our early tulips are starting to go to town now, along with a tons of daffodils; it was a good day to pick a bunch for the table to share with my knitting class this afternoon. a few sprigs from the budding apple tree and some ivy for filler and basta
a worthy arrangement. we enjoy fresh flowers so much, i don’t know why we don’t pick them for our table more often. that might be a good goal for this summer—bring more flowers inside.
wow, do you all love a book giveaway or what??
congratulations to Pat D., the lucky winner of 60 quick knits. many thanks to sixth&spring books for providing the opportunity for us to take a closer look and sending a copy to pat.
the flowers are out on the burro tails; these succulents are slowly spreading out across the front beds in an area that supports very few plants. we can’t seem to get anything to really take off there, so i’m grateful for the persistence of these trailers. the subtle flowers are just bright enough to give a little texture to the mass of wavy stems.
nearby, the mystery plant i showed you last week finally bloomed
it’s a hyacinth all right; i compared it to a bunch of photos online and the flowers don’t look anything like freesia, but they do look and smell the same as most hyacinth. not as thickly flowered as you would think, but still pretty and fragrant.
we also have a thick row of tiny grape hyacinth, just coming into bloom. this is a new addition this year; david planted a row of them just in front of the stella d’oro lilies that will bloom later in the summer along the garage wall.
i love these little surprises—he chooses bulbs to plant them in the fall; i don’t ask, so i never know what to expect. come spring, i get to see what he decided on and where he put them. it’s fun!
for instance, remember last week when i said i liked hyacinth and i hoped he maybe planted some, somewhere? well, today when i was taking pictures, i discovered a whole patch of them in a ring around the bottom of the echinacea. they’re huge—in a couple of days their fragrance will be everywhere (maybe by then my office window can stay open during the day).
once again, we have a good, thick crop of tulips near the garage.
in the last two days, they’ve gone from this to what you see below
it’s looking like we should divide some of the larger clumps this year to keep them from getting too crowded.
elsewhere, other perennials are coming to life; the earth is coughing up some kind of new growth every day. i didn’t even notice the new shoots on the lady’s mantle and they’ve already grown to healthy-sized plants.
same thing with the lupine—one day there was seemingly nothing going on in this spot and the next thing i knew
it’s going to be a big one this year. there are so many stems coming out at the base
i’m hoping it will match the one that grew there a few years ago, which was stupendous, both in size and the number of flowers (totally on its own; i know nothing about encouraging flowers, except to promise them star slots on the blog if they do well).
well, that’s the garden report for today—no new knitting as i spent all last evening swatching and reknitting my cabled sock. i should have something to show you in a couple of days . . .
so let’s end with this—you can’t go wrong with flowers.
30 thoughts on “a little spring in my step”
Those are all beautiful!
You’re excellent at naming all the plants for us. It’s very useful.
Lovely posting!
I love the photos from your garden. Thank you!
Your flowers are beautiful and the photography stunning (as usual)! Your mystery plant is a an older hyacinth, as the years pass the blooms and greenery get more sparse. Some hyacinths will divide but usually they are smaller than the original plant. The fragance of the plant does not seem to dissipatae as the years pass. I love hyacinths!
Yay, spring! And I so love lady’s mantle–I haven’t seen any here in the DC area. Maybe too warm? Too humid? Or just not the bedding plant of choice?
Hi! You have such lovely flowers and such amazing photos of them. I know it helps to have great photo subjects, but it also helps to know how to take good pictures of them. I wanted to write and tell you about what is probably your slightly aged hyacinth, but I see that Chris has already explained it. I have a number of these in my yard – along with lots of other mystery flowers that come up every year, but that I didn’t plant. In fact, one fall I planted a bunch of bulbs that were either duds or were eaten by creatures – none of them came up the following spring! Knit on and happy spring!
p.s. I am not sure what it takes to grow violets – I have a very shady back yard and they are scattered throughout my lawn. Once again, I had nothing to do with it; they just show up every year (even some white ones). I suspect my husband wishes they would go away and let the grass grow, but I figure anything that covers the ground and is green is a good thing.
Ooh, gorgeous! Lucky you — that vase of flowers definitely brings the spring inside, which is always a nice treat.
Good that you love the grape hyacinth — it’s a champion naturalizer and you can’t get rid of it! But I agree with Karen above — if it’s green and it grows, it’s probably good.
Grape hyacinths are some of my favorites. You should be aware that they never met a patch of dirt they didn’t like. You need to be quite firm with them sometimes about where you don’t want them to grow, but oh, that heartbreak blue is worth a little thinning!
Nope, you can never go wrong with flowers. We had a huge storm this morning and some water in the basement, so flowers are just what the doctor ordered.
Such pretty flowers! They really are mood lifters.
I think this is my first posting on your blog, but I just have to tell you that I look so forward to reading your blog. Your pictures are lovely and so is your knitting. I also love to ride bikes, and my husband also likes to renovate just about everything, so that also intrigues me when you post about those things. Anyways, I read about 10 blogs, but 2 are my faves and you are one of the 2. Thank you for your hard, interesting work.
Have a great Spring!
It’s amazing how i a very short time you’ve gone from piles and piles of snow to all these amazing flowers. Your bouquet for the table is simply lovely. Happy spring to you!
This is our first spring in our house and things are popping everywhere in the garden. The only way I can identify it is waiting for it to grow on your blog too. I keep saying, “Oh! We have that! And look! We have one of those too!” Thanks for being my reference material.
Oh Anne, your flowers are breathtaking. You guys are a bit farther along in nicer weather than we are in Minnesota. I cant wait to be able to see the flowers here in full bloom. Keep the pictures coming.
I love seeing your flowers; it’s just so nice to see so much color and green after the winter. (I say this, even as I spent the weekend photographing my mom’s flowers!) I think your tulips are ahead of ours, but I think ours may be more shaded. Then again, I didn’t check the lower part of the backyard – they may be open by now.
Wow – your garden is blooming. You are right that flowers can’t be wrong – I love them anytime.
Beautiful flowers! Thank you for sharing.
Love the flowers! Makes me want to get out and plant some.
Your flowers are just so pretty all the time. You sure can be proud of your flower gradens. Keep up the good work. And don’t forget your knitting I enjoy that too. Jean
Lovely Anne! I’m having so much fun watching my garden change every day. I’ve got some new ginger coming up that I planted last year. Can’t wait for the flowers…and the woods are full of trout lily that makes me smile every year.
Sooo jealous!! Out here in the Pacific NW, we get nice calm winters, but my little daffodils are just barely starting to bud out. And my early broccoli starts are spindly and tiny. That’s what happens when the sun doesn’t peek out until June. *sigh* Your beautiful pictures will have to sustain me. 🙂
Love succulents. I buy a variety every year to put in pots on the back patio. Yours are lovely and I’m pleased to hear that they survive a very cold winter. I will have to look for those this season. My husband is a rose guy. We’ve got roses every place that will sustain them. I seldom cut them and bring them in to decorate the kitchen counter and the table. Hmmm, I wonder why that is? Your vase is lovely.
I love all of the garden shots–my little grandson (almost 2) loves to go outside and see the May apples and the trilliums and everything changing daily. It’s beyond cute. That baby blanket is so pretty–I think if I made one I’d be tempted to keep it for myself!
just glorious anne. so inspiring for my balcony garden for next year! i will plant veggies when i return from ethiopia – but alas only urban container gardening!!
you have become such a whiz!
I love those little grape hyacinths. I planted some in one flower bed many years ago. Now they’ve taken over the yard and grow everywhere. I like the little dots of purple all over the place.
Grape hyacinth! So *that’s* what my 2-year-old has been picking in our front yard!
Gotta love the grapes! I’ve tried lady’s mantle but without success. Our garden is challenging (north-facing slope, clay soil, dry shade) so it’s fun to see your pictures of thriving plants.
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