Seasonal Page: April 1999

Loveliest of Trees

I did much better with keeping up last year than this one! Here it is, the fourteenth of May and I'm just getting the pictures from April scanned and posted. This time, I am putting them in chronological order and so you will see some repeated themes but with minor changes as the month progressed. The flowering cherries were the high point of April and come on early in the month.... thus the name of the page. Our spring weather has been very cold this season and if we're lucky, it might reach 60 degrees today. There were stretches of beautiful, sunny and almost hot weather last month and then it turned cold again. Maybe a blessing for me since I've been so busy with Chorale obligations and soap stuff that I've not been able to devote the time to the back yard as I'd hoped. Once this page is up... the garden is the next priority!

-Kathy Miller

Don't know if you can tell... but these are buds coming on the Clematis montana rubens, which is blooming like crazy as I type this. You will see it on the May page. The yellow-green small leaves are the Lonicera nitida 'Baggesen's Gold' which has woven through the clematis twigs.	Near the messy area on the west side is this clump of Candytuft/Iberis sempervirens. It is not the least bit demanding and blooms whether you remembered to trim it up or not! The messy twigs toward the back are from last year's bloom on a lavender.
This driveway bed got weeded and barked last season so it's looking pretty nice this spring. At the time I planted those hyacinths, there was very little open space to work with. Consequently, they are too close to one another. We still enjoyed them, however!	Here's a closer view of the large hyacinths with their cute and ubiquitous cousins, the grape hyacinth.
The Helleborus orientalis seedlings in the oak bed behind the garage are still providing color during April. By the end of the month, they will be setting seed and have lost the intensity of their earlier blossoming... as you will see on the upcoming May page.	These muted and appealing bud colors belong to a member of the Euphorbia family... Euphorbia polychroma/Cushion Spurge. Toward the end of the page you will see it in bloom... a beacon of acid yellow!

I can't sing that poem for you, but I hear it set to music every spring when these cherries bloom along our driveway (even though they are a soft pink instead of white, as in the poem). I sang it as a sophomore in high school... a lovely arrangement and, of course, I can't remember whose it was. Until I researched the exact words on the Internet, I thought it was Robert Frost who wrote the poem! Amazingly, I'd remembered it all except for two words (and the author!). ;-)

Here is a look from the pasture side of the fence. If we'd had livestock in the past ten years, you would not see such pretty branches! The buds are open but not out full just as yet. The variety of cherry is Prunus yedoensis 'Akebono' ('Daybreak'). These were planted in the first few years after we moved here and I never thought they would get large enough. Time does fly!	From the driveway side and a few days later.
Walking back from the mailbox in the latter part of the day... WOW!	A close-up of the branch when in full flower. The bumblebees and hummingbirds love these trees!
One of our famous Pacific Northwest drizzles. The fruiting cherry is beginning to open as the blossoms of the the flowering cherries are dropping.	What a lovely way to be ushered from the yard ... *sigh*. Not so lovely on the carpet and bottoms of your shoes!

Things are waking up! See all the foliage emerging in the oak bed?	Even at its worst... the garden is a source of inspiration. Amidst this mess of neglect and adversity behind the arbor blooms one lone 'Apricot Beauty' tulip. It gives meaning to the phrase, "Bloom where you're planted." Some people are like this... it brings a tear to my eye to think on it.
Here are a few volunteers of Anemone pulsatilla... now old enough to bloom. I thought they looked kind of nice amongst the emerging fans of hybrid iris.	In the alley is a grouping of Dicentra 'Luxuriant' which is beginning to open. This plant will bloom on and off most of the summer. It is really amazing. I got these in a box from Costco... many divisions for a measly price.

Popping its head through the dicentra leaves is a Glory of the Snow/ Chionodoxa.

These tulips came in a package with some 'Toronto' ones from Costco. I was disappointed when I realized it was not all the former, but these certainly put on a show! They were labeled 'Orange Bouquet' but they looked more like a true red to me... not sure if there was an error or that's the color this variety is. Bloomed for a long time and came on later than 'Toronto', which is also a bouquet type tulip. Notice all the dandelions in the lawn? They number in the hundreds on this place and we haven't fought them too much. Our lawn is more like a mowed pasture. The small seed eating birds can be seen in groups on this lawn in the mornings, guzzling down as many of those seeds as they can hold.

 

Tulip 'Toronto' ... one of my favorites!

A close-up of the center of 'Toronto'.

For more April photos... see page 2!

This page last updated on May 14, 1999.

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