Belles of the Ball

Wide-eyed with anticipation

 Poised and posed

A word of gossip

 The mothers' curls

Big crinoline skirts

Arabesque

A room full of beauties

Spring Flowers

The first tulips are blooming.

The species tulips are short and make a good substitute for crocuses that the chipmunks eat.  The little yellow tulips slowly spread.

Stocks aren't always available at the garden centers. I think they look Victorian and they have a wonderful fragrance. Hot summer weather can stress them out of blooming but I will enjoy them while the weather is still on the cool side.

 I liked this unusual orange petunia. It's a little more orangey than the photo reflects. It's an E-Z rider variety which is supposed to branch more, and flop less.  We'll see.

A bright cheery calibrachoa.

A quiet woodland garden.

A pair of hummingbirds has been frequenting the pulmonaria. Normally any hummingbirds that show up in the spring are just passing by, but this pair is hanging around so maybe they will nest on the property. Bumblebees also like the pulmonaria and I witnesses a near miss mid-air collision between a hummingbird and a bumblebee. They both startled at the last second and veered away. Pretty funny.
I had put up a hummingbird feeder for the first time in ages even before I saw the pair. They haven't found it yet but I'm sure they will before too long.
The flycatchers have discovered that Pepper, the horse, attracts blackflies and they hang out around him and easily catch the bugs out of the air. Great partnership.
A pair of cardinals is also spending a lot of time near the house so maybe a nest with them, too.

Pulmonaria Variations

I have lots of pulmonaria plants but they all originated from a couple of plants that came from my mother's garden that came from her mother's garden. They've been growing for about forty years at our property (yikes! that's a long time!) and the last few years I've been noticing more variation in the plants.  The photo above is the typical bloom cluster with a range of purple and pink tones with fairly spotty leaves.

 Here's a plant with almost all purple flowers.

A cluster of cerise blooms.

 Two plants - one with darker pink, one with pale pink.

I like the delicate pink of this plant.

 The leaves of this plant have very little spotting.

 This one is very spotty and the spots are pretty round.

These spots are so intense they look raised.

And finally a plant where the blotches have blended so much the leaves are almost white.

Pulmonaria is easy to grow especially if you have heavy soil.  They like to be in partial shade and will droop in hot afternoon sun. They can get powdery mildew but it won't kill them. They are great for bumblebees in the spring. They can be too vigourous and spread more than you want, but they are shallow rooted and unwanted plants are easily dug up. Some people find the slightly prickly leaves irritating to the skin but I've never had issues with them.
Pulmonaria is one of my favourite plants.I think the spotty leaves are so cheerful and the spring flowers are wonderfully colourful after the dullnes of winter.

The mystery plants from the last two posts are orange campion. I'm absolutely sure about that! I didn't think they would make it through the winter so I kind of forgot about them, but they came through with flying colours. They'll bloom in late June.

The Recalcitrant Snowdrop

I was poking around in the gardens today and noticed a spot of white. The missing snowdrops! or rather snowdrop. Another set of leaves nearby may be another one. But the best of it is that it is a fancy double one although I had ordered the plain ones.

Isn't that pretty?

I think my mystery plant from last post is a phlox that happens to have red leaves when it first comes up. I actually have two of them. I must have bought them on the sale rack at the end of the season and I still can't remember what colour they are - probably red .