Flowering

hellebore

Spring is my favorite season, I love all the greening up and new life, flowers everywhere.  My home has a blend of long-established shrubs from the previous owners and newer perennials I've planted in recent years.

The hellebore is usually the first to bloom.  I have a few of these in my "moist shade" bed.  I only wish the flowers didn't hang their heads toward the ground.  This photo is taken from the ground looking up at the flowers.

flowering quince

We also have two flowering quince bushes.  When we moved in, they were enormous beasts, with little healthy foliage and few flowers.  So I pruned the heck out of 'em.  Frankly, they could be pruned much more, but that's too much work.  Now they're healthy, and put on a lovely spring display.

dogwood

I have other overgrown bushes too: red twig dogwoods, forsythias, lilacs, a bridal wreath spirea, and burning bushes.  I'm in the process of multi-year rejuvenation pruning, thinning out usually 1/4th of the oldest branches each year.  So glad I bought a little pruning saw.  The red twig dogwood is easiest to prune.  It has a really open habit, and all the non-red branches should be cut out.  If only they were all that easy.  Years ago, there were juniper bushes all over the property.  Many many hours of labor later, they're all gone.  Unfortunately, nearly all of the shrubs here were planted improperly; the bushes don't have enough room to grow to full size.  It's really important to carefully plan at planting time.

My favorite spring show comes from the tulips.  I add more bulbs every fall, and it's paying off!  Yesterday I hired a lovely young man to mow my lawn, and he said, "your tulips are absolutely beautiful!"  Well, thanks, I think so too.  I also planted muscari, and many of them are up, but they're hidden by the tulips.  So, next fall I will put muscari bulbs in another bed where they'll be more visible.

Siberian bugloss

And then there are other gems: the petite blue flowers of the Siberian bugloss, the creamy dogwood blooms, and the very fragrant lilacs.  Delightful.

And yet, this spring has been so odd, so warm way too early.  The lilacs started blooming in March.  There's just something really wrong about that.  Wondering what the summer will bring....

lilac