I was stuck inside most of the day, but noticed there was significant frost on the grass when I ventured out to get the paper this morning.

Sunny weather is a mixed blessing, as it seems ripe for garden photography, but the truth is that better pictures are typically had on overcast days.  Still, living in Seattle, I think sunshine means more to me–it definitely alters all moods for the better!

Here is a Hellebore given to us by friends Bonnie and Pam probably 15 years ago.  The plant is a bit less vigorous this year, with fewer flowers, but it has a grace and beauty that some of the more floriferous Lenten roses lack.

One of Leon’s early stone sculptures.  This one is called Aquarius and it sits near the pond in the fenced pond garden.  The above Hellebore lives there, too.

Below are some bonsai starts–seedling that I started years ago.  The center plant is a Japanese larch that is leafing out–such a cheerful, graceful tree.

The larch buds just bursting with life:

I love the light through the garlic chives.  I grew these from seeds, as well.  It has taken a few years for them to get enough size on them so I feel okay harvesting them!

Standard chives are below–popping up like crazy.  I will take some off the edges and pot them up for brother Tim’s plant sale in the spring.

I’m not really sure why hyacinths are my favorite spring bulb–it must be the fragrance.  These white beauties from the cold frame are more graceful than most of the giant hybrids…and the scent doesn’t disappoint.

Our cheerful bulb/primrose display.  The pot needs to be washed, as rain has washed mud all the way up the sides!  Such a Seattle problem.

Corylopsis is blooming.  I struggle to get flowers of this shrub that do justice to its graceful, bright flowers.

Crocus, on the other hand, are almost impossible NOT to photograph well.  The photography rule of avoiding sunny days doesn’t always apply.  For example, crocus just don’t ever look this happy on a cloudy day.

I went a little crazy with the crocus pics, but can you blame me?  They are infinitely graceful.

I love the deep golden hearts to the white crocus below.

And here again.

These are new for me and I’m really pleased with them–I’ll get more to plant in the Doug fir bed and around this fall.  Another advantage to crocus is the price–so I can afford to be generous with them.

And last…

I’ve already photographed this iris reticulate hybrid, but can’t resist a few more pictures in the sun.

I’ve not had luck with these in the garden, so forcing them in pots has been my only way to enjoy success with them.  I splurged last year and got some nice hybrids rather than the usual mix.  The mixes often don’t have the better cultivars–I think they are tough to propagate and they command a high price.

More leftover forced hyacinths from last year.

In the greenhouse, Mom’s cymbidium is still blooming beautifully.  The flowers lose some of their green and turn a buff-beige that is stunning.

Here is an inherited cymbidium blooming for the first time.  I am not opposed to the cup shaped flowers, and the color and size are nice.  Unfortunately, the flowers are spotted on the outside and that ruins the picture when the flowers don’t open all the way!

The Masdevallias continue to shine, as well, so I took a few pictures in the bright light.

Superb form and garish color.

You can really see the intricate interior in this picture.

 

The day has wavered from drizzly to rainy all morning, but I didn’t let that stop me from getting things done in the garden.  Days off are too precious to waste just because Seattle is being Seattle!

You can see the wet in these flower pictures:

The forced iris in the windowsill continue to impress;

I’ll pull more bulbs out of the fridge and put them out on the porch and in the greenhouse later today.

The main focus today was clean-up of the shrubs around the orchard garden.  This is what I removed:

It will take a few weeks to get all of this into yard waste!  Most of the branches are from the climbing rose, the Lonicera tatarica, buddlejas, rhodies that have crept over from the neighbors yard and raspberries.

Here is the cleaned up raspberry bed:

The canes are noticeably weaker this year.  I really need to fertilize them well and I have some fertilizer coming from Raintree Nursery.

The forsythia and winter hazel are opening up despite the rain–should be in full bloom by next weekend.

I planted a bunch of seeds today, too–lettuce and endive, parsley and peas, Tiny Tim tomatoes and kale.

There were a few garden chores on the list today, and of course many more for the coming weeks.  Today, I pruned the climbing rose that had been on the trellis and growing up the recently removed bitter cherry tree.  I easily removed half the plant, but I’m sure it will grow right back.  This is a start from the arboretum, and it has deliciously fragrant apricot/cream flowers.

Signs of spring include all of the following and the above narcissus that I set out today from the cold frame.

This pot had a hummingbird visitor today!

The camellia in our yard has one giant open flower…a bit weather worn now, but amazing in its size and shape, regardless.

The buds on the winter hazel and the forsythia are very close to bursting:

Crocus are up and blooming, including these in the Douglas fir bed:

The Hellebore from Brother Tim is blooming:

More seedlings are up in the greenhouse–verbascums, campanulas and others:

The Masdevallias continue to be the bright lights in the greenhouse–nothing subtle here, but their shape is cheering and the color cannot be ignored.

Below are some of the forced iris reticulates that came out of the fridge about a month ago.  They have taken a long time to bloom, but I love the flower shape, color and Leon enjoys the scent (I can’t smell it due to nose blindness).  The container is a homemade pot from my school friend Lisa Ostgard-Murray–close to 40 years old!

Other garden chores today–I pruned the Madrona trees in the Doug fir bed and the mint plant there, as well.  Cleaned out some stems from the Aruncus, too.

In the orchard garden, I did some clean-up of the brambles, cutting out dead canes and securing the live ones with twine on the trellises to be sure they are up and out of trouble and ready to produce a million berries.

There are many other chores–hope to get to more tomorrow and Monday, as the holiday will give me some much needed free time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Brother Tim joined me on getting a jump on spring by going to Sky Nursery for the afternoon.

Here are some of the beautiful things we saw:

Possibly over-bright and cheerful, but as winter wears on I appreciate the loud colors of a nursery-imposed spring more than I normally would.

I’m too cheap to pay for the primroses at the nursery prices, but I appreciate their beauty.  This one had the most delicate picotee edge and a more graceful form than most.  I ended up picking up three at Fred Meyer that I like for less than half–they aren’t perfect, but they add the perfect cheer in the blue-glazed ceramic pot outside the front porch.

Here is a precocious Tiarella blooming beautifully.  I will add this to the wish list for the Douglas fir bed–just he perfect amount of pink to white and just showy enough without being gaudy.

And here is Brother Tim behind a shelf of primroses…not the graceful ones, really, but an amazing flush of color.

Here are some pictures of an early blooming Camellia at Ingraham High School.

I love this very delicate pink and the form is interesting, too.

 

I watered the greenhouse today, something I only do once or twice in the winter in order to just keep things ticking over.  As I was looking around the potting bench, I was shocked to see these:

Normally, bulbs that I have forced don’t come back and bloom–and usually I plant them out in the garden to give them a chance to rest and them grow back to blooming size.  These reticulata iris were forced last year, were soon forgotten and have been in the pot outside ever since.  These are some of my very favorite plants–amazingly beautiful!

Some crocus that were forced last year are also about ready to bloom!

The following narcissus hybrids were also forced last year.  These dwarfs are more likely to bloom again, so this wasn’t as much of a surprise, but their vigor is a bit surprising.

I moved some of the chips from the cut trees to the aisles between the raised veggie beds and also cut the sage herb plant way back.

There’s lots more to do, but I’ll just keep working at it over time and spread out the joy!

 

Fifteen or so years ago I moved a seedling into a spot near the driveway and watched it grow into a lovely tree.  It was a bitter cherry, Prunus emarginata.  Unfortunately, about 5 feet above ground where the trunk split in two, it was developing a bole and it looked like a crack was forming, as well.  I had read that bitter cherries are notoriously weak trees and tend to topple in even minor storms.  Sadly, this one, being near the house and driveway, had to go.

We had a tree service take it out, along with a precocious black locust sucker that had popped up along the north fence line that was tangling with the wires.  The original black locust tree had been taken out before we moved to this house 20 years ago, but it continues to sucker!  I suspect we’ll have similar problems with the bitter cherry, as it has thrown suckers all over the yard!

Below are the locust stumps.

I was sad to see the trees go, especially the bitter cherry, as it was the favorite tree in our yard for all types of birds.  Luckily, there is a silver lining…well, more of a wood-toned lining:

Lots of excellent fruit wood for us to take to our cabin and burn!

And a massive pile of chips (this was only part of what the tree produced!) that I will use to mulch various areas of the garden!

The stump grinders will come and dig out as much stump and root as they can, and then we’ll have to be super diligent about fighting the myriad suckers that appear, but I’m excited to have opportunities in that garden bed that I didn’t have before.

I already ordered trees from Raintree Nursery to revamp the entire border and make it productive.  I ordered two columnar apples trees and two dwarf cherry trees.  I also ordered a different type of blackberry (Chester) and a purple raspberry–not positive where I will put them, but excited, nonetheless.

The garden has some early color, as the Hellebores have jumped up and made themselves known.  This one, from Plant Delights,  is in the Douglas fir bed:

    Here is the Lenten rose that brother Tim bought us some 20 years ago:

Strong growing, and happy near a downspout, I expect the flowers will be open by next weekend.

And below is a similar, though earlier cultivar from sister Cate.  This one just makes you smile with the splashes of color inside that it hides so shyly with downward pointing flowers.

Here are some other pictures from around the garden and greenhouse.  The snowdrops are fully open now and I got some interesting shots of them.

This last picture shows that something was nibbling the flower.  It might be a baby slug or some bug or other.

Some other miscellaneous pictures below:

Crocus trying to bloom, but not finding the weather they like just yet.

Wallflowers from seed last year–should give an excellent flower show in a month or two.

The only seedlings up from the greenhouse planting several weeks ago are these hardy geraniums.

And these…

These Cymbidium buds are ready to pop like balloons!  I have been so patient, but I can’t wait to see what these look like.  The reward of a lazy labeler is a surprise flower at every turn!

And a few white holiday cactus flowers from the greenhouse:

Not a great photo, as the camera is focused on the chickweed that has sprung up in the pot!  Weeds are annoying in so many ways–they even photo bomb!