Wild Violets

In the "lawn" surrounding the big garden, I have a variety of violets that bloom each Spring. The first to bloom each year are the deep purple/violet ones. They are quickly followed by the pink violets. The last, and most abundant, are the white violets. I thought that I has missed most of the purple & pinks this year but I did find this lovely little purple one blooming just outside the garden gate.

Inside the garden, the white violets are just beginning their show.

I would guess that only half of them are open at this point. The rest are just appearing above their bed of grass and moss.

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!

Everywhere you look, something is in bloom

Last Sunday, between madly rushing from one gardening task to another, I took some time and went for a walk around the property. By slowing down and taking the time to really look closely, I once again found a large, diverse group of plants putting on their annual show. As the Pacific Coast Wild Iris reach their peak bloom, the Cat's Ears have just begun. I do love their uniquely shaped bloom and fuzzy interior. We have 4 separate areas on the property where they grow.

I was thrilled to find this native columbine "aquilegia formosa" blooming. Columbine are short-lived plants, and normally by the time I have located one blooming, it has reached the end of its life cycle and disappears the next year. This one is growing in filtered shade on the bank of the creek.

We are lucky to have 3 native dogwoods (Cornus Nuttallii) on the property.

The camas has also just begun to bloom.

These sweet little Stream Violets ( Viola Glabella) are blooming in very dense shade along the secret path to the garden. If their yellow bloom wasn't so eye-catching, you would never know that they are there.

Everywhere you look right now you see these funny white blossoms. It's Western Serviceberry ( Amelanchier Alinifolia), a very common shrub/small tree in these parts. Most of the year you can't really differentiate it from all the other miscellaneous hedges and brush that grow wild here. But once a year, Serviceberry covers itself in these white, showy blooms and suddenly you are reminded it's everywhere.

All of our green meadows are full of hot pink "dots" right now. Upon closer inspection you can see that the wild vetch is blooming now, with these pretty little pink trumpets.

Deep in the shade, the paths are lined with the tiny, pink blossoms of a common weed.

And I can't leave out the buttercups and daisies. Although they are common and mostly overlooked, I love the Spring color combination of the white daisy heads and the bright yellow buttercups. They bring the dark, moss-covered floor of the forest alive.

The First Day of Spring!

Today is the official first day of Spring! The weather is grey and overcast - a lot like Winter! But I did manage to take a walk down to the big garden and check out what's new.....

Since my last trip down the secret path, the Lamb's Tongues have burst out of the ground. Their beautiful, speckled leaves were easy to spot amongst the moss and leaf liter once I started looking. And this one already had a bud starting to push up from between its set of leaves.

And the Rice Lilies have also come flying up out of no where.

Not to be outdone, the Trillium have also appeared.

 A close-up of the speckled leaves and immature bud.

The white violets have started blooming in the lawn around the big garden. They are much more abundant than the purple violets .

Even on a soggy day, they still have sweet faces. I love the way they look to be tucked into the moss. They are so small that I can safely mow the lawn in early Spring and the violets don't get harmed. And below, the "wild" cherry trees have begun to bloom too! Happy first day of Spring !

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?

Early March..In like a Lamb.

Well, the calendar has changed pages and it's now officially March. The weather has continued its rhythm of mild, mostly dry days. Yesterday was amazing. Solid blue skies all day and it was already 50 degrees by 11 AM. It topped out somewhere in the low 60s. It was one of those days where it was close to impossible to stay indoors "and get stuff done". Plants continue to burst from the ground, leaf out, and bloom at a much earlier than normal schedule. When I was filling the bird feeder, down in the big garden yesterday, I noticed the first batch of violets were blooming. I think these violets are ancestors of violets planted many, many years ago by the gardens first keepers. Dorothy's first violets were obviously happy and have multiplied all over. Interestingly, these are three different colors that bloom at three distinct times. The whites are always first. Right as they finish up the magenta violets open. And the show is always finished by the true dark violet colored ones.

I also discovered yesterday during my walk that the wild Lamb's Tongues have not only come up but are getting close to sending up their bloom stocks. It's important to look closely where you are walking this time of year. The main path is littered with small plants, hidden among the leaf litter and moss.