Shooting Stars

As I was walking back from the Big Garden this weekend, I spied a flash of purple alongside the road. Upon closer inspection I discovered a native Shooting Star in full bloom. I really love these delicate wildflowers and they always remind me of my late grandfather, who referred to them as Rooster Bills. While shooting stars aren't rare in these parts, they can be very particular about where they grow. That always makes finding one in full bloom a treat.

The Lamb's Tongue & Shooting Stars

Less than a mile down the road, our neighbor's front "yard" is a delight each Spring. The open, shady area comes alive with the blooms of Shooting Stars and Lamb's Tongues.

The purple multi-branched blooms of the shooting stars really stand out in the field of greens and cream.

Most of the yard is awash with Lambs Tongues. 

The blooms are at full maturity right now and will soon begin to fade.

Lamb's Tongue Season

It is officially Lamb's Tongue season here! Lamb's Tongues, or as they are also commonly called, Trout Lilies, are native to our area. They grow in lightly shaded areas of forests. I have two nice groups of them growing along the secret path.

The pretty bell shaped blooms are just starting to open.

When they are fully open they resemble starfish a bit. 

The biggest patch of Lamb's Tongues are down the road at our neighbor's home. In an area underneath a few oak trees she has a naturalized mass planting.

It is literally a solid carpet of Lamb's Tongues right now.

She doesn't let her son mow this area until the plants have finished blooming for the year and have died back. This allows seed to set and the plants to multiply. Her careful watch over this patch has paid off.

Also tucked into the Lamb's Tongue patch are a few Shooting Stars. They too are a Spring treat. Their pale purple blooms are a great compliment to the soft yellow Lamb's Tongues.

A Sunday Walkabout

Sunday I took a walk around the property. This was my first walk around in a while and there were many, many signs of Spring. Down in the big garden, the trillium are getting larger. My favorites are the ones with the spotted leaves.

We also seem to have a number of solid leaf trillium.

The Osoberry, or Indian Plum, are the first "trees" to leaf out each year. As soon as the buds have broken, and the first bright green leaves appear, the plant sends out this lovely cascade of white flowers.

Right in the middle of the secret path, the large patch of shooting stars has returned. This is the only place on the property that we have shooting stars. The deer march up and down this path but fortunately shooting star plants appear to be pretty tough. I wonder if we will get any blooms this year?

Further down the path, the Veratrum, or Corn Lilies, grow thickly. This area is quite near the creek and is very wet and bog-like. This plant is extremely poisonous, but has such beautiful textured leaves as it emerges.

Across the creek, the Lamb's Tongues have suddenly appeared. I was just looking for them a week or two ago and couldn't find any. Now the pretty sets of leaves are up and the blossom stalk is forming. 

The First Weekend in March

What a lovely day! We had sunny, blue skies and reached a high temperature of 63 degrees. It was easy to forget that we were covered in snow three days ago until you looked in the front flowerbed. There you would find a poor Hellebore plant still buried under a pile snow that was dumped off of the roof! However, everywhere else it felt like Spring. The "tete-a-tete" daffodils in the mudroom bed are now in full bloom.

Up on the bank, the first daffodils to bloom each year are the sweet, little "Segovia". They were closed just yesterday but completely opened in today's sunny warm weather.

The crab apple on the bank has begun to break dormancy. You can just make out the fat, blood-red shoots starting to elongate.

Also up on the bank, and scattered all around the property, are the wild Pacific Hound's Tongue "Cynoglossum Grande". Their fat leaves are just pushing through the soil now. The underside of the leaves are silver and the stem and veins are red. It is really striking as it makes its yearly appearance.

Down by the big garden the pussy-willow tree is at its showy best.

At the head of the secret path the shooting stars are just emerging.

And inside the garden I found the first trillium. These lush leaves will form a huge clump at the base of Dorothy's rose. I always have to be careful when I do the first weeding of the year not to accidentally pull up a trillium plant.

Down the secret path I spied a small clump of deep purple violets and back inside the garden I found the first pink violet of the year.Spring is coming!

Shooting Star

hendersonii – Henderson’s Shooting Star

I took this picture while on a walk last Sunday. Our neighbor's Shooting Stars, Dodecatheon Hendersonii, are in full bloom right now. They are growing in a bit more sun than the Shooting Stars on our property. Because of this, they tend to bloom a week or two earlier. This large plant had 5 blooms opened on the stem with another three still unopened. They are such neat wildflowers.

A Late Winter Walk-about

Last night it began just pouring rain around 5:30 PM and continued raining hard until at least 10:00 PM. The storm had cleared when I woke-up and in the afternoon I took a walk around the property. I hadn't been up to visit the Crab Apple Tree for awhile and was really pleased to see that it had broken dormancy and the buds have begun to swell. Its branches were just covered in beautiful, deep red tips. This will be its second Spring at our house after being planted Mother's Day of 2009. I can't wait to see the show it puts on this year!

I also found hiding in the grass this sweet little snowdrop. When we moved to this property, we moved six large clumps of snowdrops from the other house. Well, we obviously aren't gifted at moving snowdrops! This year we have a whopping 2 blooms to show for our work! Well, maybe this little guy will set seed and start to naturalize. We can only hope!

Because of all the heavy rains that we have had the last week or so, the creek is really running strong right now.The water is muddy brown and it is making a lovely roaring sound.

The "February Gold" daffodils are just about to open. The sad reality is the deer, who aren't suppose to eat daffodils, have munched off the top of every bloom but two! So, ta-da. here is this years display. I am starting to see a trend here.. two "February Gold".. two Snowdrops....

The Hellebore on the secret path are also blooming. They are a pleasant shock of color in an otherwise shady spot.

And the Shooting stars on the secret path continue to grow too. I love their chubby, fat leaves.

And I had to post a picture taken down at the big garden. Here is one corner of my garden, the day after a heavy rain. Only about 2" of standing water. Can you tell that I garden in a wetlands area..Yikes!

February Surprises

On Sunday, when I was busy counting birds for the GBBC, I made two trips down to the big garden to see what bird species might have been eating at that feeder. After my second trip down, as I was walking back to the house along "the secret path", a flash of color caught my eye at ground level. I spied a burst of purple among the brown leaves and dead grass. Violets! While I have large drifts of white & purple violets in the "lawn" around the big garden, I have never seen any violets here. What a wonderful surprise.

I also discovered that the Shooting Stars along path have just begun to break thought the earth and return for another year. There were dozens and dozens just like this one shooting upwards. The question is, how many blossoms will I get this year?

Trillium

On one of my walks this weekend, I discovered the first Trillium blooming.

Most of the plants are still in this stage. They should all be in bloom by next weekend if the weather continues to be so mild.

A large clump of 7 or 8 plants.

I also discovered that my large patch of Shooting Stars have been growing like mad the past few weeks. I even found an immature bud buried deep in one clump of leaves.