We have nothing flowering here. I will share five pictures of flowering crabs I took in the beginning of June 2006. My camera was defective so after trying to take about 200 pictures I got about 25. This was a double row over a block long at French’s Creek and my favorite local place to go in spring. In early 2007 the DNR bulldozed down all but about 5 trees over the whole length.
I tend to prefer other kinds of iris also but every year I have to have my little Monet fix out in the yard. I think I have 5 or 6 colors of bearded ones now. I wish I could figure out how to keep them alive in water as cut flowers but they always shrivel up on me. My daffodils and crocus seem to be sulking this year and it looks like the freesias will bloom first. I’ve got some hyacinths starting to open too.
We got that little redbud for free from a neighbor who was ripping it out to put in an outbuilding. It’s usually the first to flower. My dogwood hasn’t gotten started yet either. I’m glad that the fruit trees are also holding back thanks to this last round of storms because sometimes they bloom too early and we don’t get much fruit.
Zinnias are going wild now, as are the Mexican Ruella. The Redbuds, Silver Maples and Lorapetalum are just about to let go and all my white azaleas came out this week.
For the iris fans, here’s some photos of my flowers last spring (May 23, 2008). Still a few months to go before this year’s batch will appear. irisirisirisirisiris
Those are so beautiful. I don’t have as many massed together in one place.
I’ve always wanted open space like you have to spread things out in but I live in the woods so you have to carve out space and then defend it so that the woods don’t take over again. I end up with borders everywhere and little ‘rooms’ tucked away on the edges of the trees, and fruit trees stuck in wherever they’ll fit and still get sun. We do get a lot of sun on the acre or so around the house, though. Last summer I started landscaping a steep hillside on the back of the developed part because it’s clear of trees and brush and now I can start planting things out in the open in less organized and more natural looking ways.
Cool! Just make sure they’re idiot proof. I’ve killed a cactus before. I have a rubber plant that is still alive by the grace of the plant gods: it’s survived moves back and forth from the office to home. He almost lost all of his leaves at one point.
I don’t know why I look like I’ve got a secret…I didn’t even know I looked that way. My sisters all say I always look confused and bewildered.
But to brag a little: the purple-y iris are the descendents of the iris my great-grandmother started when the family got to Missouri in the 1880’s, when they came over from Russia. At one point, I was the only person in the family who still had them, but I’ve given some to two of my sisters. Some nieces and nephews are just starting out, so I hope each of them will have a home where they can plant some, too.
They were never that full of flowers, though!
