Sunday, April 8, 2012

Welcome To My Jungle

FINALLY WE'VE had a few days of nice weather. Not exactly sunny, but not raining either and with decent daytime temps, I've been able to do a little puttering in the garden. I still need to do a lot more puttering but with so many other things going on, I'm just doing what I can, when I can. 


My daughters noticed this frog in our outer pond. We're pretty sure it's a Western Red-Legged. She's here for her annual egg-laying Pilgrimage. Or maybe this is a third or forth generation mother-to-be.  

Euphorbia 'Red Martin' 
In the midst of massive chaos in the garden, a few plants have perked up and are greeting spring. The Euphorbias, for instance, are in their element. 

Euphorbia 'Tasmanian Tiger' 
Euphorbia myrsinities 
 My Daphne odora is still looking fabulous and now my Daphne 'Summer Ice' is about to bloom too.  

Daphne 'Summer Ice' 

A hardy fuchsia with tiny, new leaves! 
Thanks to a mild winter, many of my hardy fuchsias are budding out from last year's upper wood instead of from the crown like they do when bitter cold kills off the upper growth. This means they'll be bigger and more robust this year. Yay! 

Brunnera macrophylla 'Jack Frost' 

Helleborus 'Hot Flash' 
This particular Hellebore is looking fabulous this year. And the Lamium (below) is all abloom, luring happy bees.
Lamium maculatum 'Chequers' (Pink) and another purple-flowered variety. 

A weird but wonderful Daffodil 
 The daffodils are still blooming and now the tulips are getting ready too.

Spiraea thunburgei 

Magnolia stellata 'Royal Star' 
As you can see above, the area surrounding my Star Magnolia is a royal mess. Like I said, there's still a lot to do in the garden. But I'm happy. It's spring!
As always,

24 comments:

  1. We had an amazing day here! Hope you enjoyed your Easter Sunday too.

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  2. Hi Grace,
    I'm glad spring has made its way to your garden. I love those euphorbias! I was trying to decide which was my favorite, maybe the 'Tasmanian Tiger', then, when I saw the hellebore, was completely smitten by it. Your other blooms are wonderful, too.

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  3. I am hoping that my helleborus blooms. It has a lot of leaves. I put it in last year. Beautiful flowers. We just took another tree down. Sickly. So now we have another place to plant. Would like to do something different in that place though. Not sure what yet.

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  4. Wonderful blooms. I love your helleborus 'Hot Flash'. That's the kind of hot flash I would love, not the kind I have. :-)

    Happy Spring gardening ~ FlowerLady

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  5. Grace I love your jungle...my garden is still barely blooming with bulbs due to the cold here..lack of rain and cold is an odd combo for us...like you I am just doing what I can in the garden until weather and my knee get better!! Happy Spring...

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  6. Gracie girl I have fallen behind in e-mail, sorry about that girl !
    You have had some garden therapy !!! .. that is great and I so love seeing your frog ... what I wouldn't do to have frogs here that would sing to me : )
    Your plants are waking up and looking pretty darn great !
    One of the euphorbia pictures looked like a hellebore flower head .. that was cool : )
    We are finally in for rain .. the garden truly needs it BIG time .. I watered a bit on Saturday because it was so dry.
    We should switch weather eh ?
    Hope your weekend was a nice relaxing one : )
    Joy

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  7. I have the same weird daffodil in my garden. I love it!! I love how enthusiastic your spring plants are. They are in party mode, or at least getting ready, even if the rest of the garden is still asleep. :o)

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  8. Okay, what's the secret to growing Euphorbias to look like yours? I want all of them! And why is your Helleborus standing so proud when everyone else's I see are drooping? I don't grow them.....so, so glad to see you puttering about your gardens..

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  9. You weren't kidding when you said it is a jungle...you have SOO MANY plants! I love them. Happy Spring to you Grace! xx

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  10. Hi Grace, Your Hellebore is so pretty! Fun pic of the frog. Do all your baby frogs keep you up in the summer with their happy chirping? This was not the spring for the Star Magnolia's. I have a very mature one at the new house and it looks a ragged mess. Total bummer. Cheers, Jenni

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  11. Hi Grace. I am glad you finally got a few days of good weather. Your Star magnolia is so beautiful.The two Lamiums look so well planted together. I like that.The Daphne is going to be so beautiful in bloom. Well not be long now.

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  12. Oh yes Gracie, it is finally spring-ish in our gardens, with actual green things growing again! The blue of the Brunnera is glorious. I love those plants and how they spread around just the right amount. I find some of the euphorbias can be a bit too productive, although I like how they often look like plants from outer space. Happy Spring!

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  13. Wow, look at that spirea!
    I saw my first bumblebee yesterday. That's a good sign!

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  14. Your jungle looks great! I love those Euphorbias. My Summer Ice is about to bloom too. It sent up a shoot that wasn't variegated about 1 foot from the shrub. I just dug it and potted it up. I didn't know it would do that.
    We've had some really nice weather, can't believe it's finally been warmish and dry for days now. Hope you got a chance to enjoy the sun!

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  15. Hi Grace - your blossoms are beautiful. Love the brunnera and lamium - both need to be added to my shopping list.

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  16. Even though it's raining as I type this, I don't even mind today, we had so many nice days in a row there :-) I know how you feel about having chores stacking up...I JUST made it out this weekend to clear out most of the leaves from the garden (yes...there were still Oak leaves from this fall...I'm kinda lazy)!

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  17. Grace,

    I am envious of your Euphorbia, mine did not come back. I am wondering if I should not have cut it down? It was so pretty, Blackbird was the variety.

    Eileen

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  18. Looks like a sunny weekend for getting things done! have a lovely time.

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  19. I really love spirea, and it is a plant that used to be so over used. But now, you cannot convince people to put them in their gardens. They are so associated as their 'grandmother's plant'.

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  20. Your euphorbias are looking grand! I finally got one re-established in my garden, and having made it through winter, it's looking quite nice. The downside is I have no idea which species it is. How lovely to have native frogs procreating in your own garden, too!

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  21. Encouraging signs that spring is really and truly here Grace. Enjoy :)

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  22. This post makes me realize how few spring bloomers I have, they are all in your yard! LOL
    Seriously though they are looking beautiful.

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  23. LOVE your 'jungle' Grace! Would love to get lost in it. Hope you've had more sunny days? The PNW may be the only part of the country not having record warmth?? Strange year that it's been. Happy spring!

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Thank you for being here! Your comments feed my soul.