More early spring blooms

We've gotten quite a bit of rain over the last two weeks, and my plants certainly appreciate it. As a matter of fact, it's raining right now. We're expecting some "severe" (really bad thunderstorms and possibly tornados) weather this afternoon and evening.
Yesterday, during a short break in the showers, I got out an toured the yard. I have four rose bushes in bloom right now, and four with buds that look like they'll open within the next few days.

Freesias are opening up- my favorites are the white ones and the yellow and reddish-orange ones pictured. I have one tulip right now: that's a bit of a suprise, since I've never dug them up to chill them over the winter. (We have to do that for colder-climate bulbs if we expect them to come up around here.) In the picture the tulip is pale pink, but when it opened two days ago, it was a bit peachy, with a pink blush. More of the irises are blooming, and my antique Safrano rose is putting out nice, big flowers. (They were a little puny last fall and a few weeks ago.) Two of my unidentified Home Depot roses are blooming: a varigated miniature and a yellow climber.

Pretty, pretty, pretty!

Lots of flowers opened up in the garden this weekend... Freesia, a late-planted white hyacinth, Safrano rose, pale yellow daffodils, yellow columbine, crossvine, purple bearded iris, and late-planted paperwhites and some mystery narcissus (from the same bin as the paperwhite bulbs.)

I hate the new Blogger.

Well, I had a nice little post all planned out, but stupid Blogger won't let me insert my text where I want it, and my pictures don't show up where I want them to when I preview my post.
Ug!!!
In the garden this weekend: Sparaxis, new hyacinth, a blooming crabapple, blooming cherry trees, and columbine buds.

















A month or so ago, my husband brought a bunch of limestone home. It sat on our front patio for a few weeks, but we finally found a use for it... We've decided to create a new, wider border garden in the back yard. Below, you can see the border. Of course, we'll still need to add lots of compost, etc., and plants. There are already a few irises, two rose bushes, and a lovely althea in the existing border bed.

Peachy

This week, the hyacinths and daffodils dried out and faded, while the sparaxis, freesia and iris are starting to form their flowers. I was a little worried that my irises weren’t going to bloom for me this year, since it seems like everyone else’s are already in full bloom. Yesterday, though, I noticed that my purple bearded irises are definitely starting to form flowers.

The stars of the moment at my house are my two peach trees. They’re both new, but doing well. The peppermint peach, planted in 2006, has several large, carnation-like, white blooms with pink stripes. The dwarf bonfire peach, which is in a whiskey barrel in the back yard, is also blooming.

A couple of weeks ago, I was rummaging around in my “beer fridge” (Yes- I have one of those) and found some white hyacinth bulbs that I never got around to planting. That reminded me that I also had a bunch of yellow iris bulbs, along with some paperwhites, in a utility closet. So, after some (but not much) thought, I decided to plant them. I’m not sure if planting them so late is going to kill them, or if they just won’t perform for me this year. The bulbs were “awake” when I put them in the ground- they already had shoots coming out. Now, several of them are starting to peek out of the soil- only one hyacinth so far, but several irises and paperwhites. I also sprinkled some swiss chard seeds, which are starting to grow now, and some purple coneflower. Lots of little things are starting to pop up in the flowerbed, which I’m hoping are coneflower seedlings and not weeds.

The Groundhog was right...

Spring seems to be here. Someone told me that you can tell that the last frost has come by observing the Pecan trees. They only start to push out new leaves after the last frost. Well, my pecan tree is still domant, but eveything else is starting to go crazy!


Below: A bird nest in the back yard, Bradford Pear blossoms, some kind of flower on the Big Tooth Maple, and flowers on the Mexican Plum.