Nature is Hurting My Eyes

I do love a flamboyant flower.  It's probably a "Leo" thing.  I like a flower that calls to me when I walk past.  Sometimes a flower can just grab my attention through shocking bright color, sheer weirdness, fragrance or masses of flowers.

Right now the Camellias are starting to bloom and several of them are in the shocking bright color category.

Camellia japonica 'Scented Treasure'

Camellia japonica 'April Remembered'

Camellia japonica 'Nuccio’s Pearl'

Camellia japonica 'Monke' - Always gets ready to bloom, then it rains for a week and all the flowers turn ugly and brown.  When hermetically sealed in a rain-free environment, the flowers are a beautiful pure white.

Yvee and Madeline in front of the Iberis sempervirens (Candytuft) - they can never look at the camera.  

Osmarea burkwoodii (Burkwood Osmanthus) (Osmanthus × burkwoodii) - Just beginning to bloom - the flowers have a lovely baby powder scent.

And for sheer weirdness - I give you one of my favorite orchids. When this blooms in the summer, we can smell it in the yard through the greenhouse walls.  The flowers only last for a good 2 days and then wither fairly quickly.  The smell is a strange mix of root beer and musk.

Stanhopea tigrina var. nigroviolacea

My Peony Addiction Would be so Much Easier if...

My Adleman's peony catalog came in the mail recently.  I have been pouring over what I would like to buy this year ever since.

My Saturday routine is to pour myself a pot of coffee and sit with my Adleman's catalog, read every page, make a list of each plant I like, its stats and the price.  My list changes weekly.

It just makes me crazy (could just be the pot of coffee I drank or genetics) with all the options and my limited budget. Why can't I win the lottery?!?  I could just call them up and order one of everything and have it delivered - that would be so much easier.  Wouldn't it?  They might even come plant them for me, now that would be really nice of them. 

Back to my reality - I spent Saturday and Sunday digging out some more grass in the front yard to make room for my future peony purchases.   So now I need to buy more bark mulch. (sigh)   

I've been carefully watching all the resident peonies in the yard.  Some of the tree peonies are off to an early start and continue to amaze me with how leafed out some of them are already. Yes, I'm counting my buds before they bloom!

Paeonia suffruticosa 'Lu Xiang Qiu 綠香球'

Move along, nothing to see here folks - Paeonia suffruticosa 'Kinshi 金鸟' (Golden Bird Tree Peony) - The rock is so I don't step on the peony, I also like to loosely tie bright colored curling ribbon on the peony stems as another "Don't Tread on Me" visual.  One careless step cleaning up in fall can ruin a tree peony and set it back many years.

Paeonia suffruticosa - My flimsy stake didn't do much to straighten this one out.

Paeonia suffruticosa 'High Noon 海黄' - A little life stirring under there.

Paeonia lactiflora 'Raspberry Charm'

Paeonia mascula (Balkan Peony) - A very cool species from Turkey.  I'm excited to see two fuzzy growths this year. 

I'll continue to try to win the lottery before May, but no matter what, I'll be there when they open to the public in May to snatch up a few.

Soul Renewal

Nothing is better for the soul than a trip out to the garden.

I've had some sad times recently and it helps to have the flowers making their Spring appearance.

Being a slightly obsessive gardener, I often have to make a conscious effort to just go into the garden and "enjoy".  I always want to have my bucket/clippers/gloves, to pull a weed or pick up some debris or trim something.

Sometimes you just have to remember to breathe and enjoy what you have because nothing lasts.

Crocus vernus 'Pickwick'

Daphne odora 'Zuiko Nishiki' - This one has a better smell than Daphne odora 'Marginata' but is not as pretty.

Trillium kurabayashii is up already - I'm happy to see it!

Crocus 'Blue Pearl'

A baby May Apple emerging.

Found this Crocus bulb on the side of the road.  I gladly took it home and planted it.

Plants are popping out all over.

Embothrium coccineum (Chilean Flame Tree) - Looks a little sad but it made it through the winter.

Cheap Thrills

I have to admit that I cannot resist a $2.99 cactus.  No matter how I try, I get sucked in every time. Add in months of gloomy Portland weather, a bad week and off to Portland Nursery I go. The car is on autopilot at this point.   

I love to cruise the Tillandsias and the little cactus and succulent starts at the Portland Nursery Division Street location.  

So one depressing day I stopped in and had to bring all these cuties home. I just had to! But now that I had all these cuties home - they need new pots!

So off to Freddie's I go to procure something cheap and cheerful to plant them in plus more cactus soil. Only the gods know how long that other bag of cactus soil has been around in the shed.  The gravel for the top, I had left over from various aquariums from the past. 

But then I also had to get additional matching pots for the cactus I already had. Everything's got to match right?  Another trip to Freddie's for a few more pots.

I spent many times more on pots than I did on plants, but they look so nice now.

The Desert Rose in the front green pot, I grew from seed from a plant my mom has in Florida.

Feels like Spring!

Flowers and leaves are busting out all over and boy does that feel good.  

Of the tree peonies that are starting to unfurl leaves, I'm already counting my buds before they've flowered.

Some pictures from President's Day.

Paeonia suffruticosa 'Bai Xue Ta 白雪塔' (White Snow Tower Tree Peony)

Paeonia suffruticosa 'Lu Xiang Qiu 綠香球' (Green Fragrant Ball Tree Peony) - This years buds are clearly visible.

I have a tiny Chief Joseph, but it made it through last summer and through the winter and is looking good.

Daphne bholua - flowing for the first time. Bought at Portland Nursery last year. It has a nice fragrance, but not as nice as some of the other Daphne.

Love these pure white flowers on a dark day.

Yvette enjoying the purple primroses.  The purple ones seem to grow the best for me for some reason?!?

 

Opuntia compressa (Prickly Pear) - This cactus has the nicest canary yellow flowers in early summer.

Pinus monophylla (Single-leaf Pinyon Pine) - This was a find at Cistus. I'm not sure I needed it but it was so darn cute and in 20 years I can harvest my own pine nuts.  I'll be able to grow my own pesto!

Agave parryi var. parryi (Parry's Agave) with babies. The mamma plant has been in the garden since 2006. This agave has been very reliable for me in Lents and it pups quite often often several feet away from the mamma plant.

Gardening on a Rainy Day.

Finally, we had a nice enough weekend for me to get out in the garden and get a few things cleaned up.

I noticed my first Trillium poking its head out of the bark mulch, along with the hyacinths and snowdrops.

What a difference it makes, on a gloomy day to look out the kitchen window and see the happy nodding heads of the snowdrops blooming under the Laurels.

 
I keep telling this tree peony to go back to sleep! I still suspect there will still be late snow and a few days of very cold yet and it scares me that this one is leafing out so soon. I think this is Paeonia suffruticosa 'Bai Xue Ta 白雪塔' (White Cloud Pavilion). 

The Lenten Roses are also busting out all over and the Crocus are emerging.
 

I tend to leave last year's foliage on the Lenten Roses until the flowers are up pretty high.  We haven't had any snow to smash last year's leaves down yet.

I noticed that there were lots of baby Cyclamen hederifolium 'Silver Me Pink' popping up.  I have made a point of breaking open and spreading their seed pods around last fall and it seems to have worked.The foliage is so pretty and the little flowers are so cute.

The Camellias are getting fat buds and the color is showing through the bud tips.

Camellia japonica 'Scented Treasure' - It doesn't seem to smell though!

My friend James got busy after being inspired by terrariums we saw at a local antique store in Sellwood. I showed him some areas in the pavement that had a lot of moss, so he made these. It's super cute and a cheap way to bring a little of the outdoors in. I have a bumper crop of moss too!