And then I have other ones white with soft yellow ruffles in the center.